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Here's your new drug
Shoot it in the left eye
Feel it on the right side
No it's not love
Though it sets up shop behind your cage
Building blood clots and black holes
Like using an ax to pull a sliver from your skin
And they say this is medicine
An overdose of oxygen
A severed head
As sedative
To be at peace would be a sin
And surely un-american
I'm breaking
Here's your new blood
Transfusion took us all night
Tell us that you're all right
No it's not love
Though it feels like fire inside of your veins
Burning right beneath the wrist
Begging for a razor's kiss
To free it from your skin
And they say this is medicine
An overdose of oxygen
A severed head
As sedative
To be at peace would be a sin
And surely un-american
I'm breaking down
Down
Down
Down
I'm breaking down
Lift the veil, its not medicine
And my heart fails, time and time again
Shoot it in the left eye
Feel it on the right side
No it's not love
Though it sets up shop behind your cage
Building blood clots and black holes
Like using an ax to pull a sliver from your skin
And they say this is medicine
An overdose of oxygen
A severed head
As sedative
To be at peace would be a sin
And surely un-american
I'm breaking
Here's your new blood
Transfusion took us all night
Tell us that you're all right
No it's not love
Though it feels like fire inside of your veins
Burning right beneath the wrist
Begging for a razor's kiss
To free it from your skin
And they say this is medicine
An overdose of oxygen
A severed head
As sedative
To be at peace would be a sin
And surely un-american
I'm breaking down
Down
Down
Down
I'm breaking down
Lift the veil, its not medicine
And my heart fails, time and time again
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The first verse is about him joining the army. The new drug is the thrill of war, the feeling that he's doing something for his country. The feeling part is that war is not what you expect; you shoot it in the left side you expact to feel it there, but you don't. It's not love, but hate. They're perceived as being opposites but also very similar in the way they are irrational and cause us to do rash things and be unpredictable and inhuman. Bloodclots stop the blood, stop his heart from working properly, steeling him for the horror of war. The blackholes are set to consume all the guilt and pain he'll feel. This process is painfull, like I imaging using an axe to slice your skin would be.
The first chorus is his first kill, his first taste of combat. Many people have said the first kill is a hardest, and to me it seems the protagonist has made his first kill, apparently now killing and war will be easier. This can be seen a medicine. The severed head i think is a metaphor for a kill, the sight of his enemy a stunning and crippling one for him. He starts thinking that war is constant, and that his thoughts of wanting peace seem to be against the wishes of his country. He starts to crack, i think brillintly illustrated by the stunted last line.
The second verse is when he goes home. The new blood is his civilian life returning, it taking a long time to come back to him. His family want him to say he's ok, that the horrors of war have left him and he can be normal, but he has no love left in him; it was torn out and replaced out on the battlefield. The new blood, his return to normal life, burns in him like fire; it feels wrong. He can't handle it, he can't adapt. Possibly the razors kiss refers to suicide, but i think he just wants a release; a way to stop feeling how he does.
The second chorus is him reflecting on his kill, on the crime against another human he committed. Although this time, he can't take it and it breaks him, shown by the finishing of the last line from the first chorus.
The last couple of lines are him realising he was conned into thinking war was great. lift the veil, and it's not medicine. It's a poison. His heart fails because he has none, removed by war.
Well that's my idea anyway. Also possibly the first verse is about the con of war related to the con of drugs. people think that drugs will give them an escape, but in reality they are deceitful and ruin you. I'm not saying i think the song is about drugs, just that the reference to drugs could've been used as a metaphor for the con of war.
This isn't probably remotely close to what Dustin meant, but it's my interpretation anyway.
What if this song is about media and the truth behind it or lack there of?
thats what i thought the song was about when i first read the lyrics
like using an axe to pull a splinter from your skin.
and though it doesn't meantion it i thik it is hinting at war.
but this is only my opinion.
That is the beauty of thrice. their lyrics can mean something different for everyone.
dustin is a genius.
this song is awesome live by the way.