Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: german
Song Meaning of “The Quick and the Dead” by Accept
The Quick and the Dead is a song by German heavy metal band Accept, dealing with the evergreen theme of mortality. The song is inspired by the medieval English annual burial custom of ‘The Danse Macabre’, where skeletons representing death dance with humans of all ages and social classes as a sign of the ultimate equality of life and death. The song discusses how the ‘quick’ or the alive are helpless in the face of death, and despite their social rank or wealth, will inevitably become like all the ‘dead’.
The lyrics open up with a stark warning about mortality: “They come in the night, with no chance to fight, when life is done, it can’t be undone.” This serves to reinforce the idea that death is inescapable and that no matter how powerful or wealthy you are, premature death can still strike.
In the second verse, the protagonist laments the suffocating pressures of mortality. He tries to live life to the fullest, but life’s rigors are overwhelming. “The clock always ticking, can’t take a second look, I can’t turn back time, it’s an unforgiving book” speaks to the powerlessness of Humanity in the face of the relentless march of time.
The bridge serves as a reminder that all life is truly equal in death and that death ultimately brings a kind of primal unity. We are all subject to death and soon all the ‘quick’. will join with the ‘dead’, regardless of rank or station in life.
Ultimately, the song is a reminder that life is short but precious, and that all worldly goods and titles die with the person. The message of the song is to appreciate life and make the most of it, for no one knows what life can bring or when it will abruptly end.