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Contagion 1 - January 2003
After the introductory interview with Clive, it’s time to really dive into the lyrics and write a beginning to this tale…
Witch Hunt
Pouring fuel across the fire
Let the flesh evaporate
I can hear it in their crazy voices
They’re opening the floodgates
Shout loud that burning mantra
With the confidence of fools
Let it be me
Who sets you free!
Exile! You show no mercy
You’re living in a mindless state
Exile! You’ve crossed the line this time
You’ve thrown it all away
And you can drag this new pariah down
Till the lifeless body breaks
I can see it in their angry faces
They’re opening the floodgates
Shout loud that burning mantra
With the unity of fear
Let it be me
Who sets you free!
Exile! You show no mercy
You’re living in a mindless state
Exile! You’ve crossed the line this time
You’ve thrown it all away
Exile! You show no mercy
You’re living in a mindless state
Exile! You’ve crossed the line this time
You’ve thrown it all away
We’re dragged into the story by a cacaphony of voices and fall right into a witch hunt. Someone is being chased and since Clive indicated that in Witch Hunt we meet the girl by whom the protagonist Noah finds salvation, she’s probably the one who is being chased here.
Now why is she being chased? Why is she a new pariah? Who’s chasing her? The ones chasing her are living in a mindless state, driven by fear, shouting their mantra ‘Let it be me/Who sets you free!’, thus opening the floodgates – an interesting reference to the biblical flood.
It may be that they behave this way because the virus has caused society to break apart and mankind has lapsed to a primitive state of being. Once the thin layer of civilisation is taken away, man swiftly falls prey to primitive instincts and aggressive behaviour (an interesting theme that is also explored by William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies, for example)…
Maybe the girl is infected by the virus and do her pursuers intent to kill her to prevent the virus from spreading further. Thus she will also be released from the agony of the virus, which would explain their mantra ‘Let it be me/Who sets you free!’.
An Angel Falls
An Angel falls, so fragile and exposed
Soon lies crushed and wasted – Too delicate to hold
A soulful melody innocent and pure
Rises to the sky and is lost for ever more
As guilt rains down
And scars the faith of man
It flows into the ground
We will never wipe the bloodstains from our hands
A failing heart, vulnerable and weak
Waiting for the moment to beat the final beat
Surely there is someone who’ll reach out
Surely there is someone who’ll reach out
The girl is losing the fight with her pursuers. She falls down, lies fragile and exposed and her heart will beat the final beat any moment now. Will she be saved? ‘Surely there’s someone who’ll reach out’?
For she’s not just a girl, she’s described here as an angel, whose innocence and purity contrast sharply with the dark place the world has become. The faith of man is scarred by the guilt that rains down (another reference to the biblical flood). Mankind has done something terrible. ‘We’ll never wipe the bloodstains from our hands’. Somehow this girl is the salvation for man, but the ‘salvation’ will soon wither if no one steps in and rescues her.
Painted Man
I am the painted man
With a frown on my face
And a language you don’t understand
A wild refugee
That is all you people can see
I am the painted man
With a smile on my lips
And a living tattoo on my hand
That’s no guarantee
Of the truth you people can see
Why - With poison so strong in our hearts
And the world torn apart
Why - when our actions bring nothing but pain
Can’t you see that we’re painted the same?
I am the painted man
With bile in my veins
From a dark and sinister plan
Blind and deceived
That is all you people believe
I am the painted man
No thought for the world
I was here when the nightmare began
Wrongly conceived
That is all you people believe
Why - With poison so strong in our hearts
And the world torn apart
Why - when our actions bring nothing but pain
Can’t you see that we’re painted the same?
Come down from your ivory towers
Corruption devours us all
Come down from your ivory towers
The hunger devours us all
Now Noah enters the scene. He is the painted man, with a special tattoo on his hand. He’s also on the run, a wild refugee. Like the girl he’s also a pariah, an outcast. People don’t see him as he really is, they despise him, think he has no thought for the world.
Noah on the other hand says that the poison is strong in all hearts and all are painted the same. The world is torn apart by the virus that affects everybody. Hunger and corruption devour all and there’s no reason to treat Noah as they do, even though he’s at the root of the disaster that has struck mankind (‘I was here when the nightmare began’). It’s easy to judge but there’s always two sides to a story and we haven’t heard Noah’s side yet.
Spectre At The Feast
There’s a spectre at the feast
Feeding on my soul and drinking my hopes away
There’s a wind from the east
My heart grows cold, my rainbows turn to grey
There’s a spectre at the feast
Tearing me up and tossing my bones to the wolves
On the brink of defeat
We’re moving the goals and changing the rules
Hey don’t fall asleep
Don’t close your eyes and drift away to some foreign land
I know who you are - My fate is in your hands
There’s a spectre at the feast
Panic has a face, it’s looking at me right now
There’s the shadow of defeat
Got to rise and bring those demons down
Hey don’t fall asleep
Don’t close your eyes and drift away to some foreign land
I know who you are - My fate is in your hands
Are they so pure, that they should judge me everyday?
Am I so low in estimation, that none will hear a word I say?
Are they so sure, the human race should turn away?
In every home to be unwelcome, and none will hear a word I say!
This brave new world has fallen and decayed
Are there no heroes just men with feet of clay?
Are they so weak, that they despise me everyday?
A painful demonstration that none will hear a word I say!
This brave new world has fallen and decayed
Are there no heroes just men with feet of clay?
Are you so pure?
This brave new world has fallen and decayed
Are there no heroes just men with feet of clay?
Noah has found the dying girl and urges her not to pass away (‘Hey don’t fall asleep/Don’t close your eyes and drift away to some foreign land’). He knows she is special, that she holds the key (but how does Noah know this?) and therefore his fate (and that of mankind) is in her hands.
The joy of having found her is overshadowed by the fact that she’s dying (the spectre at the feast) and this fills him with despair. A chill wind blows, his heart grows cold and he feels defeated.
Still, he wants to fight, he feels the urge to rise and bring the demons down that have overtaken the world. There’s no one else who stands up. There are no heroes, just men with feet of clay.
But his efforts are hindered by the fact that he’s a pariah. No one will listen to him, he’s unwelcome and everyone turns away from him. But again, who are they to judge him? Are they so pure?
The virus has caused the world to fall into decay, but was it such a good world to begin with? ‘This brave new world has fallen and decayed’. The phrase ‘brave new world’ has a certain negative taste to it (just think of Aldous Huxley’s novel). Man has changed the rules and is pursuing the wrong goals. Maybe the virus, devastating though it is, is needed to catalyse a new start for mankind, which has gone astray.
In which way mankind has gone astray exactly is not the theme of the album, but Immortal? has dealt with that subject extensively, so we know Clive’s thoughts on that issue. His remark ‘we are leading ourselves down certain paths which I always thought were fairly dangerous, you only have to look at the news to see what’s going on’ in the introductory interview illustrates this once more.
A comparison with the biblical flood becomes inevitable. The flood was God’s way of punishing mankind for turning away from him and was meant to cleanse the world from the moral decay and corruption that had gradually filled it. Thus there are clear parallels between the flood in the Bible and the virus in the Contagion story. As Clive said, this is not the overriding message of the album, but it’s an interesting idea to toy with. Whether the virus is brought into the world by some higher power as a part of some large-scale plan is up to ourselves to decide.
Never-Ending Night
Just a simple thought, cast into the light
Leads to such destruction - never ending night
In my blind obsession to avoid the fools I see
How could I not recognize the fool was always me?
As guilt rains down
And scars the faith of man
It flows into the ground
I will never wipe the bloodstains from my hands
This seed of hate was carried in my soul
Waiting for the moment when it could take control
Surely there is someone who’ll reach out
Surely there is someone who’ll reach out
A failing heart, vulnerable and weak
Waiting for the moment to beat the final beat
As guilt rains down
And scars the faith of man
It flows into the ground
I will never wipe the bloodstains from my hands
Is there someone who'll reach out?
Surely there is someone who'll reach out
The guilt that rains down and scars the faith of man returns. But there’s a twist: instead of ‘We’ll never wipe the bloodstains form our hands’ it says ‘I’ll never wipe the bloodstains from my hands’. It’s not mankind that has done something terrible, no, it’s Noah. He’s the one who brought the virus into the world. It was carried in his soul (i.e. he is the carrier) and unleashed when the right moment had come. He thought that the rest of the world consisted of fools, but in the end he’s the fool that brought disaster. His flawed line of thought has brought a never-ending night over the world.
That he did this intentionally does not seem likely, for Noah’s actions are motivated by his believe in the City of Lanterns, a sort of heaven that he hopes to be accepted into. Thus he’s inclined to do what he feels is right. Now it may be that he feels that the virus is what the world needed, to make a new start, but if this is so then the word ‘fool’ seems out of place. Maybe he did bring the virus into the world with this intention, but did not foresee or underestimated its devastating effects, i.e. the cure (the virus, ironically) is worse than the disease (the world that’s gone astray). It may also be that he brought the virus into the world by accident.
Anyway, now he ‘has to undo what he has started’, as Clive puts it. ‘He is in search of salvation, absolution’ and this ‘becomes his reason to live’. In order to be accepted into the City of Lanterns he must correct the damage he has caused. The only way to do this is to find the girl and therefore this becomes his quest. How he knows that she is the means to salvation and in what way she is to provide it remains to be seen…
By: Erik Beers
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