Bedroom in Hell

I've done several posts now about Dante inspired songs.  This next song comes from a lesser known band from my local area of the Hudson Valley.  The band is called 3 and they are one of my personal favorites.  The song is called "Bedroom in Hell" from the album Summercamp Nightmare.  I've been thinking of this song for a while now because of the connection to Hell, but I hadn't really found a place to discuss it until we reached Cocytus, the frozen Hell; I will explain why momentarily. The genre is progressive rock, which gives a nice contrast, I think, to all the metal songs I've done previously. Here follows my select lyrical analysis.

Bedroom In Hell
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF1EkwGBGBM
Lyrics: http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/the_3/bedroom_in_hell-lyrics-1233443.html

The song opens with:

"Hell's not hot,
it's so cold that it burns"

This immediately evokes the image of Cocytus and is why I waited until we reached the frozen Hell to discuss this song.  Many people when they think of Hell would traditionally bring forth images of fire and burning, but Dante makes the center of Hell a frozen lake wasteland.  Why? Literally, because Satan's flapping wings cause a whirlwind that freezes Lake Cocytus.  More metaphorically, the frozen dead land is a representation of the exact opposite of God: life, light and love.  Throughout the Inferno, Dante associates light with knowledge and hope, so it is fitting that at the very pit of Hell where there is no hope and all is dark that the world would be devoid of light and warmth. "So cold that it burns"; usually we associate fire with burning, but if you've been stuck outside in one of Rochester's cold winters, you've experience the sensation of freeze-burn. Perhaps Dante thought that be burned by frost and ice was a worse punishment than fire.  If we think of human populations, the world is densely populated at the hottest and most tropical regions around the equator, but scare near the frozen poles. Thus, it seems that as a race, humans prefer warmth to cold, so being frozen forever would seem a worse punishment that being burned.  This is why we have the idiom "As cold as Hell".

"The voices of those familiar
Whisper "I'm sorry my son"
If the devil ain't already killed you
Thy kingdom may never come"

To me, the "voices of those familiar" are Dante and Virgil travelling through Hell and meeting people that Dante knew in life along the way.  Familiar, because the people Dante meet as well as Virgil often recognize his speech and even though they may not know him personally, many are able to place him as a Florentine.  "I'm sorry my son" is probably what Dante thought many times as he traveled through Hell pitying many of the souls and crying and fainting along with them, especially in the incontinence levels.  The last two lines make me think of those in Ptolomea who are not yet dead, but already condemned to Hell. "I'f the devil ain't already killed you"; these people are possessed by demons in the real world.  They are a set of some of the worst sinners, with no chance of purgatory and definitely not Heaven therefore "Thy kingdom may never come".  This is a play on the Lord's pray which says "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done...."  Thus, if you've already been thrown down to Ptolomea and haven't been killed by the devils, but are still alive and possessed, the sin you've committed is so great that you will never reach Heaven.

"One by one the guilty trudge
All in single file
One by one they leap from the ledge
One by One they land in the pile"

This portion of the song refers to the beginning of Hell on the shores of Acheron as all the sinners trudge toward Charon and take his ferry over to the other side.  Then once they enter through the speaking gate they "leap from the ledge [and]... land in the pile".  This evokes the image of Minos judge of Hell who picks up each sinner and throws them down to the correct circle with equal twists of his tail to "land in the pile" of all the sinners present in that circle. Master Adam in Canto 30 makes a reference to this experience, saying that he "rained down into this pit" (30:95-96).

"So what do you think?
Of my Bedroom in Hell
Always drips in the sink
Never a drop in the well"

Speaking of Master Adam, these lyrics especially bring him to mind. Master Adam is punished with having many "drips in the sink" as his body is swelled with ill humors as punishment for his counterfeiting.  Yet, he "never [has] a drop in the well"; Master Adam is also punished with constant thirst and the memory of the rushing waters of his homeland streams: "The little streams that from the green hills of Casentino come down into Arno, making their channels cool and moist, always stand before me, and not in vain, for their image dries me far more than the disease that robs my face of flesh" (30:64-69).

Finally:

"See...Hell ain't no place where they melt you down, no
In fact it's so cold that you learn
To sit with your sins 'til a new day begins
And the devil returns"

Again, there is reference to the coldness of the final pit of Hell.  Here also is a reference to the knowledge of the sinners who can see only the past and bits of the future.  With this knowledge they know that they must "sit with [their] sins 'til a new day begins And the devil returns", meaning that they will be punished as they are now till the "new day" or the Last Judgement comes when the "devil returns" or there punishments will be made even greater by the union of body with soul.