Gyroscope

First, understand that a gyroscope is a tool used to determine orientation (position and direction).

The song contains alot of metaphor, so first I'm going to do a literal analysis of the lyrics then guess at what they probably mean.

The song is told from the perspective of history itself, or perhaps from the perspective of "the gyroscope of time" as referred to in the chorus.

" Geology is digging through my brain a manta engulfing the world to throw it up once again to a guild of lifted daggers "

The first part is pretty self explanitory, human science is uncovering the memory of what has happened before our time. The part about throwing it up again implies that it wasn't intended for humanity to dig up these secrets. The guild of lifted daggers is the human race.

I'll skip the chorus for now, I think it'll make more sense after I go through the other verses.

"A diabolical sequence of stabs written in cunning stones from the fossilised den of thieves our lives die"

I believe this is referring to evolution. The sequence of stabs would be each species (think in terms of "a stab in the dark"), the cunning stones referring to the fossils that the human race has found. The den of thieves is the earth. "our lives die" could be pretty ambigiuous, but I think it's saying that we're disgracing the lives of the inhabitants of the earth's past.

"I see the nursing all-mother spitting out a trail of termites in the mouth of her first-born hope breasts ripe with smog-filled rebellion"

The all mother is earth of course, the termites are humanity. The first born hope is probably life itself, or maybe the entity singing the song. The first born hope could also refer to humanity. The smog filled part could obviously refer to the industrialization of the earth that we as a race have done, but I think there's another meaning I just can't see.

"Apathy dressed in violence white insectoid legs curse her lips and the mouth receptive only to pain"

I think that this is referring to the human race's treatment of the earth again. The apathy part refers to the human race, the insect part is lost on me though. The last part refers to the earth.

"Neo-wolf, but older again than the Lupus itself linked its fur to the gyroscope of time a collection of failures"

The Neo-wolf is the human race, evolved from the original life form, represented by the lupus. Using the 'gyroscope', they've figured out where they came from and how they evolved. Since we are the most advanced and highly evolved race on the planet, and we've condemned ourselves by destroying the earth, the entire life process is referred to as a collection of failures.

This is my first song interpretation, I'm sure there's some stuff that's not correct but I think it's fairly accurate, be sure to let me know what you think!

The songs is about the failure of the world, of the system. Only a new beginning, a 'rebirth' of the world can make the world better. But it failes over and over again: a collection of failures. Our attemps of making the world a better place are in vane.

Very good song, nice guitars, one of the better songs of in flames.

the gyroscope is a metaphor for unwilling to change

"I'm gonna take you to the green album. The one we call Whoracle. This is 'Gyroscope'." --- Anders' introduction to the song on The Tokyo Showdown.

i love the explosive sound like 20 secs into the song, truely awesome

my favorite metal song ever :D and yea i agree with ramorg

pimp song, saw them last ngiht in chicago and i highly suggest seeing these guys live, they are amazing.

Too right! I can't wait to see them again. They played this song too, it was awesome!

One of my favourite IF songs.. A shame that so few people comment on it. The album version is much better than the live version though.

The chorus is not about actual wolves. It contrasts the new (Neo-Wolf) versus the old (the Lupus).

The first and second verse are closely related: Both deal with "knives and stabbing", while the third and fourth verses are also related: they describe the "nursing all-mother" (who btw also appears in several other IF songs, like Artifacts and Hive).

The "knife" verses are generally about the world being thrown into chaos and death.

The "all-mother" verses are about natures relation to mankind, and how we are polluting and destroying, and how nature pretty much reacts by sending tornadoes and hurricanes and shit our way.

The general theme of this song is how mankind is abusing the rest of the planet, and how we are simply mortal and NEED THE EARTH to SURVIVE !

Political fatcats and stockowners dont seem to realize this. Raping the earth just so THEY and maybe THEIR ILK can live well during their own lifetime is probably the most selfish thing you can do. When the world finally collapses, what will people say about their forefathers?

i agre with ddatutta all the way. did anyone notice this is on both black ash inheritance and whoracle?