All That I Bleed

This is an interesting song in terms of how the storytelling is done. It starts out being told from third person, and only addresses the main character in reference as "someone", which seems to imply that their identity isn't actually that important. However, in the second verse it begins to refer to the character as "she", and seems to give a stronger sense of familiarity to her, though there has still never been any context provided in terms of who this person is and what is written in this letter that she is reading. Then in the second half of the song, the narration switches to first person, which makes it unclear to me whether the portion of the song is meant to be told from another character's perspective, or whether this is a continuation of the same story now being told from a different point of view for some reason.

Whatever the case, my overall takeaway from these lyrics is that it's a song about grieving and having to mask one's emotions. The "bleeding" in the title and second half of the lyrics refers to the act of letting out grief, which...I think for anyone who's ever experienced the process of grief, is very much what it feels like emotionally. It's left very open-ended what the news this person may have received in the letter was, but it was clearly something very saddening that she knew she was going to have to process as grief. Unfortunately, the world we live in is one where it's not always particularly convenient to wear our emotions on our sleeves while we're grieving, which is why so many people have to resort to masking to get through day to day life, and can only fully express themselves in private or around those they feel safe/comfortable with. However, sometimes things happen that make that mask slip, and we find ourselves no longer able to conceal the true underlying emotion as well as we normally can.

I personally believe that that is what the chorus of this song is specifically about - "all the things we keep inside, all the things that really matter" refers to the true, deeper emotions that we frequently hold back around most people, and only express among those that we are closest with. "A face puts on its best disguise" refers to the act of masking to try to get through day to day life while having heavy emotions weigh upon you; "and all is well until the heart betrays" refers to the pretenses of idyll that you may try to keep up while masking...only to have a pang of emotion suddenly hit that makes it harder to keep up that mask and hide the way that you're truly feeling. Then later on, the outro section ("soak up all that I bleed") I think is about being able to grieve openly - crying out the tears that you need to shed for whatever this sadness is, and finally being able to just cathartically feel things to the fullest, after which you may hopefully be able to let go and move on from that grief. It can be painful to feel this stage, but also very liberating - after all, in order for these emotions to be "soaked up" in a way that will not continue to burden you as much, it is necessary to "bleed" them out one last time. I'm not as sure what "the night" is supposed to represent in the "lord bring on the night" lines, but contextually I could believe it to mean the company of those close to you that you can be more unmasked around. The "wrap it all around me" and "let it hold me tight" lines could imply physical affection (hugs) and compassion from those that understand or may also be affected by this grief, and the "and I'll fly away" lines perhaps signal a moving on and putting this behind you after undergoing such a catharsis.

I could be wrong about some of this, but this song was definitely there for me when I was working through some heavy stuff earlier this year, and I will say that it works amazingly as grieving music for the very purpose I described.

I think it tells the story of a girl who puts on a mask to hide her true feelings for someone, however whaterver is in this letter she recieves from this person has such an affect on her that she can no longer contain her feelings

All the things we keep inside All the things that really matter A face puts on it's best disguise And all is well until the heart betrays

this song is powerful...and it makes me cry...

i think it could also be about cutting, self-harm because thr girl has found out something possibly about someone she loved and there's no-one to tell it so she bottles it up inside for so long her feelings have to be vented in some way and that's the way she chooses.

This song was written for Criss Oliva and also for his wife Dawn. If anyone doesnt know Criss was the original guitarist for Savatage. I had the pleasure of knowing him and his brother.

Someone thought a relationship could happen and it didn't.

OR

A widow recieving a letter of a lost husband in a war.

Could be either, I think it's the former, not the latter, but ehn.

This song makes me cry. I think it's trully powerful!

To me, and the above comment, I agree, it's a powerful song, but in my own interpretation, I think it's a promised suicide. As if someone he loved were to receive his suicide note. A few sad song, but nevertheless, one of my favorites

As far as i know the whole album is about the serbian bosnian war and specifically tells a love story between a serb and a bosnian girl.

This is a memory/interpretation comment. First off I think it's about a promised suicide and for a personal reason too. So it was after school and I was listening to this song when my best friends sister walked up to me and handed me a piece of paper, I opened it and inside was a letter, essentially saying why he committed suicide, and all I remember is his sister, hugged me and cried for about 15 minutes on the bus, and I had to stay on the bus until her stop and walk her home. I'll never forget that day and everytime I listen to this song it reminds me of that day.