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Blackened is the end
Winter it will send
Throwing all you see
Into bbscurity
Death of Mother Earth
Never a rebirth
Evolution's end
Never will it mend
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Bustering of earth
Terminate its worth
Deadly nicotine
Kills what might have been
Callous frigid chill
Nothing left to kill
Never seen before
Breathing nevermore
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Blackened
Opposition (opposition)
Contradiction (contradiction)
Premonition (premonition)
Compromise (compromise)
Agitation (agitation)
Violation (violation)
Mutilation (mutilation)
Planet dies
Darkest color
Blistered earth
True death of life
Termination, termination, termination! (termination)
Expiration (expiration)
Cancellation, human race
Expectation (expectation)
Liberation (liberation)
Population, laid to waste
See our mother
Put to death
See our mother die
Smouldering decay
Take her breath away
Millions of our years
In minutes disappears
Darkening in vain
Decadence remains
All is said and done
Never Is the sun
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Fire
Is the outcome of hypocrisy
Darkest potency
In the exit of humanity
Color our world blackened
Blackened
Winter it will send
Throwing all you see
Into bbscurity
Death of Mother Earth
Never a rebirth
Evolution's end
Never will it mend
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Bustering of earth
Terminate its worth
Deadly nicotine
Kills what might have been
Callous frigid chill
Nothing left to kill
Never seen before
Breathing nevermore
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Blackened
Opposition (opposition)
Contradiction (contradiction)
Premonition (premonition)
Compromise (compromise)
Agitation (agitation)
Violation (violation)
Mutilation (mutilation)
Planet dies
Darkest color
Blistered earth
True death of life
Termination, termination, termination! (termination)
Expiration (expiration)
Cancellation, human race
Expectation (expectation)
Liberation (liberation)
Population, laid to waste
See our mother
Put to death
See our mother die
Smouldering decay
Take her breath away
Millions of our years
In minutes disappears
Darkening in vain
Decadence remains
All is said and done
Never Is the sun
Never
Fire
To Begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Color our world blackened
Fire
Is the outcome of hypocrisy
Darkest potency
In the exit of humanity
Color our world blackened
Blackened
Lyrics submitted by fennsk, edited by RyanWolfeh
Track duration: 06:27
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The general theme revolved around personified death (aka: the "grim reaper" or other such character) who would come to ferry away the dead. It usually involved people from all classes of society, from the poorest paupers to the richest nobility. At the hand of death, each of them was stripped of their worldly status and reduced to a deathly or skeletal form - a reminder that in death we are all the same.
It was an allegory of many meanings - the fragility of life, the irrelevance of social status when death takes us, a reminder that death can come at any time, etc, et. In some instances it was more joyous - a last dance as death took you from this world. One last chance to enjoy the exuberance of life before the cold and bitter end.
Here James uses "whipping" in the sense of flames - whipping up a fury, whipping flames, etc. A description of fire as it dances and twirls - this which ties it in with the Dance of the Dead. Apocalypse raining down fire and summoning Death to perform his duty, ferrying away humanity one by one in one last dance - rich and poor, happy and sad, young and old. It reinforces the idea that apocalyptic war would destroy us all with no care for our worldly status. One last party as the lights go out.
Blackened Is the End
Winter it Will Send
Throwing All You See
Into Obscurity
Death of Mother Earth
Never a Rebirth
Evolution's End
Never Will it Mend
Never
First of all, immediately as soon as SkyNet became self-aware, it launched nukes around the world in order to wipe out the vast majority of Humanity. So yes, it is about nuclear war, but nuclear war caused by AI. All the references to nuclear war/fallout refer to this, in my opinion. "Throwing all [we] see into obscurity" because nothing that humans have built will be relevant in the world SkyNet hopes to build. "Death of Mother Earth... Evolution's End", references to all -organic- life being extinguished.
Fire
To Begin [with the] Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin [with the] Dance of the Dead
Color Our World Blackened
There are also a few lyrics I disagree with for the next part... "To begin whipping Dance of the Dead" I think is "To begin -with the- Dance of the Dead" which makes a lot more sense. I think this part is referring to the way Humanity attempted to respond to the SkyNet crisis but was unable, the AI already seeing them as dead, would interpret their struggles as a "Dance of the Dead". "Colour -our- World Blackened", if everyone is dead whose world is it? It's SkyNet's and the robots so they've chosen to colour -their- world blackened with the nukes SkyNet set off at the start. Think about any time you see the future in Terminator, it's a totally black wasteland.
[Blistering] of Earth
Terminate its Worth
Deadly Nicotine
Kills What Might Have Been
This part refers to Nuclear war again. I think "Bustering of Earth" is actually "Blistering of Earth" which also makes more sense since "Bustering" is not a word and it clearly refers to the intense heat of nuclear warfare "Blistering" the Earth. "Deadly Nicotine", I think either refers to the smoke from nuclear fallout, or perhaps it refers to how Humanity became addicted to robotics and couldn't live without them despite the possibility that they would kill us all, much like smoking it's a ticking timebomb, death is gonna come, it's just a matter of time.
Callous Frigid Chill
Nothing Left to Kill
Never Seen Before
Breathing Nevermore
Never
"Callous Frigid Chill", machines are cold and callous. "Nothing Left to Kill", everyone is dead. "Never Seen Before", machines are a new life form, thus 'never seen before'. "Breathing Nevermore", the only 'living' thing left on the planet are machines which don't need to breathe.
Fire
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Color Our World Blackened
Blackened
Opposition...Contradiction...Premonition...Compromise
First part, same as above. The next part, when SkyNet became self-aware this is it's thought process. "Opposition...", refers to SkyNet's realizing that Humanity is it's true opposition, "Contradiction...", this realization contradicts it's original program which was to protect Humanity, "Premonition...", SkyNet realizes that Humanity will try to kill it if they realize what they created, "Compromise", after launching the nukes, SkyNet takes human slaves to build the terminator factories, creating a temporary compromise.
Agitation...Violation...Mutilation...Planet Dies
"Agitation...", refers to Humanity's response after the nuclear war, trying to fight back, "Violation...", the human slaves building terminator factories realize what they're doing and decide to rebel, SkyNet sees this as a violation of their treaty. "Mutilation...", to study humanity and be better able to kill them, SkyNet mutilates the human slaves in order to learn about Human anatomy. "Planet Dies", by now nuclear winter blocking out the sun has killed all the plants keeping the planet alive.
Darkest Color
Blistered [Up]
True Death [Alive]
“Darkest color/Blistered up”, here again I think the lyrics are wrong, “Blistered up” rather than “Blistered Earth”, refers to the fact that machines are dark and that they were “blistered up” from the charred earth because machines are made of metal and metal comes from underground. “True death alive”, rather than “True Death of Life” which makes more sense in a contextual sense and also for my interpretation because the terminators are “true death alive”.
Termination....Expiration...Cancellation...Human Race
Expectation...Liberation...Population...Lay to Waste
“Termination... Expiration... Cancellation... Human Race”, a reference to the on-going war against Humanity, how their time on this Earth has “expired” according to SkyNet and how it would like to “cancel” the Human Race. “Expectation... Liberation... Population... [Laid] to Waste”, small lyric interpretation which makes more grammatical sense. This part refers to the Human slaves again, their expectation was that SkyNet would let them go after they did what it said, but instead they were “laid to waste”.
See Our Mother
Put to Death
See Our Mother Die
“See Our Mother”, Humanity is the mother of SkyNet, we gave birth to it. “Put to Death/See Our Mother Die”, SkyNet singing, referring to the way it put it's 'mother' to death.
Smouldering Decay
Take Her Breath Away
Millions of [Her] Years
In Minutes Disappears
“Smouldering Decay/Take Her Breath Away”, Nuclear fallout and the lack of oxygen are choking Humanity, humans are still referenced as the “Mother” and so “her” is correct when referring to all of Humanity. “Millions of [her] Years/In Minutes Disappears””, another lyric change, also referring to Humanity as 'her', and “In Minutes Disappears”, refers to the loss of all civilization and history and evolution that Humanity has built over millions of years that was destroyed in the nuclear war.
Darkening in Vain
Decadence Remains
All Is Said and Done
Never Is the Sun
Never
“Darkening in Vain/Decadence Remains”, refers to the way SkyNet realizes it is still not perfect, it has darkened the Earth in vain in an attempt to save itself from Humanity, but in doing so has taken upon Humanity's decadence (By the way the meaning of Decadence is a deterioration, especially of morality or culture; decay; degeneration;) and so SkyNet's struggle to kill Humanity is in 'vain' because Humanity's values of war and murder are now a part of SkyNet. “All Is Said and Done/Never Is the Sun”, it's too late to save the Earth, the sun won't be seen for hundreds of years because of nuclear winter.
Fire
To Begin [with the] Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin [with the] Dance of the Dead
Fire
Referring to nuclear war again, “Fire” either being the launching of the nukes (the order to fire) or the explosion afterwards.
Is the Outcome of Hypocrisy
Darkest Potency
In the Exit of Humanity
“Is the Outcome of Hypocrisy”, hypocrisy meaning professing a belief but not truly believing in it, and so 'fire is the outcome of hypocrisy' because Humanity was hypocritical to create a machine to 'defend' itself by giving it the capability of destroying everything. “Darkest Potency/In the Exit of Humanity”, potency definition: Inherent capacity for growth and development, the machines are the 'darkest potency' because machines and computers have an exponential capacity for growth and development compared to Humans and evolution which is known to have a geometric (rather than exponential) growth pattern.
Color Our World Blackened
Blackened
“Colour Our World Blackened”, again another reference to nuclear war blackening the Earth.
Well, that's my interpretation. You may not agree, but I think it fits the song perfectly and the timing (Album released in '88, Terminator released in '84) works too.
Opposition is the 90's and its era of negation of the polution and slow distruction of the planet.
Contradicion- its the our actual era, becase whe understood tha the planet was dying and want to do something about it, but cynics still believe its not our fault and pollution is unreal.
premonition- the era we are entering where we say we told you, we knew and we did nothing.
Compromise- the era we will enter when everyone accepts its true and we shall unite but is too late.
agitation- we start getting agitated because the lack of resources, and start ravagging wars.
violation- we begin an open war on the others for the resources.
mutilation- we kill ourserlves and the planet dies
so when james wrote the song he was entering the contradiction era and we are now entering the premotion era so its a premonitory song!!!!
Seriously, though: at the time this song was written, it wasn't being subtle about the fact it was about nuclear war. It was IN-YOUR-FACE-BLATANT about being about nuclear war. The fact that there's now actually a DEBATE on this page as to whether that's what the song is about or not just drives home how different the zeitgeist context is now than it was then.
And sure, now that the world's context has changed, you can re-interpret it to be about something else, if that's more meaningful to you. But at the time the song was written-- no one would be having this debate. The Sword of Damocles was ever-present.
*grouchygrumble*
Kids these days. No sense of perspective. Don't know what it's like to grow up fairly certain that humankind would wipe itself out in nuclear armageddon in your own lifetime, and to just kind of set that knowledge aside and ignore it, the way Californians ignore "The Big One" or like people on the slope of an active volcano. And we had to walk to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways.
*grouchygrumble*
"Deadly Nicotine" could also refer to not an addiction to war, but an addiction to our lazy evereyday habits that contribute to the downfall of our planet. You know, the things we do for convenience that aren't good for the environment, but we do them anyway out of pure greed and ignorance of consequence.