Flesh And The Power It Holds

I believe this song to mean that, as always in our frail form of flash and blood, we are dying as soon as we are born - "I told you once But I'll say it again When you live the flesh It's the beginning of the end" -This lyric also alludes to this theory "It builds you up One way and tears you right back down A time to begin The end of all time"

Basically, we walk this earth for a short period of time, then we die. We get sucked in to the fact that our lives mean something, then it becomes clear enough that the end is all that's in store for us. That's one way of seeing it I guess, and I think that's the way Chuck was portraying life.

I don't particularly believe in God myself, so I have no idea whether or not there is an afterlife - but I believe we may go on to somewhere else, all that energy in us can't be there just to evaporate.

LmS.

This song is about the frailty of flesh, but also about its perceivable power. Flesh fools us into thinking ourselves physically immortal, but may also betray us.

Awesome song!!! I think the lyrics are about lust and it's negative consequences. I am currently doing a project for my creative writing class... I have to write 10 poems... they are due tomorrow, I wish i could write this well.

Even though I'm sure the song IS about human desires and the dangers that come with it, I've always felt that could also be interpreted as AIDS or another disease.

Especially when you look at lines like:

"Passion is a poison laced with pleasure bitter sweet One of many faces that hide deep beneath"

and

"Like a wind Upon your face You can't see it but you know it's there When beauty shows It's ugly face Just be prepared"

I love this song. I think Disposition_987 has covered the meaning pretty well.

who cares, it's i cool song with the coolest interlude ever

That solo is absolutely amazing.

There are some great interpretations of this song in the above users' posts. Like SASR, I believe it has to do with the flesh, as in sex! People wanna "live the flesh", as in get it on with so-n-so. Once you start messing with someone sexually, a can of worms can open up. You can get a disease, for example. We are drawn in by such a great, euphoric feeling, and then we are spit out, when we get a disease, or we all of a sudden have to take care of a kid for 18 years that we're not ready for. This is one of the greatest songs Chuck has ever written. The solo in the midsection of the song is pure genius, as only Chuck Schuldiner could pull that off. He got a loud cheer for that solo in the live version of this song from the Eindhoven concert he did soon before he passed on, as seen on Youtube. Check it out!

this is basically about how as soon as we're born, we're condemned to die. so when we "live the flesh, its the beginning of the end." life takes you in, you experience all the good things it has to offer, then when you die the flesh spits you out. this explains the "itll take you in and itll spit you out. behold the flesh and the power it holds." and the power hes talking about is the flesh's ability to bring you lifes joys. you get touch, taste, sight, etc.

I think this song is a warning against passion, or better, to life lead by your passion. This becomes especially clear in this passage

Like a wind upon your face You can't see it but you know it's there When beauty shows

It's ugly face Just be prepared! Passion burns Like fire carried by the wind

but it is said from the beginning (I think it's easy to read out of the first verse a warning against "lust" ), but already in the third one he becomes concrete. Therefore it becomes clear that the flesh is always a metaphor for the passion and not just for lust or something like this.