This metalcore/alternative metal band has some songs that can really tug at the heartstrings.
- These lyrics at the end of the song "Danger Line." The solo starting just after the last line only adds to the punch.I never meant to leave this world alone
I never meant to hurt the ones who care
And all this time I thought we'd just grow old
You know, no one said it's fair
Tell my baby girl that it's alright
I've sung my last song today
Remind the Lord to leave his light on, for me
I'm free - The Rev himself singing "I know it's not your time, but bye-bye ... 'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime" in "A Little Piece of Heaven".
- "I Won't See You Tonight Part 1" is a song that is in perspective of Justin Sane. The band member, Synyster Gates, walked in on Justin Sane attempting to commit suicide, by drinking tons of cough medicine. Justin Sane was bipolar, and was immediately sent in to a mental hospital. Upon returning, the band members explained “It seemed like he was always on acid” so they had to let him go. This is from perspective of when he was suicidal, and it is an extremely emotional, and amazing song.
- "So Far Away" and "Victim". The video for the former makes it even worse.
- "So Far Away" is probably their biggest Tear Jerker song of all, due to the fact that it is about The Rev. Synster Gates had started writing the song about a family member, then rewrote the lyrics when The Rev died to make the song about him. When performed on the Nightmare tour, the banner behind the band displayed the image of The Rev hugging his bandmates. The lyrics are incredibly powerful:
A final song, a last request
A perfect chapter laid to rest
And now and then I try to find
A place in my mind
Where you can stay,
You can stay awake forever - The song "Seize the Day". They may be a hard rock band, but damn they know how to yank at your heartstrings. The guitar solo in the middle of it, especially in the video is beautiful. (Also noting the video is quite a Tear Jerker.)
- The end of "MIA" is about a soldier who can't come to terms with what he's done in war, just completely broken psychologically:Walk the city lonely
Memories that haunt are passing by
A murderer walks your streets tonight
Forgive me for my crimes
Don't forget that I was so young but so scared
In the name of God and country - "Afterlife". The lyrics tell a story of a man who dies too young, but gets a chance to see the afterlife and the option to stay or go back to Earth. In the bridge, he talks about wanting to go back because his family and friends are already mourning his death and he wants a chance to make his life better. At the end of the bridge, before the solo starts, the backing vocals come in screaming "I need another chance to live!". Already a sad song, it became an even bigger tearjerker after The Rev, the drummer who wrote the song and did the backing vocals, died at age 28 — because the song is exactly what happened to him, minus the happy ending.
- The entire Nightmare album minus the tracks "Nightmare" and "Welcome to the Family". The last two tracks "Fiction" and "Save Me" are all about The Rev (who as mentioned above, died).
- "Fiction" is probably the worst, because it's the last song he recorded. That's the Rev singing on the track. Then they perform it live with the empty piano and his vocals playing and there's not a dry eye in the house. It's also worth noting that the majority of the song was recorded in secret by The Rev three days before he died, and it is widely considered by fans and the surviving members of the band to be his suicide note.
- "Brompton Cocktail". It's about a man who has given up living due to a chronic illness and has become addicted to painkillers, asking desperately for one last dose, one that can bring the smile back on his face and free him from his now miserable life. The chorus line below is just too haunting and powerful. As if the entire song wasn't charged with agony and hopelessness:"I'm not running away, been fighting this so long.
Such a price that we pay, we gotta be so strong.
And I'll take my life tonight,
'cause I have the right to die how I wanna,
and leave how I arrived, so alive.." - "Dear God" may also qualify. The tune being a mellow rock combined with the chorus's lines doesn't help matters."Dear God, the only thing I ask of You is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away...
We all need that person who can be true to You
but I left her when I found her
and now I wish I'd stayed...
'cause I'm lonely and I'm tired,
I'm missing you again, oh no...
once again..." - The last ten minutes or so of the All Access DVD thanks to Harsher in Hindsight
- "Acid Rain", which is basically an apocalyptic love story. "There's no death, no end of time, when I'm facing it with you…"
- Debatably, the outro part of "Bat Country" during City of Evil tour between 2005 to 2006 can be this to the fans not living in America or Canada. The band used to performed "Bat Country" as an encore, that means when the band started playing the outro part, you knew that the band's concert would end soon and it would took several years until the band comes to your town again (if you're lucky).
- "Exist" is a mix of despair and slivers of hope. All 15 minutes of it. Especially the monologue that makes up the final 3 minutes, about how human beings are the only threat to their own existence.
- Similarly, "Higher"'s story (about an astronaut going to "meet" a dead comrade who died in space) and ethereal atmosphere are full of sadness, but also warmness and comfort. All of the emotions mix beautifully.Meet you in the stars tonight.
There you find me, drifting in the ether within the lull… - "Cosmic" can tug on the heartstrings of many a fan. In a similar way to "Fiction," it tells from the perspective of a person dying, reassuring their lover that death will not separate them forever.Dancing in the wind as roses born again
There you'll find me
Before the dawn of man in castles made of sand
There you'll find me
Writing in the caves, as fire lights the way
There you'll find me
Mask of royal glow don in pharaoh's clothes
There you'll find me
Rings of dust and ice, weightless in the night
There you'll find me
From all that was before we shut another door
But not a last goodbye…
