Nemesis (Cradle of Filth)
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- For other uses, see Nemesis.
"Nemesis" is a song on Cradle of Filth's 2004 album, Nymphetamine. The song lasts for 7 Minutes and 17 seconds, and has received much praise for its lyrics, complex-yet-catchy guitar riffs and solos, and traditional black metal blast beats.
[edit] Lyric Meaning and Formation
The lyrics of this song revolve around a character, namely Nemesis, whose daughter has been killed in unnamed circumstances: possibly "collateral damage" in an unspecified war. In the song, Nemesis mentions that he is "the priest of a new disorder... who bears a hatred for the western world", strongly suggesting that his daughter died as a result of one of America's military actions, such as the war in Iraq (though Palestine is also mentioned). Nemesis' daughter dies in his arms, and his grief and rage provoke him into a retaliatory global rampage, assembling an army to support him (the "disorder" of which he is "priest"). The song does not reveal how his jihad ends.
Nemesis' name (and its usage as a noun) is obviously derived from that of the winged Goddess Nemesis; described by the Oxford English Dictionary as "righteous indignation, personified as the goddess of retribution or vengeance". Taken literally, the song's lyrics would seem to suggest that Nemesis shares his goddess namesake's supernatural vengeful powers: the first verse, for example, seems to suggest that Nemesis has the ability to fly. It seems equally likely however, that Nemesis' "wings" are metaphorical, with the phrase "a shrike cacophony of war" suggesting that he claims a kinship with the predatory songbird that impales its prey on thorns (although the fact that the shrike 5.56 is also a type of machine gun might suggest another interpretation).
