Lyrical Analysis: “Necrophobic” by Slayer
June 15, 2010
In my last post, I analysed Slayer’s “Piece By Piece” song, and deciphered the hidden and meaningful meaning of that meaningful song. Since Slayer are a diverse band with plenty of musical ideas, their songs deserve full examination. Next up is “Necrophobic”, which is the same riff from “Piece By Piece” with different lyrics. This is diversity.
Strangulation, mutilation, cancer of the brain
Limb dissection, amputation, from a mind deranged
Random violence for the kick-off. References to tearing the body apart and being crazy and “deranged” will surely shock people.
Asphyxiation, suffocation, gasping for air
Explain to me the feeling after sitting in the chair?
Referencing to choking. Also, a reference to a chair. This could refer to “Angry Chair”, and that means all of this random violence is a metaphore for how bad drug addiction is. I don’t feel like fact-checking right now, but I’m pretty sure the Alice in Chains album came after this, so it probably has nothing do with it. What does that chair mean? Let’s see what the next verse tells us.
Ripping apart
Severing flesh
Gouging eyes
Tearing limb from limb
They decided that rhyming is an evil force that must be stopped. Describing violence again. But what the chair from the last verse means?
Experimentation, slow infection, internal decay
Execution, need transfusion, body rots away
This one actually sounds like that FEV virus from Fallout. Perhaps this whole song describes the process of becoming a Super Mutant. I didn’t know they played video games.
Sliced incision, zero vision, loss of vital signs
Skin contortion, bone erosion, your life becomes your fine
What?
Previous verses are being repeated, until the final and god-smacking climax.
Necrophobic can’t control the paranoia
Scared to die
First of all, they let us know what “Necrophobic” means. That’s very nice of them because some people may not know that. You might get the impression this song is basically an audio dictionary entry, but it’s more than that. The people at Slayer are concerned parents. They don’t want their children to die, so they describe the process of death. This way, their children will stay away from lethal activities, such as “bone erosion”. I’m glad we have Slayer to warn us not to try “ripping apart”, “severing flesh” and “gouging eyes”. I can sleep well tonight.
I still have no idea what the chair means.
Lyrical Analysis: “Piece By Piece” by Slayer
June 14, 2010
Inspired by this post, I decided I should also start a series of posts in which I decipher the lyrics of musicians. I’ll start with Slayer, since Heavy Metal is (in)famous for its deep lyrics, involving hating God, hating Jesus and mentioning people getting torn limb from limb. Anyway, since we all know “Angel of Death” is about the Holocaust (And it only exists to be sampled by Public Enemy), I’ll analyze the second track called “Piece By Piece”
Modulistic terror
A vast sadistic feast
The only way to exit
Is going piece by piece
Apperantly, they came up with the idea for Saw first. Like the movies, it’s sadistic and the only way out is to get torn apart. So that’s what people meant when they said it was a rip-off.
You have no choice of life or death
My face you will not see
I’ll rip your flesh ’till there’s no breath
Dismembered destiny
Maybe not. The first line contradicts Jigsaw’s “Live or die. Make your choice” quote. The rest of the verse consists of describing violent acts that has little to do with each other. There’s no real common ground between “ripping flesh” and breathing. Neither we are told how he will make it so we will not see his face. That line, by the way, is arranged in a pathetic way in order to make a rhyme.
As soon as life has left your corpse
I’ll make you part of me
No emotion
Death is all I see
I think it’s getting clearer. The song describes a process in which the singer attempts to become the opposite of emo, as hinted by “no emotion”. However, I do not get the line “Death is all I see”. I’m pretty sure emos fantasize about death. By the way, notice how it connects with line #2 from the previous verse. The singer wants to rip our flesh so we won’t have to see all the death he is seeing. He’s such a kind man.
Bones and blood lie on the ground
Rotten limbs lie dead
Decapitated bodies found
On my wall, your head!
The singer attempts to shock us by describing violence. Too bad this only exists in an angsty teenager’s fantasy.
On your trail I close the gap
One more life that soon won’t be
No emotion
Your flesh is all I need
Finally, it all falls into place. The song is clearly about becoming the opposite of emo. If emo kill themselves (Metalheads assume that), then he should do the opposite by killing others. He insists again he as no emotion, and he claims all he needs is our flesh. It again refers to the line where he rips our flesh. It’s a win-win situation. All he needs is flesh, and we don’t have to see all the death he sees.
I’ll send you to your maker
Confront the God you seek
A flash of red upon his [sings "your"] chest
Safety out of reach
Apperantly, the opposite of emo is a Satanic Gangsta. Or, the singer simply describes more acts of violence that are as shocking as a G-rated movie.
Later, he repeats the first two verses in order to insists that death is all he sees. Death is also all he talks about. What makes it different than emo? The music is “technical”.
We still got a whole album to go. Yahoo.
