28 Meanings
Add Yours
Share
Q&A

Gehenna Lyrics

Do you Believe? Do you Fade like a Dream?
Let me hear you BREATHE
Let me watch as you sleep
The Sparrow’s Eyes… Promises shift into judgments
I cannot deny that you were designed for my punishments

The Blood and The Body - Control the cut so it’s seamless
Show me your Heart - Show me the way to complete this
TETHERED / to a scene I / TREASURE / can you help me?
I / SEVER/ god it’s perfect, it’s / NEVER / really perfect
Now… I can finally be myself
Cuz I don’t want to be myself

FREE MY SEVERED HEART, GIVE ME YOU - I WANT IT
(I don’t want to be myself)

I cannot maintain a semblance of Normal anymore
I’d rather feel pain than try to fit in with you anymore
I’ll throw it all away, like everybody else
I can finally be myself
Cuz I don’t want to be myself

FREE MY SEVERED HEART, GIVE ME YOU - I WANT IT
(I don’t want to be myself)
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

28 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

Ironically enough Judaism, Christianity and Islam use the term "Gehenna" in their holy books and the word can be interpretated as "hell". Although there are other similiar meanings. I'm not sure if the name has some sort of relation to what this song means. The song is awesome, as always and I think it's about a relationship that has ended and the person feels confused as to who who they really are. They want to move on and remove the feelings they have for this person they love but at the same time they don't want to let go of those feelings, so they try to hold on and hope that the relationship has not ended. I also think it's about him housing two personalities, and is struggling to keep both personas he represents complete. BUT while he tries to find a balance for both he feels like he's in "hell" which might be where the title comes in.

"Do you Believe? Do you Fade like a Dream? Let me hear you BREATHE" I think he's trying to keep her "alive" (figuratively or literally whatever) in the relationship.

"Let me watch as you sleep The Sparrow’s Eyes… Promises shift into judgments I cannot deny that you were designed for my punishments" He's analysing the situation, especially her traits/flaws/characteristics, and feels that everything about her compliments him perfectly. "Designed for my punishments" makes me think he's probably hurt her at times but she bends and does not break each time he hurts her, which is why he believes she's made for him. lol.

"The Blood and The Body - Control the cut so it’s seamless Show me your Heart - Show me the way to complete this TETHERED / to a scene I / TREASURE / can you help me?" "Control the cut so it's seamless" has to be one of my fav lines from this song. I think he's trying to control his emotions and keep his composure.

He keeps the "cut" "seamless" so that he can try to control the "blood" from overflowing. I suppose he doesn't want to heal this "cut" but instead be able to keep it under "control" and you know what they say "practice makes perfect" and by no time he'd have mastered the art of having an open wound with an immunity to pain and blood clotting (XD)

The "cut" a reference to the experiences/scars/fck ups the relationship has given him. The "blood" symbolising the negative feelings/memories that flows through the "cut".

"I / SEVER/ god it’s perfect, it’s / NEVER / really perfect Now… I can finally be myself Cuz I don’t want to be myself" The lines contradict eachother, probably to give the feeling that he's never satisfied and how he feels "torn" or incomplete. When he "severs" he might be cutting off the feelings he has for her outta his system, when he does he feels temporarily whole, but not for long as his "other self" feels incomplete without those feelings.

"FREE MY SEVERED HEART, GIVE ME YOU - I WANT IT (I don’t want to be myself)" again another contradiction, He wants to feel like a whole entitity. And there's only two ways that he can do that.

  1. He can try to get rid of the feelings he has for her
  2. He can try to get her to return her feelings for him once again.

"I cannot maintain a semblance of Normal anymore I’d rather feel pain than try to fit in with you anymore I’ll throw it all away, like everybody else I can finally be myself" Again with the whole incomplete macho nacho problem. I think he's decided that he'll endure the pain for now but in the end he'll no longer feel the way he does for her and he'll become ONE persona, the person he was before the relationship once again.

"Cuz I don’t want to be myself" But here I don't think he wants option 1. I think what he really wants is option 2. but I guess he feels it won't happen anytime soon so option 1 sounds the easiet for now.

Overall, I think the person is torn between two split personalities that makes up their existence. i.e. He's in conflict with the person he was, when with her during the relationship and the person he is, when he is alone.

I tend to over analyse everything [& this is slipknot for the love of god, and i feel like a even bigger idiot for writing this 100 page report on what this song means lol.. so feel free to make me feel like an ass if I killed the song for you :) aha..]

I actually think you make a very good point. a couple of my fellow maggots don't like this song at all. but I find it one I can relate with. I may not be corey Taylor or know what he's really talking about in this song. but my idea is this

Do you Believe? Do you Feed like a Dream? ( he wants to know if she believes in him, and if he can support her like he could the girl of his dreams) Let me hear you BREATHE ( he wants to be close to her either resting his head...

Not Valid

I think DreamersDisease is absolutely right, except for one part... I'm not sure that the lyric is "That you were designed for my punishments" so much as it is "That you were designed for my punishment", which would give the impression that he means that though he does want to stay with whoever this is and love them, it pains him to do so.

Not Valid
Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

I think this song may very well be talking about a relationship where the man is sick and tired of the woman jerking him around and abusing him. Talking about cutting her open could be literal or figurative. He seems to be saying in the beginning that he loves her and wants to be with her but she won't let him and in the end that he hates her and wants her to die because he can't bear to suffer beside her anymore.

Unrequited love is hell. Hell is Gehenna. That may be this song gains its title.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

This one is gonna be long. My apologies!

I've looked through most of your interpretations and I don't feel satisfied. Generally, people seems to think of this song as one about heartbreak, bad relationships, obsessive relationships and so on. Just listen to the vibe of the song! It has a creepy, lurking sound which I don't think fit in a post-relationship context. Also, listen to they way he sings. Sometimes it is like he's having a conversation with himself. This is my version of what is going on..

The lyrics reflects the thoughts and actions of a crazed man (could be a woman too, but I personally picture it as a dude) who hates himself so much that he literally want to replace every part of him surgically. He wants to be a perfect being. This is done by abducting people, take them to his hideout and then dig out the bodypart he want to be his own. If you drop the metaphorical thinking it can get pretty obvious in many places. Let me explain in detail.

"Do you believe? Do you fade like a dream? Let me hear you breath. Let me watch as you sleep"

  • So much creepiness right away! A quick summary about the man succeeding to drug and kidnap a new victim.

"The sparrow's eyes promises shift into judgments. I cannot deny that you were designed for my punishments"

  • This one is a bit tricky. First of all we got to figure out what "the sparrow's eyes" refer to. Hence the songtitle, I suppose this is the reference to a religious meaning of the sparrow. What i have figured out, the sparrow mostly symbolize God's love in the tiniest of living things. Therefore I suggest that it points to the crazed man's eyes, seeing potential in even the smallest of bodyparts and intestences.
  • Now then.. the shift into judgment means he sees something he havn't witnessed in a victim before. Something is better than in the rest. This one is perfect and is, according to him, made for he's cause.

"The blood and the body control the cut so it's seamless"

  • He is so worked up about this that he barely thinks about the cut, he just executes it.

"Show me your heart, show me the way to complete this"

  • Now we know what part of the victim he's digging for.

"Free my severed heart, give me you, I want it (I don't want to be myself)"

  • Sorta explains itself, yes? Cut out hes own heart, put in another one, he doesn't want to be himself.

"I cannot maintain a semblance of normal anymore. I'd rather feel pain than try to fit in with you anymore. I'll throw it all away, like everybody else"

  • Oh bugger.. the heart wasn't so perfect after all. He'd rather go through surgery once again than to keep this new heart. And, as he has done many times before, he puts back he's original heart and throws the other one away to find yet another victim.

I left some parts out, mainly because of laziness. I'm pretty sure you can figure them out yourself :)

My Interpretation
Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

creepy song, also i get chills when he says 'you' on the chorus.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

Gehenna - a place where the wicked are punished after death

so i think that might have something to do with the songs meaning

anyone like to elaborate on that?

I'd like to elaborate on that. But I can't. It's such a strange song.

Not Valid

@freezedrysealdan 13 years later, I may have an answer for you.. I would think that either she is Gehenna who is punishing him by not feeling the same way. Or the state of being in a one sided relationship could be Gehenna.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

well i heard on an interview on rockline corey said that the song is about like that theres a place where were all gonna burn if we dont be "good" but its really kinda about corey going through a personal hell and that its a very dark song. he also said its about sins and obsession but opening up.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

I doubt it means he's cutting himself I bet I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that he's never written about cutting himself before I think that MyLoveDecays was on to something in the sense of "he's cutting her out of his own heart so it's seamless" he doesn't want her to be with him anymore and the place she figuratively resided was his heart. he's using the literal to describe the figurative. it's a common lyrical tactic.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

This song is part of a series, I think.

Prosthetics, Gently, Virus of Life, and now Gehenna.

About obsession and stalking.

Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

In clowns interview he says that Gehanna is indeed the mention of poossibly "hell" in the old test. He does say more importantly though, that this is the one and only mention of such a place in the book.

Not Valid
Cover art for Gehenna lyrics by Slipknot

in my opinion this is one of the best songs on the entire CD, it kinda reminds me of Prosthetics or Skin Ticket in that slow eerie feeling