“Death Is All Around” by The Amity Affliction
As we have undoubtedly noted before on this website, Australia is one of the countries that has been most notably strict in the name of combating the coronavirus. Indeed, the term ‘COVID-related death’ can potentially take on a whole new meaning in the land down under.
And the reason such is brought to mind is because The Amity Affliction has noted that the ongoing lockdowns, on top of how such has ravaged Australian tourism, is the main inspiration behind this song. Or more specifically this piece is meant to reflect how, in the very least at the time of this song’s penning, that said situation appeared to be hopeless to the Amity Affliction crew.
And we are compelled to mention the aforenoted inspiration for two reasons. First of course is such actually being important in analyzing the song. But second would be because the lyrics themselves don’t actually reflect anything to do with COVID.
Well, if we’re talking about global coronavirus deaths in general then yes, it would be understandable why the vocalist asserts that “death is all around”. But as of the writing of this post, Australia itself has experienced a little over 2,000 COVID-19 deaths. The said number relatively speaking is on the low end of the global pandemic casualty spectrum.
The Lyrics of “Death is all Around”
But ultimately, whether or not people are literally ‘dying all around’ the vocalist is unimportant. For in actuality, what appears to be more to the point is the singer being suicidal or, more euphemistically speaking, preoccupied with death.
However, despite being woefully pessimistic and perceiving death as an encompassing part of his environment, the conclusive sentiment of this piece actually revolves around the narrator’s resolve not to give up.
That is apparently what Ahren means in the pre-chorus, when he defines “love”, from his own personal perspective, as ‘barely holding on and gritting his teeth’. Premise-wise, he understands ‘what he holds being more precious than gold’. And what he holds which is so valuable is in fact his life. Therefore ‘barely holding on and gritting his teeth’ is equivalent to the narrator saying, excuse our French, that even though life thoroughly sucks, he is resisting the temptation to just give up.
And as for the chorus proper, it reads as if the vocalist is addressing a loved one, someone who is trying to help him fight this depression. However, he is in so deep that their words are not getting through.
In Conclusion
So even though we know Australia’s controversially-stringent anti-COVID measures inspired this song, how so is not abundantly clear. But the logical implication in that regard would be that just the fact that Australians had to radically alter their lifestyle in the name of fighting a potentially-fatal disease would likewise result in such individuals also constantly thinking about the prospect of dying.
In other words, it’s unlikely that anyone down with The Amity Affliction has literally resided in an environment, i.e. a warzone or even a country with massive COVID-19 fatalities, where ‘death was all around’.
But we human beings are also naturally empathetic. And sometimes just being placed in a situation where such is being advertised as potentially transpiring or even watching the news too much can relatedly put us in a deeply-pessimistic, hopeless state.
The Amity Affliction
The Amity Affliction is a band of rockers from Australia. Throughout the years, they have established themselves as an A list musical act down under. They dropped their first studio album (“Severed Ties”) in 2008.
Also as of late 2010s the crew began charting in the UK and US also. They achieved this feat with their most successful album globally to date being 2016’s “This Could Be Heartbreak”.
Release Date of “Death Is All Around”
Meanwhile “Death Is All Around” was released on the 14th of December, 2021. The song is part of the group’s “Somewhere Beyond the Blue” studio project. It was released as one of the project’s singles. Some other singles found on this project are:
- “Like Love”
- “Give Up the Ghost”
Credits
The membership of The Amity Affliction has fluctuated since the band’s formation in the early aughts. The only individual that has been down with the group since 2003 is co-founder Ahren Stringer. And the other participants as of the writing of this post are:
- Joel Birch
- Dan Brown
- Joe Longobardi
This song was written by its two vocalists, Birch and Stringer, alongside their bandmate, guitarist Brown. And the label that put this track out is US-based Pure Noise Records.
