The Wave

I think this is a continuation of the song paddling out which makes sense because he creates a music video for each which continues off one another.

Paddling out alludes to a way that people kill themselves in a very passive manner. The only way you can kill yourself without actually taking any active part in it. The main character swims out to the ocean so far that he will be so exhausted and not be able to swim back before he drowns. He paddles out top the middle of the oceans and as he swims he hears waves crash on the shore “The rat-tat to remind me That there was something behind me” which reminds him of the life he will be leaving behind and the people that always told him he was nothing “they told me I wasn’t anything”. The few people that he actually loved and cared for will never understand why he did this and selfishly left them behind and they will never remember him for how much he loved them but only for what he did to their lives when he killed himself “But my love won’t be saved”. He’s being reminded by all these things as he swims further and further out to his death and he just keeps telling himself that nobody ever thought he would amount to anything and that instead of using his gifts god bestowed on him (“I was a thief of the master, a walking disaster”) , he squandered his life and instead his life amounted to nothing more important than a beggar’s (“ You can hear them banging on the tin”) his life mirrored the lowliness of a beggar banging on a tin for money, refusing to get up and use their talents and gifts to better themselves and give their lives meaning. As he gets pulled deeper under the water as the waves push him down, he references the last sounds he hears as bombs coming down on top of him wiping out any trace of his existence. The next stanza is when he finally accepts death and instead of crying and bartering with god somehow be spared from this fate he has chosen he accepts that he wont be saved and there’s no reason to be upset anymore “I know you feel it coming Don’t let it get you down”. He thinks about all the other people that feel the same way he does, as if their own lives mean not and they will never surmount to anything. Instead of giving the world this thought of a perfect man (paddling out video) that we all strive to be our whole lives to be he amounted to less than he dreamed as many do and he couldn’t live with himself anymore waking up to a crappy life and having drugs and alcohol as his only vice. “We’ll all be staring at the wave” he knows that he is staring down his death and he can’t control if it will kill him or not and when he will actually die from it. This references how we will all die eventually unknowing when or how. Paddling out could also reference a drug addict ODing to a point where they will die and can’t be save and are staring death down with no way to stop it or come back.

This whole album is about fascism and the wave is a symbol for standardized thought. Are you going to give up your identity to fit the mold of this standard or are you going to paddle out? The "hammer" is a courts decision and how cases aren't based on individuals but rather are a protocol. You're individuality won't be "saved" and either you can give into the "wave" or you can be a threat in which the autocratic police that are "behind me" will force you to give in. You're robbing the nation of its strength until everyone becomes united as one, when the wave will be the strongest.

Atomic bomb? nuclear warfare? At least that's what the music videos portrays. I LOVE this band and all of their music with all my heart!!! I just wish they would come play somewhere CLOSE to ohio!!

It's "I was a fief of the master" not "fee".

It could also allude to the world ending and its inevitableness. The group says "I know you hear it coming... Don't let it get you down," trying to argue that although the world is ending, it's going to be alright.

The wave could be a giant flood caused by a nuclear bomb, or just a wave of atomic destruction.

The tin that they're banging on is probably like an underground nuclear base to protect them from any disasters.

Not even "his love" is saved from the wave.

I wondered that when it talks about bombs and being nothing and being a walking disaster it was referencing suicide bombers

In an interview they discussed the meanings that people have derived from this series of songs. They mentioned the music industry analogy that fans have made and stated that they enjoy that the fans pulled it from their songs (and agree with the statement); But they also said that the statements about the music industry was not the original meanings of the songs. They also noted that they didn't want to state the original meaning because, like any work of art, they wanted the viewer to extract their own meaning.