Slipknot’s “Wait and Bleed” Lyrics Meaning

Some have described “Wait and Bleed” as being based on a character who dreams about death so frequently that one day, he proceeds to get himself out of the world of the living. And there are also quite a few analysts who seem to have more or less adopted that interpretation. 

But Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, co-writer and lead singer of this piece, said that it’s more generally about how a person can transition from someone that is civil to a very horrible person “at any moment”. 

And yes, deliberately walking into the afterlife can very much be considered a terrible act. But there isn’t anything in these lyrics which clearly allude to self destruction. Indeed, the ending of the second verse rather implies that the vocalist more likely committed murder than take his own life.

The Chorus of “Wait and Bleed”

The lyrics commence with the chorus, where we see that the vocalist is dealing with a serious case of internal hatred. That is not to say that he hates himself. Rather, the related assertion reads more along the lines of him having serious anger-management issues, which are only getting worse.

That is followed by the observation that he “kneel(s) down and clear the stone of leaves”. Ambiguous as that phrase may be, this is one of the lines that has been taken as alluding to self destruction, i.e. the vocalist’s spirit visiting his own gravesite.

And so it is with the sentence that follows, “I wonder out where you can’t see”, i.e. being interpreted by some as pointing to the subject having an out-of-body, spiritual experience. 

But again, it’s not clear where those analysts derived such a notion from. For example, in context that same statement can be taken as the vocalist’s way of putting forth that he is out of his mind, i.e. his crazy thoughts going to places that us normal folk can’t perceive or imagine.

“I’ve felt the hate rise up in me
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves
I wander out where you can’t see
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed
I’ve felt the hate rise up in me
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves
I wander out where you can’t see
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed”

And that idea of the vocalist being psychologically tormented is buttressed in the line that follows, where he describes himself as being ‘inside his shell, waiting and bleeding’. 

Saying that someone is ‘inside of a shell’ is a colloquialism, connoting that they are introverted to a degree that they’re lack of interpersonal interactions can prove unhealthy. 

So taken as such, Corey putting forth that he ‘waits and bleeds’ in the process may be his way of verifying that not only is he mentally trapped in his own little world but furthermore is suffering therein or is having sanguine thoughts.

The Post-Chorus

Afterwards, the post-chorus consists solely of the word “goodbye”. Of course if you adhere to the self destruction theory, that term can be gleaned as the vocalist’s way of noting that he is on the verge of taking his own life, i.e. telling the world “goodbye” beforehand. Or if rather he is a murderer, then that statement is more likely being levied towards his victim.

Verse 1

The first verse then proceeds to effectively depict the vocalist as someone with serious mental issues. We find him apparently inside of his bathroom or kitchen, shaking uncontrollably, suffering from a memory lapse and being engaged in some type of activity that’s “so very wrong”, but he’s getting a kick out of it regardless. 

It may be, considering that the passage starts off with him ‘wiping it off on tile’, that he engaged in an act of self-harm, i.e. one where blood is involved. 

Or perhaps what he is referring to is the blood of someone else, i.e. his victim. And if the latter is true, as seems to be more reasonable, then what we’re dealing with here is perhaps the scene of a violent assault or murder. 

And Corey’s messed up mental state is not only manifested in thrill mixed with horror at what he’s done but also not being able to ascertain if what he’s perceiving is real or not. In fact, based on the question posed at the end of the verse, it does appear that his shaking, etc. is based on “a dream or a memory” and not an actual event.

Verse 2

The second verse, though being ambiguous in its own right, is arguably the clearest segment of this song and one that we can probably use to come to some type of concise conclusion. 

It begins with the vocalist once again reiterating that he has pressing mental problems. But this time around, he depicts himself as being “a victim” and more specifically a “Manchurian candidate”.

That latter phrase is actually the title of a book/movie which centers on, most simply put, a man brainwashed into being an assassin. So the vocalist dubbing himself so is apparently his way of acknowledging that all of the hatred and negative thoughts welled up within are actually from an external and perhaps even intentional source. 

Also, remember that the “Manchurian candidate” is in fact an assassin, not someone who has been brainwashed into deliberating walking out of the land of the living.

Afterwards, Taylor does admit to ‘having sinned by… making his mind up and taking your breath away’. 

Yes, it could be that this line, as with hypothetically some of the others, is a soliloquy. But it more obviously reads as if he has taken someone else’s breath, i.e. the addressee’s, not his own, as in having taking someone’s life, which is more universally recognized as a sin as opposed to intentionally making oneself to depart this world.

In Conclusion

Whether a listener decides to interpret what’s being put forth as alluding to self-destruction or taking a life, going back to Taylor’s explanation, we can argue that conclusively this song serves as a warning against getting caught up in one’s own destructive thoughts. 

This argument is buttressed by the one-sentence outro, which reads “it waits for you”, giving a sense of foreboding, as if any of us can fall victim to such a malady is left unchecked.

The vocalist is ‘inside his shell, waiting and bleeding’, i.e. patiently suffering if you will, which is something that the people around him probably are not privy to. But ultimately all of this frustration does come out, whether through murder or self-destruction as respectively interpreted, which in either case is a terrible outcome.

“Wait and Bleed” is about that “switch” residing in our heads

According to Corey Taylor, “Wait and Bleed” is about that “switch” which can be found in everybody’s head that “can go at any moment”. And in the process, “a civilized” person can morph into a person who does extremely “terrible acts”.