This is a song about getting into a bad relationship that you know will be bad for you, but you do it anyway because the moment is too passionate.
This song is about a moment of time in which you know that the heartache will be inevitable, but you let yourself experience the intensity of the moment anyway. That decision is interesting to debate. Do you protect yourself from heartbreak, or do you live life to the fullest while the opportunity presents itself?
Many people would choose safety and to protect their heart. But the protagonist of this song likes risk, and he takes the plunge. Listen to the full song to see what happens.
Lyrics Featuring Ideas From Friedrich Nietzsche
The lyric of this song “Hell is empty. Earth is where the devils dwell” is paraphrased, but comes from Nietzsche. It’s an interesting idea rejecting the possibility of God or the devil being real, and putting the onus of responsibility for being “good” onto every individual and their actions.
Since that lyric isn’t mine, but comes from one of the world’s greatest philosophers and writers, I added this song to my collection of songs with great lyrics.
Song About A Breakup
When I started to first write this song, I only thought of it as a song about having a crush on the wrong person. But as I got to writing the ladder parts of this song, the tables turned between the heroes of this song, and the person I thought was going to get hurt ended up hurting the woman he had a crush on.
I felt that it was a scenario that was closer to real life. Very often in bad relationships, both people hurt each other in unexpected ways. So this morphed into a song about bad relationships during my writing.
It’s slightly autobiographical because I have also had the experience of being excited about a crush, but once that relationship materialized, I realized that I actually wasn’t that into it, which ended up hurting the other person.
If you like songs about breakups, here is a blog post with the best songs about breakups.
Secondary Interpretation: Song About A Crush
One way to look at this song is that it’s about having a crush on someone you know is bad for you, but not being disciplined enough to not pursue it. We’ve all been there. Usually we are saved from the situation because the person whom we have a crush on may not reciprocate our feelings.
But in this song, the crush does reciprocate, and actually is the one that gets hurt because as the song’s lyrics have it – “Hell is empty. Earth is where the devils dwell.”
I’ve actually written a few songs about various crushed. Here is my full list of songs about different kinds of crushes.
Third Interpretation: Song About Toxic Relationships
This song itself is like in a toxic relationship in that you never know what bad thing will come next. The song starts out innocently enough with an unlucky painter who is wondering what it might take to succeed in his craft. Then, a devilish woman comes to him almost out of his dream.
He knows that this will be a toxic relationship, but he gets into it anyway, after which this really becomes a song about a toxic relationship because he realizes that earth is where the devils dwell.
As the song builds, it feels like this might be a happy love song, but towards the end of the song, we see how their relationship becomes toxic when the male hero loses interest and abandons his crush. In the end, it’s surprisingly a song about toxic relationships where both of the people are bad for each other.
Here is a larger collection of songs about toxic relationships.
Full Song Lyrics
VERSE 1
I’m a painter, but everyone ignores my work.
Dreams bring me a lady in a cloak.
I’m drawing her to make her vision real,
This is the painting that will make the world feel.
CHORUS 1
She’s devilish and I’m all in.
I wait for every lovely sin.
She’ll take me to her most wonderful hell,
But hell is empty. Earth is where devils dwell.
VERSE 2
I’m painting that woman who enchants my dreams.
But she’s much too beautiful for me – it seems.
So I don’t draw myself by her side.
I want her to be happy but a part of me just died.
CHORUS 2
She’s devilish and I’m all in.
I wait for every lovely sin.
She’ll take me to her most wonderful hell.
But hell is empty. Earth is where devils dwell.
VERSE 3
We meet between heaven and hell.
Heart pounding – ready for her spell.
She says “your paintings caught the devil’s eyes.
That’s why I visited your dreams those nights.
CHORUS 3
She’s devilish and I’m all in.
I wait for every lovely sin.
She’ll take me to her most wonderful hell.
But hell is empty. Earth is where devils dwell.
BRIDGE
She looked for love inside paintings before.
On picnics where the love’s forlorn.
Only when I painted her into mine –
She felt connection that’s divine.
VERSE 4
The painter’s in his painting – I came with flaws.
Jumped in with awe – just to get bored and withdraw.
Erased me from the painting – she’s alone.
I became her devil – Her hopes have turned to stone.
CHORUS 4
She’s devilish and I’m all in.
I wait for every lovely sin.
She’ll take me to her most wonderful hell.
But hell is empty. Earth is where devils dwell.
My Other Sad Love Songs
I’ve written a number of additional sad love songs. Here are some of them.
Here is a song about the sorrow of leaving a bad relationship.
Here is another sad love song about breakups. It’s a melancholy song about a sad and regretful breakup.
You may also like my list of songs about loneliness which can be why people get into or don’t leave toxic or bad relationships.