“Knives” by Bullet for My Valentine
Most readers don’t likely need us to tell them that Bullet for My Valentine’s “Knives” is heavily symbolic. But we would venture to say that the message underneath it all is pretty simple. And we’re also going to try to keep this explanation as basic as possible to avoid potentially overanalyzing “Knives”, which is very easy to do with songs that rely on metaphors as much as this one does.
Untrustworthy Humans
And what Matthew Tuck is speaking to, most simply put, is the concept of human beings being untrustworthy. That is the impression we get dealing with terminology such as “living with snakes” and references to a “venomous tongue”, not to mention more overt wording like “kill” and “betrayal”.
And what it appears the vocalist is saying is that via such unfavorable characteristics, we tend to destroy our own interpersonal relationships. And “bring out the knives” would be a metaphor for what happens afterwards, i.e. us making a conscientious effort “to cut” the memories of said relationship out of our minds – so to speak, or something like that.
That concept appears to be important to the overall message because by behaving in such a manner, the implication is that we tend to erroneously consider ourselves victims. Or put differently, when a relationship falls apart due to constant turmoil – a reality that most of us likely have experienced – we don’t tend to think that such occurrences are our own faults. Rather we feel it’s always the other person who is to blame. And this is then why we go about trying to extract memories of said individuals from our psyche.
Or, at least that seems to be what this song is about. People go into relationships with their own existent personality issues. But then when things fall apart, they rarely seem to be under the impression that said issues have contributed to the association’s downfall. So it would appear that the ultimate lesson in all of this is something like keep it real with yourself before your own actions contribute to propagating unhappiness in your life.
Summary of “Knives”
In all, “Knives” posits that our own personal flaws contribute to the destruction of our relationships.
Interesting Facts
This is the lead single for a 2021 self-titled album from Bullet for My Valentine. It is actually their seventh full-length with the first, “The Poison”, having been released in 2005.
Their debut also appears to have been their most commercially-successful album to date, selling over a million and-a-half copies and going gold in the United States and United Kingdom. And that project is also whereupon their best-received single to date, “Tears Don’t Fall” (2006), is also situated.
“Knives” came along with its own music video, which Fiona Garden directed. The producer of the song itself is Carl Bown. And band frontman Matthew Tuck wrote it alongside one Michael Paget. Michael Paget (aka Padge, guitarist) is a member of Bullet for My Valentine.
The other members of the crew are Jamie Mathias (bassist) and Jason Bowld (drummer). Like Tuck, Padge has been down with Bullet for My Valentine since day one. Jamie and Jason respectively joined in 2015 and 2017.
Bullet for My Valentine hail from Wales, having formed at an institution there called Bridgend College. They signed with Spinefarm in 2016, after having previously worked under Jive, RCA and others.
