| Metallica – Thorn Within Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This song is a deeply personal expression of James' feelings. It's a song that any person who has experienced religious abuse would really relate to. Regardless of how you personally may feel about religion there are always people who use it as a way of controlling others and that is what this song is about. It's about having a father who judges and punishes you for having a flaw built into your nature. "Forgive me father, for I have sinned. Find me guilty of the life I feel within." It's such a powerful line describing how some will use religion to shovel blame, guilt and negativity onto others. Whether it's accusing someone of being bad for the type of music they listen to or the length of their hair or the books they read religion can be used to shame someone rather than to inspire and set them free. The idea of being stifled is often expressed in Metallica songs. As often happens in these kind of abusive relationships a kid can get picked on repeatedly by a domineering parent who might keep the true extent of how abusive they are being as a secret from the rest of the family, leaving the kid feeling like they are a sin and they are living in a state of constant punishment. "I do your time, I take your fall, I'm branded guilty for us all." This kind of abuse is a sin itself and so the author of the song ends up paying for the sins of the abuser. As often happens the child becomes the black sheep of the family, the scapegoat when things go wrong. It's a powerful indictment of the religious concept that sin is inherent in us and we must suffer to overcome it. Rather than viewing our behaviours as natural responses to our environment this idea that we are fundamentally flaw and must be punished to pay a penance is common among the religiously inclined. |
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| Avenged Sevenfold – Tonight the World Dies Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This song is a song about dealing with and experiencing the loss of someone to death. The first two verses are about the empty meaninglessness that a person experiences. "Lost the meaning of our stay" really captures that idea. "We can't hide our shame, it's only in disguise" ... "Fool our thoughts as though we're free" These lines describe the feeling we can have after someone dies. There's this awareness that death is right there around the corner for all of us and we just pretend to not be aware of it but really it's there the whole time. It's that empty, hollow feeling that nothing we do will matter because we're all going to disappear eventually. These thoughts continue through the chorus where the mourning cry of a mother expresses that pain as we try to crawl through life ignoring our own mortal destiny. Some days are better than others because we find better ways to pretend it's not true but that's during the day. At night when we sleep,that's when the rest of the world dies. Meaning in our dreams we often revisit those who have passed on and it's just the two of you. The rest of the world seems not to exist anymore and in this place that's only in our mind we can feel the presence of that person who is lost to us during our waking hours. That's the place where the lost loved one seems so real you can touch their face. At night it's not you running from death but the sadness of death runs away, you are able to run away with your loved one. |
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| Metallica – Hero of the Day Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think this song is far more personal to James than being about soldiers off to war but everyone is entitled to their interpretation. It has a great dream like quality, rich in symbolism. Ultimately it is about James' feelings toward his mother. Remember that he starts the song addressing his mother. There is a tradition where a lighted candle is lit and left in the window to help travellers find their way back home. In this song it sets a metaphor of the home being the family and the love that holds the family together. That love keeps a person returning to their family, their mother, throughout the journey of life. The travelers represent the author who like all children sets out on the journey of life looking to be cared for. A hero is someone who saves you, protects you and cares for you. This also the role of a mother. The Hero of the Day that he seeks is his mother. But in this case something is wrong because the window itself is lit on fire suggesting that the person at home is over zealous in their desire for the travellers to return. Their love could actually destroy the home. The idea of being overwhelmed by his mother's love is common in James lyrics, like the Apron strings around his neck in Mama Said or the fury he feels in Dyer's Eve. And just as in Dyer's Eve he feels unprepared to face the world due to being sheltered from it by his mother, James expresses that same fear and anger toward his mother because now that he is on this journey and she is gone he feels vulnerable to the world and worries that he may fall by someone's wicked ways. He wonders if his mother can hear her baby crying, does she know the pain he feels? All he can hear is her sighing. Now that she is dead all that remains is the whispers of her voice in her mind. As the song progresses you feel that transition from the soothing mellow intro that is like being cradled by his mother's love to that furious anger expressed as the music breaks into the verse about the dreams and the waking screams which is him living through the pain and anger he feels toward a mother he can no longer reconcile with. And then of course the song ends with the repetition of the whole point of the song, that the world is trying to break him and his need to feel her love again. Always James wants love but is afraid of it because love is control to him. |
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| Metallica – 2 X 4 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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when the album first came out I thought the line was "i can't hear ya tryin to meet my lord" so I thought of it as a song about religious abuse but later I found out that the line is "time to meet my lord" so I don't think that anymore. I have heard that the "I can't hear ya, are ya talkin to me?" Is a quote from Robert Deniro posturing in front of a mirror in the movie Taxi Driver. So its about a weak man trying to posture and seem tough. I tried to find a reference online but couldn't find one. |
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