Fear The Walking Dead: haunting lyrics in trailer

The lyrics for music in The Walking Dead are often chock-full of clues and imagery related to the show. Fear The Walking Dead appears to be on the same path with the song used in the trailer for the new companion series debuting on Aug. 23.

My son is my go-to guy for finding music. So, it was no surprise when he was able to tell me that the song in the trailer is “Carrion Flowers” by Chelsea Wolfe (yes, Wolfe, an interesting, while unintentional shoutout to the original series!) Before I share the lyrics, let’s take a look at the title.

Dictionary.com provides the following definition for a “carrion flower”:

noun
1. any of several North Americanclimbing plants of the genusSmilax, especially S. herbacea,having small white flowers with an odor of carrion.

So what exactly is the “odor of carrion”? Dictionary.com describes “carrion” as:

noun
1. dead and putrefying flesh.
2. rottenness; anything vile.

One could see carrion flowers as a metaphorical reference to the yet unnamed zombies on Fear The Walking Dead. What is more descriptive of what you’d imagine as the fragrance of a reanimated corpse than “putrefying, rotten, or vile”?

Now on to the lyrics for “Carrion Flowers” taken directly from the Chelsea Wolfe website:

CARRION FLOWERS
WE LEARNED HOW ON OUR OWN
NEVER NEEDING HELP FROM YOU
REACHING OUT WITH EYES CLOSED
WE FELT THE LIGHT, IT TAUGHT US TO GROW
(HOLD, HOLD, HOLD ON)
CREATURES OF HABIT, CARRION FLOWERS
GROWING FROM REPEATED CRIMES
THE AFTERGLOW IN FULL BLOOM
SLOW AND RELENTLESS, WE’RE AFTER YOU
HOLD ON TO THE PAIN
OF LOVE TAKEN FROM YOU
A PLAGUE
(HOLD, HOLD, HOLD ON)

The second verse, sounds eerily similar to what we know of walkers in the original series:

creatures of habit
repeated crimes
slow and relentless
we’re after you

And finally, we hear the song reference “a plague”!

Now that sounds exactly like the buzz we are hearing about Fear The Walking Dead — the onset of a widespread and debilitating infection resulting in none other than what we currently know as walkers!!

Photo Credit: Screen capture from Fear The Walking Dead trailer/AMC /

It is conceivable that Fear the Walking Dead chose this song based on both its haunting lyrics and sound reminiscent of our world facing a fictional zombie apocalypse. However, while the song does seem like a good fit for Fear The Walking Dead, it was not written for the series. An article by Jeff Weiss in LA Weekly shares the following insight on the very sad origins of the song: “The lead single is based on the suicide of a Chinese poet whose soul was crushed by sweatshop factory labor.”

The beauty of all art is that it is open to interpretation. These lyrics can mean different things to different people. Regardless of individual interpretation, I believe it is fair to suggest that the song has a rather dark tone. In Wolfe’s bio written by Brian Cook, some of this darkness is attributed to her history of sleep paralysis.

What do fans of the Kirkman franchise think of this song choice for the Fear the Walking Dead trailer? What other parallels to walkers and infections do you see in the lyrics? Please share in the Comments section.

Next: Walking Dead 50 most shocking moments and deaths

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