"Black Sunday"

Album Art by Chase Stone.

**"Black Sunday"** is a song by the American rock band Coheed and Cambria. It is the fifth song on their 2018 album *Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures*.

## Lyrics

**[Verse 1]**

You leveled everything I ever loved

Disown me, disown me, disown me

You can't be everything that I ever wanted

Can't stop me, stop me, stop me

**[Chorus]**

Hate... 'cause I am multiplying

Hate... 'cause I am multiplying

Who knew giving up would feel so good?

I, I lose, I lose

Keep pretending it's trust and see what that gets you

Your move, your move

**[Verse 2]**

I'll be the air you need when your lungs give out

Teasing, teasing, teasing

You'll be the care I need when I'm without

Loving, loving, love me

**[Chorus]**

Hate... 'cause I am multiplying

Hate... 'cause I am multiplying

Who knew giving up would feel so good?

I, I lose, I lose

Keep pretending it's trust and see what that gets you

Your move, your move

**[Bridge]**

Black Sunday, Black Sunday, Black Sunday

**[Verse 3]**

I'm tired of lying to you

And letting you down *(Black Sunday)*

The situation turned raw from abuse

I'll be your clown

I'll be the one for you to use, Black Sunday

Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies

For you to use, black Sunday

Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies

*(For you to use, black Sunday)*

We're here to catch the bomb

*(Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies)*

We're here to catch the bomb

*(For you to use, black Sunday)*

We're here to catch the bomb

*(Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies)*

**[Outro]**

La-dee-da-dee-di, la-dee-da-dee-di

*(For you to use, black Sunday)*

La-dee-da-dee-di, la-dee-da-dee-di

*(Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies)*

La-dee-da-dee-di, la-dee-da-dee-di

*(For you to use, black Sunday)*

La-dee-da-dee-di, la-dee-da-dee-di

*(Cover over my eyes, cover over the lies)*

## Story Context

In this song, Nostrand has been captured and sent to Zero Level where he will become a subserver—a person who is chained to the earth to do the dangerous work of harvesting the core energy of the planet. Here, Nia works as the Glass Widow, doing the bidding of the Warden. The thoughts and feelings expressed here are not just Nostrand's, but the collective of subservers. Zero Level makes everyone equal, gives them purpose, and lets them be consumed by their thoughts. For Nostrand, he is simply relived to have found Nia safe and sound.

The first verse is specifically Nostrand thinking about his situation. "You leveled everything I ever loved / Disown me, disown me, disown me" is how he thinks Nia views the situation: he is just another subserver now. No past, no history. She's disowned him. "You can't be everything that I ever wanted / Can't stop me, stop me, stop me" is him trying to square that away; accept it. She refuses to be anything for him. But still, he can't help it.

The chorus starts with "Hate, 'cause I am multiplying" which describes the collective of the subservers. They worked tirelessly and mindlessly. They are consumed by their pasts and thoughts, but in the end, it is completely self-contained. "Who knew giving up would feel so good? / I, I lose, I lose" is back to Nos who is content to die here since Nia is also here. He doesn't need to get off-planet anymore. "Keep pretending it's trust and see what that gets you / Your move, your move" shows the deeper deception behind his thoughts: He says he content to stay, but this is solely because he trusts that Nia *won't* let him die. He's leaving the next move up to her.

Back to Verse 2, we get "I'll be the air you need when your lungs give out / Teasing, teasing, teasing" which is Nos' hope that Nia still needs him, and that being here, around her will be enough of a trigger to get her to come around. "You'll be the care I need when I'm without / Loving, loving, love me" is his own confession to needing her.

The bridge is a repetition of the song title. In the context of the song, "Black Sunday" probably is a perversion of Sunday being a holy day of reverence for God where Nia as the Glass Widow is in that role. Nos, who has not shown any religious inclination, may choose to think of his situation as a pseudo-church and his actions as a type of reverence to Nia, who he clearly worships.

Verse 3 changes the tone to a kind of euphoric babble. "I'm tired of lying to you / And letting you down" is very clearly Nos to Nia. "The situation has turned raw from abuse" means that he's already beaten himself down to the bone; he can't pick himself apart anymore. "I'll be your clown / I'll be the one for you to use, black Sunday" is him basically saying, "I'll do anything to make amends. Whatever, HOWever, you need, I'll do it." And again the use of "Black Sunday," which here, seems to support the idea that she's his God. And then, halfway through, we get a preview of what is to come: "We're here to catch the bomb" which describes when Nia comes to him quietly in the night and tells him about the planet's lifespan and asks for him to help her.

The Outro gives off, again, a feeling of euphoric babble: Someone having lost their mind, but being happy about it.

## Trivia

* In a Rolling Stone interview, Sanchez said that his inspiration for this song was a quote by Kurt Vonnegut: "Life is no way to treat an animal." He said that he attempted to write a song that Vonnegut might write if he were a songwriter. "I took that and fed that into the subservers of the Dark Sentencer."
* The name of the song may be a nod to the 1977 film of the same name as Claudio is a huge fan of films, especially horror/thriller films.

## References

1. ↑ Coheed and Cambria. Booklet. *Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures*, RoadRunner Records, 2018.
2. ↑ https://genius.com/albums/Coheed-and-cambria/Vaxis-act-i-the-unheavenly-creatures
3. ↑ https://genius.com/Coheed-and-cambria-black-sunday-lyrics
4. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/coheed-and-cambrias-claudio-sanchez-on-resuming-the-amory-wars-707534/