Perpetual Black Second

Possibly one of my favorite Meshuggah songs of all time. Ranks up there with NMCC and Ritual, IMHO. I think this is about capturing the essence of one moment of regret.. one thing that is strongly desired to be forgotten, but can't, and so leads to constant torment. Perhaps... hrm. Perhaps there is an accusation of some sort (infidelity, maybe?) which is reciprocated with an assault of some sort... maybe even just one smack, as it's one second, one moment to be forgotten. The regret is strong, but inescapable to the "continuous rerun of my own violence".. yet, the violence is there to stay, a constant mean streak in the form of an "Inherent demon." A reflexive action to being put on the spot.

This song, like most things by Meshuggah, is awesome to lift weights to.

Perpetual Black Second is about a descent into a katatonic state caused by your actions of the past. Your body is consumed entirely by anger and remorse and you are helpless to stop your mind as it travels further from it's orignal state into dementia. It likely that actions it refer to (ie " Please forgive the evil in me--the darkness within") include rape and murder.

to me i think its about actions that are made without thinking and are then constantly replayed in ones mind always thinking about why you made such choices in the first place. like when people snap at one another and then wonder why they did it

*as long as your workout partners are pretty open-minded :)

For some reason, I think the song is about spousal abuse. In a split second a person's judgement is nulled by rage, he does something horrible. After this, he spends the rest of his life being constantly reminded of that split second in his past. The lines

"One single image frame i wish to forget now replayed in succession of millions The one second i will always regret -my hell found in it's reiteration"

sums it up. A very, very dark song, both lyrically and musically (don't you feel the self-hatred oozing in the opening riff?).

Think about it like this: He's stuck between two mirrors facing each other that represent resentment and regret. "One single image frame i wish to forget now replayed in succession of millions" Because of this he cannot escape and is forced to see the same negative imagery as it repeats itself from either view. Resenment overtakes as he looks to lash out in anger and spite but the fear of regret holds him back so ultimately he never actually does anything.
"Spit of hate suspended mid-air" - He wants to but he will forever dwell upon the idea but never take action. He takes no action and will forever dwell on past actions and those he has not done. He is left to sit and think.

The speaker has the tendency to lash out in anger, and in one of these episodes, he killed someone out of rage and revenge. He now regrets this, and is convinced that he's a horrible person who deserves to be punished.

I GOT IT! This amazing song might just be about a "Perpetual Black Second." A moment of trauma that you or somebody else caused, leading you to never forget that second, it just goes on and on in your head, sort of like Post Truamtic Stress Disorder (PTSD). See, cuase:

"One single image frame i wish to forget now replayed in succession of millions The one second i will always regret -my hell found in it's reiteration.."

That whole set of words basically states this person did something that made them so regretful that they could not forget that very moment that it happened, and it replays: "One single image frame i wish to forget now replayed in succession of millions.." The same images pop up in his head so many times, so much that he lives in his own "Hell in Reiteration." Bam. I'm a motherfucking Genius Motherfucking wordsmith yo. Na rap can suck a fucking dick. Metal lives on. MESHUGGAH METAL!

The "Perpetual Black Second" is the second hand on a clock -- never ceasing and black for the most part.