Is Deliverance a Concept Album?

[Towelie]

In an interview before Blackwater Park came out... Mike said that the album wasn't a concept album because he'd just done two in a row (MAYH and Still Life) and he was getting tired of it... but I think Deliverance can be interpreted as a concept album if you look at it closely and really read the lyrics closely. It does seem to take place in a haunted house and the protagonist seems to be haunted by these ghostly figures in "Wreath"... "Deliverance" almost seems to be a Shining type event... the ghosts seem to convince him that he needs something horrible to someone. (possibly someone close to him?) They probably want more company in the house they haunt. He ends up killing this person only to realize that killing that person wasn't what he needed and he's done wrong in "A Fair Judgement"... "For Absent Friends" seems to be a short interlude reflecting on the missing memory of this person he killed. "Master's Apprentices" seems to represent the constant turmoil in the protagonist's head about what he did... the ghosts keep on haunting him along with the person he cared about that he killed... until they achieve their goal... he can't take it anymore and kills himself just like so many others who died there before... in that sense... he's their apprentice. "By the Pain I See In Others" represtents the protagonist haunting the house himself after death. He thought that death would make every thing quiet and that he would be in a never ending sleep but he's doomed to haunt the house forever. He's trying to figure out how to get alive again because he'd rather be alive and tormented with memories than dead and tormented. I think the weird backwards part of Master's Apprentice at the end is him finding a way to reverse death. The lines that are played backwards are the lines in which the protagonist kills himself or dies (however you interperet it)... almost in effect reversing death. So while he reversed death and is alive death... with something as unnatrual as that... comes eternal "Damnation"... a perfect lead in to the next album.

Wow that was a mouthful... what do you guys think? I might be reaching... but it just seems very continuous... am i looking into this too much? am i totally off? I just want some feedback on this idea... because I feel good about it.

 

[opethpainter]

i think deliverance IS NOT a concept, just because in the most recent interviews mikael says it isn't.

 

[Towelie]

I think that it is most likely not a concept as well... but can't you see how the lyrics kind of fit like that?

 

[Iblys]

I think it isn't but I've thought that Deliverance and A Fair Judgement sound like they are thematically linked. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, it's good to have your own personal interpretation of things, but don't go chasing a definitive storyline which Deliverance tells, because it doesn't tell one. Not according to Mikael.

 

[Smitty]

nice observation... hell maybe he wrote a concept album without knowing it

np-

Lacuna Coil: To Myself I Turned

 

[Id]

I used think Morningrise was a concept, but then I was told it wasn't.

 

[Genocidal]

Even if he says he didn't write it as one concept, you're right; there's lots of common ground among the songs. You've got to realise, though, that he did most of the writing in the studio. All the thoughts in the songs came from the same place at the same time. He could be so used to writing concepts that it came naturally.

That doesn't explain how Blackwater Park doesn't really tie in, though.

And really, there's just as much chance of Mikael writing a concept as writing about how much his armpits stunk after the recording sessions. You never know what's going through his head

 

[shivering corpse]

i don't know if it was intended to be, but if that's how you interpret the album, great!

 

[Cutter]

Nice interpretation Towelie. Not sure if I agree with everything, but many of the aspects seem to fit Mikaels style. I can't say I've memorised all the lyrics, but from what I remember, the lyrics in Deliverance seem a bit more personal. He might not be referring to ghosts and spirits, but to his own demons. There seems to be a lot more 'I's and 'Me's used thoughout the songwriting.

Still, I enjoyed reading your interpretation.

 

[Towelie]

I would agree Cutter... I went back and checked out the lyrics to the song again and it does seem a bit more personal... either way... they kick ASS

 

[Towelie]

btw... thanks for all the feedback guys

 

[Madrigal75]

I don't really see it as a concept album. But, that was a damn fine story there, Towelie.

 

[Sfarog]

Well believe what you have to believe. Its up to you to interpret the words music and symbolicism of a piece of art.

Every Opeth cd released after Orchid seems to be so tight stylistically and emotionally, they all seem like concept albums to me. Wheather intentional or not, each one of them, from Morningrise through Deliverance just are so separate from each other, while no songs seem very singular in themselves. All songs are parts of a greater whole (album) and that makes it a concept in itself.

Your interpretation of Deliverance was excellent, and the cover art of the cd sets the tone for the music very accurately! When I listen to Deliverance I am thinking deathbed in an old room full of old furniture and stuff. And the night before the end comes. And when you dont even fully know are you still alive in the physical world or did you already fade into that of the etheral. Its quite sweet.

Sfarog