May you rock the Earth in half!
Both Cyanide and Fade to Black address the same issue so I'll cover both songs in this post.
Yes, they are about suicide, but it's a little deeper that just that. Both songs are about the emotions one has that leads to suicide. Both are told from the perspective of the one struggling and giving up on life which makes them extra personal and sad. In fact, Cyanide could, in fact, be Fade to Black part 2 because in Fade to Black only the desire for suicide exists. In Cyanide, the anti-hero/victim actually goes through with it.
The first few lines of Fade to Black show one of the ways depression often begins.
"Life it seems will fade away / Drifting further everyday / Getting lost within myself / nothing matters, no one else"
We, the human race, naturally seek to have our SELVES be the center of the universe. It starts when we are babies as we live only for us - to eat, to sleep, to have the whole world bend their desires to our needs. As we get older, we are forced to harness it. Some harness better than others. But we rarely truly escape our self focus. We think we are too hurt, too unattractive, too unloved.....or we think we deserve better because we are fantastic, we deserve more money, more fame, more more more. But it is all for self.
The problem with self is that it is lonely. If we focus inwardly instead of on others, the rest of the world will drift away until we are all alone and lost.
The suicidee points out that, for him, there is
"simply nothing more to give. There is nothing more for me. Need the end to set me free".
We are like black holes. We suck all we can into that endless abyss of self satisfaction and in the end the gravitational pull doesn't allow us to let anything out. We are stars that can no longer shine. The gravity well is so strong that what we have sought and obtained has been crushed into intangible oblivion. We realize then that we have nothing more to give and that this whole mess just needs to end.
"Things not what they used to be / missing one inside of me"
Now here is a mysterious line. And yet I think it is the key to both songs. Perhaps he speaks of a loved one lost. Perhaps he speaks of God? It is not really clear.
As he nears the end of the song he questions weather or not he should try to save himself but decides against it. The last line of Fade to Black is:
"Death greets me warm / now I will just say goodbye"
And here is where Cyanide could potentially pick up the story.
Cyanide begins with the character already laying down to die after drinking poison.
"Sleep and dream of this / death angel's kiss / brings final bliss / come believe me"
Throughout this song he reiterates what he expressed in Fade to Black which is his emptiness. He sings:
"Suicide, I've already died / you're just the funeral I've been waiting for / cyanide, living dead inside / break this empty shell forever more"
In other words, "I've already given up on life. I'm empty and dead. Might as well actually die so we can get the funeral over with."
In the second verse he is still waiting for the poison to take him. And by the bridge, he is dead.
How do we stop being black holes that lead us to depression. There is an ancient piece of writing that talks about one who is dead but alive and one who is truly alive.
"The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives"
The only thing that can stop a black hole is for it to consume something that releases energy with a greater force than with which the black hole sucks. Like a bright and powerful sun. Or, ending the metaphor now, like a bright and powerful Son: the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Only He can make you shine....and love it to the point you'll die for others!
Romans 6:3-5 talks about those who were the living dead but died and were reborn
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."
In John 10:10 Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE"
