Cruel

FIRSTPOST! LOLLERCOASTER!

This is an amazing song. Apparently about the cruelty of lying... hang on, I'm interpreting as I type this... okay, okay... it's-... Yeah, someone lied... um... there appears to be a verse about the death sentence... is this- No, no no no, I don't want this to be a song about Bush. I'm sick of songs about Bush. Oh wait maybe not... Wait... Dammit.

This could very well be a song about Bush lying and causing deaths for what he believes to be, and what he tells us is, the right thing (or the "divine right").

...although... this could also be a choc-full-of-metaphors allusion to someone lying and causing the death of a relationship, and perhaps even making him afraid of future relationships or intimacy, because of how badly he was hurt. Perhaps now he feels hopeless and helpless because of the cruelty of a past partner.

"cruel, heartless reign chasing short term gains right down to the warning signs"

I believe there are strong allusions to the Bush era. But there's also this (paradoxically) both more personal and more general dimension. It refers to internal split in a person, basically any of us, who finds him/herself torn between ideals and reality. Self-deceit and self-conceit take place. As a result, a person or a nation might find itself sceptical and weary towards it's own lifestyle.

"weather flees underground"

It's quite difficult not to read this as a reference to Weather Undergound. Weather fleas underground?

Oh oh I've got it!

This song is totally about settler-colonialism. Let's break it down.

"cruel, cruel grounds leak truths never found"

This phrase could reference the toxification of the soil as a result of environmental exploitation, both insidious and destructive.

"torturous ways whisper from the grave a slow-spun song of distortion"

More here about the poisonous nature of environmental contamination, which is often brought to light too late.

"bitter, bitter mouth spitting out seeds of doubt"

This is about politicians and corporate elites purposefully misleading folks, as with Shell in Louisiana's Cancer Alley or Dow Chemical in Bhopal.

"rituals seek root razed before they're told stories break like branches in the cold"

This describes the ways in which community culture itself is threatened through corporate interference and ecological poisoning. Traditions and community ties are often destroyed as a way to indoctrinate communities into mainstream consumer-capitalism.

"seasons trial finds man's mistakes fair game"

This is about how a lot of the fundamental flaws of society become evidenced through the trials of the seasons, ie how an institutionally racist system was brought to light through the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. (Okay, so I think this song is also about Bush... but Bush and settler-colonialism, are, like, one and the same).

"careless hand lay and law of the land falls by the side"

More about human obliviousness to the constraints and particularities of an ecology. The lay and law of the land is disregarded in settler-colonialism's constant search for new resources.

"silenced sentient cries all within the laws of divine right"

This stanza refers to the fact that, together with environmental exploitation, settler-colonialism silenced and continues to silence the voices of Native Americans, whose mere presence calls into question the legitimacy of the nation-state we live in. This process is done under the guise of Manifest Destiny, which presumed that humans had "divine right".

"better bury the tracks in an unclosed case"

The forces of settler-colonialism attempt to cover their tracks, however do not take the time to "close the case", which produces an effect of haunting, where people in modern society continue to be subconsciously cognizant of the people and landscapes ravaged through the process of colonization.... in other words,

"weeds of discontent choke a broken ghost landscape"

"cruel, heartless reign chasing short term gains right down to the warning signs"

This portion indicates the way in which the hierarchical, authoritarian governance that we are under prefers to chase short-term profit (as we whiz past the warning signs that we are running out of oil)as opposed to finding sustainable lifestyles.

"birds refuse to fly no longer trust the sky drifting out beyond the signals"

This references the effects of residual military radiation on birds, which when radiated lose the ability to fly and instead wander around shivering.

"even the horizon is gone"

A reference to air pollution.

"weather flees underground"

Okay, I admit, I have no idea what this line means.

"future left to wallow in fortune's waste"

This last part refers to the "alchemy of settler-colonialism" which turns lands which are rich in living natural resources (forests, rivers, valleys, wetlands) into products which are used and eventually discarded into landfills. In this sense, as we participate in the capitalist consumer market, we leave future generations to wallow in the waste of our fortune.

Anyway, that's just one interpretation.