What does So Cold mean?

Breaking Benjamin: So Cold Meaning

Album cover for So Cold album cover

Song Released: 2004


Get "So Cold" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

So Cold Lyrics


Crowded streets are cleared away
One by One
Hollow heroes separate
As they run

You're so cold
Keep your hand in mine
Wise men wonder while
Strong men die

[Chorus]

Show me how it ends it's alright
Show me how defenseless you...

  1. anonymous
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    Apr 21st 2015 !⃝

    I assumed the song was a joke about fantasy novels and video games.

    Typically most fantasy novels/games start with the loss of your family, or later you discover that your family was killed when you were a child and that's why you're an orphan. So the beginning of the song is about that. Then you're told to "show how defenseless you really are." Which typically the hero isn't defenseless, he's really the one true whatever destined to destroy whatever. So it's a joke about the hero being defenseless.

    And then "let's give this another try" is meant to be a joke about how the hero/video game character can fail pretty often without it ever really keeping him down.

  2. anonymous
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    Sep 1st 2014 !⃝

    I feel like this song is about addiction (heroin in particular) and a person struggling to over come but they keep trying... "wise man wonder , while strong men die" The wise men wonder what it is like and do not ever mess around with it while even the strongest of men get addicted for life and cannot get out of it's grasp. Show me how defenseless you really are... When somebody is involved in an addiction such as that, they really are physically and mentally defenseless... "satisfied and empty inside." The person relapsed on whatever the substance is... This makes them satisfied technically because they are high again, however they are even more empty inside and have sunk just as low if not lower than their original state.... watched too many loved ones affected by this and that is what the song says to me.... thanks guys

  3. anonymous
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    Sep 6th 2013 !⃝

    Um, well I'm pretty sure it's just a guy being executed. He commited adultery. He is living in a Puritan colony where sins as such are taken seriously. That's why there's a priest reading out of the bible as he's carrying a huge block to lake where he is to perish.. The woman in the black shade hat is his wife and the blonde is the one he cheated with.

  4. anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2013 !⃝

    First of all, English isn't my first language so don't mind the mistakes (plus, this is the first time I'm doing a song interpretation)
    So this song is my all time favourite (Breakig Benjamin is my favourite band and I acctually love all of their songs).
    My take on it is that it's about how people are fake. How they pretend to be there for you, when they will acctually leave you in a second to save their own skin.
    "Crowded streets are cleared away
    One by one"
    Everybody gives in quickly and leave Ben (I'm gonna use him for the main person) all to himself. On the outside they seem strong, but they're accutally really weak.
    "Hollow heroes seperate
    As they run"
    Basicly the same meaning. They pretend to be with you untill the end, but in reality will run to save themselves and leave (Ben) you by yourself.
    "You're so cold,
    Keep your hand in mine"
    Only one person (maybe a friend) is left, but he/she is also in a dillema and is scared. Ben feels that and asks them not to leave him.
    "Wise men wonder, while string men die"
    He asks them to reflect on their actions for they can have a terrible outcome and there is no way to take that back (what could be he consequance of them leaving him).
    "Show me how it ends, it's alright"
    He wants them to stay with him untill the end and see what happens (he doesn't want to be alone). What ever does happen- he's trying to convince them that everything will be fine if they stay together.
    "Show me how defenseless
    You really are"
    The person pretands to be weak so he/she wouldn't have to stay. But Ben sees through that and tells them to show how strong they really are and asks them to fight with him.
    "Satisfied and empty inside"
    This one, I think, goes to the people who left (could be a warning to he person who stayed). Thay are happy to have saved themselves, but know they are shallow, selfish and empty which can hount them forever.
    "But that's alright,
    Lets give this another try"
    Ben feels releaved that, even though the friend is tempted to leave, he stays with him, so he is not alone.
    "If you find your family
    Don't you cry"
    I'm not shure about this one, but I think he might be trying to encourage the friend to stay strong, not giving in to he temptation. Maybe the family doesn't trust Ben ot they don't like him, so thsy try to seperate them.
    "In this land of make beleave
    Dead and dry"
    No matter what the truth is, people always see only what they want to see and belive only what they want to belive.
    "You're so cold
    But you feel alive"
    Same goes for his friend, who starts acting cold towards Ben, not trusting him. They drift apart because the lie that the friend made for himself makes him feel safe and alive.
    "Lay your hand on me
    One last time"
    Ben gives one last try by convincing him to stay, but it doesn't work. The friend fell apart from Ben and is now completely cold to him.
    {Everything repeats}
    "It's alright"
    This repeats nine times, when the friend leaves Ben completely. Now he's alone, and even though he lost his hopes, he is trying to convince himself that everything will be alright, but he doesn't really belive in that.

    I'm probably way of but I gave it my best shot :)

  5. anonymous
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    Mar 14th 2013 !⃝

    I believe it's about the spiritual war between Satan and Jesus. And it seems that way in the video as wellZ mocking how Jesus carried the cross up to the hill and how he fell.

    "Show me how it ends its alright, show me how defenseless you really are"

    Asking God how the war is really going to end, and what he's going to really do with them. And when. Cause no one but him knows. They know jesus Ian defenseless but just say it in song to provoke him.

    Songs are more then what they seem. Illuminati is as real as demons satan , Angels and Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. Look into alot of songs and you will see the true meaning.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Jun 29th 2012 !⃝

    This kind of a random thing to interpret it as, but I believe it's about the Salem witch trials.

    -BLOODRAGED189

  7. anonymous
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    Apr 11th 2012 !⃝

    I think it's about two things
    First it's about how screwed up the world is and how we don't have real heroes, "hollow heroes seperate" and how soldiers die every day "strong men" while pundits and morons in no danger speculate why they're fighting and tell them to go fight "wise men" Ben illistrates this with a story a strong man and his weak freind his freind is being destroyed by the world and the strong man is trying to save him "you're so cold keep you're hand in mine" the strong man is asking the wise men to show how defensless they really are and he's trying to bring the down to his level "that's all right lets give this another try" he's also begging the wise men to tell him how it will end for the sake of his freind, he's asking if it will be alright in the verses, in the outro though he finds out how it ends and lies to his freind as he dies they way he screams it's all right sounds wrong in the end his freind is crushed by the weight of the world and dies the last thing he hears is the strong man tell him it's alright

    (i submitted this under the "Cold" name of this song too)

  8. anonymous
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    Sep 9th 2011 !⃝

    I think this song has to do with 9/11. Just every time I listen to it I match the words to the event

  9. anonymous
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    Jun 17th 2011 !⃝

    the lyrics make me think this song is about a disaster. Hollow heroes separate as they run(Life savers fleeing). Wise men wondered while strong men died (wondering how this could have happened while others died attempting to save victims). You're so cold but you feel alive ( someone in shock goes cold to the touch). I would lean towards a major disaster like 9-11.

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2011 !⃝

    I believe that this song is about war from a soldier’s point of view. The troop is taking over a village, “crowded streets are cleared away, one by one”, the enemy is quickly receding, “hollow heroes separate, as they run”. While all this is going on, one of the soldier’s friends is dying, wounded, “you’re so cold keep your hand in mine”. The soldier blames the government for this whole war, he believes that the government doesn’t really know about war, which is why they call for it, “wise men wonder while strong men die”. He wants to know if the government even has a reason for this war, “show me how it ends, it’s all right”, he thinks that they have their own hidden agendas, their own selfish reasons for this war, “satisfy and empty inside”, he is willing, however, to give them a second change if they can explain themselves, “well that’s all right, let’s give this another try”. This whole time the war is still raging and his friend is still dying, and he is afraid that he will never be able to go to his family, and they will forget him, it’s almost like this is all a terrible nightmare, “if you find your family, don’t you cry. In this land of make believe, dead and dry”. Finally he just looses his mind and leaves his fallen friend to fight; clinging to the insane notion that everything will turn out okay, “it’s all right”.

  11. anonymous
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    Mar 1st 2011 !⃝

    Agreeing with another poster's interpretation:

    "I think this song is about warfare."

    I would say that this song is about an unwinnable war where the government epic fails, and eventually some sort of epic attack kills everyone.

  12. anonymous
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    Apr 23rd 2010 !⃝

    To the last one.
    That would make perfect since but what about the were he says
    "Your so cold
    keep your hand in mine."

  13. Cornish_hamster
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    Sep 30th 2009 !⃝

    I thought that the song was about a plague like the black death or something, because "Crowded streets all cleared away One by One" says that people are dying. It appears that 1 of the people who died may have been close to him, as it says "You're so cold, but you feel alive
    Lay your hand on me one last time".

  14. anonymous
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    Jan 8th 2009 !⃝

    This song is, like "Home", about a movie. This song, according to Ben, is about the movie "28 Days Later" (which kinda pissed me off when I heard that, he couldve picked a better movie to let inspire him 0:)) So...interpretations are kinda slim, I guess he just imagined what it would be like to be in such a crazy situation.
    Further, this song, like many of Ben's compilations, was created by combining the best parts of several songs that Ben decided not to use anymore. The two songs that combined to make So Cold were "Always" and "Inertia", both of which can still be found online if you know where to look.

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