Of Monsters and Men: Mountain Sound Meaning

Song Released: 2012

Mountain Sound Lyrics

I heard them calling in the distance
so I packed my things and ran
far away from all the trouble
I had caused with my two hands

Alone we travelled
armed with nothing but a shadow
we fled far away

Hold your horses now
we sleep until...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 17th 2014 !⃝

   Being on the run. Escaping troubles left behind. Ashamed of themselves or what they've done. "Armed with nothing but our shadows... sleep until the sun goes down..." Discovering along the way that their own history is not so bad. "Some hid scars and some hid scratches it made me wonder about their past" knowing they're "nothing like the rest". So "Hold your horses now.." what are we running from?
   
   I see this as anyone who has thought about running away. Feeling misunderstood and deciding to leave the past behind to find their own way, but you realise this is not necessary for everyone. Some people have lived through terrible things: wars, abuse, neglect, abandonment... and have had to run away in order to survive which makes our problems seem small. Some of us run for no reason and should maybe have stayed and faced our problems.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 3rd 2013 !⃝

   It is about two people on the run from a king.I imagine it is two lovers personally.They did something bad(trouble I had caused with my two hands).They are telling them to stop hunting them (hold your horses now).They meet a group of outcasts with scratches.They are different from them.(some had scars and some had scratches)
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 11th 2024 !⃝

   To me, this song feels like a boy running away from his village. He finds a group of adventurers that don't know about his potentially dark past. He meets a girl and they become friends. The girl gives him hope and eventually they find community within the group they're in. It's a very literal interpretation but I see this as one of OMAM's more literal songs since it kinda spells out the story(though it still has room for interpretation)
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 7th 2018 !⃝

   "I heard them calling in the distance" I also think this has something to do with a wild call of the mountain, something they feel more than hear. Maybe "they" is referred to "people like him", people who belong in the mountain, the outcasts, the ones that always feel like outsiders.
   "so I packed my things and ran
   far away from all the trouble
   I had caused with my two hands" this may have somethinh to do with anxiety or some other sort of mental disorder, they created all their problems, but they were not less valid. This fits with him maybe feeling like an outcast.
   
   "Hold your horses now
   we sleep until the sun goes down" this may refer to the fact that now that they ran away (metaphorically or not) they can relax, they no longer have the pressure of being someone they were not and feeling as strangers around others. And now they can basically run deep into the woods and the mountain sound (their scape place)
   
   "Some had scars and some hid scratches, it made me wonder about their past..pasthere I feel like they found the other "outsiders" and they have different stories and their own scars, but they all had one thing in common
   "I began to notice that we were nothing like the rest" (they're all different between them) or (they and all the other "weirdos" they found are nothing like the 'ordinary' people...
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 30th 2018 !⃝

   I think that it’s about two people who just want a new beginning. So they run off to find their true calling.
6. ErinTheGuineaPig

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 9th 2017 !⃝

   The wind calls me sometimes and it called him. (I’d call it a go, and you’re free feel. Sometimes for me it’s a soft breeze pushing you, ya gotta follow it!) he meets up with a girl who was called too, they’re following the wind’s breath (that’s what I think of it as anyway..) to where they belong, and even though everyone’s diffferent, that means we all have one thing in common: we’re unique (until clones anyway!
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 29th 2015 !⃝

   I think this song Mountain Sound is about Two people who have ran away from a war they were forced into. They never liked the thought of hurting someone so they ran away with the past behind them. The two ran into the mountains afraid that others from the war will come searching for them.
   “Some had scars and some had scratches it made me wonder about their past
   And as I looked around I began to notice that we were nothing like the rest.”
   In this stanza the two people are remembering the others they fought besides, and realized how different they were from everyone else.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 22nd 2015 !⃝

   When the song says "I heard them calling in the distance/so I packed my things and ran", I thought of it as more of a Call of the Wild type of thing, like "the mountains are calling and I must go" or whatever. Then they travelled away from trouble with "nothing but a shadow" which I think means they moved on from something bad (sadness, depression, etc) with only a shadow of it left. The chorus is upbeat and happy, but says "hold your horses now/through the woods we ran", which I think refers back to the sadness I was talking about earlier: sort of like "hold on, we moved kind of quickly (which I got from "hold your horses" and "ran") and this sadness might not be gone yet. Then he says "some had scars and some had scratches/it made me wonder about their pasts/and as I looked around, I began to notice/that we were nothing like the rest", which I take to mean that the people they came across (metaphorically or literally) had scars and scratches, but they were nothing like them because the main characters of the song's scars were internal.
   
   Lol hopefully this makes sense:)
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 30th 2013 !⃝

   I imagine slaves in antebellum America running from their masters. Perhaps the young son/daughter of a slaveowner running away with their love. Or just more generally, two lovers escaping into the mountains :)

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)