Slipknot - Danger - Keep Away Lyrics Meaning

Until reading some of these explanations, I was sure this song was about the loss of another. Now, it's obvious to me, like nearly every Slipknot song, it's not what it seems on the surface. As one person said, it truly is "subliminal verses".

Addiction is hell, and we all suffer from it in one form or another. Just because you don't do drugs or drink doesn't mean you're not an addict.

Remember, even if you can't find yourself through your addictions, you'll die right next yourself in the end. We all die alone in our final seconds and you have to make peace with what you've done. If not now, then it will haunt your last fleeting moments as you fade into darkness.

"We too feel alone"

All addicts feel alone, especially when they're drunk, high, intoxicated by the one thing they can't seem to quit.

"That place in my mind. Is that space that you call 'mine'?"

No matter how much you try the thought of your true desire always seems to hold permanent place in your mind.

"Where have I been all this time?"

When it consumes you, you forget there is so much more than just you. Looking back, you can't remember where you were, or worse, who you were.

"Lost enslaved, fatal decline"

Think about it. You are a slave to it, and it slowly kills you.

"I've been waiting for this to unfold"

The day you must realize what you've done.

"but, the pieces are only as good as the whole"

You can pick up the pieces all you want, but you'll never be whole again, but for the pieces that were lost while you were busy being a slave.

"I severed myself from my own life"

Again when it takes hold you lose touch with reality and yourself.

"I cut out the only thing that was right"

You've removed yourself from the best things in life so you could indulge in your addiction.

"What if I never saw you again? I'd die right next you in the end"

Even if your never touch it again, you will know the damage it's caused. It will always be a part of you.

"I won't let you walk away, without hearing what I have to say"

You'll never escape your own disappointment in yourself. You'll always be stuck with the internal voices shaming the very behavior you crave so much.

For me, this song not only describes an addiction, but also a person, nodding to the face value of the lyrics. I've never truly had her, nor her I. However, the thought never leaves me. I destroy relationships, among other aspects of my life for a person who never really existed. Instead I yearn for the picture I painted in my head of what we could have been. Even though I know that was never possible and was not the person she really was. It doesn't stop my insatiable lust for the idea. In this way I am sick, allowing myself to indulge in substances to fill an unfillable void. One that was never meant to exist.

That space in my mind, is space where the idea will forever live, never to see the light of reality.

Lyrics always have an intended purpose, but interpretation is what gives the song true meaning, and the ways in which it can be interpreted are infinite. This is the true art of music.