CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

i listend to skillets song "Open Wounds" and i thought that music was cool, but when i listend to the lyrics, i found the song somewhat suicidal, ive posted the lyrics so you can decide for yourself.

"In the dark with the music on
Wishing I was somewhere else
Taking all your anger out on me, somebody help
I would rather rot alone
Then spend a minute with you
I'm gone, I'm gone

And you can't stop me from falling apart
'Cause my self-destruction is all your fault

(Chorus)How could you, how could you,
how could you hate me?
When all I ever wanted to be was you?
How could you, how could you, how could you love me?
When all you ever gave me were open wounds?

Downstairs the enemy sleeps
Leaving the TV on
Watching all the dreams we had turn into static
Doesn't matter what I do
Nothing's gonna change
I'm never good enough

And you can't stop me from falling apart'
Cause my self-destruction is all your fault

(Chorus)

Tell me why you broke me down and
betrayed my trust in youI'm not giving up,
giving in when will this war end?
When will it end?

You can't stop me from falling apart (3X)
'Cause my self-destruction is all your fault.

(Chorus)"

The song is about John Cooper's bad relationship with his father. By self-destruction, he doesn't mean committing suicide, he means losing his self esteem, and thinking he's worthless because of the way his father treated him.

aku_soku_zan wrote:The song is about John Cooper's bad relationship with his father. By self-destruction, he doesn't mean committing suicide, he means losing his self esteem, and thinking he's worthless because of the way his father treated him.

oh..... well it sounded like suicide when i first heard it.

an easy misunderstanding, where did you hear that from aku?

Where DID I hear that? I believe it was from a concert review that someone wrote and told, verbatim, what John Cooper said about it.

cool

Just from reading the lyrics it shows how it's all about his father.

If I had to guess...being on the new lable. They told John to write a song like this. It can easily be taken as either depression or his father....much like a band like Lifehouses songs can be love loves to girls or God. They walk the line with lyrics to please the most people. I am sad to see Skillet starting this trend...as they are one of my fav bands....though I thought it was lame they toured with Salvia. (who were decent on there first cd...now there kinda lame)

They told John to write a song like this. It can easily be taken as either depression or his father....much like a band like Lifehouses songs can be love loves to girls or God.

Nobody can be as sickingly that way as Jump5.

Are the other songs on the album that way, or just that one? There ARE alot of depressed and anger teenagers out there and maybe they're just trying to relate to those so they can understand God loves them too?

CobaltAngel wrote:Nobody can be as sickingly that way as Jump5.

Are the other songs on the album that way, or just that one? There ARE alot of depressed and anger teenagers out there and maybe they're just trying to relate to those so they can understand God loves them too?

The other songs on the CD are semi-ambiguous about their faith, but still awesome, either way. Every song on the album has a good message, especially songs like Under My Skin and Energy.

Alien Youth (their last album) was focused heavily on how us as Christians are supposed to be different, be aliens to the world and reach out to the world with God's Truth.

Collide is the next step, it's about 'Ok, we're different in this world, how can we live that life with all this hatred and suffering and imperfection around us and in us'

Taking the songs as a whole you can see it's about a Christian's inner turmoil. Their own sin and guilt torturing them, the collisions of their fear and faith.

I'm going to go through some of the songs, I may not be 100% correct on what I get from them, thats an advance warning.

Forsaken: A Christian being really close to God, spending lots of time with Him, then as time progresses, slipping away slowly (as we all do at sometime), then feeling the guilt of having turned away and wanting to return

Savior: Taken from God's perspective on how only He can save us.

Collide: I think it's spiritual warfare. We're being attacked on all sides, yet something inside of us holds us together.

Fingernails/Imperfection: Both about Christians failing and feeling rotten about it.

You have to take all the songs together or they just don't make sense.


On Open Wounds: It's nothing to do with their secular label. They were recording Open Wounds looong before they joined Lava. It was Ardent wanting to rush out the album for Christmas and not giving them enough time to get Open Wounds onto it, so they didnt get it finished until after they joined Lava.

CobaltAngel wrote:Nobody can be as sickingly that way as Jump5.

Are the other songs on the album that way, or just that one? There ARE alot of depressed and anger teenagers out there and maybe they're just trying to relate to those so they can understand God loves them too?

well Savior is talkling about someone who needs god, but alot of the songs on the CD are real heavy and with meaning.

I can see how you might get confused and think that song is about suicide. For me when I heard it my first thought was this guy is really ticked at someone. Anyway that could just be because I can relate to it a lot. So yeah. I really like the song and it's probably my favorite one on that cd.

I actually really like that song. Yes, their songs are a bit more vague than normal, but John Cooper has always seemed to be someone who's really strong in his faith. I think he just felt lead to write lyrics that are more depressing this time around, since you see these sort of songs all over the place right now. Almost all of the songs point to some sort of hope, and if someone hears those songs, they might start to search for the hope that's mentioned in those CDs.

BTW, totally agree with the Jump5 comment. In a Christian magazine, a song was said to be about God. In American Girl, they said it was about first love. >_<

Wait... Open Wounds is on the Collide album? I have the CD and have listened to it multiple times, but never have I heard Open Wounds.

TrigunX89 wrote:Wait... Open Wounds is on the Collide album? I have the CD and have listened to it multiple times, but never have I heard Open Wounds.

Hmm..it's the 3rd track on mine. I had heard the CD was re-released though.....could that be why? I suspect mine is the new release.

Right you are, Faded One. The original version of Collide was released on Ardent Records in November of 2003. The new one was released sometime in 2004 on Lava Records with Open Wounds and enhanced material. I bought both copies around the times they came out.

They did release 2 albums, because Ardent wanted Collide rushed out for Christmas, they didn't give Skillet time to record Open Wounds and get it on the album. so when they signed with Lava and re-released it they had the song on it.

I have the original one (autographed too ), I might get the one with Open Wounds on it too.

Aww... Ok thanks. I'll try to listen to the song anyway...

goto http://www.skillet.org

If memory serves correctly you can listen to the whole song for free on their online player.