Slipknot: Vermillion Meaning
Song Released: 2004
Vermillion Lyrics
Of past fatalities
So fragile yet so devious
She continues to see it
Climatic hands that press
Her temples and my chest
Enter the night that she came home
Forever
Oh (She's the only one that makes me...
-
1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:This is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever herd. It has so many different meanings in it but this is what I think.
Its more about a girl who doesn't exist, it seems to be more of a dream of a girl rather than a physical one. Saying that this is what I want, its not real she doesn't exist. Or love with a woman that only you have felt she never gave back.
Correy talks about his obsession with her sexually and lovingly, how she is the center of his life and no one else matters. Many people do say that this woman could of been a prostitute or stripper "She seems dressed in all the rings, Of past fatalities" some hookers where bracelets to show how many times they have had sex, but for the listener it could be whom ever. Its also shows that this girl in particular has been with many other men even if she isn't a hooker. "Carve my name in my face, to recognize, Such a pheromone cult to terrorize"-She torments him playing with his mind, he feels she wouldn't even recognize him he is so little to her. The lyrics in the chorus are "I won't let this build up inside of me" cause thinking and dwelling on her is making him crazy and he wants to move on but can't cause he is so obsessed. All of this is for nothing thou in the climax after the second chorus when he screams it.
"She isn't real, I can't make her real"- Saying that I will be alone for ever there is no one out there for me. That this love wasnt real and won't be. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:AN: You may want to watch the video version when reading this, it makes much more sense if you do. I'm surprised NOBODY thought of this theory because watching it for the first time, it never looked like it was about a relationship to me....
Even though Corey said this was about stalking a girl, after watching the video AND listening to the lyrics, I have a different, less obvious theory..... I think it's about having a split personality which is different from your gender.
The song seems to describe a girl Corey wants to pursue but as the song continues, it becomes more and more about Corey and the way he talks about her becomes more and more attached to himself. The more he talks about her, the less he describes her as something separate from himself and right in the last verse he talks about them as if they were EXACTLY the same person. (I've noticed this pattern in Snuff too, a song that was supposed to be about a breakup, but in Snuff its more obvious because he copies and physically DRESSES UP as the girl, being a female seems to be a running theme for Corey, in fact look at most of his songs and they have this theme of being two people).
So lets start at the beginning. Corey appears to have two voices for the song. One in a creepy, almost perverse voice, which actually has a hint of feminine undertones, and the other voice is what I'm assuming is supposed to be 'normal Corey'.
At the start, he's talking about her like he's just talking about a girl he's creepily obsessed with, describing her personality but in the video when he says "My chest" the GIRL crosses her arms over her chest, that's the first hint that him and this girl he's referring to are supposed to be one and the same.
Then we get to "Ohhh, she's the only one that makes me SAD", this is where the 'normal Corey' voice starts to break through before its quickly silenced by the other voice again, like its the girl silencing him.
"I get nervous, perverse, when I see her, it's worse" Now this is where it gets crazy. Even though its still him, at this point in the song, he still sees her as a separate person so he's almost infatuated with this erotic, female version of himself and when he becomes her, he feels more sensual and erotic but almost doesn't want to have those feelings.
Now when he says "she's the only one that makes me SAD" a second time, he continues in his Corey voice while in the video, this is where it starts to get more plain as to what its about, the girl puts on the Slipknot mask as if she was Corey. The rest of the band appear in their masks but then are able to revert back to themselves by putting their 'normal face' masks back on but they are all plain white, all empty. But COREY IS THE ONLY ONE NOT THERE. There is only the girl that we assume is supposed to represent him and she is the only one that is shown looking distressed like she can't take it off or put her 'face mask' on like the rest. Meaning, all the band members can be who they are but Corey will never stop being this.
For most of the video, the girl has been observing a caterpillar in a jar, I believe that this is symbolic of feeling trapped and WHEN COREY'S IN HIS OWN VOICE its finally freed as a butterfly. Basically, she lost control of him and he tried to escape these feelings. More on this later.
"I won't let this build up inside of ME." Now this is what gave me the growing indications that this definitely isn't about an actual girl. Even if you don't like the feelings the object of your affection is giving you, this is a very.... weird way to state it to say the least. He sings this while the girl walks through almost a sped up dream state and looks at the faces of the other band members wondering why her mask is different while the butterfly flies through all of town. She tries to regain control but the butterfly just misses her grasp and it flies away again.
Now here's where it's the MOST OBVIOUS that this song isn't about a real girl. The last verse is basically blatantly laying this entire theory near enough on the table, putting everything together as Corey gets more distressed, he sings "I'm a slave and I am a master!" While the girl in the video puts on hand behind her back like its tied and strokes her hair with another one. The girl version of Corey is master and Corey is the one trapped under her control. If he was talking about another person, he would sing "I'm a slave and SHE is the master" but he didn't. He's starting to blur the lines between her and him.
"I exist through my need to self oblige." Self obliged is kinda like when you force yourself to do something. We're starting to move away from the theme that they are two separate people. And she puts her hands over her chest again in symbolism.
"SHE IS SOMETHING IN ME, THAT I DESPISE." And there it is. The main line in this song that basically screams it at you. Nobody describes their crush as "something in them". He hates this part of himself even though a piece of him desires feeling her. He then goes back to repeating "I won't let this build up inside of me." to emphasize what he just said. When he says it for the last time and screams, the girl in the video screams too so more symmetry.
After his breakdown, the butterfly goes back and sits in front of the girl as he sings the line "She ISN'T REAL. I CAN'T MAKE HER REAL.". Corey knows that she isn't real and it's just another part of himself but a part of him can't help thinking otherwise. As this butterfly version of Corey sits almost submissively in front of the girl, she calms down as she has control again. When the girl in the video calms down, Corey's voice also begins to calm and she smiles.
So that's my theory and tbh I'm kinda proud of that. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:This song is really hard to understand, because there's so many complex words and metaphores! Personally I don't know if the song is about stalking, because it would seem like he knows her (but maybe he just likes to think that he does?). It could be about a part of Corey's mind or maybe life itself! But I really don't know. I am just going to "translate" the song in my own way. So this is just my opinion:
"She seems dressed in all the rings of past fatalities" would literally mean she's wearing the rings of dead persons, or it could mean she's wearing something or her personality is affected by her past relationships.
"So fragile yet so devious
She continues to see it", she's looking fragile, or she seems to be, but she's really just pretending to be to get what she wants. (devious = showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals)
"Climatic hands that press
Her temples and my chest" meaning he pities her, and wants to comfort her even tho she doesn't need it. (because she's pretending to be fragile)
"Enter the night that she came home
Forever" - I'm not sure about this one, but it seems like he's telling us, in the end, how he met her.
"Oh (She's the only one that makes me sad)" he's hurt by her emotionaly because he pities her or she is affecting him psychologicaly.
"She is everything and more
The solemn hypnotic" - she obviously means alot to him. He is hypnotized by her in every way.
"My Dahlia bathed in possession" (a Dahlia is a flower known for it's brightly colored single or double flowers. They also come in the color of vermillion) -She's a beautiful flower, but she belongs to someone else or everyone else. Like she's a prostitute or something.
"She is home to me" -He somehow feels comfortable with her, or the thought of her is comforting him. He likes to think about her.
"I get nervous, perverse, when I see her it's worse"-he gets nervous and perverse when he thinks about her, so does that mean he maybe gets more physical with her when they meet?
"But the stress is astounding" -his feelings about her are very notable (which only makes it easier for her to control him)
"It's now or never she's coming home
Forever" -I am not sure about this one
"Hard to say what caught my attention" -he's simply just wondering how he started to feel about her.
"Fixed And crazy, Aphid Attraction" -(aphid= a minute bug that feeds by sucking sap from plants.) She is a very strong personality, and like the Aphid bug, she lives by "sucking" the life and happiness out of other people.
"Carve my name in my face, to recognize"-He simply means nothing to her.
"Such a pheromone cult to terrorize" (pheromone = a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an insect, affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its species) -He and the other people this girl (or whatever she is) has affected are just victims for her to psychologicaly terrorize.
"I won't let this build up inside of me" -He tries to push all the shit away. He doesn't want to live with mental issues just because of her. So he's telling himself that he won't let this beat him down.
"I'm a slave, and I am a master" - He's trying to control her, when he feels the situation gets out of hand, he's standind up for himself and sort of "yells" at her. But then again he pities her, and becomes a slave again and again.
"No restraints and, unchecked collectors" - the situation is out of control.
"I exist through my need, to self oblige" - I'm not sure about this one, but I think he's saying that he can't live with this anymore, because it's not right to him. He feels like he has to be true to himself and do what's right for him. not her.
"She is something in me, that I despise" - (the part which confuses me. Is Corey telling us about the girl? Himself? or something completely different?) -She (or whatever) is like a virus on his mind. He loves (or loved) her and now he hates her because he can see what she truly is like. -
"That song was on a demo that Paul [Gray, bassist] and Joey [Jordison, drummer] put together. For some reason, as soon as I heard it, all I could see was the colour red. I love the idea of creating a world from the standpoint of a stalker. I was trying to recreate that dark urgency and desperate need. Anyone who's ever had that jealous rage knows what that feeling is." – Corey Taylor[8]
"I wrote most of this, then Paul put the middle section together. When I write, I'm always thinking of [singer] Corey's place in the song. That chemistry between me, Paul and Corey has always been interesting." – Joey Jordison[8] -
I believe that this song is about how frustrating it is to have the awareness that we are all looking for an answer to our truth. We won't find it in another human being. The reality then becomes horribly transparent. We are alone. Whatever we think we need will not become evident unless we know who we are. Most of us don't. We want someone else to provide the answers we seek, but know the reality is, there is no one who can. When that settles is our psyche, we become depressed and confused. We want so much to believe that someone will care enough to lift us out of our own entrapment. When our fantasies get thwarted by rejection, we realize we're merely passing through this game of life with no objective. Then, some of us will seek comfort with a needle, a drink or some other falsehood of contentment. Trying to make sense of who we are and why we're supposed to be thankful for this life. It's about that reality of knowing that we're all bullshitting ourselves to get through this life. We tell ourselves lies and build up our fantasy world to give ourselves hope against the inevitable. We are slaves to our own masters. We are bound by our responsibility to "be happy and make the most of our lives." Sometimes the reality seeps into our consciousness and gives us a morbid sense of isolation and vulnerability.
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It's about depression and feeling suicidal. This song helped me a lot, love this song but does really need kill the butterfly? At least that alternative to suicide but still poor creature.
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I am going for the stalking but from a different direction. I think its kind of an online stalking. For example, the girl could be an online video cam girl which Corey had watched and falling for.without the girl's knowledge."I am a slave, I am a master. i think he means even though he tells the girl what to do on live cam videos making him a master, he also gets enslaved by whatever the girl does.
I have would really like to express my opinion on each line. this is my overall summation of the song -
It's about his feeling for her rejection despair and suicidal thoughts. This song's a good song but damm you for killing that butterfly, at least that's the alternative to suicide.
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It's about feeling despair and loneliness. She wants to kill herself but decided to destroy the butterfly instead. In video- i love the video as I'm going through myself but no one's listening.
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It's about depression, loneliness, despair and suicidal thoughts- I've know how this feels. I'm going though severe depression right now and I've just recover from attempt suicide and I'm still batting the depression so I know depression a bitch.
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Paul gray wrote a masterpiece!
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I think it is about the wanting of perfection and inability to achieve it. He is talking about death.
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I went through exactly what he did in this song. The girl killed me in a way... It's mentally excruciatingly painful. I had never loved or stressed over anything or anyone. Just thinking about how she confounds me yet has me under a love spell caused me to pop a vessel in my eye. I literally felt it and ran to a mirror and saw a big red vein through my eye. I hadn't even met the girl in person which brings me closer to the song like the part where he sings "She isn't real, I can't make her real." I only believe she exists because we've talked through the phone and she's sent pictures but I have not laid a finger on her flesh so could she be a troll that keeps trolling? Well the damage is done. I have become my old windows xp computer. I used to run just fine until I found something that I thought I could benefit from. I sooner or later discovered it to be a trojan virus. I thought I could fix it and over time I only took more damage. It took a long time to completely banish it but the damage remains and we're running slowly now. It's hard to trust anything else.
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In simple terms, it is about a girl he wants but is a bad person who essentially screws people over, but he stills wishes to have her. Then pt. 2 is the realisation that it is impossible for this wish to become real
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Dont call me crazy but i always thought he was supposed to be a psyco killer watching his victim from far away until the day he finally has her. she could be just a girl or a divious prostitude but for him she is the cause of his missery. he is noone to her and that makes him sad. maybe i just watched too many crime series or w/e.. but i get it all pictured when i listen to this song...
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I think, the girl doesn't exist.. Is complex, and suffering him. Maybe just imagination, perfect imagination. Overall, he love her very much. Confusing, and its hard to tell. I know how feels is like.. :)
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i'm not sure what or why... but a wonderful gentileman that i just resently met, who i spent like 3 days around; sent this song, telling me "look up this song, i have for you".... i'm kinda confused~~~ HELP!!!
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In a very intense moment of psychosis (or clarity, judge for yourself) had it going on in my head that it was possible to be invulnerable- nothing whatsoever could touch my state of mind as long as I was unwilling to allow it to. There was also a girl there in the room who I wanted. This song was on; "she's the only one that makes me sad".
not entirely sure what this song means but one interpretation: the idea 'all my problems are going to be fixed by finding a suitable partner' is really death in a pretty dress. we'l chase what "isn't real", having had the motherfucker of all brainwashes; 'piece of scum- you won't do. find someone/thing better and latch on.' after searching for long enough, you feel so fucked up that you turn round and question the original assumption of inadequacy- and see that it's bullshit.
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