each of nailed shut's songs have very vivid imagery, often telling a story. this page is meant to help compile those stories! i'll be using a combination of descriptions given by the band and personal readings to break each and every song of theirs down.

cerebellum

this song has been described by the band as being about struggling with mental health - i believe the narrator to be dealing specifically with post-traumatic stress disorder

the point of breaking / a brittle skull, unwell / clenched teeth of aching / veins to paint pastels

i find myself teetering on the edge / loss of balance, from the weight of a sledge

the narrator's been pushed to their mental brink by a (violent) external force

cover my eyes / blind to the dread

dissociation as a coping mechanism

making sense of what he did

going to assume any usage of third person pronouns from here on out is discussing the narrator's assailant

cerebellum / cut open his head

could be a desire for justice/revenge, could also be a desire to know the assailant's motive (as the cerebellum aids in decision making)!

cerebellum / cover your face with dread

the cerebellum also plays a role in the fear response - a chain reaction reliant on memory.

bury the hatchet / split open my head / bury the hatchet / i'll pull it together again.
bury the hatchet / split open my head / bury the hatchet / pull it together again.

in the wake of the traumatic event, the narrator is expected to just move on. doing so actively harms them, but they still opt to mask what they're going through instead of triggering themself by acknowledging their trauma

snip / my spine / snip / my spine

just want to acknowledge that before this bit, the song has a spoken section repeating the bury the hatchet verse before saying what sounds to me like "i'd rather crawl / through it all / than be with you / than be with you". i didn't include it here because these are the lyrics as written and personally shared to me by asher. i'm doing enough personal interpretation in these popups, i don't want to add in my own whole ass lyrics

i’d rather crawl, through it all. i’d rather crawl, through it all.

considering the earlier instance of "than be with you", this isn't just a one-time thing. the narrator experienced an extended period of abuse, which was seemingly very difficult to escape. still, despite the pain the narrator is experienncing in this struggle, they are in a better place than the site of their abuse

CEREBELLUM / “I CANT OPEN MY EYES” / CEREBELLUM / FEAST HIM TO THE FLIES / GOD / "I CAN'T OPEN MY EYES" / GOD / "I CAN'T OPEN MY EYES"

macabre

this song has been described as being about night terrors

there’s a breathing ahead / tossing and turns / “you must have been misled” / a sickness full of concerns

stillness, clung to a bed / pry me open instead / i’ve parched all that I’ve bled / there’s only lust in the end

so lay awake / between a state of dreams / sinking beneath /these muffled screams

purify

pulling at my skin / soon i'll be pale once again / you've torn apart my ribs / cultivating what's within

i've been worried / (that you) can't see glory / i've been worried / (that you) can't see glory (anymore)

made me your enemy / i'll make you beg and plea / on your knees she bleeds / as you plague the priest (x2)

itching at the skin / drained of blood, gone thin / a wooden spine of sin / surrogating heaven's kin

i've been worried / (that you) can't see glory / i've been worried / (that you) can't see glory (anymore)

burgeon

this song is about a nightmare in which one wakes up in the middle of a surgical operation. asher has mentioned the dream scenario is meant to explore his personal fear of feeling that one has lost control of themselves

i swear i've been here before / a spotless problem, drenched in gore / white as coke from the light / scalpels dig into our delights

i've been trapped inside / shackled beneath these lights / i've been trapped inside / leave me in the light / leave me in the light / LEAVE ME IN THE LIGHT

(fuck me til i bloom) days go by where i / (fuck me til i bloom) bleed myself anew / (fuck me til i bloom) yet i sit and pick (fuck me til i bloom) at the flakes of you (x2)

amygdala

killers / in the wake of the night / sinners / tongue tied, throat closed tight / leave me / in the creek where the body remains / save me / crawl through mud as i'm writhing in pain

wasting away / (please won't you) pull me out / scratching / i've gone blind / gurgling / airways confined / prying / you've raped my mind / the end is bitter when it's all you'll find

(i can't help you) panic / the end is bitter when it's all you'll find / (i won't heal you) panic / the end is bitter when it's all you'll find

(BLEEDING, IM BLEEDING, IM BLEEDING OUT) I’D PITY YOU / THE END IS BETTER WHEN ITS ALL YOU’LL FIND (x2)

there's blood on my hands so i can't let you go / there's blood on my hands as the pestilence grows / the blood on my hands pulls me deeper below (IT'S FOR YOUR GOOD)

teeth

this song has been described as being about a typical nightmare phenomenon - all of your teeth falling out. (or, as mentioned in a video that went viral, "pulling out your fucking teeth"!) this dream is a common sign of stress, especially when anticipating loss or struggling to communicate. paired with the mentions of love here, this song's narrator is bracing to lose their lover (or is processing that their lover has already grown apart from them)

swallowing teeth, for a taste / of introspection, that’s been laced / heavy my head gets, a single tear / filled with water, blessed by fear

i’ve been / pulling teeth / piece by piece / i’ve lost count / jaw thin / twisted root / bite my tongue / choke on soot

soon this love / will come to its end / a love once red / is now blackened / soon this love / will come to its end

soon this love (all my love) / will bleed out its end (all my love) / soon this love (all my love) / is bruised and blackened

so pull my teeth and chew / enter my skin / you've made me whole / you're what's within / you're what's within

sorrow in sin

step / over / into the light / and flesh will peel with ease / bury your burdens in spite / scraped skin bloody your knees / mother won't you swaddle your son? / your hunger unsatiated / i pray for the smiling sun / burning the instigated

perpetrator / shown the light of god / love thy neighbor / feed us filth and rot (x2)

conspirator / you question my light in god / love thy neighbor / feed us your filth and rot / peel back his skin / bleat for us my little lamb / i'm here to swallow your sin / and free you from the damned

gather / rip apart as a wolf repeats / mother / when you're in heaven who is there / to hear you scream?

unreleased music

currently, the tracks broken and curled (demo version known as playing god), centipede, devoured, dust to dust, formaldehyde, and heaven below earth have not yet been released. you can hear these tracks in their live recordings at inkarceration, denver, and wcdb albany! in a post-inkarceration interview, asher described formaldehyde as being a story involving two people, one of whom is dead, trying to reach back out to one another. all of these unreleased tracks except for formaldehyde can be expected to be part of their next ep!

song analyses