Lack Of Comprehension

I know exactly what Chuck means through this song, but it's really hard to explain. This song seems to me like it's about the useless and pathetic people you may encounter daily. It's about people that are so weak and insecure that they deny themselves over and over and force themselves to bring sadness/hate down on other people to make themselves feel important. They're such pussies that they won't open their eyes and see themselves for what they truly are. They provide nothing beneficial to society in all of their activities. Weak and foolish. Unfortunately, it's a majority of humans, at least where I live.

I agree with you completely. To put it simply, it's about stupid people who cannot understand their own mistakes and blame others. They do not see what it is that they're doing wrong and try to justify it with blame. 'Thriving on your cliche', to me seems like following a laid-out path or doing what everyone else is doing without a mere thought. Like i said, about stupid people. After they follow the particular path, they blame the people who led them onto it, without seeing what they did wrong.

Here is the real meaning, straight from an interview w/ Chuck: "It was inspired by the whole JUDAS PRIEST scandal, when the band were accused of inciting a fan to commit suicide. It is ridiculous to suggest that music is responsible for parents' fuckups."

2 teenagers committed suicide, 1 successfully right away, the other did it successfully later on; the one who survived blamed the Judas Priest song "Better By You, Better Than Me" [even though it as a cover].

The song is about ignorant people shaming the entire genre of metal because of their preconceived bias opinions; mostly that, despite metal being a fairly intelligent and progressive genre, most think metal is nothing but loud satanic gibberish. At the same time, 99% of the people who say these things about metal have never actually listened to metal and will never educate themselves on the subject.

I know the feeling very well. I once dated a girl who was extremely intelligent and progressive, but absolutely detested all forms of metal because all of it was "satanic emo garbage" in her eyes. Of course, she had never listened to any metal, and was just basing her hatred off of generic stereotypes. Her being a very smart person (who ended up going to Harvard), I thought I could show her how symbolic and meaningful some metal could be and maybe she'd learn and understand, but NO, instead she immediately shot down any attempt without a good reason. Metallica, Black Sabbath, Tool, Cynic, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, and Death were all the same. She finally pulled me aside and said, in an extremely serious tone, "there's nothing you'll ever do to convince me that metal is more than just Satanic screamo" and things just fell apart. Not because she didn't like my musical tastes (my current girlfriend hates metal too), but because she refused to educate herself on this and went her life hating something 100% based off of cliche, biased stereotypes (among other more serious reasons). I thought it was extremely hypocritical that she spent day and night advocating gay rights, minority rights, and defending other things that are constantly under fire from stereotypes and biased hatred, but when it came to a genre of music, she formed a biased and cliche opinion on something she knew nothing about, just like the racists and homophobes she fought against use. "Metal is satanic" "metal is just screaming nonsense" "metal takes no talent" when 90% of the time, especially with an amazing band like Death, all those "complaints" are completely inaccurate.

its about a pathetic guy who cant realize whats wrong and why he sucks. he is also blaming all his problems on other people.

To understand the song you first have to know about the incident where two boys committed suicide and Judas Priest was brought to court because of it.

"A condemning Fear strikes down Things they cannot understand" Talking about people who fear metal music because they don't understand it. "An excuse to cover Up weaknesses that lie within" Saying the parent as using Judas Priest's Stained Class album as an excuse for their own weak parenting which was what resulted in the kid being suicidal.

"Laying your Guilt and pain On people that had no part In the molding of a life That creates it's destruction" Again saying that it was the parent's fault that the kid was suicidal and they were blaming Judas Priest because they didn't want to deal with the guilt and pain of knowing it was their fault. Also saying that the album had no part with what happened to the kid.

"Right before your very eyes A reflection of the mistakes" I believe this is saying the parent can now clearly see the outcome of what they did (the outcome being the suicide of their kid). "To the end you will deny Your part in the demise of a life" Once again saying that the parent is denying that it was their fault.

"Lack Of Comprehension" Saying the parent does not understand/comprehend metal music (which leads them to blame their mistakes on it). "Thriving On your Cliché" Mentioning how the parent probably had a stereotype of metal music being inherently bad (like how many who don't listen to metal think it is all Satanic) which would lead them to say that the music was encouraging their child to kill them self through subliminal messaging. "Compelled By self Resentment" Nobody wants to be the cause of their own child's death. This part is saying that the parent knew that it was truly their fault.

"Reaching into the minds Of those that created the Depression in which they In which they drowned their flesh and blood" Not completely sure, but I believe it's saying that the parent's "self resentment" mentioned in the chorus is occupying a part of their mind and again, that the parent is what caused the kid to be depressed and take their own life.

"So easy to blame the Everlasting fear on a Pathetic attempt To justify the ending of a life" This verse is saying that it's easy to blame their kid's death on something that they don't understand and irrationally fear (metal music), and that it's pathetic to blame music for that.

"Lies" I'm assuming this is just saying that the parent is lying about it being Judas Priest's fault and possibly also saying they are lying to them self (to try and detach themselves from blame of the situation).

One of the best songs off of the best death metal album ever.

I guess the sone is about someone maybe in-directly causing the death of someone else. Can't figure out much past that though.

I think this song is about the Nazis in world war 2, blaming and killing the Jews, rather than face up to the real causes of their problems.

To me this song is about people who prefer destroying your life to feel better instead of facing their own problems. One of the best songs of Death imho, very beautiful intro. It helped me a lot...like many Death songs did.

Said by Chuck on 10/12/1993, "It's about peoples' inabilitiy to comprehend metal."