A Thousand Faces

To me I truly believe that this song is a therapy session for himself. Tell me how hard is it for each of us to look at ourselves, I mean really look at all our flaws and lies no matter how small or large they are to each of us. He even goes as far to say "to ask ourselves what is just under our skin". He's talking about looking at his past and confronting his "thousand faces" He trying to figure out which one of them is truly himself. I can relate to the whole song. What is scary is that all of them are him. That's why he talks about the broken mirror. Even if we don't want to admit it! Every fake smile, every lie, and every flaw we have is who we are! So to me he looks at his life himself, to see the thousand faces he has, to see the truth to move forward, to move on as the man he has become. Powerful song! Love it!!

How am I the first comment on this song? It's probably my favorite song from Full Circle, if not "On My Sleeve". Anyways, I see this song as a sequel to "My Own Prison", the song, not the entire album. Compare a few things:

My Own Prison: The walls are cold and pale, the cage made of steel... Gabriel stands and confirms, I've created my own prison"

A Thousand Faces: "I stand surrounded by the walls that once defined me..."

My Own Prison goes on to say "A Lion roars in the darkness, only he holds the key. A light to free me from my burden and grant me life eternally". A Thousand Faces builds off of that, with Stapp seeming to look back upon the mental prison he was in. He sympathizes with the thousands of others who are still stuck in similar situations. He has to "look behind" to see where he once was, and what he overcame. The line "Why can't you see the truth?" reflects his realization in My Own Prison, and he is asking you why you can't see the same thing and free yourself.

The line that says "Broken mirrors paint the floor" is kind of complicated. I think, the singer finally got fed up and tired of looking in the mirror and seeing a reflection that he didn't like (because he was still in his mental prison), so smashing the mirror is symbolic of breaking the chains and becoming free.

My two cents.

Let me know what you guys/girls think of this.

The thousand faces may be the devil/satan/sin trying to deceive him, when he is trying to find God. Tell me which is You, the You may be God. The thousand faces may be different sins.

Or in a non christian way, the thousand faces are all bad choices and he is trying to find the one right way to live.

I dont think it has anything to do with a prison as such, but more that he is looking inside of himself and seeing "a thousand faces". He is trying to figure which of the faces he shows is really him.

I agree with 4tOutl3mond3 with the "broken mirrors paint the floor" line slightly, in that he is angry of seeing the reflection of what he is and has therefore has smashed the mirrors. However, when it is combined with the "but still reflect the truth" line, i think it means that whatever he does, he cant hide from what he the truth about himself.

Thousand faces is his reflection plastered all over the floor. That person in the mirror has been haunted him for years and has stopped him from becoming all that he can be. It's time to step ahead and the only way to do that is to stop looking back. New mirror - new reflection. Great Tune!

i agree with the first comment i think it has to do with the my own prison its his mind he is stuck in his own mind in my own prison in this song he is lookin back on the walls that he had to drop to get where he is now i think the thousand faces him trying to find himself people put up walls all the time bc they dont want to feel vulrable thats what he meant by the crumbling walls that crush him

On one hand I think it is introspective on the other I think the singer could be speaking to someone. The person with a thousand faces is hiding their true identity and "Pointing fingers, laying blame Lying over and over and over and over". The person clearly despises the singer. The singer just wants the truth but the person he/she is speaking to just doesn't have it it them to do anything other than play these games. "Yet here I stand" the singer isn't going anywhere, the singer has been ready to confront this person. He/She is now forced to "look behind" or examine the past because of what is being said or done by the person with all of these different identities but there is some confusion.

"I bleed inside" the singer is hurt and the other person isn't. The lyrics portray somewhat of a cruel monster. "Dug my grave and trash my name" The person is doing everything in their power to make the singer's life miserable.

It still begs the question "You wear a thousand faces - Tell me which is you" as the person is looking into shards or 'slivers' of glass the singer is asking what is really "under your skin" or what are you really about?

I think there's a couple of mistakes here... "the walls that once defined me" = "the walls that once confined me"

"Ask yourself what's just under my skin" = "Ash still simmers just under my skin"

"A different smile again" = "Indifferent smile's again"

"Your need time make no change" = "Erily time made no change"

"Dug my grace" = "Dug my grave"

This is one of my favorites of the new album I think it's about two people. Whatever the connection the two people had, something happened that hurt the 'I' in the song or he feels bad about something that happened. I think a key part of the song are the first two lines. The 'walls ONCE confined' him yet he still knows that he'll be 'underneath them when they crumble'. So, what I get is that he was in a situation (maybe an addiction, or some a struggle) and he wanted to get out of it but the 'walls' were confining him. Now that the 'door' or whatever is opened and the walls aren't confining him anymore, something is still holding back. I think that it's the memories of what happened because the 'scars' of what he did to try to get out of it still remind him. The ashes part tells me that this was a recent event because the 'ashes still simmer'. Now the indifference smile's again I'm not sure about, but he says 'so much i hide'so i think that he's holding all the emotion in and just smiling to get by. However, just hiding and not doing anything isn't a 'step forward' to solving you problems but is rather a 'step back'. The chorus is saying that the other person acts different all the time so he doesn't know what to think. 'Broken mirrors paint the floor' means that if there's mirrors all over the floor, the person can't avoid seeing themselves and seeing what the 'singer' sees in them. He's asking whch personality is the real one. Time usually heals wounds but apparently, nothing happened hear and this other person kept lying and deceiving and then acting like a good person. But the singer was 'standing' there for him for the other persons benefit.

That's what I get out of it. Tell me whatcha think.

This is by far Creed's best song.

I'm pretty sure this song is about an internal struggle.