Analysis of BWP songs?

[Powerslave]

I've been getting into Blackwater Park recently (I only got it this summer) and I've been doing some "proper" listening lately (i.e. headphones on, reading the lyrics) and I was wondering what the story behind it is, or what the lyrics mean. It seems to me that they are connected, especially Bleak, Harvest and The Drapery Falls. Is there a line-by-line analysis somewhere on the net for me to read?

 

[Monsterxman]

I don't believe they are connected. Mikael Akerfeldt has said in the past that all the songs on BWP are meant to stand alone... I know this because I read a review where a reporter asked him this very question. I'm sure you can analyze any two Opeth songs and see similiarities... I mean most are about the same subject anyway...

However, If you really want to anaylze connecting lyrics... go look at the two concept cd's MAYH or Still Life... both tell great stories and are significantly better than BWP in my opinion.

 

[Stinkfist]

Every song on the album is about death.

 

[Powerslave]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up, I'm looking for more specifi line-by-line analysis. E.g. what is the meaning of the clean vox part in Bleak "Devious movements in your eyes moved me from relief, breath comes out white clouds in your eyes and filters through me" etc.

Or the Harvest chorus "Into the orchard I walk peering way past the gates, wilted scenes for us who couldn't wait" etc., this sounds like a visit to a cemetery or a burial but some of the lines, I don't quite understand their meaning.

 

[extensive desolation]

I don't think that any lyrics/poetry should be analyzed line by line.

 

[thebleakaffinity]

I can tell you that Bleak is about a man murdering(and raping?) a woman, and Blackwater Park seems to be about some screwed up civilization. Just what I think though.

 

[WinterStorm]

Blackwater Park is an old progressive rock band or album.... I can't remember which one it is...

 

[Ermz]

Blackwater Park is an old Swedish 70's prog rock band that released one LP then died out I think.

The concept of Blackwater Park overall is basically about death and other grim things, like suicide (Dirge for November), fucked up humanity (Blackwater Park) etc. etc.

You won't get very far doing a line-by-line analysis as Mikael was basically writing whatever was in his head at the time, so it's not really meant to make direct sense.

 

[Hiljainen]

i don't know if they're connected (seems to be that they aren't as the others said) but every time i listen to bwp i think to a place (a sort of death park) like the drawing on the cd-cover populated by spirits and such things where happen the stories in the lyrics...don't know why, this is just what comes into my mind

 

[Punisher]

Originally posted by thebleakaffinity
I can tell you that Bleak is about a man murdering(and raping?) a woman, and Blackwater Park seems to be about some screwed up civilization. Just what I think though.

i thought the leper affinity was about raping?? "your body is mine to avail".... and so on...

 

[IntoObscurity]

The Leper Affinity is about a man who murders his wife/love/whatever. Bleak is similar, but I think its more based on a betrayal on the woman's part and the man is the victim, whereas Leper Affinity is more just pure evil on the mans part.

 

[Morningrise]

There is no such thing as a fucking Opeth lyric analysis. Opeths lyrics are meant to be taken from a personal view, not to be read on the internet, jesus. Come up with your own "analysis" if you want to be so picky about it, but why not just leave the music with that mysteriousness?

 

[Dragn]

I'm almost positive that BWP (the song) is about a town which dies out from leprosy. 'Blackwater Park' is the name of the town (although, yeah, originally he got it from a 70's prog band).
An outside observer (the narrator) is documenting this tragic event.
The disease is originally set loose in the town via foreigners from other towns ("dangerous liasons raise this monumental mark").
Now, the narrator is originally just documenting the events...("This doesn't concern me...yet").

Some other stuff is subjective, and left to interpretation.
My interpretation is, though, that the loud music at the end is when the entire town finally dies out. Then the slow acoustic part at the very end is when the narrator finally catches the illness, and his life fades away to nothingness.

 

[Hondo]

It's more symbolic, I think. Though he did cut one set of lyrics in two to fill a couple songs. It could easily be Leper Affinity and BWP.

 

[ControlledChaos]

To me the leper affinity is about a rape and then murder, or perhaps the other way around.

 

[Morningrise]

Blackwater Park is basically, a collection of songs about his disgust for humanity. Your Leprosy idea is kind of interesting, but way off if I remember his words correctly.