Song meaning

Greg doesn't consider No Control to be fatalistic: "It just implies that you should be very aware of the things you have no control over. Particularly in the second verse when it talks about 'History and future are the comforts of our curiosity.' That's implying that those are endeavors that can enrich your life if you study them, but you're always stuck here in the present day."^[1]

Greg about the line 'If you came to conquer you'll be king for a day / But you too will deteriorate and quickly fade away': "Everyone seems to strive to be powerful and better than all the rest. That line is of saying who cares if you make it that high or that far, it's only going to be for a very brief moment and then you're the same as everybody else - you' re dead."^[2]

Greg: "(...) [T]here's something very deep and inherent that we don't understand about our biology and our culture that drives us in the course that we are headed."^[3]

Similarites

The main riff in No Control is identical to the song "The Prisoner" (1979) by D.O.A..

References