When I get in my mother's car, chances are some rock station will be playing. That I often avoid those stations on my own is well-established in my family. "Animal I Have Become," with its standard yelling and hard rock beat, would generally a prime example of 'songs Carradee would avoid.' The look on my mother's and my brother's faces one day when they realized that was me singing along with this song was priceless. (That it took them a near minute to realize who was singing was another matter.)
I first heard this song—or, at least, I was first aware of having heard this song—shortly after I saw Underworld last year. (The first one.) I highly enjoyed the literal fantasy element of this song of a newly-bitten werewolf or vampire struggling to cope with the beast now within. (The music video leans towards vampire, but I tend to think of the narrator as a werewolf.) Literalist me has great difficulty with symbolism, but the song was written as the singer admitting his darker side comes out in his music and coming to terms with it.
The lyrics themselves work very well, capturing the fear, frustration, pleading, confusion, and anger all wrapped into either the literal fantasy or the symbolic realistic meaning. They are pretty short and direct, but at least the songwriter ended when he had a tightly-woven song rather than trying to needlessly stretch it out. "Animal I Have Become" does repeat itself, but that repetition links the many conflicting emotions of the piece.
Now, I think he has a good voice, but much of the song yells, making it hard to tell. "Somebody get me through this nightmare—I can't control myself!" he yells in frustration and fear. The song addresses that "this animal" is who he now is; no one can change that, but he still pleads for someone to "help me tame this animal I have become!"
The word hell is used, though not as an expletive. ("I can't excape this hell.") It's overall a dark tone, with a sound I can only describe as "rough," though not in a musically unskilled kind of way. It suits the subject matter.
"Animal I Have Become" has helped me adapt to hard rock and the post-grunge influence, so I can tolerate them. I liked the song enough that I forced myself to sit through listening to it.
Music: 4/5
Vocal(s): 3/5
Overall: 7/10
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