Alright, so I was about to post it and I realized I'd written a book. So I copied the little summary I had at the end of it and posted it here at the beginning for anyone who doesn't like novels. It's the part before all the -----'s.
The song is about not hiding from all the evil things in the world. We must look at life objectively and never 'adjust the contrast' or change how we look at things to prevent us from seeing all the bad stuff that happens (ivory being poached, vultures circling overhead, etc). We can't really look at anyone else for hope because we are all human and just a reflection of each other. When we look at the world in this kind of an empirical, objective fashion we must also accept that every breath is just a slow countdown to our death (this respirator keeps a countdown to our cancellation) and when we die our corpses will just rot somewhere and nothing really happens (we left our corpses on the beach; Heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I).
The stanza breaks are in the wrong places. And they forgot a line. They need to insert a "We only love when the camera's on" after "vultures pick the meat from bones, we're guilty till we die"
Death is definitely a major theme here. It could be the metaphorical death of a relationship or literally the death of a person. The third line, "reach in, remove the sirens" is a reference to greek mythology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren#Sirens_and_death. The important parts on that page are the 'sirens and death' and 'encounters with sirens'.
That first stanza seems to be saying that if there should be any feeling, he wants it removed. If it feels, shut it off, if it sings, remove the sirens (which, if you read that wikipedia article, could be taken to mean temptation), if it starts to bleed then do not adjust the contrast. The do no adjust the contrast part refers to the contrast on old tv's. The colors would start to bleed together and you'd have to adjust the contrast to get them right. That took me a while to figure out, although it might seem obvious. I'd say this is saying that he wants to look at life (or whatever 'it' is he is talking about in this song) completely objectively, without any kind of emotional interference.
'Doctor, deliver us - heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I' is the most interesting line of the song I think. I can see two ways to interpret this line. I would say he is either imagining he is dying and saying to the doctor 'please save my life, there is no afterlife' or that he is imagining he is dying and saying to the doctor 'please save my life, if I die I will go to hell'. Either way, I'd say this line pretty clearly points toward the song being about religion in some way.
'Remember the day they cut our throats? We learned to smile from our necks' is probably the most hardcore thing I've ever heard anyone say. Definitely suggests some kind of persecution (cut our throats), but that he has taken this persecution and turned it into something good or something that he can use (we learned to smile from our necks).
The whole 'I'll never look at you again, it's only a mirror in the end' could be him looking at the church or organized religion or any kind of holy person and saying 'Hey, you are supposed to represent God and all that is good, but when I look at you I see only me (humanity) and I'm not a very good person, so why should I listen to what you say?' This also ties into the 'we're guilty till we die'. Kinda seems like he's saying that humans are inherently guilty of sin and evil and that we can't escape that.
The whole ivory thing is a representation of one of the evil things man has done to the earth (ivory trade decimated the elephant population). Vultures are usually interpreted as evil animals or as representations of death. Only bleeding when knives are drawn and only loving when the camera's on seem to be references to how fake people are. We could take this stanza to basically mean that people do very bad things (ivory) and then acknowledge them only when they are pointed out (bleed when knives are drawn) and that the world is kinda cruel and mean (vultures) and that people only really do good things when they know that whatever they do will be recorded and remembered (only love when the camera's on).
Then you get into this part where he just repeats what he's already said (we're guilty till we die; do not adjust the contrast, etc). Nothing really new here, he just changed around some of the words from earlier in the song. Sick as hell to listen to though.
Finally, we reach the part about the corpses on the beach, untouched and slightly out of reach. Basically saying that when we die we will not go to heaven and somehow everything will just be alright. Instead, our corpses will rot on the beach untouched by any kind of higher being and out of reach of any kind of 'good' things to comfort us.
I know that was kinda of unorganized and probably hard to understand at points. I'll try to give an little synopsis here.
The song is about not hiding from all the evil things in the world. We must look at life objectively and never 'adjust the contrast' or change how we look at things to prevent us from seeing all the bad stuff that happens (ivory being poached, vultures circling overhead, etc). We can't really look at anyone else for hope because we are all human and just a reflection of each other. When we look at the world in this kind of an empirical, objective fashion we must also accept that every breath is just a slow countdown to our death (this respirator keeps a countdown to our cancellation) and when we die our corpses will just rot somewhere and nothing really happens (we left our corpses on the beach; Heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I).
Of course it's just my interpretation. No matter what it means it's a sick song and I love it.
Alright, so I was about to post it and I realized I'd written a book. So I copied the little summary I had at the end of it and posted it here at the beginning for anyone who doesn't like novels. It's the part before all the -----'s.
The song is about not hiding from all the evil things in the world. We must look at life objectively and never 'adjust the contrast' or change how we look at things to prevent us from seeing all the bad stuff that happens (ivory being poached, vultures circling overhead, etc). We can't really look at anyone else for hope because we are all human and just a reflection of each other. When we look at the world in this kind of an empirical, objective fashion we must also accept that every breath is just a slow countdown to our death (this respirator keeps a countdown to our cancellation) and when we die our corpses will just rot somewhere and nothing really happens (we left our corpses on the beach; Heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I).
The stanza breaks are in the wrong places. And they forgot a line. They need to insert a "We only love when the camera's on" after "vultures pick the meat from bones, we're guilty till we die"
Death is definitely a major theme here. It could be the metaphorical death of a relationship or literally the death of a person. The third line, "reach in, remove the sirens" is a reference to greek mythology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren#Sirens_and_death. The important parts on that page are the 'sirens and death' and 'encounters with sirens'.
That first stanza seems to be saying that if there should be any feeling, he wants it removed. If it feels, shut it off, if it sings, remove the sirens (which, if you read that wikipedia article, could be taken to mean temptation), if it starts to bleed then do not adjust the contrast. The do no adjust the contrast part refers to the contrast on old tv's. The colors would start to bleed together and you'd have to adjust the contrast to get them right. That took me a while to figure out, although it might seem obvious. I'd say this is saying that he wants to look at life (or whatever 'it' is he is talking about in this song) completely objectively, without any kind of emotional interference.
'Doctor, deliver us - heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I' is the most interesting line of the song I think. I can see two ways to interpret this line. I would say he is either imagining he is dying and saying to the doctor 'please save my life, there is no afterlife' or that he is imagining he is dying and saying to the doctor 'please save my life, if I die I will go to hell'. Either way, I'd say this line pretty clearly points toward the song being about religion in some way.
'Remember the day they cut our throats? We learned to smile from our necks' is probably the most hardcore thing I've ever heard anyone say. Definitely suggests some kind of persecution (cut our throats), but that he has taken this persecution and turned it into something good or something that he can use (we learned to smile from our necks).
The whole 'I'll never look at you again, it's only a mirror in the end' could be him looking at the church or organized religion or any kind of holy person and saying 'Hey, you are supposed to represent God and all that is good, but when I look at you I see only me (humanity) and I'm not a very good person, so why should I listen to what you say?' This also ties into the 'we're guilty till we die'. Kinda seems like he's saying that humans are inherently guilty of sin and evil and that we can't escape that.
The whole ivory thing is a representation of one of the evil things man has done to the earth (ivory trade decimated the elephant population). Vultures are usually interpreted as evil animals or as representations of death. Only bleeding when knives are drawn and only loving when the camera's on seem to be references to how fake people are. We could take this stanza to basically mean that people do very bad things (ivory) and then acknowledge them only when they are pointed out (bleed when knives are drawn) and that the world is kinda cruel and mean (vultures) and that people only really do good things when they know that whatever they do will be recorded and remembered (only love when the camera's on).
Then you get into this part where he just repeats what he's already said (we're guilty till we die; do not adjust the contrast, etc). Nothing really new here, he just changed around some of the words from earlier in the song. Sick as hell to listen to though.
Finally, we reach the part about the corpses on the beach, untouched and slightly out of reach. Basically saying that when we die we will not go to heaven and somehow everything will just be alright. Instead, our corpses will rot on the beach untouched by any kind of higher being and out of reach of any kind of 'good' things to comfort us.
I know that was kinda of unorganized and probably hard to understand at points. I'll try to give an little synopsis here.
The song is about not hiding from all the evil things in the world. We must look at life objectively and never 'adjust the contrast' or change how we look at things to prevent us from seeing all the bad stuff that happens (ivory being poached, vultures circling overhead, etc). We can't really look at anyone else for hope because we are all human and just a reflection of each other. When we look at the world in this kind of an empirical, objective fashion we must also accept that every breath is just a slow countdown to our death (this respirator keeps a countdown to our cancellation) and when we die our corpses will just rot somewhere and nothing really happens (we left our corpses on the beach; Heaven holds no truth for dreamers like you and I).
Of course it's just my interpretation. No matter what it means it's a sick song and I love it.