What does Overburdened mean?

Disturbed: Overburdened Meaning

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Album cover for Overburdened album cover

Overburdened Lyrics

(whispers)
Fate... Fate is so unkind..
Now I should have known..
Blind leading the blind..
Reaping what I’ve sown..
If it all amounts to nothing..
Why, why am I standing in this line..?

Hell is still overburdened
I must stand and wait...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    May 21st 2009 !⃝

    I think it's more about someone who has lived their whole life in misery and now is awaiting torment in hell. He is now contemplating why he has to suffer so much and thinking about what he did to deserve this. He has done evil, but that is not the entire story: "countless chapters left unopened, all I've sacrificed." He has done a lot of good in life, but it hasn't done him any good. He wonders why he is standing in line when there are so many others more deserving of the eternal punishment.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Aug 9th 2006 !⃝

    Overburdened is a songabout all of the evil in the world. It also has some religous overtones. David sings about how he's done some bad things and now must wait in a line to get into hell. The line is so big that he must spend a "decade spent in strife" waiting in it. The reason that the wait is so long is because of all the evil people, and hell is too full. "hell is still overburdened" now he must "stand and wait in line." now he's thinking about why he had done all the bad stuff. "how have I been, so determined malign" which means to make evil. There you go

  3. anonymous
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    Sep 19th 2014 !⃝

    this cannot refer to the holocaust.. he says "holy blessed homicide"! its about soldiers who were blessed to kill other people for the greater good(holy) of his family or nation or both.. how could the jews ,who were taken to the concentrating camps, have any relation with homicides and? that's what's missing from the holocaust version.

  4. anonymous
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    Dec 18th 2012 !⃝

    It is about a soldier who was killed in the call to arms. He along w/ other soldiers thought that they were doing something right but they weren't. Hell is too full for him along with others because others before him made the same mistake. "blind leading the blind" means that he followed other soldiers footsteps & then other soldiers followed his. "... all this sacrifice led to nothing..." meant that all he did just bit him back & now he must suffer the rest of eternity in Hell. He along w/ others are also wondering how they got there. It's not about Nazis or Hitler... that's the song "Never Again"

  5. anonymous
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    May 4th 2012 !⃝

    This song is, as Dave had said, about a soldier standing in line to Hell, which is too full, too "overburdened", and he's standing with all these other soldiers wondering how he got there, about how he was fighting for what he thought was right. It's attacking the possible existence of a Hell.

  6. anonymous
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    Jun 13th 2010 !⃝

    This song is undoubtedly about the Holocaust.

    "Blind leading the blind"-- Hitler and the Nazi regime were a bunch of bastards blinded by their undeserved hate, leading a blind nation, who followed blindly.

    "Why, why am I standing in this line?"-- The Jews were sent to death and concentration camps in herds, lined up, and shot one by one, all without knowing what the hell was going on.

    "How was I considered evil?"-- David Draiman (lead singer) is Jewish. He is asking why his people were considered evil, evil enough to deserve extermination, when they had done absolutely nothing.

    "Someone granted me reprieval... I may never know for certain when will be my time"-- Strong and healthy people sent to concentration camps were spared.. for the moment.. to be used for hard labor. They didn't know when their time would come to die, but they knew it would come.

    "if only I was born another time"-- If only this person, this Jew, had been born another time when the Holocaust was over.

    "decades spent in strife"-- the Jews have constantly been oppressed and made the scapegoat throughout history.

    "reaping what I’ve sown"-- A large amount of European Jews were doctors, lawyers, etc. who contributed immensely to society. The Nazis benefited from their intelligence and then destroyed them.

    "Hell is still overburdened"-- They killed about 6 MILLION Jews in the Holocaust.

    Fate is so unkind.

  7. anonymous
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    Jun 13th 2010 !⃝

    HOLOCAUST

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 10th 2010 !⃝

    i think when he says he comitted treason is because he did good and sacrificed in life but he is still going to hell. what was the point of him doing good and sacrificing for others if he stills going to hell

  9. anonymous
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    May 24th 2010 !⃝

    Perhaps there is something to the fallen soldiers theory. consider it in context of different wars. The allied soldiers who fell in WWII were heroes whom everyone believed had their place in heaven secured. meanwhile soldiers in vietnam were branded murders and baby killers. But the real difference between the 2 sets of soldiers was the time they lived in and the war they fought in. For most soldiers war is war and they fight for their brothers and not their politcs. Why then would this one be bound for hell? If only he was born another time.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 4th 2010 !⃝

    I always felt that this song talks about the hallocaust, but now though i agree 100% to the first submitted interpretation. I thought it sounded like the hallocaust because when he says "I must stand and wait in line" it reminded me of jews standing in lines as the nazis put them in the different groups like the gas chamber or the laborers. I also thought the instramentals made a picture of the childeren being ripped from their mothers, and familys being torn apart.

  11. anonymous
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    May 6th 2009 !⃝

    I agree is about the evil....but not neccessarilly about soldiers, coud be though. I thing it could also be just about anyone who has done something in his life that orthodox church deemed "malilgn"..."pleasures taken in this live"...anyway there are many ways how to explain these lyrics and that makes them great...Lots of love for Disturbed and their fans.

  12. anonymous
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    Dec 22nd 2008 !⃝

    the first interpretation is fully correct.

    to the ones saying that the song is about soldiers dieing, thats not necessarily true. soldiers fighting for their country don't go to hell if they felled. (mind you, i did not mean to say "failed".)

  13. erinw88
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    Mar 26th 2007 !⃝

    About a soldier standing in line waiting to pass through the gates of hell, and he's in line with all these other soldiers that died in the course of battle, and they're all wondering why they got there.

  14. anonymous
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    Jan 1st 2007 !⃝

    It is a bout all evil and how there are so many people being bad that hell is full and you would have to stand in a line to get there.

  15. anonymous
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    Oct 5th 2006 !⃝

    On a review from ten thousand fists, "overburdened" was listed as one of the anti-iraq war songs on the album, so the song is from the viewpoint of a dying soldier realizing he died for nothing.


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