And the Snakes Start to Sing

Album: Sempiternal (2013)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The band originally hired a choir to sing the song's chorus before keyboardist Jordan Fish persuaded Oliver Sykes to sing it instead. Sykes explained to Metal Hammer magazine: "We actually had a nightmare with this chorus. I never intended to sing on it - we hired a choir! A full-on choir; I thought it would be really cool to have a choir singing this spooky chorus, but it all ended up a bit Broadway, so it didn't work. So Jordan said that he thought I should try and sing it. It was the one song on the album that we were all a bit unsure about, but when we put [the chorus] in, it completed it."
  • This was the first song Bring Me The Horizon penned when they started writing Sempiternal, but it was also the last one they completed. Bassist Matt Kean explained to Sugarscape: "Half way through the writing process Jordan (Fish, keyboards) added strings and stuff to it and his little electronic bars, and then we left it for even longer and then as the last thing we wrote the vocals for it. We only finished it a week before we went to the studio, we just kept going back and tweaking it and stuff, but we were super happy with the way it came out."
  • Sykes is unwilling to divulge the song's meaning. He explained to The Sun that the lyrics "are so personal that they will mean nothing to anyone but my parents and me."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Is That Song Public Domain?

Is That Song Public Domain?Fact or Fiction

Are classic songs like "Over The Rainbow" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the public domain?

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," Kiss

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," KissSong Writing

After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoungSongwriter Interviews

Dennis DeYoung explains why "Mr. Roboto" is the defining Styx song, and what the "gathering of angels" represents in "Come Sail Away."

Annie Haslam of Renaissance

Annie Haslam of RenaissanceSongwriter Interviews

The 5-octave voice of the classical rock band Renaissance, Annie is big on creative expression. In this talk, she covers Roy Wood, the history of the band, and where all the money went in the '70s.