Holy Wars ... the MEGADETH hit : how to interprete it ?

[Comfortably.Numb]

Holy Wars ...... The punishment due

LISTEN TO THE SONG : YouTube - Megadeth - Holy Wars


Resume of the explanation

This one's from Wikipedia :

In April 1988, at a concert in Antrim, Northern Ireland, Mustaine unknowingly dedicated the final song to the IRA[73][74]. Mustaine later alleged that he had been misled as to the meaning of the expression "the cause" by T-Shirt bootleggers outside the venue where they were performing. Before the final song, "Anarchy in the UK", Mustaine said, "This one's for The Cause!". A fight amongst the audience ensued and, according to Mustaine, the band had to travel in a "bulletproof bus" for the remainder of the tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This incident served as inspiration for one of Megadeth's most well-known songs, "Holy Wars… the Punishment Due".


Detailed explanation : (it's interesting to read, not as long as it seems)

The song was inspired after Megadeth performed both in Dublin and in Belfast. In Dublin, Dave Mustaine made a remark about a united Ireland, and the crowd went wild, the mistake however was to mention the same idea in the North. The end result was the band being escorted away in armoured vehicles amongst incredible violence.

Here's the lyrics for you to examine. Anything in italics is my interpretation of the line, though not all of them:


Brother will kill brother (This line being obvious)
Spilling blood across the land
Killing for religion (Again, quite obvious)
Something I don't understand (Dave, being an American, didn't have to face Religious conflicts like the North in the States in any regard!)

Fools like me, who cross the sea (Possibly a reference to his foolish suggestion of a United Ireland, the cross the sea being his American heritage)
And come to foreign lands
Ask the sheep, for their beliefs
Do you kill on God's command? (Again the idea of fighting each other over a religion, each side claiming to be in the right)

A country that's divided (The North's mix of both Catholics and Protestants)
Surely will not stand (How such a divide could actually function as a society)
My past erased, no more disgrace
No foolish naive stand (Mustaine admitting that he is now fully aware of the situation, regretting his previous comments)
The end is near, it's crystal clear
Part of the master plan
Don't look now to Israel
It might be in your homelands (The explanation that he isn't talking about the Middle-East, it's another holy war)

Holy wars......

Upon my podium, as the
Know it all scholar
Down in my seat of judgement
Gavel's bang, uphold the law
Up on my soapbox, a leader
Out to change the world
Down in my pulpit as the holier
Than-thou-could-be-messenger of God (This whole thing could be him talking about himself on stage at the shows talking about the United Ireland, as the messenger of God, that God wants peace in this conflict. The "Know it all Scholar" is likely sarcasm. "Out to Change the World" being an obvious indication of an attempt to resolve the fighting)

Wage the war on organized crime
Sneak attacks, repel down the rocks
Behind the lines (These three lines describing the type of warfare)
Some people risk to employ me
Some people live to destroy me
Either way they die. (This could be suggesting that Republicans "employ" him because the idea of United Ireland appealed to them, the latter being Unionists who sought to kill him)

They killed my wife, and my baby
With hopes to enslave me (Could be a suggestion that as further atrocities affect families, the victims are then dragged into the conflict)
First mistake...last mistake!
Paid by the alliance, to slay all the giants
Next mistake...no more mistakes!

Fill the cracks in, with judicial granite
Because I don't say it, don't mean I ain't thinking it
Next thing you know, they'll take my thoughts away
I know what I said, now I must scream of the overdose
And the lack of mercy killings.

The song makes so much more sense now....

SOURCE : Master Engineer of Sigmar's Realm: Holy Wars......


So, rockers n' metalheads , and not rockers nor metalheads, what do you think about the lyrics of this EPIC song, and how much does it really express the illogic and the atrocity of such religious conflicts ?