I Might Need You To Kill

this song is the album's introduction to the futuristic orwellian christianized dystopia. the song makes references to the bible (locusts, parting the sea, etc.) and there are references to nazis and the line about "ashes and friends" is probably a reference to Auschwitz as chilling as that may be.
The song seems to be about a man who wants to escape the totalitarian theocracy. He's telling a woman or someone else, his love presumably, of the sacrifices and committment needed to succeed in escaping (e.g. "i might need you to kill...hack...cover tracks so we can hide if they sight us still" The line about drowning your disease might be about baptisms or might be a more straight forward comment on the killing of dissidents within this dystopia.

One thing this song is satirizing is how religion defines how we view our world. Is it moral to impress your beliefs on some one who is otherwise pure?

It's wrong to tell someone what to do, but it's even worse when they tell you what to feel...

I believe its "they can beat me and send me the bill," like when certain dictatorial regimes would execute you and send your family the bill for the bullets

cite should be sight

I hear "Lashes and grins" not "Ashes and friends"

I always thought it was "Nazi payloads"..

the biblical references are obvious the sense of a coming apolocalypse which in the hands of the christian right might make itself manifest as self-fufilling prophecy i'm not sure if it is the author's original intent but i am an inverse deconstructualist so for me it doesn't really matter [nothing exists outside of the context] the crosses and nazi halos conjours reminds me of the idea of the crucified skinhead its a martyring propaganda tactic taken up by whitepower enthusiasts in its own right it too becomes a self-fufilling prophecy they are (technically) persecuted for their beliefes this persecution fails maryrdom however in that those very beliefs are based opon persecuting others the next lines continue the theme -and the comment above mine is probably correct about the reference to Auschwitz but here i think the image becomes reified and turns into a simple social critique and in some ways a lament that all of our attempts to slavage our friendships to keep everyone together have merely turned us all to Ash the comparison of burned bridges to the holocaust is an obvious hyperbole and its usage is somewhat questionable considering the sensitivity of the subject but The Thermals are really just the hipsters NOFX so its an art form based upon hyperbole and extremes personally i think its a kind of dilliberate absurdity anyone who has every been in a marginally sucessful band knows the feeling of isolation that comes with success all of a sudden you become a part of the very establishment you orininally set out to rebel against and your friends start to do stupid shit like draw swastikas all over your high school yearbook its that positively 4th street sort of feel. the next verse further inverts the imagery orininally Christianity is viewed within the context of right-wing evangelicals bible beaters/westboro/ men with crosses screaming at innocent pedestrians now they, the band becomes the Christians with their own zealotry in riot against this again the lyrics present themselves in an absurdist hyperbole "i might need you to kill every room and every human at will" and therefore deconstructs the very idea which it presents as a course of action (it seems highly doubtful that the Thermals would actually want their fans to go with them on a killing spree) the chorus returns itself to the orignal critique by taking what is considered to be the positive aspect of the spread of Christianity and inverting it "they'll drown your disease, they'll pound you with the light of Jesus" it shows the violence involved with evangelicism the next verse goes back to voice of the band who choses flight instead of fight still caught within a double bind the last verse and chorus are just there to finish song

overall i think it is in some ways a critique of the crusader mindset albiet still finding its own pleasure withing that very concept it reveals a number of contradictions within our own society and seeks to turn blood into fire and piss into wine

i dont think they are outrightly anti-Christian or merely doing things for the sake of blasphemy but rather seek to reveal the infinite number of contradictions involved with Christianity

-with my right hand crossed over my heart and my left fist raised high-

My opinion on the song is that it's simply about blindly following authority. Just simply because of the repetition of the line 'They follow' throughout and the very commonly known subjects of following orders (Religion, Nazis)

I made an account just to mention the glaring oversight as to the meaning of the second stanza. It's referrin,g at least in allusion to, to the posts of the old testament where Moses leads the Jews in escaping across the sea. I feel like the killing here could be the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them, but the last line sounds more like a part of the bible (maybe it was part of the Moses stuff, I dunno) where God tells the Israelites to massacre an entire enemy camp of men, women, and children while they slept. Not an odd choice of verse, given the subject matter of the song. Honestly it was so clear to me that I was shocked neither reference had been explained.