What will you tell your children
When they ask you "What went wrong?"
How can you paint a picture of a paradise lost
To eyes that know only a wasteland?
How will you justify
Justify watching the world die?

The clock is ticking, can't you feel our days are numbered?
Head first into disaster from which there will be no return
With narrow minds we decimate our one true home
Cast into oblivion, judgement is calling

Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral

The blind eye can no longer be cast
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance

The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn

A forced extinction closes out the age of apathy
The final act, sacrifice the world's ecology
The death of beauty, the death of hope
Cast before the throne of avarice, judgement is calling

Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral

The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn

I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn

I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn

Behold the pale horse

The blind


Lyrics submitted by theDwearsP, edited by jerome1, AlexAsura, BlueDiamondx3

Dark Days Lyrics as written by Jeffrey Cleve Ling Benjamin Michael Gordon

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Dark Days song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

4 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +5
    My Interpretation

    Dark Days is obviously an apocalyptic song. It’s an angry reaction, a response on what we think we’re doing. It’s a hard, unvarnished mirror they are holding in front of us, the cold truth.

    “What will you tell your children when they ask you: What went wrong? How can you paint a picture of a paradise lost To eyes that know only a wasteland” -It’s a reproach to the past and the current generation. Blaming them for the beautiful world we’ve lost. How could we do this to the future generation? How will you explain yourself when they ask you how the good old days were, while they live with the consequences we caused, due to ignorance, indifference and selfishness.

    “How will you justify Justify, watching the world die” -Again, how will you explain yourself. Because no matter what you’ve done, you’ve participated to this perished world at one point in your life.

    “The clock is ticking, can't you feel our days are numbered Head first into disaster from which there will be no return With narrow minds, we decimate our one true home Cast into oblivion, judgment is calling” -Everybody knows we’re damaging and destroying the world and it’s nature. And when we will reach the worlds limit, there will be no turning back. All we will be able to say is ‘what if…’. With our selfish minds we’ve been destroying the planet we live on piece by piece (decimate = thinning out, chopping of). Our indifference for the state of our mother nature will backfire, resulting in destruction.

    “Behold the pale horse This is the funeral of the Earth Behold the pale horse This is the funeral” -I’ve done some research on this ‘pale horse’, and it appears to be a reference to a chapter in the Book of Revelation (last book of the new testament). The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse. One by one the riders came. First the White Horse, representing ‘false peace’, the antichrist gaining strength and conquering the world. Second came the Red Horse, who brought war and slaughter. Third came the Black Horse, who let the crops die, what led to failing harvest, and resulted in famine and diseases. Last came the Pale Horse, bringer of death. So this pale horse represents the death of the earth, what led to its funeral.

    “The blind eye can no longer be cast The clock is ticking, there is no second chance” -When the world ends as we know it, you will no longer be able to act like you had no idea what was going on all this time. If the so-called apocalypse will happen it will be beyond recall, definite. We won’t be given a second planet Earth.

    “The blind eye can no longer be cast There will be no future if we can't learn from our mistakes The clock is ticking, there is no second chance There will be no future if we can't learn” -If we continue to live like this, there will be no hope for the next generation. And they’ll have to live with the mistakes we’ve made.

    “A forced extinction closes out the age of apathy The final act– sacrifice the world's ecology The death of beauty, the death of hope Cast before the throne of avarice, judgment is calling” -We will be forced into a world’s ending due to our indifference. We are sacrificing the Earth’s nature for our own good, which results in the destruction of it. Death of the beautiful nature we have and we should cherish. We are sitting on a throne of greed, and eventually we’ll pay the price.

    “I can't watch it burn!” -Horrible to witness what’s happening to our planet.

    “Behold the pale horse!” -Behold our ending

    AlexAsuraon May 14, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Clearly talking about the future of the earth and how we are killing everything around us

    SIeepwalkeron October 28, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I personally love the start of this song ... the bell chime and riff. Really pumps the song up with a good intro.

    @AlexAsura and @Sleepwalker both give good summaries of the song's meaning, and being Byron Bay boys you'd expect them to be quite in touch with environmental concerns.

    sokornyon March 26, 2015   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Awesome awesome song! Very angry! Parkway drive rulz!

    jonjonwinnyon September 26, 2015   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Album art
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it. “I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.