What does The Devil In I mean?

Slipknot: The Devil In I Meaning

Album cover for The Devil In I album cover

Song Released: 2014


The Devil In I Lyrics

Undo these chains, my friend
I'll show you the rage I've hidden
Perish the Sacrament
Swallow, but nothing's forgiven
You and I can't decide which of us was taken for granted
Make amends, some of us are destined to be outlived

Step inside,...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    Kyle Ray
    click a star to vote
    Sep 11th 2015 !⃝

    Taylor explained the song's meaning to The Pulse of Radio: "'The Devil In I' is really about the war inside yourself," he said. "Trying not to give into defeatism, trying not to give into negativity, trying not to give up basically. It's a struggle. It's one of the hardest thing you can do, is to give in to that side of yourself."

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    ashermwoods
    click a star to vote
    Oct 2nd 2014 !⃝

    My depiction is as followed.

    Undo these CHAINS, my friend
    I'll show you THE RAGE I've hidden

    -The literal aspect of letting lose. Not holding back. It could be deeper in in specifically saying someone had place restrictions on someone but their relationship has changed.

    Perish the Sacrament,
    Swallow, but nothing's forgiven!

    -Sacrament is a religious service. Common practice of drinking wine and consuming bread for forgiveness of sins so because this time something can't be forever even the church or god cannot help this person.

    You & I can't decide which of us was taken for granted
    Make amends, some of us are destined to be OUTLIVED!

    -This shows clashing view points. It holds importance but yet was still forgotten or overlooked. Outlived could be in the literal sense meaning Death or in the perspective of picking yourself up, dust off and move on with life, and/or, making the best out of a situation.

    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    Too many times, we've let it come to this
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    You'll realize I'm not YOUR DEVIL anymore

    -Word for word it means to see the worst in someone else. Over all it hints at maybe someone was an instigator/ bad influence on the second person. Not your devil anymore plays off of See the Devil In I, which could turn the table and actually mean the first person is telling the other to not misplace blame and to actually look inside one's self.

    Under the words of men, something is tempting the father
    Where is your will, my friend? Insatiates never even bother

    -A religious figure is struggling with something due to gossip. Generally unknowing due to deceit or knowing and fighting against right and wrong. "will" to not sin. Insatiates are a group of people that always urn for more. Never happy.

    You & I wrong or right, traded a lie for the leverage
    In between the lens in light,
    You're not what you seem!

    -Whatever the reasoning an individual claims for bending the truth or for justify it but its still a lie. Seems with each verse, lyrically its an example of another form of sin. You're not what you seem, obviously a fake or hiding something.

    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    Too many times, we've let it come to this
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    You'll realize I'm not your devil,
    I'm not YOUR DEVIL anymore!

    -Repeating the chorus confirms to not place blame and look at yourself. You are your own Devil.

    Your station is abandoned
    Fool you 'cause I know what you've done!
    Sensation,
    Depravation
    You should've burned
    When you turned on everyone

    -Depicts and individual calling someone out for doing someone else wrong or letting someone down, a broken promise and not owning up, that they ran away like a coward. Maybe took the easy way out.

    SO STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    Too many times, we've let it come to this
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    Oh, when all that's left does not make sense
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    I know you'll find your answers in the end
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    You'll realize I'm not YOUR DEVIL ANYMORE

    SO STEP INSIDE,
    STEP INSIDE
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I

    -Eventually this person will have to face the truth because in the end thats all that will be left. Again these are my interpretations and I try to cover things in a spectrum of possibilities. Thank you.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 14th 2015 !⃝

    Personally I would like to believe that the artist is talking to a former partner (Again this is ONLY my interpretation):

    Undo these CHAINS, my friend
    I'll show you THE RAGE I've hidden

    Once the relation ended, probably badly, He says: "Now that you and I are not together anymore I am going to spit out everything I held inside, everything I did not say in the past not too hurt you…" Notice that he call the other "friend".

    Perish the Sacrament,
    Swallow, but nothing's forgiven!

    Again he is telling that person confess her sins and with the Communion all of your sins are forgiven.
    Just to mark that in her opinion she did not do anything bad after all because in the end the Sacrament (Communion) erases all your bad doing.

    You & I can't decide which of us was taken for granted
    Make amends, some of us are destined to be OUTLIVED!

    Looking back, the past reminds that because they claim they took each other for granted the relation ended, so he advises her to make amends since sooner or later death comes for everyone.

    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    Too many times, we've let it come to this
    STEP INSIDE,
    SEE THE DEVIL IN I
    You'll realize I'm not YOUR DEVIL anymore

    He says: "I will show you my soul"- Step inside.
    See the devil in I- "I will show you what you made me become".
    They probably often came to a point of breaking until he could not hold the relationship anymore.
    You'll realize I'm not YOUR DEVIL anymore
    Sooner or later you will realize I was not the crazy one, even without him, she will find other causes (devil) for her unhappiness.


    Under the words of men, something is tempting the father
    Where is your will, my friend? Insatiates never even bother

    You know the difference between right and wrong but Temptation is aways ready to struck, is your will strong enough to resist?

    You & I wrong or right, traded a lie for the leverage
    In between the lens in light,
    You're not what you seem!

    No matter who was wrong or right, they believed in a lie (pretending that everything was ok) instead of looking at the failure of their relationship.
    Under the sun, looking closer she is not the person that everyone thinks she is (so happy and nice every time).

    Your station is abandoned
    Fool you 'cause I know what you've done!
    Sensation,
    Depravation
    You should've burned
    When you turned on everyone

    No one saw this side of you besides me, you never spoke of it to anyone but I know what you have done.
    (I believed she did not own her responsibilities and for example, she abandoned, left him because it was too easy, the easy way out).
    You should have burned when you unfairly turn your back to me.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 19th 2019 !⃝

    This song is about the relationship between the band and the music industry.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 1st 2019 !⃝

    it's about being repeatedly rape from a priest. about the victim trying to be free from the haunting thoughts. "perish the sacrament, swallow but nothings forgiven". Forced oral sex from the priest who tells the victim he will be forgiven from his sins if he swallows.
    "trading a life of leverage". the priest has leverage over his congregants and the victim is powerless.
    "step inside, see the devil and I". come see my hell in my own mind and memories..

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 16th 2017 !⃝

    Honestly I think the song means just as it sounds like.
    It's the meaning of threatening somebody, the victim had done something to piss of the antagonist. There is many foreshadowing of revenge in the lyrics.

  7. kooljohn176
    click a star to vote
    Sep 3rd 2016 !⃝

    A great song by the great SLIPKNOT band of nine for self-realization. Trying to understand it's meaning by interpretation is like a Layman Excorcist[conspiracy Theorist] trying to extract the lying demons out of the Individual's dark primordial mind. Where they're scared to come forward and into The Light for the Individual to have a peace of mind in today's time. Where this Individual might have been raised up in a harsh supernatural spoiled environment as a God fearing little devil[rascal] sort of speaking. Where now he has been feeling conflicted with a guilty oppressed conscience about 'who is he really? When faceing and looking at himself in the mirror to see'' The Devil In I'' which he is trying to come to terms with inside of himself, looking through the eye[I] of it's harden anger of false ego and pride that he is struggling and fighting with to Overcome and conquer the negative part of himself that finally wants to break FREE from the hellish ''devil's knot'' condition that he was psychologically chained in by or to them.

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 16th 2015 !⃝

    I believe it's about Joey's struggle with substance abuse (sensation, deprivation), and not being able to move on after the death of Paul. He tried to cover up the truth but was only lying to himself and the rest of the band, and therefore ultimately decided to face the facts and part with the band.

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 5th 2015 !⃝

    It's about the prevalence of society's pious outspoken critics to criticise anything that doesn't fit in with their blinkered view of the world. To undo the chains means to open their minds to other viewpoints, to stop blindly following a religious group which preaches servitude and oppression. The references to sacrament not working anymore illustrate that the religions which were initiated to control the mass populous have been taken to ridiculous levels and can't work anymore - taking part in a ceremony will not make the inner person any less guilty of any wrongdoings against others.

  10. anonymous
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    Aug 3rd 2015 !⃝

    Child molestation in the Catholic church seems to have some inspiration for this song. Look at it from the victims eyes.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Mar 7th 2015 !⃝

    The Devil in Islam.

    The singer is talking to all of Christian America that thinks sex, drugs, and rock and roll fans are the devil. The singer is trying to convince them that they should unbreak their chains and see the new devil as the rise of Islam.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Feb 22nd 2015 !⃝

    In my perception this is an intter monologue. The inner "demon" is appealing to the person (the listener) to reevaluate his worldviews so he may come out of a reacurring chain of events in his life that leave him to the same disapointing results (Too many times, we've let it come to this
    Step inside, see the devil in I
    You'll realize I'm not your devil
    I'm not your devil anymore). We as humans are moved by emotions and some of them are being viewed by society as "negative". This can lead to feelings of guilt and shame if we expirience them at some point. In my opinion this song (as so many metal songs do) gives the listener premission to embrace the raw emotion that he is feeling deep inside in order to evolve and take action in the desired direction in Life.

  13. Byron Handy
    click a star to vote
    Jan 6th 2015 !⃝

    "It's about about becoming your past demons and doing away with them" -Shawn M. "Clown" Crahan

    He said it on a video on youtube its on the slipknot channel.

    It's in the making of the devil in I

  14. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2014 !⃝

    This song is about how Joey will realize that Corey is not his devil and the fan base is

  15. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2014 !⃝

    He is saying, he is hear and the human race thinks it is all fake, the temptation is god not just killing us all to save his son from dyeing once again for us. For thinking we all have to believe the same god or beliefs in life. So the more we hurt each other the more his son will die, so the sooner god will come to save him.
    He is saying in the chores, that the band has made them self look this way so the 2014 human race would know what they are really talking about, shook and thrill? We all love it. This is way he does say, in the song “Under the words of men something is tempting the father, Where is your will, my friend? Insatiates never even bother”. I would but money on it if you new them personally they would be good man, who believe in something most people just don’t and will never believe in.
    So the end where he says, “I am not your devil anymore”. Saying I am to going stand here and say, if you don’t believe that something bigger is happening right know, you can believe in what you believe in, but we don’t have kill each other because what we believe in. When he says” step inside” he is saying, when you do, then you would know, that they are not evil man. At the end of the song he also says,” I know you'll find your answers in the end” He is saying, I know in my heart, I know we all will do the right thing in the end.

  16. anonymous
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    Oct 27th 2014 !⃝

    I think its about joey again like negative one. Just my opinion

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  17. anonymous
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    Oct 21st 2014 !⃝

    I think this is the drugs that are "speaking" to Gray, who died fromage an overdose.
    "Your station is abandonned [...] when you turned on everyone" is Gray's answer.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  18. anonymous
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    Oct 10th 2014 !⃝

    If you havent got a devil in you, your probably a bit proud, just like satan :)

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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