Body and Blood by Ghost Lyrics Meaning – Decoding the Sacred and Profane
Lyrics
A reek from the ground
Catches whiff of the hound
A dead ones breath
The casket lid is cold
Waiting inside
Is someone petrified
That odors old
His body and blood
Sharing in common
His body and blood
His body and blood
Serving Messiah ooh
His body and blood
Sharing in common
His body and blood
His body and blood
Serving Messiah
Son of God
The bitter taste is sweet
So eat Nazarene
And you kiss the obscene
Anointed feet
His body and blood
Sharing in common
His body and blood
His body and blood
Serving Messiah ooh
His body and blood
Sharing in common
His body and blood
His body and blood
Serving Messiah
Son of God
Receive, consume
Receive, consume
Digest
Defecate
His body and blood
Sharing in common
His body and blood
His body and blood
Serving Messiah
Son of God
Ghost, the enigmatic rock band known for their theatrical flair and satanic motifs, has never been one to shy away from controversy. Their song ‘Body and Blood’ is no exception. Teeming with religious innuendo and an undercurrent of sacrilege, the lyrics paint a picture that both repels and fascinates, reckoning with themes at the heart of human ritual and belief.
At first brush, the song appears to be an invocation of religious sacrament turned on its head, presenting a twisted reflection of communion rites. However, delving deeper reveals a complex layering of satire, spirituality, and the satiation of carnal desires, all shrouded in the guise of a seemingly traditional liturgical reference.
The Stark Imagery of Mortality and Decay
From the onset, Ghost sets a scene filled with the macabre. The opening lines guide us through a morbid landscape, carrying a scent of the supernatural. Death, an inescapable theme, serves as the backdrop for the entire narrative — challenging listeners to confront the physicality of death.
This emphasis on the tactile sensations—coldness, rot, and decay—do more than paint a picture; they question the permanency of the body, and in doing so, set the stage for an exploration of bodily transcendence through the acts depicted in the chorus.
Communion or Sacrilege? Treading the Blurred Line
The chorus of ‘Body and Blood’ is a twisted echo of Christian doctrine — the idea of communion, of sharing in the flesh and blood of Christ, is transformed into something altogether more human and profane. Yet, there’s an ironic sacredness in the way Ghost frames it ‘Sharing in common, serving Messiah,’ hinting at a communal experience with an edge of blasphemy.
The deliberate duality of these lyrics forces listeners to reflect on the sanctity of rituals and how easily they might be subverted, questioning where reverence ends and irreverence begins.
Indulgence in the Forbidden: A Tantalizing Taste
The line ‘The bitter taste is sweet’ is a provocative juxtaposition that hints at the dual nature of forbidden pleasures. By urging to ‘eat Nazarene’, Ghost is not just toying with the sacrosanct, they’re flatly inviting their audience to take pleasure in the inversion of holy sacraments.
Kissing ‘the obscene Anointed feet’ subverts the idea of worship, suggesting a form of adoration that is both devotional and desecrating — a conflation of piety and perversion that dares to redefine what is divine and what is debased.
An Eerie Liturgical Chant: The Power in Repetition
The song’s simplicity in structure, with repeated lyrical lines much like a hymn or prayer, adds to its chilling poignance. The mantra-like repetition of ‘His body and blood’ cements the theme, and by echoing traditional liturgical music, Ghost effectively baptizes the listener into their sacrilegious sermon.
Additionally, the repeated calls to ‘Receive, consume, Digest, Defecate’ mimic the process of communion but also underscore the human, biological reality of consumption—stripping any spiritual act of eating to its most base level, again questioning the boundaries between the sacred and the profane.
The Hidden Meaning: Provocation as a Path to Enlightenment
Ghost is renowned for provoking thought through provocation, and ‘Body and Blood’ operates on this same cerebral level. There’s a deeper narrative playing beneath the surface — an invitation to question tradition, and to recognize that blasphemy and divinity can be two sides of the same coin.
By challenging the listener to reevaluate the meanings behind religious allegory and ritual, Ghost’s message could be a call to find one’s own truth amidst the dictates of dogma. Whether seen as sacrilege or satire, the song ultimately serves up a feast for thought.
