Under The Sun

This song sort of doesn't settle with the song After Forever, but i think you can make sense of it after a while. "I dont need a Jesus freak to tell me what its all about" Hes kinda sayin "you dont have to tell me whats going on, ive already figured it out"

From then on he says "I don't want no preacher telling me about the God in the sky" To me its like he believes, but in his own, personal way. And lastly, when he says, "I dont want anyone to tell me where I'm gonna go when I die ... i dont want people telling me what to do" i think hes just sayin "chill out dude, you dont determine or even have an idea of where im gonna go, only God does."

P.S. I also agree with Ryan M. about the weeds. I see a lot of my fellow "christians" (priests, popes, televangelists) 'hide thier faces' and pretend to be flower but they are a weed. Best quote i heard about this was by Shakespeare. It went somethin like:

"And I've clothed my naked villainy with loose odd ends claimed forth by holy writ (right), and while most I claim to be a Saint, I truly play the Devil"

Having grown up with a lot of pushy Christians (No offense to the religion, just to some of those representing it), this song had an Atheist 'Leave me alone, damn it' sort of tone. The 'frustration' could be older people who are frustrated with mortality, or younger people who struggle with thier religion. Hiding thier real faces could signify corrupt Priests or Pastors. Behind each flower grows a weed, for me, signified the entire Christian religion. While it has good morals at it's base, the corrupt people representing it would be the weeds. (Not ALL of the people, just the corrupt ones.)

(Note: While I use the term 'Christians' mostly, feel free to replace this with most any religion. ((No black magician telling me to cut my soul out)))

I can see why and how you others would think it's about not pressuring into conformity, and I agree - that very well could be the intended meaning. But the song means what you put into it, and when you look at it from my view, the meaning changes to fit my view. Please, no one be offended by this.

i love this song. i can associate with it so much after going to a catholic school for 12 years. its about not letting religion screw you up and be your own person, and how many religions are corrupt and abusive-mainly christianity.

for example there was a teacher at my catholic school who was a lesbian, but she had to hide it because of religious ethics. She went insane and almost killed herself.

dont let religion f*ck you up.

dont let people pressure you into conforming. be your own person and think for yourself.

This song not only talks about the religious aspect of being controlled, but the lifestyle aspect in general. Running their rat races, trying to make a buck. We don't need a lot of money to be happy, in fact I'm living a much more simple life now, working less, but consuming less as well and enjoying the luxuries our world has provided for free, and I don't ever want to turn back to the commotion of today's world.

I'll take my life at my own speed, Brother.

The riff sounds very simular to Children of the Grave.

I heard this song was a reaction to preachers and crap accusing of them of being satanic when their previous songs really had pro-christian theme hidden at their core, so this is whoever wrote the lyrics finally snapping back out against them. It's not so much anti-christian as anti-preacher. Either that or Black Sabbath has multiple lyricists with conflicting views or they changed views between albums.

im going with sabbra, plus soulfly did a good cover of it

I love Sabbath, but this is the only song ive heard where it was done better by the other band. The Soulfly version kicked ass. It was much better than the sabbath one.

this is the best song on Vol.4