In Flames lyrics discussion
- Thread starter DE4life
- Start date
I've been listening to Whoracle quite a bit lately... you know, the lyrics sound kind of cool if you don't think about them, but any attempt to analyse them renders the lyrical content pretty weak.
I mean, there are lots of cool little lines and words scattered across the album, but very few songs have any discernable meaning. It's quite a contrast to TJR, where most of the songs had an identifiable theme.
I get that Whoracle is a concept album of the aftermath of machines taking over humanity etc, but that story is never really captured properly at any point.
The only songs that to me have any decipherable meaning are Morphing Into Primal (Anders has already said it's about sex) and Episode 666. Nothing else really makes a whole lot of sense. I don't count Everything Counts because it's a cover.
I mean, there are lots of cool little lines and words scattered across the album, but very few songs have any discernable meaning. It's quite a contrast to TJR, where most of the songs had an identifiable theme.
I get that Whoracle is a concept album of the aftermath of machines taking over humanity etc, but that story is never really captured properly at any point.
The only songs that to me have any decipherable meaning are Morphing Into Primal (Anders has already said it's about sex) and Episode 666. Nothing else really makes a whole lot of sense. I don't count Everything Counts because it's a cover.
Jotun makes a lot of sense. Worlds Within the Margin does too. At least the chorus does because that's really all the lyrics I remember from that song. It's pretty difficult for me to remember Whoracle lyrics because of the vocals. I think most of them are at least written in such a cool, interesting way that even if there isn't a real meaning, there is still substance.
I actually think all the songs, save for maybe Gyroscope, have a good meaning. Food for the Gods, I don't really get the title part, but the rest of it seems to be trying to get to a better place, in so few words. "Astral feet running up, to dimensions covered with gold." I think that has meaning and a lot of unique imagery.
At best you can get an abstract meaning out of some of the lines.
What is Jotun actually about?
What the fuck does JST really mean?
Why does WWTM jump through about 3 different themes without settling on anything specific?
I get that Anders has said they basically just put a bunch of cool words together and put it out there, he's admitted the lyrics are poor. It's just weird because on every other album - from Lunar Strain to SOAPF, each song seems to have a specific and decipherable meaning. Whoracle is the only album where I really struggle to see any coherent structure to the lyrics, just an attempt to look mystical using big words.
What is Jotun actually about?
What the fuck does JST really mean?
Why does WWTM jump through about 3 different themes without settling on anything specific?
I get that Anders has said they basically just put a bunch of cool words together and put it out there, he's admitted the lyrics are poor. It's just weird because on every other album - from Lunar Strain to SOAPF, each song seems to have a specific and decipherable meaning. Whoracle is the only album where I really struggle to see any coherent structure to the lyrics, just an attempt to look mystical using big words.
Why do you guys even bother? 
Just enjoy the music!
They were young, Swedish and probably drunk when they wrote that lines. I bet half of the stuff doesn't even have a meaning (collection of cool sounding words and lines).
While we torture our brains trying to figure out the meaning (of life), Anders and co were probably sitting next to giant dictionary thinking: "WTF rhymes with "decreation"!?"
Just enjoy the music! They were young, Swedish and probably drunk when they wrote that lines. I bet half of the stuff doesn't even have a meaning (collection of cool sounding words and lines).
While we torture our brains trying to figure out the meaning (of life), Anders and co were probably sitting next to giant dictionary thinking: "WTF rhymes with "decreation"!?"
Haha, I just find it interesting as it is the only album that lacks coherency in the lyrics. TJR has some strange lines, but overall each song makes sense. You can't really say the same for Whoracle, at best you can maybe guess at an abstract theme of some kind
I think it's a shame the lyrics don't match the music in terms of awesomeness is all.
I think it's a shame the lyrics don't match the music in terms of awesomeness is all.
Observe it from the positive side... Whoracle doesn't have coherency...ASOP does - and it's all shitty. What is better?
Do you even have to ask
If every single song on Whoracle had the lyrics "GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY I'M GAYYYY"
It'd still be better than ASOP
Dantess9226
FINN BALOR
Haha, I just find it interesting as it is the only album that lacks coherency in the lyrics. TJR has some strange lines, but overall each song makes sense. You can't really say the same for Whoracle, at best you can maybe guess at an abstract theme of some kind
I think it's a shame the lyrics don't match the music in terms of awesomeness is all.
I find that most lyrics before Clayman (including some of Clayman too) don't have any relevance to reality at all. They are more like a story of 'Reptile skulls', 'colonies' and other things science-folk-fiction. They are expertly done in this sense though, i'm not saying that they are rubbish because they aren't touchingly emotional.
Reroute to Remain onwards i feel that Anders has written more lyrics that he feels and his own experiences and opinions. Very emotional at times, with stand-out themes like dispair, hope and isolation. In some respects i sometimes find it hard to listen to old-era In Flames and new-era In Flames back to back. But i still love both eras, and both styles of lyrics.
"We are ghosts of the concrete world
Genetic codes of a dying breed
Will I be left behind?
Sounds of a playground fading"
^^^ i still can't get over how awesome this chorus is though, it's like a Colony moment all over again!
Hmm, i disagree. both the lines you just quoted are from Whoracle
What on TJR doesn't make sense?
Similarly, Colony makes perfect sense.
Dantess9226
FINN BALOR
Hmm, i disagree. both the lines you just quoted are from Whoracle
What on TJR doesn't make sense?
Similarly, Colony makes perfect sense.
I never said they didn't make sense
I was just saying TJR, Whoracle and Colony are simply telling a story (that perhaps some people can take further and find meaning from, and relate back to), whereas lately Anders writes lyrics that people can take more meaning from and relate to human emotion as opposed to topics found in folk music and sci-fi themes (such as Behind Space, very vivid fantasy imagery).You are?
No, dude that's Sleepless Again lyrics, they can't use it on Whoracle... Anders has a better plan.
When the music is as great as TJR-W-C-CM is, I tend to ignore lyrics. Really, I don't even notice them. But, when I'm confronted with shit like ASOP or STYE, where music is boring, I usually hear every fucking word...and it's so gay.
Jotun - Norse myth any of a race of giants. It's about the ever-increasing "havoced life" we live in by making these "22-kilometre tombstone". The next verse is about the destruction we will bring upon ourselves and how our "colonies" will be no more. The "rising spores" are the radiation from the nuclear destruction, which ties to "mushroom-scattered". These dark, ghost-like things are trying to take us over, make us destroy ourselves so they can "dream [their] own existence in one single, final word." Then the end: "Can we identify them, as the flint buried in our reptile skulls, or the time-bomb coded in our DNA?" Even though I'm pretty sure we didn't evolve from reptiles, he's asking if the Jotun are actually inside of us already, if this is a natural progression of evolution.
I think all of Whoracle is very closely tied to Colony, and there is a lot of meaning in all of the songs. There might be some lines that just sound cool, but most of it is just a very abstract, imagery-filled way to to tell a story.
I think all of Whoracle is very closely tied to Colony, and there is a lot of meaning in all of the songs. There might be some lines that just sound cool, but most of it is just a very abstract, imagery-filled way to to tell a story.
Well, without going into detail with the lyrics, because I am lazy as fuck right now, it's just as the title describes. The Jester Script, our story (a script just like a play or movie), is being changed into a cyborg form. The combination of words he uses is a lot more abstract, but I think the meaning is still there. I think a lot of the songs, just like JST, make more sense within the context of the entire album. Unlike any song on Colony, these songs (except for Jotun which sets the stage for and pre-sums up the album) have to be viewed together.
Pallbearer
Passive Member
The image I get from reading the JST lyrics:
There was a war between men and machines, and machines won. They are now creating a master race of cyborgs by mixing biological (human and animal DNA) and electronic parts ("each and every attribute
of animal, machine and man") and inhabiting a blank, untouched planet ("biotronic test-world free of inscription and devoid of echoes of man") with these creatures.
"Ram" probably refers to "Random Access Memory" rather than to the sheep animal. By taking a giant blow to "the RAM what is us" the machines destroyed the collective memory of mankind. The whole scenario is worse than Hell, and the narrator is yearning for "restoration of unsequenced chaos", the natural state of things on Earth. He's waiting for someone to defeat the machines and "install" human life on our planet again, so that we could start over from scratch.
There was a war between men and machines, and machines won. They are now creating a master race of cyborgs by mixing biological (human and animal DNA) and electronic parts ("each and every attribute
of animal, machine and man") and inhabiting a blank, untouched planet ("biotronic test-world free of inscription and devoid of echoes of man") with these creatures.
"Ram" probably refers to "Random Access Memory" rather than to the sheep animal. By taking a giant blow to "the RAM what is us" the machines destroyed the collective memory of mankind. The whole scenario is worse than Hell, and the narrator is yearning for "restoration of unsequenced chaos", the natural state of things on Earth. He's waiting for someone to defeat the machines and "install" human life on our planet again, so that we could start over from scratch.
@Jabi, I like that. That's a much more detailed description of what I said, lol. On a semi-related note, I like how Anders pronounces "restoration" in that song; "Awaiting the restortion..." lol. And on System, he sings "Our adaption can't be faithful" when the word is "adaptation". I will say that I believe the word should be "adaption", but whatever. Anyway, we all know it's amusing how he pronounces some words.
