The Skull Beneath the Skin
Producers
The Skull Beneath the Skin Lyrics
Whoa!
Whoa!
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 1]
Mean and infectious, the evil prophets rise
Dance of the Macabre, as witches streak the sky
Decadent worship of black magic sorcery
In the womb of the Devil's Dungeon trapped without a plea, oh
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2]
Seething in agony, necrosis is the fate
Pins stickin' through the skin, the venom now sedates
Locked in a pillory, nowhere to be found
Screaming for your life, no one hears a sound
Help me!
[Verse 3]
Prepare the patient's scalp to peel away
Metal caps his ears, he'll hear not what we say
Solid steel visor riveted across his eyes
Iron staples close his jaws so no one hears his cries
The skull beneath the skin
The skull beneath
[Verse 4]
Now you're drawn and quartered, your bones will make the 'X'
Symbol stands for poison and it's chained to your head
And as we fold your arms to make the holy cross
We cross the crucifix; religion has been lost
[Chorus]
The skull beneath the skin
The skull beneath the skin
[Guitar Solo]
[Outro]
The skull beneath the skin
About
This song is about the creation of Vic Rattlehead, Megadeth’s mascot.
Someone is being tortured while there’s black magic going on. The metal visor, ear muffs and jaw-hooks on Vic symbolize “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
The title recalls a line from T.S. Eliot’s 1920 poem “Whispers of Immortality”, itself concerned with death on the, ahem, mega, scale.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Dave Mustaine:
I remember waiting in line one time and there was a book that had something similar to that for the title and it showed a skull with the skin pulled back over half of it and I thought, “Well, that’s a really interesting title”. And then I ran with it because of the idea with our whole moniker and the way that the character Vic was developed, with the see-no-evil, speak-no-evil, hear-no-evil stuff. Vic came to me like really in the early process of making the whole band. I wanted a mascot because Eddie was the mascot for Iron Maiden, and Motörhead had Snaggletooth. I thought it would just be, like, an image. So, I came up with a skull with two crisscrossed human bones made into crucifixes so that it signified fucked-up religion, conflict in religion, but also like the symbol for poison, and then came the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil thing. For me, it was all those metaphors in one image.
—via Rolling Stone
- 3.The Skull Beneath the Skin
- 4.These Boots
- 5.Rattlehead
- 6.Chosen Ones
- 8.Mechanix
