Lyric Explanations

[Burninator-X]

I was wondering if there is a place that explains the meanings of your songs. I love your lyrics, they're brilliant. Though, almost every song is either a bit too vague for me to pin down what it's about or is a story of which I'm left without any context. I don't know why but it always bugs the hell out of me if I don't know what a song is exactly about. Things can be left for the listener to decide like not backing a specific view in a song etc., but I like to know the subject concretely.


For example, Tre'aste seems to be a story, but what's the context? Who are "the star gods"/"the Tre'aste"? Is it based on a story in a mythology that I'm not familiar with etc.? I can't even seem to find the word "Tre'aste" anywhere but Be'lakor lyrics, even tried google translate.

Same goes for songs like Venator, the story is clear, but is there any background in a mythology/literature/movie, or is it just a hunter stalking a warg? Is "warg" used as just wolf, like the wargs from Tolkien, or some other use of warg that I don't know?

Then there are songs like Countless Skies (one of my favorites). Is it just a poem about nature, is it a metaphor with some other meaning to it?

Paths is the most confusing, are those lyrics that got cut and accidently printed anyway? Is that a poem as sort of a "here's something to think about while listening to this piece of music"?

I can't stop asking these types of questions while I listen and it drives me nuts!


Anyway, if there isn't anywhere that I could find this out, any chance you guys could do something like that? I'm begging on my knees here! lol. It eats away at my brain every time I listen to a song that I don't know the meaning of.


Just something like this (written): http://metalholic.co/vore-vocalist-swings-through-gravehammer-track-by-track/

Or this (video):

They don't need to be 2 paragraph/10min descriptions or anything like that. Even just simple short explanations would be great.

Example: Venator is a song about when (insert name) was hunting the grey warg in (insert culture) mythology.



If any of this sounds at all greedy or demanding, I heavily apologize. I don't mean any of this in any rude way whatsoever. I just don't see it taking much time and effort and it would be GREATLY appreciated by me and likely others (I can't be the only one that doesn't understand everything, can I?). It's just a simple request, feel free to crush my dreams with a simple "No".

I completely understand if you have any reason that you want to keep things unexplained or have any other artistic reason. Even if you just plain can't be asked lol. It's your music not mine.




PS: anyone who hasn't heard that Vore album (since they're pretty unknown), definitely check it out, it's absolutely crushing! Sorry for the plug of a random band, but I love that album and feel like those guys deserve more exposure.

 

[fifthwinter]

Hey, thanks for the question. We are always happy to discuss the lyrics. I can't give all the definitive answers here right now, partly because George writes many of the lyrics. And also because it would take a long time to explain all of our songs haha.

But for a couple of the ones I wrote - and something that is true of many of our songs - they are simply imagined stories, often set without any real historical context (though From Scythe to Sceptre is written about the black plague). Absit Omen, though, is just about a world - any world (but most likely our earth) - which is destroyed by its sun.

Countless Skies is pretty much as you said - a poem, written (in most of the stanzas) from the perspective of time or nature itself. It observes the changes and phenomena that come and go across eons. Some of the stanzas are written from the point of view of someone living their life, but mostly it tries to capture the vast scale of time and existence, and also the harsh, completely impartial and uncaring way of nature, which I find to be awe inspiring and beautiful.

Maybe when we have time we could do some more for you, or release a short video like you said.

Cheers!

 

[Burninator-X]

Hey, thanks very much for the reply and some insight into at least a couple songs, it's much appreciated!

I realize that I'm probably in a small minority of music fans who care so much about the music they're fans of. So it's nice to see when bands care enough about their own music and their fans to even try to cater to us "minorities". Most people tend to use music as just a soundtrack to their life, i.e. listening while they do things/drive places etc. Of course I do the same while I'm doing things, but I'm the type of person who will just sit and listen/pay attention to music while doing nothing else. I try to bury my brain in it and soak up all the details and lyrics. Since your music is so great for that (being quite detailed, atmospheric, and having great lyrics that were clearly written with care), and amazing in general, I even made these lightly decorated "pages" with the lyrics for each song in 1920x1080 just so that I could fullscreen them while I listen, instead of having a busy screen: http://oi41.tinypic.com/255q7h1.jpg I know, I probably care way too much about music...

But for a couple of the ones I wrote - and something that is true of many of our songs - they are simply imagined stories, often set without any real historical context (though From Scythe to Sceptre is written about the black plague).

Yeah, I assumed that would likely be the case for several. Even then, there is often at least a little "back-story" that a person has mentally written as sort of the foundation while writing a story into lyrics (that isn't specifically in the lyrics themselves) that is always nice to know.

Also, I'm so glad that "From Scythe to Sceptre" is one of the few you explained, because holy shit that was one of the ones I was most confused about! I had this weird theory that it was about some king who was dying and realizing that nobility means nothing in the end:

"King, slave, child
Your fates are united
An unending row to the grave
A single dance now, all eyes are shut
Blind to the earthly"

And he was passing his crown down to a young farmer/peasant (possibly like a "secret bastard child" of his), and the part with:

"Gaping in mirth, his old eyes spoke
Where you are now - I once was
And what I am now - you soon will be
Nothingness awaits you"

Was him (before dying) telling the peasant boy about how "everyone dies the same. Don't be fooled into thinking royalty makes you different". Being a peasant then being crowned the next king made the title make sense too.

Maybe I'm crazy, but try thinking of it that way while reading the lyrics, I still think it fits, but clearly I was WAY off! lol.

...but mostly it tries to capture the vast scale of time and existence, and also the harsh, completely impartial and uncaring way of nature, which I find to be awe inspiring and beautiful.

I completely agree, and feel the same way. That kind of thing always comes up with people that try to assert that atheists have no sense of wonder because they don't believe in god... I always have to ask "do you live under a rock? Have you seen nature?!".

Maybe when we have time we could do some more for you, or release a short video like you said.

Cheers!

I feel like a video would be easier for you guys and would reach more people than posting everything here, and I can't imagine I'm the only person that cares about this stuff. I'll be very much looking forward to it if you do!

Holy shit this turned out to be a much longer post than I planned... Sorry about that . Thanks again for the reply!

 

[RedCriss]

Well, I am also someone who likes to know the meaning of the lyrics of a song. I haven't yet read all the lyrics, so I can't say too much about it but I will post some thoughts here soon.

Venator seems pretty clear and as I did not find any meaning of that word via a search engine of my choice I thought that this story is completely made up by Be'lakor.

I'm wondering about some parts in Abeyance. It seems to me that someone is dying and sees his life running backwards before finally passing away, but there seems to be more to this song than is visible at first glance...

 

[fifthwinter]

Hey RedCrisis,

A lot of our lyrics tell stories which are purely made-up, of course with various sources of inspiration.

Abeyance is one that's essentially a short story, drawn from our imagination.

It depicts an old man who has ventured to a distant place to visit some sort of elder or shaman. He has done so in the hope of ingesting a potion of sorts. This drink is intended to assist him in journeying back through his life to his youth - possibly only through triggering those memories. He experiences this, however it happens too rapidly and too strongly. He finds himself falling through his first moment, and into an abyss. The song ends with his terror at realising that he has somehow regressed further than he had hoped - and at the fact that he can see that there may be no way back.

 

[Burninator-X]

See, even though a lot these are completely original stories that you guys have created, knowing that sort of back-story/context adds so much more to the song makes it twice as interesting to me!

You're just teasing us by giving us a few and making me want more haha. I look forward to maybe hearing more in the future, cheers!

 

[RedCriss]

It depicts an old man who has ventured to a distant place to visit some sort of elder or shaman. He has done so in the hope of ingesting a potion of sorts. This drink is intended to assist him in journeying back through his life to his youth - possibly only through triggering those memories. He experiences this, however it happens too rapidly and too strongly. He finds himself falling through his first moment, and into an abyss. The song ends with his terror at realising that he has somehow regressed further than he had hoped - and at the fact that he can see that there may be no way back.

Thanks for that info, I never had guessed that. I agree with Burninator-X, it really adds another dimension to that song to see that story a bit clearer. Guess I will come up with another song to discuss soon.

 

[Burninator-X]

I hate to be THAT guy, but... Any chance that the chances of this happening have gone up yet? I'd still LOVE to have the extra depth of the lyrics.