Concept for Still Life?

This is what I've been able to figure out, it would be nice if you'd correct me, since I'm probably mostly wrong :p :

There is this dude who is demon tainted or cursed or whatever, ("wearing my death mask at birth"...albino maybe?), and he has been driven away from his village 15 years ago, but now he comes back for the only one who ever showed him compassion, Melinda. The lady unfortunately has sworn an oath to church, but still wants to escape with our hero. Now at this point she somehow dies...I think I've heard somewhere that when they tried to escape together they were caught and Melinda was killed, but I don't find it from the text. Well anyway, the hero goes into berserk or something, killing everything he sees, but after a while they outmatch him, capture him alive, and the next morning he's hanged.

Now please someone tell me am I a complete idiot here?
 
she was married ("She had sworn her vows unto another"):)
and I think they ran away, and they caught her and
hanged her ("Red line round her neck")

apart from that, I think you're right
 
MAYH is a ghost story about this guy who dies and returns as a spirit of some shit and kinda watches over this woman he loved. then he finds out that she never truly loved him. therefore he is really pissed and haunts her.
 
hmmm, you people seem to be rushing it a bit, here's my two cents (not divided equally, i think it's 0.8 cents for Still Life and 1.2 cents for MAYH ;) but it's natural as MAYH is my favourite album...) :
Still Life:
A man is banished from his village because he renounced his faith, he returns for his loved one, Melinda, who has by now been engaged to another man ("She had sworn her vows to another
"). He manages to get her to run away with him ("My promise is made but my heart is thine"), they are caught by her fiance who kills her accusing our hero ("Red line around her neck, met the earth in silence"), our hero goes bezerk swearing revenge ("Each and everyone will die at my hand") but is caught and hanged ("Hangman, clutching at his tools").

MAYH:
A man dies, and comes back as a ghost, following his loved one. In April Ethereal he expresses the fact that he wants to be with her ("I could clasp her in undying love.") and that he thinks he could actually do that, outrun death ("I would outrun the scythe, glaring with failure. It is a mere destiny I thought, a threshold I had crossed before."). In When he realizes that she had gotten over him, and does not care for him anymore ("And I cried, I knew she had lied. Her obsession had died, it had died.") and so he decides to haunt her in revenge in Demon Of The Fall ("She rose, screaming at closed doors. Seductive faint mist forging through the cracks in the wall."). In Credence the loved one is trying to pacify him, telling him she still loves and cares for him and she does miss him ("Credence in my word. Written in dust, tainted by memories. I confess my hope, recognize my loneliness.") and i believe that in Karma his soul seems to find eternal peace ("I have gone away. The bed is cold and empty.") and in Epilogue and the end of Karma he understands death IS indeed the end ("Draped within a fate I could not change, and always welcoming Winter´s Epilouge." "Farewell was the word, and the afterglow was the brave morning.").

well, these are my thoughts, backed up by quotes, what do you guys think?
 
I don't think he means Melinda there, but maybe it's just me.

I think it simply means that what he felt as a living man is still in his memory, and though now it is out of his reach, it is always beckoning to him...
 
I go for the more depressing ending which I feel suits the entire record better. Happy ending just doesn't do it for me ;)
 
Originally posted by The Suicider
Didn't someone thoroughly explain the concept in another thread somewhere? I think it was taken from an interview.

And what thread would that be? I've searched all over but no luck. Not that any of the explanations above weren't good.. I'd just like to read another as well.
 
Howdy.
Some ancient threads:

Discussing Still Life as a concept album:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=352

Discussing My Arms Your Hearse as a concept album:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=479

Discussing the possibility of Blackwater Park being a concept album:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=585 (features the hilarious "Opeth Jungle Techno Remix" theory)
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1216 (includes my theory)

At one point I also wrote a theory about Morningrise being a concept album, but I think that got lost in the server change a couple months back, I can't find it...
 
Originally posted by Onan
Still Life: A man is banished from his village because he renounced his faith, he returns for his loved one, Melinda, who has by now been engaged to another man ("She had sworn her vows to another"). He manages to get her to run away with him ("My promise is made but my heart is thine"), they are caught by her fiance who kills her accusing our hero ("Red line around her neck, met the earth in silence"), our hero goes bezerk swearing revenge ("Each and everyone will die at my hand") but is caught and hanged ("Hangman, clutching at his tools"). Well, these are my thoughts, backed up by quotes, what do you guys think?

First off, I agree with your interpretation of MAYH. Also my first album. (That about says it...without actually. ;) I really love this album and the concept. Haunting tale. :heh:

Still Life I was listening to 2 weeks ago for about a week again, and I thought I had something sort of figured out but I was wrong. I thought HE killed Melinda. I thought HE got so mad that she wouldn't be with him because of her vows, that he killed her. Sort of a "if I can't have her, no one will" but I figured that out finally. Someone else killed her! Her hubby would be a great guess. I was thinking town’s people.

Lynn
 
Originally posted by Opet


Still Life I was listening to 2 weeks ago for about a week again, and I thought I had something sort of figured out but I was wrong. I thought HE killed Melinda. I thought HE got so mad that she wouldn't be with him because of her vows, that he killed her. Sort of a "if I can't have her, no one will" but I figured that out finally. Someone else killed her! Her hubby would be a great guess. I was thinking town’s people.


You know, I originally got the very same impression when I first listened to the album - I actually couldn't first believe that HE DIDN'T KILL HER when I read Mikael saying so in an interview! I thought that Mikael was just trying to fool the readers and that it was OBVIOUS that it was "he" of the story who killed Melinda. It took me a while to accept other interpretations as well...

-Villain (who likes VERY sad endings above all others)
 
There is one thing i dont get......

He and Melinda ending up spending a night together, and then
he wakes up and finds out she is gone.
Now, if the town's ppl found them, why didnt they take him too ?
It doesnt make any sense, since they know who he is and how he looks like.

The only thing that makes sense is that her husband found them and he was pissed so he took her, and maybe he didnt know who the other guy was, but still, i bet he would wake him up and kick his ass for stealing his wife. right ?

so.....
someone help me figure this out!