The Plague

Am I the only one who thinks this song sounds like something All That Remains would write? I just started getting into AILD.

I may be completely wrong, but I think the song is about corruption in religion. Tim's saying that we've lost sight of what God really wants in favor of the agendas of religious leaders ("Another blind guide replacing divine eyes.") He encourages Christians to look beyond what is taught to them every Sunday and instead think for themselves and think about what God actually wants, not what our religious leaders or what we personally want and try to pass off as God's will. ("I still believe that there is hope for us, but I believe we must look outside the sanctuaries of oppression that have brought our world so much pain....")

Granted, there are a few lines that I can't figure out in the song, such as "Reach out your hand, only to be plagued by disease," which is repeated enough that I have a feeling looking over it may have changed the entire meaning of the song.

No idea if the band members intended the album to sound like a Nile album, but it does. Nevermind the heaviness the lyrics all atheistic are everything you'd never guess you'd find on a christian album. That said, I never knew As I Lay Dying was a christian band, or at least that all its members are christians. However, most lyrics on this album really are anti religion and anti God. Though I'm sure most christians would like to interpret it otherwise, not a single person I've shown the lyrics to that didn't know the members are christians thought it was pro religion, on the contrary they thought it was anti religion. Even after I've said that they are christians they thought the album to be anti religion. If that is what the band wanted to say and achieve, job well done since the lyrics are really great and there are some great memorable quotes here and there, if not then I have to say this is the biggest failure in the history of literature and music since the band then achieved the complete opposite of what they wanted to achieve. As off said, you can only interpret so much as pro religion then you stumble against a wall that simply doesn't allow for such interpretation any more. All of the songs on the album, especially this one show why:

What is the plague mentioned here? Religion! They even say that religion blames what we cannot see (Lucifer) and that he doesn't abide by such foolish notions, he knows man is the true devil. Then he ultimately denies religious views by saying that there is nothing sacred in every human being believing in only that which he wants to believe in but that religion doesn't leave him any choice by having so many contradictions. The blind guide replacing divine eyes could be only anti religion and not anti God, however...divine eyes could be the eyes of mere men. Authority, subversion, anti God talk right there!

i think offtehdeepend pretty much hit the nail on the head.... and i think the part about "reach out your hand only to be plagued by disease" is talking to catholics and how they think if they tell the priest about their sins that he will forgive them and in reality this is no better than telling a random person you meet on the street your sins....... (in other words it has no effect) and the "horrors and beliefs camouflaged by commonality" is talking about all the rituals of catholicism that people practice so often that it becomes second nature and they never really stop to think about what theyre doing and how the bible never says anything about them (such as praying to saints..... john was rebuked by an angel for trying to worship him but the angel said to worship God) tim mentions "whitewashed tombs" and i have no doubt that that phrase is talking about the false teachers that call themselves christians but really are spiritually dead... as Jesus said in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."

"While religion tries to blame what we cannot see, I accept that part of the problem is me. It was never a sacred mandate to accept conformity, through select revelations that we choose to believe."

also i think this line is talking about how some people think they can do nothing wrong so they say "oh well the devil made me do it" and dont think they need forgiveness because they believe that people are good in general and its not their fault that they messed up but tim is saying that he accepts the fact that people have a sin nature

I'm a Catholic and I have to agree with what everyone is saying above. I personally thought the "reach our your hand" had to do with Confession and a little bit to do with receiving the Eucharist every Mass. People believe that practicing the rituals of Catholicism makes them good Catholics, when in reality I believe God wants us to behave like the disciples of Christ, loving and caring for one another. Being humble... following the Beatitudes. People miss the point and that's why AILD is one of my favorite bands. Tim Lambesis knows what's up. His songs have always been about doing good and overcoming struggle while still keeping the music heavy. :-D

i agree with Guyya's reply to Amarganth's comment... I was about to type the same thing but he already did. In short, religion is a bastardization of what God really wanted; which is a relationship with each of us. You can be anti religion and pro God and that is my view.

I've noticed that people have lots of interpretations, but few have interpreted the chorus, "reach out your hand, only to be plagued by disease" "Reach out your hand, to find forgiveness, only to be plagued by disease" I'll follow the atheistic interpretation on this one, that whenever we seek help, or forgiveness, we go back to Church, deepening the influence.

I think this is more against what religion has become today, rather than religion on a whole. Established religion, if you will. He mentions one of the masters we please is decree; aka, what the church says, goes, no matter what. Also, Tim says, "and we unknowingly worship icons of ordinary life." This presents the problem represented through the plague metaphor: we hold the church and other corrupt religious ideas so close to our hearts that we lose sight of the truth. This is reinforced through the blind guide and whitewashed tombs. In response to the divine eyes being men idea presented by Amarganth, that is in no way plausible, and you are clearly grasping at straws in order to convince yourself this song is 100% against religion and god. It is against modernized religion, and what I like to call "fake" christians.