City Of Evil (2005) "Bat Country"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
A7X official video

He who makes a beast out of himself
Gets rid of the pain of being a man

Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay.

I tried to drive all through the night,
The heart stroke ridden weather, the barren empty sights.
No oasis here to see, the sand is singing deathless words to me.

Can't you help me as I'm startin' to burn (all alone).
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction.
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone).
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention.

As I adjust to my new sights the rarely tired lights will take me to new heights.
My hand is on the trigger I'm ready to ignite.
Tomorrow might not make it but everything's all right.
Mental fiction follows me; show me what it's like to be set free.

Can't you help me as I'm startin' to burn (all alone).
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction.
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone).
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention.

So sorry you're not here I've been sane too long my vision's so unclear.
Now take a trip with me but don't be surprised when things aren't what they seem.

Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay.
These eyes won't see the same, after I flip today.

Sometimes I don't know why we'd rather live than die,
we look up towards the sky for answers to our lives.
We may get some solutions but more just pass us by,
don't want your absolution cause I can't make it right.
I'll make a beast out of myself, gets rid of all the pain of being a man.

Can't you help me as I'm startin' to burn (all alone).
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction.
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone).
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention.

So sorry you're not here I've been sane too long my vision's so unclear.
Now take a trip with me but don't be surprised when things aren't what they seem.
I've known it from the start all these good ideas will tear your brain apart.
Scared but you can follow me I'm too weird to live but much too rare to die

The poet delivers a sort of tongue-in-cheek view of the high rollin' lifestyle he and the rest of his merry band lead -- good times, good times. What he describes is the hedonist's utopia.

"Hedonism is a school of ethics (ethics, also known as "moral philosophy," is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and bad, noble and ignoble, right and wrong, justice, and virtue) which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good.

The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure is the only thing that has intrinsic value. This is often used as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain (i.e. suffering) they produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize this net pleasure (pleasure minus pain)."

When watching A7X's official video it's clear that hedonism is the central theme, but there is also an underlying warning: with the pursuit of pleasure also comes the price, knowingly paid by the poet and his compatriots. There is an exchange of the soul so that the man becomes a beast.

Sometimes I don't know why we'd rather live than die,
we look up towards the sky for answers to our lives.
We may get some solutions but more just pass us by,
don't want your absolution cause I can't make it right.
I'll make a beast out of myself, gets rid of all the pain of being a man.

Is it worth it?

On the one hand you and I have the promise of maybe seventy or eighty years of life on this planet. We can squeeze quite a lot of pleasure out of those years if we have the resources. But even at that, much of what we consider pleasurable has a poison in it. Indulge yourself and you will reap the physical byproducts of disease, parasites, waste and decay. Age ends up not being so much a matter of years, but of mileage.

And that's only the earthly price. What of the spiritual price of exchanging one's soul for a "trip," as the poet refers to this journey into Bat country (the world of A7X, the world of hedonism)? Is eighty years of declining health and mental capacity due to indulgence heavy enough to weight the balance of eternity?

It's not that pleasure is wrong, or that the pursuit of pleasure is wrong. Think of it this way, the way Paul, an early follower of Jesus, put it:

"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything.

and

"All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.

The emphasis for those who follow hedonism is escape from pain through self indulgence. Think what that will do to your relationships alone, when selfish, self-centered and self-indulgent people get involved with each other.

But for those who follow the way of Jesus, Paul wrote,

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death

Think of that while you read the poet's spiritual lament,

Can't you help me as I'm startin' to burn (all alone).
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction.
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone).
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention.

Self-centered versus other-centered, a radically different lifestyle. Pleasure, joy, enjoyment, it's all there, for followers of the Way, but it's being given to each other instead of being taken from each other.

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