This song is creepy. Cool, but creepy. The main riff that kicks in after he sings each verse rocks.

:) this song is crazy.... I dont understand it.. but it sounds like a post "WW3" situation

Its a cover of a song originally done by Gary Numan. He was a popular artist in the 80's. Marilyn Manson has also covered this song as well, on one of his earlier albums (before Smells Like Children). Gary Numan also originally did the song "Cars" that got covered by Fear Factory. As for the song meaning, I'm not so sure.

This song is great.really haunting.sends a chill up my spine.I think it's about a post-apocolyptic (is that even a word?) world where the machines have won, and humans are just numbers(a friend called five),they play kill by numbers (basically just kill people at random).This is a long shot but maybe it's even a metaphore for the holocaust.

I think the line is: "I was in a car crash, It wasn't the war but I've never been quite the same."

This is one of my favorite songs ever by the Foo, if I remember correctly it was a B-Side on the Monkeywrench single way back in 97. Yes it is a cover, but much better.

COBHATEBREEDER, I was thinkins something like that. "kill-by-numbers" obviously refers to "paint-by-numbers", so it's some kind of twisted game.

It's very likely that this song has some sort of ulterior motive. Maybe the machine-thing refers to us humans. And the numbered humans refers to all other animals on this planet, describing the way we think this earth all belongs to us and the way be sort of make all other creatures our slaves. Like if machines will start to rule the world, we'll know how it feels, or something.

I love the haunting tone of this song... but yeah I agree with COBHATEBREEDER, it's like a world after machines have taken over. creepy.

COBHATEBREEDER is on to something.

I googled Machmen. The first return was Chaptrer 6 from a book titled "The Hub". It refers to Machmen as I imagined and as the song kind of implies - "Human beings surgically modified, equipped with a variety of devices to permit them to function freely in environments which otherwise would be instantly deadly to a man lacking the protection of a spacesuit or ship. They were instrumented men: machine men—machmen".

If you take the song as a whole, it sounds like it is being sung or narrated by a Machman. I think "I was in a car crash or was it the war" refers to his half human/half machine state. Obviously he is not sure how he got that way as he was probably under anesthesia.

"you can watch the humans try to run" differentiates him (the machman narrator) from the humans who have not yet been captured and altered or killed by the machines that roam like COBHATEBREEDER stated.

I think the final verse "we are not lovers, we are not romantics, we are here to serve you" really sums it up. The Machmen were made by the machines to serve them, that's why they are pretty much left alone, except for the rape machine.

"a different face but the words never change" means ALL Machmen may look different possibly with their still human faces, but they are still there to serve.

All in all, creepy ass song! Some of the music especially the beginning reminds me of the intro music to Manhunt (PS2).

Later