Track By Tracks: Sanity's Rage - The Dead Don´t Run (2025)

1. MEASURE OF GUILT:

This one deals with the exploration of the mechanics of guilt, self-justification, and facilitating wrongdoing.

“Name your God and pick a gun”

Beliefs and convictions as a means to justify any retaliation or aggression towards the opposition.

“…how can there be a name to the blood we spill”

The anonymity of the oppressed, the dehumanization of the victims, normalizes the atrocities committed against them.

How much do we allow to happen? How far do we take the self-conviction and deception to justify our actions against fellow humans?

A theme that is not new for Sanity's Rage, and unfortunately very much part of the human condition, past and present. In this song we went very in depth to try and capture the reasoning behind it and even pushed some vocal styles we hadn't tried before. The result is a very aggressive, yet emotionally grounded track.

2. WHEN THE SHARP THINGS COME:

"What's the value of a man? Is it determined by the riches in his hand?"

What is it worth when it adds to nothing?

When you don't make a difference to anyone's life.

We all aim to better ourselves, but are we better people for it?

And if we achieve power, if we become wealthy, what does it all mean, if we live empty lives and only the fear of losing your status and property is real?

"We are blind to each other yet despise one another, for what we achieve..."

Late at night, when the mask falls off and reality kicks in, the fear comes. The hurt comes. The sharp things come. And "when the sharp things come, you bleed"

3. SANITY’S RAGE:

Here we took the broad spectrum of what we believe is wrong with the world and human interaction. Everyone trying to belong and following the herd. But only for self-interest and self-importance. Fight for what everyone else has, be on the side of the strongest, but when one falls, it's each man for himself.

“I've seen men trample on the bodies of the ones who fell behind”.

As we experience the world around us, we realize there is a certain way of thinking and looking at things that you can't come back from. That can only make you frustrated and angry at what you see happening. That way of thinking was the reason we named the band Sanity's Rage. “When I see the people lost in their mindsets and the race towards the inevitable fate, the only feeling I get is called Sanity's Rage.”

This song tries to encapsulate all the different circumstances in which we feel that sentiment, without going into specific detail.

4. BLOOD CALLS FOR BLOOD:

This song is about the vicious circle that is retaliation.

Both sides are spending every effort to prove they are right, and the other is wrong and with every step one of them takes to act upon it, the other one needs to hit back harder.

"You cry for blood and claim it as you might. Remember there are two wrongs to every right"

If you start this spiral of endless repetition and escalation there is no easy way of escaping it. The original issue gets lost the pile of meaningless reactions and altercations, thus they become the subject of dispute rather than the original issue that could or could not have been resolved. "When blood calls for blood, there's no way out."

5. NOTHING SACRED WILL HOLD:

The song is about how one single event can change every aspect of your life. And this, in turn, can alter your way of looking at people, change your views and opinions, and make you lose every certainty you had.

"...When every hand that I was dealt, I knew exactly how to play." Never take your happiness, or the lack of problems in your lif,e for granted.

"In the blink of an eye it came". When disaster hits, everything you know can change.

"Defenseless into the strange". Because everything you are used to changes, you lose every mechanism to cope with the new reality.

"Security lost and exchanged". Your sense of certainty, security, and reassurance is gone and self-defenses kick in.

"New rules for a familiar game." This determines how you deal with people and how they in turn deal with you.

6. THE DEAD DON’T RUN:

The Dead Don't Run is about the things we leave behind. Memories, people, bad experiences. Though we think we got rid of them, they still wander, as a foul reminder, not allowing us to fully forget, the memory always ready to rip us apart when we are confronted with them. "...the filthy smell that lingers anywhere you took your stand".

When moving on from hurtful relationships, toxic people, and destructive environments, the memories from before the fallout remain. Even though you know the true face and the reality of the ruse, they will still hold a familiar grip on us, making it hard to let go.

"You've made your fucking bed. Now lie in it and die, under the skin that you have shed."

The danger is that you either stick to the devil you know and lose yourself to them, or you spend your time fighting something that you can never beat and lose your dignity and worth in the process. "Aware of the inanity, benevolence the prey..."

7. THE FINAL EXHIBIT OF PAIN:

This song is inspired by the movie Martyrs, by Pascal Laugier.

Both the song and the movie are about how much pain and suffering one can endure before you either succumb or transcend.

The reason for the hurt is not important.

“I brought you down here to provide me in my craving for the sorrow you feel.”

The person on which it is inflicted is of no importance either.

The hurt in itself is the object of focus, the ultimate goal of the experiment. “Your tears, an education in itself.”

Where we differ from the movie is that we don’t take the higher purpose into account, as neither would the victims in the movie.

“I have no use for you martyrs or saints; you’ll be my final exhibit of pain.”

8. REEDUCATE THE MASSES:

Reeducation: The process of teaching persons or groups new political values, attitudes, beliefs, or types of behavior; political indoctrination.

A definition we find in the political detention and reformation camps of communist China, among others, but which is in fact happening on a global scale through media, social media, political and economic strategies, and communications.

People are being led by misinformation. “All the rules you're meant to heed, swallow them, get on your knees. Let the vermin lead the rats.”

We are being steered towards a predetermined path, disguised under free will.

“They make you suffer. They make you pay. Make you believe that it’s okay.”

Extremist ideology becomes freedom of speech. Segregation becomes a difference of opinion.

“Children’s thoughts are being drained to be taught and to be trained in the discipline of hate.”

Both sides of the story are put against each other to disguise the agenda of the bigger picture.

9. SANITY LIES IN RUIN:

A return to the Crumbling Halls Of Sanity.

The fortress of delusions, fear, and inner struggle.

The place where we hide when the world is too much.

A haven that gives us a false sense of safety. Alone with our thoughts and convictions, isolated from a reality that can only hurt us.

“Like a cloak of deceit for the ones who would seek shelter from the monsters out there.”

Building the walls ever bigger and stronger, growing further away from what is in fact, real and what is only a projection of our own fear.

“With every wall that I create upon damnation’s blackened slate, from reality’s grasp I am torn.”

Even though we fled these halls more than once, life gets us down again, and we retreat to the place that we’ve built to protect us, the prison of our own design. With each visit, the need for its comfort gets bigger, as does the fear, the hurt, and the regret for what could have been and what went wrong.

“To feast on the bones of the past, the memories vast. The marrow of could haves and should haves I drink till I fall”