Not sure all of this is right but it seems like.... his 17 year old brother committed suicide by standing on the train tracks. And he can't forgive God for letting this happen and he can't forget about it. His mother believes in God and begs for him to help, but God never helps. His and his brother used to go on the train tracks and play chicken for the "warm blood rush" or 'thrill' you get from doing something so risky. When the son left the house before doing this like he was running away, the father was just like "where are you going to go? You’re only seventeen years old." knowing his son will just come right back. But when he found out what happened he was shocked and "layed cold".
All of Defeater's main albums (The LPs) follow different people in a family living in post WW2 New Jersey. The first album, Travels, focused on the life and events of the younger brother of the family. One of these events, detailed in the fourth song "Forgiver Forgetter" is the Younger Brother stepping inbetween a fight between his drug addicted Mother and alcoholic Father. The Younger brother kills the Father in this song and runs away from home.
All of Defeater's main albums (The LPs) follow different people in a family living in post WW2 New Jersey. The first album, Travels, focused on the life and events of the younger brother of the family. One of these events, detailed in the fourth song "Forgiver Forgetter" is the Younger Brother stepping inbetween a fight between his drug addicted Mother and alcoholic Father. The Younger brother kills the Father in this song and runs away from home.
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights details the events in the life...
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights details the events in the life of the Older Brother from the moment the Younger Brother runs away in "Forgiver Forgetter" to when he returns in "Debts", giving us perspective on what life was like for the family while he was away. "Warm Blood Rush" takes place for the most part during and immediately after "Forgiver Forgetter". having several lines in common with it like 'dear god, what have you done' and 'I ain't no forgiver forgetter', instantly drawing links between the two songs.
The line "That bottle lies in a thick, blood red." is referring to the fact that the Younger Brother killed the Father with an empty bottle of whiskey, the bottle now having been left in a pool of blood.
Regarding the Older Brother's lines "Our mother waits in vain for a God that never loved us. As much as she prayed, he never showed up.", this tells us that his Mother is a religious woman, but he does not share her faith and you could go as far to say that perhaps the Older Brother did believe at one point, but he no longer thinks that God cares about them, or simply doesn't exist.
The following lines, "Your brother is gone in the blink of an eye.", shows us that from the Older Brother's perspective, his younger sibling left extremely fast considering he just murdered his father. "That January night, our father lays cold." tells us this took place in January, the Father now dead.
While originally I believed it was the Mother that said, "where are you going to go? You’re only seventeen years old." it would appear that it being in the same quotation marks as the next line means it was spoken by the Older Brother, indicating that he knows the Younger Brother has nowhere to turn to, as their home is all they've ever had, also taking into account his age, as this takes place in the early 60's, (The Younger Brother is known to be born March 1945), support for a runaway like him wouldn't exist, living outside a family environment would be extremely difficult.
The following line is extremely important, as it is one of the core traits of the Older Brother. "I ain’t no forgiver, forgetter." This is the one thing that the Older Brother clings onto during the absence of the Younger, his burning need for revenge, to the point where he declares, in the last lines, that he will kill his brother in exactly the same fashion that the Younger Brother killed their Father.
The following lines, "Those cold steel tracks beneath your feet, those same rail ties where you dodged those trains. When we were just two kids, it still feels the same; that warm blood rush when the train comes.", are most likely directly referencing events that took place in 'Everything Went Quiet' from the first album, which details the two brothers, earlier in their lives as they play 'Chicken' with trains on the railway some distance from their home and town. It would appear that the Older Brother believes the Younger Brother will attempt to leave town by the railways and remembers the times where they would have many near misses, and he thinks back on the 'warm blood rush' he felt as the trains would go past them. This is important as that railway and those trains are a key linking factor between the two brothers.
Well at the end of this wall of text that I wasn't really expecting, I'd say go listen to the first and second albums with the lyrics infront of you, and see the story unfold. Because it is a beautifully tragic story, one that I do hope will evolve into something beyond the original music that showcases it now.
A third album exists that follows the Father, and covers a period of time before the first two albums, detailing the backstory of the Father and provides some much welcome context as to why the Father behaved the way he did, but that is another story, for another time.
I do hope this helped, and holy damn do I apparently love this band...
Not sure all of this is right but it seems like.... his 17 year old brother committed suicide by standing on the train tracks. And he can't forgive God for letting this happen and he can't forget about it. His mother believes in God and begs for him to help, but God never helps. His and his brother used to go on the train tracks and play chicken for the "warm blood rush" or 'thrill' you get from doing something so risky. When the son left the house before doing this like he was running away, the father was just like "where are you going to go? You’re only seventeen years old." knowing his son will just come right back. But when he found out what happened he was shocked and "layed cold".
A solid try but a fair way off the mark.
A solid try but a fair way off the mark.
All of Defeater's main albums (The LPs) follow different people in a family living in post WW2 New Jersey. The first album, Travels, focused on the life and events of the younger brother of the family. One of these events, detailed in the fourth song "Forgiver Forgetter" is the Younger Brother stepping inbetween a fight between his drug addicted Mother and alcoholic Father. The Younger brother kills the Father in this song and runs away from home.
All of Defeater's main albums (The LPs) follow different people in a family living in post WW2 New Jersey. The first album, Travels, focused on the life and events of the younger brother of the family. One of these events, detailed in the fourth song "Forgiver Forgetter" is the Younger Brother stepping inbetween a fight between his drug addicted Mother and alcoholic Father. The Younger brother kills the Father in this song and runs away from home.
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights details the events in the life...
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights details the events in the life of the Older Brother from the moment the Younger Brother runs away in "Forgiver Forgetter" to when he returns in "Debts", giving us perspective on what life was like for the family while he was away. "Warm Blood Rush" takes place for the most part during and immediately after "Forgiver Forgetter". having several lines in common with it like 'dear god, what have you done' and 'I ain't no forgiver forgetter', instantly drawing links between the two songs.
The line "That bottle lies in a thick, blood red." is referring to the fact that the Younger Brother killed the Father with an empty bottle of whiskey, the bottle now having been left in a pool of blood.
Regarding the Older Brother's lines "Our mother waits in vain for a God that never loved us. As much as she prayed, he never showed up.", this tells us that his Mother is a religious woman, but he does not share her faith and you could go as far to say that perhaps the Older Brother did believe at one point, but he no longer thinks that God cares about them, or simply doesn't exist.
The following lines, "Your brother is gone in the blink of an eye.", shows us that from the Older Brother's perspective, his younger sibling left extremely fast considering he just murdered his father. "That January night, our father lays cold." tells us this took place in January, the Father now dead.
While originally I believed it was the Mother that said, "where are you going to go? You’re only seventeen years old." it would appear that it being in the same quotation marks as the next line means it was spoken by the Older Brother, indicating that he knows the Younger Brother has nowhere to turn to, as their home is all they've ever had, also taking into account his age, as this takes place in the early 60's, (The Younger Brother is known to be born March 1945), support for a runaway like him wouldn't exist, living outside a family environment would be extremely difficult.
The following line is extremely important, as it is one of the core traits of the Older Brother. "I ain’t no forgiver, forgetter." This is the one thing that the Older Brother clings onto during the absence of the Younger, his burning need for revenge, to the point where he declares, in the last lines, that he will kill his brother in exactly the same fashion that the Younger Brother killed their Father.
The following lines, "Those cold steel tracks beneath your feet, those same rail ties where you dodged those trains. When we were just two kids, it still feels the same; that warm blood rush when the train comes.", are most likely directly referencing events that took place in 'Everything Went Quiet' from the first album, which details the two brothers, earlier in their lives as they play 'Chicken' with trains on the railway some distance from their home and town. It would appear that the Older Brother believes the Younger Brother will attempt to leave town by the railways and remembers the times where they would have many near misses, and he thinks back on the 'warm blood rush' he felt as the trains would go past them. This is important as that railway and those trains are a key linking factor between the two brothers.
Well at the end of this wall of text that I wasn't really expecting, I'd say go listen to the first and second albums with the lyrics infront of you, and see the story unfold. Because it is a beautifully tragic story, one that I do hope will evolve into something beyond the original music that showcases it now.
A third album exists that follows the Father, and covers a period of time before the first two albums, detailing the backstory of the Father and provides some much welcome context as to why the Father behaved the way he did, but that is another story, for another time.
I do hope this helped, and holy damn do I apparently love this band...