Provision

Album: Rescue & Restore (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • August Burns Red open their sixth album, Rescue & Restore, with this tune. Drummer Matt Greiner told Antiquiet that this was his favorite song to write drums to for on the disc because of its diversity. He explained: "The song has the natural 'flow' of an August Burns Red song all the way until the middle section when Dustin (our bass player) plays by himself before ushering in the rest of the instrumentation. The drum groove I came up with has an 'afro-Cuban' feeling and feels paradoxical to the guitar riff that JB wrote. Sometimes contrasting sounds actually complement each other and I hope people feel the same way I do about that in regards to this song."
  • Greiner penned the song's lyrics on the top of a mountain in Stuttgart, Germany. He recalled to AntiQuiet: "I remember exactly where I was! I hiked up the side of the mountain an afternoon before our show and felt inspired to write about a financial scandal I was victimized by in 2012. I had gone through the many stages of grief after realizing my substantial monetary loss in the Ponzi scheme. After having nowhere else to turn with my anger and distrust in people, I prayed to God that He would show me the good in this tragedy. The lyric in the middle of 'Provision' sums up the resolve I felt as a result; 'I'm just as much the problem as the man behind bars. He did with his business what I do in my heart.'

    "The man behind the financial scandal had done a bad thing and hurt many people," he continued. "He would serve time behind bars as a result of his bad behavior and his 'sin' would be evident to the world. But what I realized is that I have things in my own heart that should position me behind bars. I am no better than the man next to me. That realization helps in coming to terms with any loss at all in life and helped me find hope and provision in the dark situation."

    A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit. The attraction to savers is that it offers higher returns than other investments, but the system is destined to collapse because the earnings, if any, are less than the payments to them. The term arose in the 1970s and takes its name from the American swindler Charles Ponzi, who devised such a scheme in 1919 and within six months had defrauded investors of more than $10 million.
  • Guitarist JB Brubaker told The Alternative Press: "This is the first song we ever wrote in drop B tuning which gives it a little meaner sound."
  • Regarding the song's meaning, Brubaker explained: "The song tells the story of a man who was taken advantage of, but tried to find the positive in the situation."

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