It All Adds Up – heavy on the drums, electric, strong

The next song of the record makes the listener falter right at its beginning. Electric elements accompany heavy drums. Again, there is speech song within the stanzas – in a deep voice. Rhythm becomes the new guiding line. Only, this rhythm is characteristic.

It changes in the bridge. Still, the drums are dominant. In the last sentence of the bridge, Brent Smith ornately introduces the chorus by raising his voice.

Playful elements like the rattle of a rattlesnake matching the lyrics “calling all the snakes” liven up the song and at the same time make it more credible.

It All Adds Up means that all the bad things people do get added up. It seems as if the lyrical I has had enough. That way, the other people are described negatively, always followed by an “And it all adds up”, until it is enough.

Again, the topic is to stand up for oneself, but this time, the message is also to stand up for progress and for a better world. It is not only about being the way one wants to be, but also about seeing that one is better than the others by living this way. Those are far from what they thought they would be. The lyrical I gets invulnerable in this song.

Favorite line: “You’re a long, long way from where you thought you would be. Every murder has a motive but you ain’t killing me.”

Listen to Shinedown's It All Adds Up here:

 
Buy Threat To Survival here.