Slipknot’s “Solway Firth” Lyrics Meaning

First of all concerning the title of this Slipknot song, the Solway Firth is actually a waterbody along the coasts of England and Scotland. Indeed a firth is a word from that part of the world used to refer to certain coastal waters. However, this is not what Slipknot seems to be referring to specifically.

Rather it has been theorized that the title of the track rather alludes to a famous photograph called the Solway Firth Spaceman. This photo’s claim to fame was based on the its photographer presenting it as one where a ‘spaceman’ miraculously appeared out of nowhere in the background. Of course this claim was eventually proven to be false.  But it is the fraudulent nature of that assertion which Slipknot seems to be focusing on.

That is to say that the main theme of this track is the singer feeling compelled to present himself as someone he is not. In other words, it seems as if he is addressing someone who wants him to “show (his) whole story” and display “a real smile”. However, the singer is not in such a mood.  Indeed it appears as if he is dealing with some sort of depression. And overall he does not seem inclined to share details of his personal life.

In all, this song is highly-symbolic in its presentation. Slipknot also brings up the subject of “killers” and refer to some quite-gory imagery. However, considering the analysis above, this may actually be a reference to the media or people who invade the band’s privacy. But who and what they are referring to in particular may just take a while to fully come to light. It is also possible it may never!

Release Date of “Solway Firth”

Roadrunner Records released “Solway Firth” on 22 July 2019. It came out as the second single from Slipknot’s sixth full-length album. This album is titled We Are Not Your Kind. “Unsainted” was the first single from We Are Not Your Kind.

Music Video

The music video to the song was directed by Slipknot member Shawn Crahan and was created in collaboration with Uproxx alongside Amazon Prime Video. In fact it features footage from the Amazon series entitled “The Boys”.

Who wrote “Solway Firth”?

It was written by six of the members of Slipknot:

• Sid Wilson
• Jim Root
• Craig Jones
• Shawn Crahan
• Mick Thomson
• Corey Taylor
• Alessandro Venturella
• Jay Weinberg

Meanwhile the entire band produced the track alongside Greg Fidelman.