The Devil In I

First I'l do a summary of the meaning then I'l break down the lyrics to my interpretation.
Summary: It's a victims perspective on taking a guilty person to court, but more than that its a song about modern complexities of wrong an right and how in the past religion has clouded the judgment of people making them think those that serve the lord are right and those that do not are wrong and guilty of not telling the truth if they speak out against god.

These days we have evolved enough as a race to know that wrong and right is all perspective. What is right to you may be wrong to another person. This is why many trials in court are determined more by what the majority feels is right or wrong (the gut feeling and sense of morality that is represented by god) then by what is actually legal. Think all the female teachers that only get fired for having sex with teenage men as appose to male teachers getting life sentences for having intercourse with teenage female students. This same legal system is set in place to punish those that do wrong on a case to case basis that again relies heavily on the perspective of the judge. So moral of this song is what is right for you may be wrong for me. What is wrong for me may be right for you hence the term (devil in I) Reason why that was chosen as the title track is because the song is a tribute to all those who where innocent and speaking the truth, who ended up being tragically sentenced for lying before the court system (even though they where telling the truth) or in some cases they simply ended up being seen as evil for accusing someone who was guilty that almost everyone else see's as righteous and innocent. This is why i feel the songs hook-line is "step inside , see the devil in I" because its about someone going into court and being seen by most as being evil.

Now this is the point this analysis gets complicated. The main point of the song which i vaguely summarized atop is presented from a neutral perspective. I can guarantee you that my findings above are correct because I've been too neutral to be wrong.However now I'm presenting my biased opinion on what the song is specifically about (it may not be specifically about anything i could very well be wrong with my opinion below).

In my biased opinion disregarding the moral and lesson of the song i feel Corey Taylor wrote this about a young victim who was molested by the priest at his local church where he attended mass. "Undo these chains, my friend I'll show you the rage I've hidden" is using the chains to represent the child's obligations and responsibilities set by his parents to attend church. Without the responsibilities the child could unload emotionally and express his feelings of the incident but by being forced to go to mass the child feels they are unable to do anything about this recurring abuse because of the fear no one is going to believe them over the priest. Or maybe its just highlighting the rage that's hidden inside the child that's built up from his own personal moral making him feel like he has been betrayed and wronged defiled, he feels the legal system and chains (obligations and responsibilities he has to society) have prevented him from expressing his feelings towards the priest physically or verbally. "Perish the sacrament Swallow, but nothings forgiven" Here its saying the sacrament has been perished we can only assume that means his sacraments have been deprived of their normal qualities due to the nature of this man or we can assume the literal meaning that this priest still swallows those bits of food that they hand out in mass as a blessing, and that he actually thinks that god is forgiving his actions by him doing these things.

"You and I can’t decide which of us was taken for granted Make amends Some of us are destined to be outlived"

At this point its looking at their conflicting perspectives and pointing out the ironic similarity, both of them have taken each other for granted in the past. The child use to think that the priest would serve people without needing to give recognition to them. The priest took the whole sexual experience for granted expecting it to always continue. (look up the definition of taking for granted if you don't agree with this observation I'm pointing out)

The next two lines are describing the fact the priest is much, much older than the child and that he should have much more reason to make amends for what hes done as he is destined to die much sooner than the child. Unfortunately as it says in the previous line he took the whole relationship for granted assuming it would go on forever, which shows he is not going to ever make amends for what he did and is still doing. This pretty much takes the priests morality into question and brings it to light based on the fact he took it all for granted which makes the priest seem much more evil than we first thought for having had raped a kid. I mean rapists are terrible evil people but rapists that take that whole reoccurring abuse for granted without any desire to make amends before they die are a whole nother level of evil and fucked up.

Step inside, see the devil in I Too many times, we've let it come to this

Its come to a court case, and the victim is either addressing the jury or the public or both. Come inside the court room, see the devil in me.

The next line to many times ect, is mentioning the fact that too many times in history we let it come down to innocent because the jury were convinced only an evil person making stuff up would stand against a priest. They literally couldn't believe the persons accusations against a high priest.

However these days a famous few cases are known to have changed the faith people put in priests. Many cases have been known these days to have presented several different people who were victims of the sexual abuse of priests. Generally all these accusers where saying the same thing which made it impossible for the jury to still think the accuser was not telling the truth when several accusers now stand before them, many of which have no relation to each other.

This is where the final line comes into play. "You’ll realize i’m not your devil anymore"

Why? because almost always when very strong evidence is collected against a priest its due to them taking the whole situation for granted thinking it would continue for a long time without any interference. I feel based on past cases this generally makes them get careless and makes their argument less and less credible in the court of law. So its almost certain if he did take it for granted that the jury would wind up seeing him as the evil one speaking lies to defend himself "represented by the devil"

Hence the accuser is not seen by the jury as the evil person he was assumed to be when he walked into the court room.

Either that or the Priest see's the child as the devil for walking into the court room to trial him with allegations. We can only assume if this is the case, then the judge becomes the new devil once he charges him with punishment for his crimes. ("You’ll realize i’m not your devil anymore") In other words the Child is seen by the priest as the devil for taking him to court and going against him as in his eyes he see's himself the righteous good willed man. But once he is sentenced suddenly he realizes he should of been fearing the legal system not the child in the first place. The legal system is the one that ends up punishing him.

Either way I'm very convinced devil is seen in the priest now instead of the child from the juries perspective, OR The devil is seen in the judge instead of the child from the priest's perspective. The song doesen't give enough clues for me to confidently mention which one of the two i feel is more likely to be correct. I suppose at this point in the analysis no is really right, its all just merely a guess. So i encourage you to read the rest of the lyrics and work out for yourself what its trying to say about this whole priest scandal in the high churches. I could break down the rest of the song, but its very self explanatory. If you understand what i wrote above and can start to understand what the song was most likely to be written about you can very easily understand what the rest of the lyrics are singing about.

"Under the words of men Something is tempting the father Where is your will my, friend? Insatiates never even bother You and I, wrong or right Traded a lie for the leverage In between the lens in light You’re not what you seem"

All above is just questioning what the words of men really mean in comparison to their actions, and how the real sickness hides behind words.

As a whole the song can be seen as a fractal to the first 2 stanzas i broke down. And if anyone is interested in knowing more about this whole topic of right and wrong and perspective. I recommend you all watch the following movies:

Luther In the name of the father BraveHeart The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant The prince and the pauper

Thanks for reading my analysis. If your into rock/metal or alternative/prog stuff be sure to read some of my other analysis's on www.songmeanings.com