Skillet: Hero

This song has a special place in my heart. I first heard it while driving through the Mojave. That morning I'd spent a good hour on a rock ledge above snake-infested brush, and found one of the more awe-inspiring sites I've seen (Neotoma nest in a limestone cave--doesn't mean much until you've spent a few years reading about them). The song seemed to fit with the general theme of the day.

Ayn Rand wrote that Motzart's works weren't something she enjoyed, because they represented the futile fight against the world. This song has a similar feel, but there's something more to it, I think. There's two reasons: First, there's the fact that the song has two singers. Typically this is pretty unimportant--whether there's one violin or two really doesn't impact the theme of the piece, after all, and singers are essentially instruments. But in this case, the fact that there are multiple singers lends a feeling of comeradery to this song. It's the feeling you have on a shieldwall--we may die, but we're dying together. That sense that someone's beside you is critically important, I'd say one of the most important aspects of life. Formally, it's the recognition that another has granted you their moral sanction.

The second part is illustrated by the lines "And if they kill me tonight/I will be ready to die". The simple fact of the matter is that you don't always win. Sometimes, even those who have right on their side lose, and die. But you have to fight anyway. Some things are too terrible to live with, and the only rational options are to destroy the creators of those situations or to die. In a culture that's watered down our commentary, even within our own minds, as much as our culture has, this is important to remember.

There are two problems I have with this song, however.

First, the song assumes that heroes are altruistic. A hero isn't one who saves others, a hero is one who makes the world what it should be--the others are just along for the ride.

Second, until the very end of the song the singers seem to be passive, waiting on a hero to save them. This may be part of the song--they may have been trying to capture the feelings at the moment of the transition from "This is horrifying" to "And I won't stand for it!", but the fact that the main concern of the song is that something external to the situation will change it for the singers is annoying, to say the least.

All in all, a good song, and one that I certainly enjoy. But it has some pretty deep flaws.

Funny you should mention this song Dinwar, since I feel much the same way about it. Its one of the few mainstream-esque rock song that I listen to these days, mostly because of its topic rather than anything else (though absent the lyrics, its an okay song in its own right).

I have to admit, though, that I took a slightly different interpretation of the lyrics than you seem to.

I agree about the chorus, that it seems to be from the perspective of people saying "OH SHIT I NEED SOMEONE TO SAVE ME!!"

The verses, however, I took to be from the hero's perspective. The whole losing his faith, feeling 'the hate', being a step from the edge, 'its just another day', and so on spoke to me of a hero thats becoming jaded with the world and his 'duty' as a hero. That was based solely on the lyrics as I heard them, and before I actually read the whole lyrics in front of me. After I read them it seems like you had the better interpretation