There are at least three bands with the name Penance:

1) A doom meta… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least three bands with the name Penance:

1) A doom metal band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2) Band from London.
3) A punk band from Perth, Western Australia

1) Penance was born from the ashes of Dream Death, when several members decided to pursue a more traditional doom direction. Dream Death existed during mid eighties and played speciphic mixture of doom, hardcore and thrash metal.

Founders of Penance were drummer Mike Smail and guitarist Terry Weston (both previously a members of Dream Death) and they were the core of the band from its early days to the disbanding. The band changed various line-ups, and one of their most notable members were Mary Bielich (Novembers Doom).

Penance's debut The Road Less Travelled was released 1992, under Lee Dorrian's label Rise Above Records. Alongside with Revelation's debut, it was a first doom metal album released on this label. They would embark on a European tour in support of doom legends Cathedral and Sleep.

Their second album, Parallel Corners, was released 1994, by the European metal label Century Media. Many fans consider this the band's best album, and it's also considered one of the classics of 90s (traditional) doom metal. On the next releases Penance adopted a slight range of psychedelic influences, but still remained fairly closed to their traditional doom roots.

Spiritualnatural (2003) would be the band's final album. They embarked on a European tour in 2004 partnered with Well of Souls and Orodruin. They split that same year. The Road Revisited was released posthumously in 2005, which is the unreleased original recorded version of the first album.

Mike Smail went on to join Internal Void and Pentagram.

2) Penance Last Rites From London: "From the ashes of a dead God, the remains of a broken society and through the fires of creation, we were formed to absolve the world of sin and usher in a new age of man.
To know our name is to know sacrifice,
for we are many, we are eternal, we are the alpha and the omega.
WE ARE PENANCE!"
www.penance-band.com

3) A punk band from Perth, Western Australia. Penance began jamming mid-2013 and have since released a 7 track demo.

Destroyed By One
Penance Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

[Music: Smail]
[Lyrics: Smail]

As I lay here my lifeblood is flowing
Can you feel all of the pain I'm knowing
Cannot understand but still I know feelings
Your frightful existence has me reeling
What importance do I hold for you

Just a status symbol of the things you do
You can rationalize your reasons
You can twist the twisted truth
To me that doesn't matter much
I'm hanging by your views
You cannot see the things I'd be
Or hear what I've to say
But you take it upon yourself
To take my life away

I can feel your pain
I'm to lose and you're to gain
The shape of things to come
Destroyed by one
Innocent and pure
Selfish thoughts are all too sure

Why must it end this way?
Where's my say?

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Penance's song Destroyed By One are about the pain and suffering caused by someone else's actions, and how the victim is powerless to prevent it. The first verse describes the physical pain of the singer as they lay dying, and how despite the intense agony they can still feel the emotional pain caused by the actions of the person responsible for their suffering. The singer questions the relevance of their own existence to the perpetrator, feeling like a mere object to be used for their own selfish ends. They recognise that the perpetrator may have their own reasons for hurting them, but it doesn't make their own pain any less real.

The second verse focuses more explicitly on the perpetrator's motivations for causing harm. The singer cannot understand why someone would take the life of another, and feels like they are being judged unfairly based on the perpetrator's personal biases and beliefs. The singer cannot believe that their own life is being used to justify someone else's twisted sense of reality. Despite their own struggles, the singer recognises that the perpetrator is the one who ultimately benefits from their pain and suffering, and that they are powerless to stop it, leading to the sense of feeling destroyed by that one person.

Line by Line Meaning

As I lay here my lifeblood is flowing
I am dying, blood is leaving my body

Can you feel all of the pain I'm knowing
Do you understand my suffering?

Cannot understand but still I know feelings
I can feel emotions even if I can't explain them

Your frightful existence has me reeling
Your scary presence makes me feel unsteady

What importance do I hold for you
What value do I have in your eyes?

Just a status symbol of the things you do
I'm just a token representative of your actions

You can rationalize your reasons
You can justify your motivations

You can twist the twisted truth
You can distort the already-complicated reality

To me that doesn't matter much
I don't care about that

I'm hanging by your views
My life is dependent on your opinions

You cannot see the things I'd be
You cannot imagine the potential of my life