Does anyone really understand Opeths lyrics?

synergy

tr00bie
Sep 2, 2003
1,021
2
38
36
Long Island
Visit site
I have tried so hard to understand what the hell any of Opeths songs are about, but I never really have much luck. Songs like "The Leper Affinity" and "Black Rose Immortal" make no sense to me. ( :kickass: but they sound awesome :kickass: ) Still Life is the only album that I can understand lyrics on. Probably because it is a concept album. At least the lyrics sound cool. So does anyone understand Opeth's lyrics?
 
Obviously Still Life and My Arms are concept albums... so there's some sort of logical comparison between the lyrics of each song on the album. Though some other songs have a bit of a storyline or theme (like The Night and the Silent Water), I'd say that most of the lyrics from Blackwater Park are just metal for the sake of metal. Basicaly singing about whatever the music sounds like its about. Obviously not as good as a concept album, because there's no greater objective of the album, so each song sort of has to stand out on its own...
 
Hmmm......haaaaaannnnnnggggg on, I was pretty sure there was some vague concept going on in Blackwater Park. Maybe I should read the lyrics again.

Back on topic, I only really know the lyrics well to Still Life and Damnation - I understand them but with SL you have to think a bit when you read them. Damnation's pretty straight forward.
 
most of the lyrics are not that hard to figure out...well maybe compared to popular music but I compare them to figuring out classical poetry because the lyrics are pretty close to it.

a quick version of what i've found Black Rose Immortal to be about: He is calling, looking for someone that was lost and cannot find them. His spirit has wavered in the face of this and all possible paths have been travelled, he has given up hope and laments for what is lost. Nothing is around except the night/emptiness, he is as a shadow and can only watch from darkness. He remembers the search for what he lost and how difficult the search was, then the moon breaks the darkness. We finally see him, he seems empty, and he enters a place..not really sure what...but the world is empty and cold. He sees who he was searching for, and no words are spoken as they wait for the sun to break the cold/dark/emptiness. The birds fly off and shadows leave with the coming of day. He seems to not want to be reminded of the lonliness endured while, well we assume now it is a person, a love, was gone. It seems she is still far away, very vague and dim, not quite real. More a thing of dreams maybe, and yet he still treasures her. Now we find that she died, followed the moon, as her soul "followed the divine herd" into the sky. He kept a token given to him, Amaranth is "an imaginary flower which never fades". Hence the rose, his love which never fades even in death. The whole story is a sort of dream for what was lost. He will keep it until they are joined in death, eventually it will burn away as well...maybe when they are joined. In any case the symbol, their love, is the black rose immortal. Then things become dark again, daylight fades, the story is over and even nature seems to mourn the loss and that he always dreams of it...which is what just happened.


to me it fits quite well into To Bid You Farewell....anyway its just my interpetation.
 
Some lyrics are easier to understand than others. Lyrics in Morningrise, MAYH, SL, D1 and D2 are somehow understandable. However, those in Orchid and Blackwater Park are more abstract, as someone said, metal for its own sake! Still, they provide some mysterious dark mood, and so my mind can picture some kind of strange halo difficult to explain which perfectly fits with the music. I prefer the ones I can get a meaning from, since with them I can match better the relationship between them and the music the growls, the soft and heavy parts, and this is just great.
 
Mikael has said before that The Leper Affinity, The Drapery Falls, The Funeral Portrait, and Blackwater Park were avout his disgust for humans and Harvest was about being on your death bed. He said he did not really know what Bleak was about.