Ok, an explanation to these two indredible and dark songs. Pt1, is the POV of a stalker (Probably serial killer) talking about a broken girl he's becoming obsessed. The "I can't make her real" is encouraging himself to not become too obsessed. Pt 2, he already got her and killed her, and now in a sad and nostalgic mood is realizing that he cannot have her anymore because he already killed her. In the ther hand, she's very distressed in the Pt1, but seems in peace in Pt2. It's pretty similar to the movie Perfume, because he realizes that nothing gonna be the same after her. Dark, deep s#!t, but artistically beautiful songs and videos.
I had never heard that, pretty cool concept. I always took it as, in some of the same idea, somebody in love with another that doesn’t reciprocate, and how they fight withy he selves about the person not being that great and overpowering figure, and that no matter what, you can’t make them live up to how you’ve built them in your head. Cool to hear the actual story though!
That is pretty much my interpretation of it as well. Definitely makes sense as Corey Taylor was really into true crime and serial killers back then, with songs like Purity and Iowa
9:15 Corey is also an actor 😂 Movies with him: Sharknado 4 (2016), Fear Clinic (2014) with Robert Englund aka Freddy Krueger, Bad Candy (2020), Rucker (2022), Officer Downe (2016) This movie is directed by Shawn Crahan aka Clown of Slipknot. and Slipknot's DJ Sid Wilson is in on the movie too
You nailed it when you said she is almost like this "thing" instead of a person. I think the "thing" is an object of someones obsession, in this case just happens to also be a person. But yes, music generally appeals to many people for many reasons and can be taken many different ways. But I also think that the words sort of convey being torn as to what to do with the feelings of obsessing after someone without reciprocation.
The field is his mind. The girl is in his imagination. The more he thinks about her, the more she moves, almost seems real. But she isn't and he knows he needs to move on. The verse at the end when she's landing back to the ground, "She, isn't real... I can't make her real"
I don't like slipknot at all, I am not a slipknot fan. That being said, this is one of my favourite songs of all time, I absolutely love playing it on guitar as well. I am a massive Corey Taylor fan. Like me and my brother used to get in literal fist fights when we were kids because he would put slipknot on to piss me off sometimes, I absolutely hated them xD
I’m surprised no one else has figured this out yet, but it’s actually about his ex wife Scarlet. You see, scarlet is a shade of red. Vermilion is also a shade of red. Hence why the title is Vermilion. As for the lyrics…have you ever fallen in love with someone only to later realize that the person you fell for was just an illusion? That’s what he’s talking about. Sometimes when you love someone you build up all these ideas in your mind about who they are. You idolize them and make them the center of your world. You view them as a culmination of all your hopes and dreams. And then they break your heart and it shatters your entire reality because you built your whole life around them. You thought you had found true love, but they were just a “myth”. You realize that the person you fell in love with wasn’t real and it’s the hardest thing to accept. The video portrays her being dead because he’s mourning the person he thought she was. His idea of her has died. Both songs represent different stages of grief. Part 1 is about his anger and his unhealthy obsession over her. Part 2 is about acceptance and the deep sorrow that comes with it.
I thought he came out in an interview shortly after the song was released, saying the song was about a serial killer. Stalking, and eventually killing her in part 2. He was a psychopath. hence the words "She's the only thing that makes me feel". Psychopaths often get off on the adrenaline of stalking and killing. Since it's the only thing that makes them feel something.
Both songs are sung from the perspective of a serial killer if I remember correctly. Part one is while stalking the girl. Part 2 is after he had done what he does. Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken. The songs deal with the struggle of him dealing with the desire, knowing he shouldn't cave to them and finally his justification of it.
Yes, its about a woman who is captured, abused, then discarded. The person who the song is being written from the perspective of is obsessed and saying things about how important the woman is, yet here we see her blowing around like a dried up leaf, dead in a field
In terms of Corey, acoustic songs and his vocal abilities i cannot recommend the song Taciturn from his other band Stone Sour high enough. It's incredibly under-rated and there's a live version from the same HATED set where he performed Snuff which is just 🤌👌
There's a few Slipknot songs that initially sound like some form of unrequited love, but have an interesting or very dark twist on who or what the object of affection is. Killpop on first listen comes across as a toxic relationship, but it's not about a person. Prosthetic is more overtly covering the themes that these two songs are about...it's masterfully discordant and unsettling while still keeping you hooked
Part 1 is about a killer stalking a victim. The unlucky woman (victim) has had his (the killers) completely unrealistic and unreasonable wants and needs projected onto her from afar in his own head and now he stalks her looking for the right time to make his move, all the while building her up into something that can only exist in his head. He needs her to be all these things he wants but can't make her real no matter how hard he tries and how delusional he becomes. Part 2 is the aftermath of his "actions". Its the simultaneous relief and let-down that follows what was the "climax" of his twisted actions. Its the killer spending time with her after she's "gone" and still trying to make something out of his failure while at the same time reveling in what he perceives as his domination over her.
Most straightforward interpretation is memory. A "dead thing" that "dances in the wind" "Well it didn't seem to smile on us those days Now it seemed to smile on us those days" shout out to Sikth The breeze as a symbol for "what will pass" [etc] being a stand in for the stream of consciousness that pulls towards longing, as it "picks up" and "plays with" this thing that once was. At the emotional height of the vocal performance the eyes almost open, as if you can see it all again, but then it quickly fades again. Pretty sure one can go deep on a good bit of Slipknot stuff but this one seems like it can be boiled down pretty simple, at least with regards to the rough theme
HE KILLED HER STREACHED COVERED IN HIS SHAM PHYSICAL EVDANCE. SHE IS COVERED IN HIS SHAME! BEAUTIFUL! LISTEN TO SNUFF ITS VERY BEAUTIFUL AS WELL. YES HE MADE HER PASS AWAY. IT CAN MUSIC IS LIKE THIS EVERYONE INTERPES MUSIC LYRICS DIFFERENTLY
At the beginning of Vermilion Part 1, you are worried she is dead and they were clay animating her. And then you struggled with coming to that conclusion in part two where it was actually happening.
My interpretation from the videos is in pt1 she feels alone there are all these people around her but no one seems interested in her she wants love but doesn't see it anywhere. In pt2 she has died and it is from the perspective of the ones she left behind and they are realizing what they lost. I think that's why she looks like an empty shopping bag blowing in the wind like discarded trash.
Believe it or not Corey did not write the majority of their music. Usually Paul, Joey and Shawn wrote it. Now it is more Corey and Shawn. I gotta say though Corey is an incredible poet and SNUFF shows it perfectly.
Rachel, I KNOW you've reacted to "Snuff". But, have you seen the "Snuff" mini movie? With Malcom McDowell? IF you "get it", I think it would explain quite a bit.(Corey IS the GIRL) It explains a lot. And it certainly trickles over into other band projects. NO MATTER HOW you look at it, in the long run, it does NOTHING to detract from Corey's talent. PERIOD!
If you take away “..when she makes me sad.” from “Now I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do..” it really sounds like something a killer/stalker would say after committing an act. Slipknot is beautifully horrific 🤘🏼✌🏼
Lol it's a stalking serial killer's pov b4 and after killing the chick.....in 1st vid everything around is moving at warp speed like obsessive racing thoughts, while 2nd vid is slow sad melancholic introspective tone of finality.
These songs are very much about obsessiveness and probably schizophrenia or some other mental illness. In pt.1, the character telling us the story is stalking this girl, but never makes any actions to approach her, before realizing she's not even real. In pt.2, I guess, he is trying to come to grips with the girl not being real, and realizing he can't make her real - she is "dead". The masks the band dons ontop of their regular masks in pt.1 are typically refered to their "death masks", a foreshadowing of the story in pt.2 - as if the band knows something that the character in the song doesn't. The fact that everyone and everything rushes by in pt.1 is that the girls is really a figment of imagination of the mentally ill guy, and her actions and desperation are reflections on the character's mental state.
Corey said pt 1 is that he was stalking her making her feel alone and crazy..and pt 2 he killed her..pt 1 the butterfly is showing she wanted to be free from him..pt 2 she is still floating around in his head
I remember the first time I heard this song, it was so different than anything Slipknot had ever released up until that point. they never did any acoustic ballads in their first two albums,
Another great reaction. I personally like this one more than part 1, i think sometimes the softer Slipknot hits harder than the heavier one for me. If you want another cool part 1 - part 2 songs i recommend Tears Don't Fall part 1 (this one has a music video, short radio version as usual) and 2 by Bullet for my Valentine.
3:30, Tumbleweed was the things blowing around you wanted. It’s a really nice calming song for Slipknot, really nice! Like your reaction to it, it was confusing, I don’t get the links but they must have had an aim for the message!
He built up how she should be and react to him in his mind and when she didn't live up to what he had set out as what she should be to him being a homicidal maniac he killed her and left her body in a field. "She isn't real. I can't make her real" was the realization that what he had set out in his mind as who she was, was not her at all and when that happened he snapped. Not that the character was the most stable person to begin with i mean he killed her just because she didn't live up to his crazy expectation of what he thought she should be to him. Which is how all stalkers act and is a totally pathetic way to exist.
She is like the bag from American Beauty. The story betwn Vermilion 1 and 2 is not that complicated. Its a very violent poetry about darkest desire and what comes of it.
GURL! U just baffled by the whole thing! Corey has a way of doing that w/ his vocals, he’s amazing! What I got out of this was, a past relationship that he can’t have he anymore. (She isn’t Real, I can’t make her real) 😢So, she has to be a past for him. And make her dead in his head. 😔
Vermilion part1 is tells about the drugs addction almost killed Corey Taylor several times. the part two is about the acceptance and overrun. It's the calm down after passthrought from turmoil presented in the part 1.
My unrequested, barely-informed, overly personal interpretation: _Vermilion_ was about how when everything you feel is only varying amounts of hate, the crush you have on her _feels_ so close to an escape from that hate, but at some point, you realize who you're _seeing_ is not who you're looking at. Who you're _seeing_ is not real. That your _heart,_ bent on escaping the hate, has inadvertently actually set a trap. The instictual hormonal/pheromonal call and response has been used by your heart against your self-hating mind to get its emotional nails a grip under the mental scab and _(won't let this build up inside of me)_ open the self-loathing abscess to let it drain. A _(won't)_ spiteful will to live using any means necessary _(let this)_ to stop your depressed appetite for self-destruction. A false hope driving you to keep climbing for a _real_ hope. _Vermilion Pt. 2_ is about how, after the storm, after the break-up, after the end, even though it was wrong, it was not real, it was an illusion; it kept you going a _bit_ longer. Maybe things didn't get _good,_ but they got _better._ Sometimes, though, over the years, the winds of your thoughts sweep the plains of your mind, and they pick up the corpses you've left there. The false hopes. The childish things. The necessary means. The unjustified hates. The mistaken wants. You think about these things, float them before your mind's eye, turning them, twisting them through all axes... is there a new angle to see this from? Is there something new to learn from another observation? Is there more to understand about all this? Science is all about limited data describing unlimited concepts. Art is all about limited language describing unlimited feelings. Being human is all about knowing we don't know everything, but doing the best we can with what we do know. Maybe.
I just wanna say it for the record, you're so pretty. Like if I lived in your state id want to take you on a nice dinner date. You're just so lovely to look at. I just wanna watch you talk and make you laugh. 🙂
she's definitely unalive in this song. The pigment in eyes looks ice blue like this because corneal opacity or like a film over the eye. it's also very disturbing how her beat up body (possibly tape on wrists?) still looks beautiful and they still sexualize her with visual angles of her legs and chest/neck.
Corey Taylor has said this about this both parts of Vermillion "Vermilion Pt. 1' is about the enrapturing, the buildup, the anticipation and the neurosis, Part 2' is the aftermath, the pieces that have to be picked up later, and maybe the guilt of having lived through it."
