This week’s Number # 1 Hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 is “When All Hope is Gone” by Slipknot. This New Wave Metal band has had seven Grammy nominations and one win, Best Metal Performance 2006 for the song “Before I Forget.” After a month on the charts, “When All Hope is Gone” made it to number one from their fourth studio album [When All Hope is Gone] comes a song that is heated and angry, as are most metal songs; but also filled with hints of political pissed-off-ness. Maybe not even hints, possibly downright outrage.
Metal, as genre, tends to contain themes of violence and demons in their lyrical content. This song mentions the devil and hell but ‘hints’ towards hell as the United States and the devil as a one Mister President Bush. Our country is in such disrepair that it seems like regardless of which political party we vote for, we’re screwed. It’s just a matter of whom we we want to be screwed over by more; a donkey or an elephant, ow! Slipknot refers to the nation burning because of a lack of a united front. United front = Corrupt Government, I think so! It seems like a catch-22 here, wanting to help and create a more just world by ruining the economy at home, killing our own men by sending them to fight and then going out and raping and killing people for well, their own good? HUH? “When All Hope is Gone” refers to the Bill of Rights as a bill of sale, as though America is only doing anything for personal, selfish and financial gain. That sums it up pretty well, don’t it?
The song addresses how outdated our laws are. Our own constitution was written by white men who owned property. But the people who built their property and continued their race were women and people of color.
There’s also that funky bit where our outdated laws define marriage as a document between a man and a woman, binding her to her husband much like property. Slipknot is asking the same questions my generation is asking, “What will you do when the war is over? What will you do when your system fails!? The wretched are the wounded, The hungry starved to death…” It’s nice to see the metal genre branching out into other aspects of life, besides sex and violence. It does become a bit trite after a while.
Slipknot’s When All Hope is Gone
The state of the nation/Violation!
A broken promise is as good as a lie.
The hell is humongous/the devil’s among us
and we will burn because we won’t unite!
What are we conceding for our freedom?
Why does anybody think we need ‘em?
I would rather fight,
than let another die.
We’re the problem,
but we’re also the solution.
ALL HOPE IS GONE!!!
If you want it, come and take it from me.
If you think you can, you still don’t know me.
Let me tell you, man I said it, I meant it
and I will always have the right to defend it.
50 seconds, 100 murders.
The bill of rights is a bill of sale.
What will you do when the war is over?
What will you do when your system fails!?
We have made the presence -obsolete.
What do you want?
What do you need?
We’ll find a way,
When all hope is gone!
We’ve seen the fall of the elite.
Bury your life,
Take a disease.
We’ll end the world,
when all hope is gone!
The wretched are the wounded,
The hungry starve to death.
In a place where no-one goes,
the air itself is a final breath.
So discontinue,
the antisceptic care charade.
As the cry of justice comes,
A malignant fire fades.
I am the reason your future suffers.
I am the hatred you won’t embrace.
I am the worm of a pure gestation.
I am the remedy, spit in my face!
All your laws and rules are outdated.
All your subjects are killing the kings.
I can rattle off a million other reasons why
but does it matter when the only thing we love will die?
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
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