Miss Murder

It's about Jesus, Hitler, and many other things. Essentially Hitler saw himself as the savior of the German people, much as Jesus was said to have seen himself as the savior of the Judaen people. There are very strong elements of religion in contemporaraneous German art, in the ceremonies instituted by the national socialists, and even in the name they chose (third -Reich-, after the "Holy Roman Empire" of old).

The "golden ring" that we would never let go could easily be a reference to the ring in the saga of the Niebelungenlied, a symbol in pagan Germanic myth for the destiny of the German peoples and their place as favored of the gods.

Of course you'll agree that the Nazis should not have been able to "lay their filthy hands upon" the greatest secrets of the universe, but who among us truly would be worthy?

Miss Murder could be Kali, mistress of death and also of rebirth and reincarnation. I've read that suicides were held by some ancient traditions to be bound to the earth, forced to be reborn (seek to lose your life and gain it??).

"Empty set" is a mathematical concept. It would be used, for example, to answer the problem, "list all values of x for which x = x+1". The empty set is not "zero" or "nothing" in the common use of the word. To butcher a zen koan, "Once a student asked his master, 'Sir, what is it like to attain Buddhahood?' His master shouted, 'The empty set!'"

That said, perhaps a better question to ask than "What does this song objectively mean?" is "What can I subjectively learn from experiencing this song??

The song seems to be about spiritual dichotomy.

'Miss Murder' is death\inevitability. 'She' seduces, gives birth, serves as a vessel of transition, stalks, waits, forcibly kills, etc. 'Beauty' is a codeword for the aesthetic.. An ideal of perfection. The singer is therefore asking if his death will spare his ideals.

The bulk of the song is about the loss of a powerful figure of this ideal who both arrived and left with a 'crash' - vanishing from the world and leaving his followers behind.. Such that all we have left are stories and reflections of this ideal 'spiraling down' - immortalized through history.. but it's not enough, and it closes with the statement that the ghost of this ideal will fizzle out hopelessly because, although we search in our meaningless quandry, our leader has abandoned us.

The lyrics are obviously about Jesus (verse 31 is only relevent in that context) but not only Jesus. The video paints a very different picture: of another leader (Hitler) in his public and private life caught within the above dilemma. 'Miss Murder' is portrayed as a woman in red, and the 'Beauty' is portrayed by a rabbit (and writings of this rabbit), symbolising gentleness or innocence. (A lamb would have been obvious, expensive, and out of place.) Toward the end of the video the duality begins to solidify as the singer becomes gets closer to 'Miss Murder' and we witness the death of the rabbit(?) - Indicating that the beautiful vision has died and Murder is all that is left. The lyrics, then, contain a double-meaning of Hitler asking his enemies if they will spare his vision if he kills himself, and the aftermath of his suicide.

The overarching theme these leaders had in common is Arianism and that awkward alternation between Man and God, Secular and Divine, evidenced in both of their speeches. In the video we see this in the image of the rabbit 'issuing from the mouth' of the 'prophet', and in the transition from private to public (common in political manipulation). Even the layering of lyrics & video reflects this. (Lyrics\Video -> Words\Actions -> Ideal\Real -> Spirit\Body -> Heaven\Earth -> God\Man)

The actual singer is relating himself to Hitler in this sense while singing about this concept of Christ. Like those men, he is a public face with followers and suffering through a similar inner-struggle between two natures.. But with the realization that God is not here, and the consequences of that realization to the self, and to the world, he finds himself losing faith.. So he's asking if he can retain his ideals by killing himself - rather than suffer to watch himself become an anti-Christ. (and also asking if he will be saved for doing this.)

(Note also that the Jews suffered persection by the Romans in Jesus' time, by the Christians in the middle ages, and again under Hitler. The forgotten promise of abraham, and God's absence has been a repeated theme in Jewish history. The only problem with this is the allusion to suicide which doesn't quite fit.)

ok is it just me or when you saw the video u immediately though Hitler

it really does refer to Jesus it talks about the last hour when he speaks about a shook and the heavens taking HIM he refers to Jesus having to leave to be a sacrifice i think maybe he feels alone God promised not to let us go maybe he walked away from God and feels forsaken and now he's so alone that he feels the need to commit suicide
"that ghost you love" God cant be seen but we believe in him and love him Davey must be truly hurt and feel forsaken he just doesn't know that Jesus had to die in order to free us and give us eternal life with our father in heaven

It seems to me there's some sort of powerful male figure here...

"With just a look they shook And heavens bowed before him Simply a look can break your heart"

In these next lyrics it seems as though, even though he is a powerful person, he avoids responsibility, and others had to pay the consequences; they were left alone.

"The stars that pierce the sky He left them all behind We're left to wonder why He left us all behind"

"Dreams of his crash won't pass Oh, how they all adored him Beauty will last when spiraled down"

and here ^ a "crash" is referred to...so in his running, he failed at some point and came crashing to death. Here theyre mourning his death and remembering him.

"The stars that mystify He left them all behind And how his children cry He left us all behind"

Now with his responsibility left behind...they are alone and there is no one to take care of them.

"What's the hook, the twist, within this verbose mystery? I would gladly bet my life upon it That the ghost you love, your ray of light will fizzle out Without hope We're the empty set, just flowing through, wrapped in skin Ever-searching for what we were promised Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go But who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it?"

Here is seems like davey is singing out to those hurting, those who were promised things then abandoned. he's stating his ignorance for why, but in his reference to a hook...he in confirming that there IS a reason for it all... "But who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it?" is basically saying that we may not be good enough to know the answers, ever.

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858588589/ (If the link isn't doing what I want, it is to NobodyImportant's analysis. It should be on the 6th page after mine. I think it does well.)

Given that Davey, the singer and lyricist of AFI, went to a Catholic school, I don't find the presence of religious imagry odd. Given how much of his writing incorporates it, I consider it more of a metaphor for a part of the message he his trying to get accross. It is similar to how a word itself has history and stems, but what it means is only loosely related to each stem's meaning.

What I see in these lyrics is a person who is well regarded. Not nessicarily a superstar or a leader of many, but anyone with some kind of superficial favor or talent. This person does not believe they are all that they are percieved to be, and they will ultimately break the illusion. Out of a combination of self-loathing, fear (of both not being good enough and of it's consequences), and a desire to be viewed favorably, the speaker debates committing suicide. He likely percieves himself to have peaked. Metaphors in the song have to do with martyrs, and that is what he hopes to attain through his suicide in addition to freedom from his life.

I don't think the Nazi-esque imagry of the video is as significant as many have made it out to be. It is a very effective way of showing a detached leader held high above his mindless, rigid, stubborn and demanding followers. I find the banners to be more telling. They represent a mask and a barrier between the followers and leader. The followers may not even know Davey is on the roof. They certainly do not care what he has to say, as they go on roboticly.

(What I know about Davey swould suggest that he is the person debating suicide... but I may be wrong. It may be only a character.)

Another new direction for AFI... new album should be interesting. Anyone else notice how much the chorus sounds like Green Day?

i like it! davey sings lower than usual. if this is really afi...

It is AFI, and it's not GD like, the next person who says that, I'll hunt down! Very weird lyrics, the chorus is about 'Miss Murder' yet the keep refering to a he...

It's still different though, good (don't get me wrong), but different. Catchier...it has a more lighthearted sound despite the material. And the he versus she thing's got me too...I don't really know all the conspiracy stuff so I can't really make a relevant comment on that. Does anyone who does have any comments?