Swim to the Moon

After listening to this song a couple million times and studying the lyrics i think i understand the song. the very start of the song he states that its been a long night and that he pretty much wants to escape from this cage that wont open. i think here he is fed up with society and wants to get away (swim to the moon) the moon being the reflection of the moon in the water. it seems the meaning of this statement changes throughout the song. the fist time he says this he wants to get away from everything. he is now in the middle of some large body of water now and claims to be at peace for the time being. soon afterwards he is starving and needs nourishment. he see's the moons reflection in the water and decides to swim to it (swim to the moon) this time it is not in an attempt to get away from everything but to survive. he soon realizes that there is no human life anywhere and is pretty much fucked. He soon becomes content with this idea and feels happy for once in his life (perhaps because he wont have to put up with the stresses of life anymore) being content with his fate he decides to drown himself and finally be at rest (swim to the moon) here the moon is underwater which is where he goes to drown himself.

thats my look on it anyway.

if you dont feel like reading all of that then here is a short version 1.stressed and wants to get away

2. got away and is happy in the ocean somewhere
3. hungry and decides to swim somewhere to get food.
4. cant find any life and realizes he is going to die.
5. he is finally happy for once in his life (realizes if he is dead no more stress of life)
6. kills him self and is a happy dead man

In my opinion, this is their best album. It's less earpounding metal like Colors, and more beautiful musicianship. I love metal, but this album just owns Colors. Every song extremely well written.

And I may just be alone on this opinion, but Swim to the Moon is the greatest song I've ever listened to.

I think this whole album deals with authority and the human mind.

Mirrors and Obfuscation deal with how everything you see isn't there in a different perspective (not literally) which really sets up Fossil Genera.

D,I,M shows us how easy it is to buy into anything and everything in exchange for some comfort.

Fossil Genera is a metaphor for who our lives are controlled more than we think, but that it wasn't always like this.

Desert of Song is the aftermath of Fossil Genera, where the "rebels" have to conceal making music.

Swim to the Moon is about someone who wanted to get away from this new society, but it seems he had to try to get away (embarrassing attempt at a "getaway outfit") implying that they (the night owls thing) really do have control over society.

Of course, this is probably wrong and this is only one perspective one the album, you can look at it so many different ways, like how Desert of Song is also a song about BTBAM themselves. So I guess you could close one eye and step to the side for a different view on this whole album. (incredibly cheesy, I know)

Doesn't affect the meaning too much, but I thought I could explain this line further: "A caffeine junkie's longest wish: peace and quiet..."

Caffeine causes tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. So to a caffeine junkie it might seem like he can never get away from this ringing because even when everything is "quiet" he still has to deal with the constant ringing in his ears...

This song was amazing in every aspect. 17 minutes or not, they did an excellent job. Every part of the song just epic, the ending wasn't HORRIBLE either.

"Slide into the water Become one with the sea. Life seems so much smaller.

Swim to the moon."

He jumps off the boat and I don't see him swimming towards the moon's reflection, but I see him submerged deep enough and swimming towards the moon (in sight through the water) – an impossible task (to swim to a moon) – symbolic of happiness being an impossible task in his life. He keeps swimming but he does die.

Also, does anyone hear the chimaira-esque riff at around 6:27, it happens a few times before that but I can't be arsed to rewind hahaha.

Oh, and this album is sick, like all of BTBAM's albums.

Here's a comment from Tommy regarding the meaning of the lyrics:

"It's kind of an awakening. This story doesn't have an ending, yet maybe. I kind of left it open-ended in case I wanted to touch on it at some other point. It's about a businessman who needs something new in his life. He goes to the sea and basically floats and sees where it takes him. It gets him in a lot of trouble. It's kind of like "Sun of Nothing." It's his thought process evaluating everything he's done and everything he wants to do, what's important and what's not important. Because I think those are the kinds of things that I personally over the last few years have kind of looked into. There's so much shit that people worry about that really doesn't matter. There are only certain things that really make an impact on your life and others and I guess those stories are about figuring out what I need in my life.

The literal interpretation this song is a man in his boat stranded in the middle of the sea, but the metaphorical meaning is the most interesting part if you understand the context of the entire album.

Mirrors starts off by saying everything is fleeting, new, and fragmented. In a sense, the world seems chaotic, and that the person is not learning and growing from it. It also brings on the first recurring theme: "Close one eye. Step to the side." The person that is being depicted is overwhelmed with the world and knows he won't understand all of its workings, so he takes in half of it and lets the rest pass him by.

Obfuscation is more focused on control. The word "obfuscation" means to make obscure or incomprehensible to hide a meaning. The recurring theme of that song is that people will never be satisfied about knowing everything, but we still feel like we need to know all even though we can't. This is applicable to the government, with laws that intrude and invade privacy, but can be used in many other situations. Since this is human nature, governments are naturally going to want to know everything, but it becomes very much a need for the power of knowledge. Near the end of the song, the "governing body" (if we use that analogy) is reiterates the lines "Close one eye. Step to the side." HOWEVER, this has a completely different meaning. The willingness to know less (as in Mirrors) has become the demand to learn more; you are being told to ignore all the OBFUSCATED laws and practices and move aside. THESE are the fleeting and new fragments discussed in Mirrors: the obfuscated practices of the being taking control.

Disease, Injury, and Madness is easiest to compare to Orwell's 1984. The song about trying to gain control of people to rid them of their "flaws." This world parallels that of Orwell's dystopian vision. The big difference is that the being taking control ultimately admits he failed and blames humanity instead of himself for the flaws, resulting in dehumanization of the species, and the urge to exert more control or give up.

Fossil Genera is centralized around the idea of satellites, the final attempt to enclose and monitor society. The satellites supposedly can determine that there is an outer threat and that the "new" government needs to be trusted. Whether the new government took form via revolution or re-election is left to interpretation. The ending describes how the "new" government took control. ONCE AGAIN, we see the need to both obfuscate and (ironically) know everything. This is how the new being plans to move on. And with the satellites ("more sky"), they exert control.

Desert of Song, reminiscent of Rush's 2112, describes the fall of music. Music is expression, and thus, expression is void in the world. Short and simple.

Thus, we get to Swim to the Moon. To give this already lengthy comment some brevity, swimming to the moon is a metaphor for leaving the view of the satellites and finding a place of peace where your every action is scrutinized. Once again, the swimmer is still in the ocean, but his goal is on a different level. Though it seems impossible, death to him is a fair enough cost for a brief moment of peace from this chaotic and obfuscated world.

Ultimately, I think we all should take a moment every now and then to try and swim to the moon...

So, this might be off--- but this song is incredibly important to me and it has some context with my life. I thought I would share the way I interpret it.

Beginning by the declaration that it has been far too long that he has been away from everything in life. The people he associates with take things from him, because he gives them dominion over himself. The prison is his whole life, which is rusting from age, and despite his attempts and the knowledge that rust makes it weaker, he cannot escape from it. He longs to know when he will have the 'will' to take his own life. When will he be hopeless enough to swim to the moon? He has heard this expression many times, but never realized how relaxing the sentiment is.

He is alone in the world's waters, (on the oceans). After trying to swim to the moon, he realizes that he is finally there. The light of life is drifting past the edge of his world, and he cant blame his ancestors for believing the world is flat? He wishes us to know that he is the loneliest of all people in the world, despite if there may be others that have swam out to the moon. He was born to make the world aware of purpose by his own death. (Jesus?) He longs of a peace he has never felt, and remembers that he did not want to live this life. Death will awaken him. He then says, I think, that all of us like him, should look closely into the example he is showing, that we may learn something?

No more anxiety, no more regrets for failures in whatever form they may be. No more vain hopes that always end up messed? Give in to the water's reflection of the moon, when you die, you will become one with the water, life wont matter anymore because of how grand you are. So just give in and 'swim to the moon.'

The next part of the song is pretty cryptic to me, I am venturing to say that hes describing what death is like. The as seen on tv part FOR ME, seems to say that death is not the stableizing thing he thought it would be, or was advertised to be. He doesnt have to wake up anymore, and no one expects anything of him. He wanted this to happen, but as usual things turn out to be a struggle even in death, for him. He realizes that he has indeed made the final choice to flee life and it is not reversible. There he is, clothed in whatever he decided to die in? Look into the big picture, he is a part of life and the universe again, this is what he lived to be--- he lived to show people that death is preferable to life in some cases?

This song has haunted me for years. It has taken on almost religious significance over time. My interpretation is limited by my own experiences which no doubt have influenced the meaning I have of it. But to put it simply, this man is overwhelmed by panic disorder and he is tired of the constant challenge to be normal and happy in life. He gives up, and starts to rationalize death and its merits---

I didn't really think it was a mess. I've read so many opinions on forums and everyone says this and Fossil Genera were the worst songs they've ever made.

Although, the breakdown is the most memorable part in the song for me, I think in each album they focus on different things.

Alaska, they focused on vocals a whole lot and also guitar (Selkies) Colors they focused on mainly guitar (White Walls, Ants of the Sky, Prequel to the Sequel) along with bass (Viridian)

In this album, I hear a lot of great things from the bass and the drums. The drum solo in this song is sick and if you listen to the bass really hard in this and in Fossil, they're both extremely technical.

I still don't know which album I like more, but BTBAM never disappoints me (sorry I don't have a meaning to the song but the first comment seems to sum it up well.)