I'm surprised how few comments are on this song. I think it's very deep.
My first and foremost thing her the the god referenced as a woman. The devil is referred to as a man. I think is Symbolizing the 2 as a mother and father, and implying human race as a child. This is slightly backed up by "She said She's ashamed" and "He swears He's not to blame" both things that might be said to a child they consider a troublemaker or failure.
The meaning of the chorus is more straightforward. He claims to not be a hero and not invincible or unbreakable. (Not stone) He can't tell if what he's doing is right or wrong, and claims "I'm on the wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell" Meaning 'I'm not doing the right thing or a good thing, But I'm doing it for the right reasons.
The quick example is a soldier, Which is also the theme of the Official Video. Maybe not the main point of it, but think about this. A soldier goes out an kills people. That's a terrible thing to do under any circumstance, but they do it for the right reasons. To protect people and loved ones. The sad thing people start these wars for the wrong reasons, religion, oil, territory. If we didn't care about that we'd never fight, but since we do people are fighting, and I like to think that some do it so their children don't have to.
Off the deep stuff though. God sounding like him and the devil looking like him is double symbolic. He's a human, he's saying humans say "God's Will" is this and that, and humans decide what they think is OK against what's bad. Al Qaeda says it's OK to kill non-Muslims. The US government sends troops saying it's OK to kill Terrorists. They both think they're doing the right thing. The true fact and problem here is there's no true thing as right and wrong, just many different Points of View.
But it's also an an individual level. He sounding like god is him telling himself what he's doing is okay because it's for the right reason. The devil looking like him is he know that he's doing a bad thing or that other people see him as a horrible person. The line "I looked away, I turned away" is that he can't truly forgive himself for what he's done or what he's doing.
"I'm not defending" is he can't and isn't going to say what he did is right. He could also be saying he really doesn't know what drove him to do it in the first place.
"Downward descending" Decent to Hell. That's he's someone who can't be "saved" for lack of better terms.
"Falling further and further away" The chance he makes up for whatever it is. It's a 'I can never fix this or make it up to you.'
"Getting closer every day" Death. It's the true point he can never make up for whatever happened. The way the song vocalizes it makes it sound like a plea. 'Tell me what I can do PLEASE.'
While that last thing i wrote may make it seem like he's asking for a chance to make it up to one person, I still believe this is a song about a soldier. But I hope I've shown that this is by no means a shallow song, that Satan and God aren't man and woman for contrast between them and likely not overly religious. (No offense to mustang809, or mdbdoc)
Still it's a great song. Even people who don't think they ever done anything wrong to someone else.
I'm surprised how few comments are on this song. I think it's very deep. My first and foremost thing her the the god referenced as a woman. The devil is referred to as a man. I think is Symbolizing the 2 as a mother and father, and implying human race as a child. This is slightly backed up by "She said She's ashamed" and "He swears He's not to blame" both things that might be said to a child they consider a troublemaker or failure.
The meaning of the chorus is more straightforward. He claims to not be a hero and not invincible or unbreakable. (Not stone) He can't tell if what he's doing is right or wrong, and claims "I'm on the wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell" Meaning 'I'm not doing the right thing or a good thing, But I'm doing it for the right reasons. The quick example is a soldier, Which is also the theme of the Official Video. Maybe not the main point of it, but think about this. A soldier goes out an kills people. That's a terrible thing to do under any circumstance, but they do it for the right reasons. To protect people and loved ones. The sad thing people start these wars for the wrong reasons, religion, oil, territory. If we didn't care about that we'd never fight, but since we do people are fighting, and I like to think that some do it so their children don't have to.
Off the deep stuff though. God sounding like him and the devil looking like him is double symbolic. He's a human, he's saying humans say "God's Will" is this and that, and humans decide what they think is OK against what's bad. Al Qaeda says it's OK to kill non-Muslims. The US government sends troops saying it's OK to kill Terrorists. They both think they're doing the right thing. The true fact and problem here is there's no true thing as right and wrong, just many different Points of View. But it's also an an individual level. He sounding like god is him telling himself what he's doing is okay because it's for the right reason. The devil looking like him is he know that he's doing a bad thing or that other people see him as a horrible person. The line "I looked away, I turned away" is that he can't truly forgive himself for what he's done or what he's doing.
"I'm not defending" is he can't and isn't going to say what he did is right. He could also be saying he really doesn't know what drove him to do it in the first place.
"Downward descending" Decent to Hell. That's he's someone who can't be "saved" for lack of better terms. "Falling further and further away" The chance he makes up for whatever it is. It's a 'I can never fix this or make it up to you.' "Getting closer every day" Death. It's the true point he can never make up for whatever happened. The way the song vocalizes it makes it sound like a plea. 'Tell me what I can do PLEASE.'
While that last thing i wrote may make it seem like he's asking for a chance to make it up to one person, I still believe this is a song about a soldier. But I hope I've shown that this is by no means a shallow song, that Satan and God aren't man and woman for contrast between them and likely not overly religious. (No offense to mustang809, or mdbdoc)
Still it's a great song. Even people who don't think they ever done anything wrong to someone else.
@Stealthweasle dude this made me completely understand the song better, thank you!
@Stealthweasle dude this made me completely understand the song better, thank you!
@Stealthweasle The reason he refers to god as a woman is he believes a being that can be ultimately calm about a situation and then destroy entire cities in a split second has to be a woman.( http://new-transcendence.com/review-finger-death-punch-wrong-side-heaven-righteous-side-hell-volume-1/ )
@Stealthweasle The reason he refers to god as a woman is he believes a being that can be ultimately calm about a situation and then destroy entire cities in a split second has to be a woman.( http://new-transcendence.com/review-finger-death-punch-wrong-side-heaven-righteous-side-hell-volume-1/ )