Ben Jorgensen created Armor for Sleep in 2001 and Nash Breen and PJ DeCicco later joined the band after leaving fellow New Jersey band Prevent Falls. He stated that the name of the band comes from his early experiences of writing music and not being able to sleep. After distributing demos Albany, New York-based indie label Equal Vision signed the band and released their first two concept albums: Dream to Make Believe, released in 2003, and What to Do When You Are Dead, released in 2005.
What to Do When You Are Dead spawned the popular singles "Car Underwater" and "The Truth About Heaven," receiving lots of airplay with their music videos. Each song on the album tells the story of the protagonist's suicide as well as his journey through the afterlife. The story goes through moments of personal introspection at the positive and negative aspects of his life while he quietly visits important locations of his past life without disturbing anyone. Analyzing the lyrics of each track, you can see him progress through the Kübler-Ross 5-stage model of grief management as he initially denies his situation, then wishes for a reversal, and finally accepts his fate. The album ends with the character finally coming to grips with his decision, and his spirit continues on, having completed his business in this life. Initial copies of the CD came with a bonus DVD that featured live footage of the band as well as the music videos for "My Town" and "Dream to Make Believe," both from Dream to Make Believe. It also included a making-of documentary and a small booklet titled "What to Do When You Are Dead: A Comprehensive Guide to The Afterlife" which featured satirical ways to cope with death should you unexpectedly perish. A remix by Machine Shop of "Remember to Feel Real" was featured on Snakes on a Plane: The Album in August 2006. A new song, "End of the World," was featured on Transformers - The Album. That song would be on their third and final album, Smile for Them, released through their new label Sire/Warner Bros..
Armor for Sleep released their first single from Smile for Them, "Williamsburg," on September 18, 2007, through iTunes. "Hold the Door" also received indie radio airplay. They played on Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour in 2008 on the US leg Revolution Stage to promote the album.
The band's final release, The Way Out Is Broken, was an EP released digitally on September 5, 2008. Fans were able to purchase download cards during the band's run on Projekt Revolution to use to download the EP on the release date.
On October 28, 2009, it was officially announced that Armor for Sleep would disband. Ben Jorgensen wrote a statement on AltPress.com informing fans of the inevitable, after the band had been inactive and not performing for over a year. Ben Jorgensen has since taken on a solo project and was associated with God Loves a Challenge with Sierra Shardae. PJ DeCicco has also moved on playing in Love Automatic with former Senses Fail bassist Mike Glita.
The band has embarked on multiple reunion tours, and played multiple reunion shows, the first of these being at Bamboozle 2012. They played three more shows following the festival appearance and then disbanded again. The band then announced an eight city tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their album What To Do When You Are Dead. On February 24, 2020, the band announced they would be reuniting for a summer tour with nineteen tour dates to celebrate the 15th anniversary of What To Do When You Are Dead. The tour was later postponed due to COVID-19, and later in year postponed dates for 2021 were announced.
Armor For Sleep officially returned with their new single How Far Apart on July 7, 2022. The band has signed back on to Equal Vision Records and are set to release their fourth full length album The Rain Museum in early September 2022.
The Truth About Heaven
Armor for Sleep Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Saw the stone and the note you left for me
To answer your question I just had to leave
I just had to leave
But that's not why I'm here
I came out here to tell you it rains in heaven all day long
I want to find you so bad
To let you know I'm miserable up here without you
Found my way back in the dark tonight
Couldn't wake up, not right next to you
I traded forever to just hear you say the sound of my name
But that's not why I'm here
I came out here to tell you it rains in heaven all day long
I want to find you so bad
To let you know I'm miserable up here without you
Don't believe that its better
When you leave everything behind
Don't believe that the weather is perfect
The day that you die
Don't believe that the weather is perfect
The day that you die
I came out here to tell you it rains in heaven all day long
I want to find you so bad
To let you know I'm miserable up here without you
Don't believe that the weather is perfect
The day that you die
In "The Truth About Heaven," Armor for Sleep's lead vocalist is expressing his heartbreak and devastation over the loss of someone he loves. The song starts with the singer walking past his own grave in the dark, where he finds a note left by the person he lost. To answer the question asked in the note, he had to leave, which shows his struggle to grapple with the loss. He later declares that the reason he returned to the grave is to tell the person that it rains in heaven all day long and to find them and let them know how miserable he is without them. He explains that he couldn't wake up next to his loved one, and he traded forever just to hear them say his name.
The singer ultimately calls out the commonly held belief that death brings perfection and freedom from struggle, proclaiming that it's not true. The tone of the song is melancholic, with the chorus repeating the lines about the singer's search for his lost love and the heartache he feels.
Line by Line Meaning
Walk past my grave in the dark tonight
I'm dead, and I'm observing someone visiting my grave in the darkness of the night.
Saw the stone and the note you left for me
The person visiting my grave left a stone and a note for me to read.
To answer your question I just had to leave
The person visiting my grave had a question, but I couldn't answer it because I had to leave the living world.
I just had to leave
I had to leave because I died and couldn't stay in the world of the living.
But that's not why I'm here
Despite coming to my grave to answer the visitor's question, that's not the only reason why I'm here.
I came out here to tell you it rains in heaven all day long
One of the reasons why I came to visit is to share the truth that it constantly rains in heaven.
I want to find you so bad
I'm desperately trying to locate the person who left the stone and note at my grave.
To let you know I'm miserable up here without you
The main reason why I want to find the visitor is to let them know how unhappy I am in heaven without them.
Found my way back in the dark tonight
I returned to the living world, probably as a ghost or spirit, and navigated through the darkness to return to the person who visited my grave.
Couldn't wake up, not right next to you
I wasn't able to fully wake up from my eternal slumber, in the afterlife, right beside the person I longed to see again.
I traded forever to just hear you say the sound of my name
I made a choice to sacrifice eternity just for a chance to hear the person I miss so much pronounce my name once more.
Don't believe that its better
I want to emphasize that in the afterlife, it isn't necessarily better or perfect compared to living.
When you leave everything behind
When you die, you leave everything behind, including the people and things you cherish.
Don't believe that the weather is perfect
Don't believe that heaven has perfect weather conditions.
The day that you die
Death isn't a day of perfection, but one of separation and sorrow.
I came out here to tell you it rains in heaven all day long
I repeat my earlier statement to remind the visitor that the weather in heaven isn't what they might have believed it to be.
I want to find you so bad
Once more, I share my burning desire to locate and connect with the person who left me the stone and note at my grave.
To let you know I'm miserable up here without you
I stress again how desperate I am to inform the visitor of the terrible loneliness and sadness I experience every day in heaven without them.
Don't believe that the weather is perfect
My final remark is another warning not to assume that heaven is perfect, sweetening the reality of the afterlife.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Ben Jorgensen, Anthony Diionno, Peter James Decicco, Nash Breen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind