refers to the title of THE 13TH chapter in David Macey's 1993 biography of french postmodernist philosopher michel foucault (1926-1984), called Michel Foucault, which was published in the series of biographical books called 'the lives of...'. THE CHAPTER IS ACTUALLY CALLED 'THE ARCHIVES OF PAIN'.the song archives of pain [lyric] deals with the idea of punishments matching the crime, which foucault describes in discipline and punish, his analysis of the development of punishment in our western society. according to foucault we can see this concept of punishment in the torturing in the middle ages, when the goal of punishment was to show people the enormous power and truth of the king. later on, the concept changed and nowadays the goal of punishment is to change people's minds to be like the state wants them to be: persons who act or think differently are imprisoned and changed. in all institutes (schools, prisons, the army, mental hospitals etcetera) we can see this form of power.in one of his last interviews, richey edwards said that foucault 'advocates a return to nineteenth-century values of execution and capital punishment'. that is absolutely wrong. foucault rejects nineteenth-century ways of punishment. he just describes them in his analysis of the development of punishment to show that our modern system of punishment is not as humane and right as we all think. it is a totally different sort of punishment, but as wrong as the nineteenth-century way.archives of pain is not a right-wing song about the 'eye for an eye' concept, but is a statement against the glorification of serial killers. IN REALITY, like jeffrey dahmer, as well IN FICTION, LIKE ANTHONY HOPKINS (SEE acting is bad for the mental health. i can't take ...) AS HANNIBAL THE CANNIBAL, and the fashion to reduce horrible people to fascinating and interesting persons. the song makes us conscious about the real horrors of history.