Obviously, songs are often left open to interpretation. Has Mikael or any of the band members stated what they thought about it?
What do you guys think about it?
What do you guys think about it?
Lyrical Concept/Meaning of Punish My Heaven?
- Thread starter zerkz
- Start date
La Rocque
I am that I am
rahvin
keeper of the flame
The band's answer to such questions is usually along the lines of your opening statement: find your own meaning. This is a sentiment shared by many entertainers, not only in the music business, especially when the themes in their lyrics/movies/novels are weird or hard to grasp.
While it's a bit of a cop out, no one would really be satisfied by having everything that crossed said entertainers' minds spread out for them on a plate, otherwise there wouldn't be much merit in writing intricated lyrics/movies/novels in the first place. Besides, the creative process often incorporates so many elements it quickly becomes difficult to spell out exactly which is which once the final product is complete.
Trying to figure things out, however, is a compelling exercise. Feel free to contribute with theories.
While it's a bit of a cop out, no one would really be satisfied by having everything that crossed said entertainers' minds spread out for them on a plate, otherwise there wouldn't be much merit in writing intricated lyrics/movies/novels in the first place. Besides, the creative process often incorporates so many elements it quickly becomes difficult to spell out exactly which is which once the final product is complete.
Trying to figure things out, however, is a compelling exercise. Feel free to contribute with theories.
nhara-ekke
Member
rahvin
Very well said!
Every note and gesture is a result of a complex conscious and subconcious process, sometimes unknown even tor the creator. However, I think, at least we ask a band what inspired a band to start working on a particular piece and what feelings were there during the creation.
I think it is something again dark, bitter but burning and rebellious
Kind of a grudge against heaven for being .. indifferent? Cold?
Very well said!
Every note and gesture is a result of a complex conscious and subconcious process, sometimes unknown even tor the creator. However, I think, at least we ask a band what inspired a band to start working on a particular piece and what feelings were there during the creation.
I think it is something again dark, bitter but burning and rebellious
Kind of a grudge against heaven for being .. indifferent? Cold?To me, it feels like someone refuses to be a "deathbed repenter". In which he would rather go to hell then simply act like he should not be punished for his sins/crimes/whatever. Aka, he would be "punishing his heaven". Atleast, thats what I get from the lyrics and energy of the song.
I don't think this song is about that... the lesser faith seems more about religion (though he might not talk about that in lesser faith either).
how I understand "punish my heaven":
heaven = sky.
the guy was depressed and remembered of the "good times".
"The strangeness of awakening
In an oh so silent world" - the feeling when you wake up and you realize how meaningless everything is. a kind of... an empty/silent world, as there is only nothingness. be it depression?
"Breathlessly waiting
For the first proud beams of light" - waiting, hoping for something invigorating, that makes you enjoy the life, to find a meaning for something.
"[waiting...]As the hours grow longer
And the shadows never fall" - the trivial, annoying, meaningless life goes on (waiting for some beams of light, but the shadows don't go away and seem to never go away)
"My sky has forsaken me
My desperation grows" - his sky/heaven has forsaken him: that is, he has lost hope for the beams of light (that is, his heaven, the sky) and as he realizes that there's no way out of this, and no hope for any beam of light, the desperation grows.
"Bring me the light
In the darkness that never ends
The dawn will never come" - the same as I've stated before: he needs some beams of light, but all he has is a never-ending darkness (which is, depression).
"Punish my heaven" - ok, his heaven (that is, those invigorating beams of light - for ages 'heaven' meant a place where you feel happy) has cast him out, into the meaningless, the trivial, the nothingness. and this "punish my heaven" seems something like a frustration, as if somebody has casted him out of his heaven and he replies to him "ok, then curse you!" (because he has done that to him). of course, because this heaven is his internal state, there's nobody to blame, but his heaven itself.
"The charge of cosmos
At our atmospheric skies
Will cause our fall" or
"The charge of cosmos
Charging at us from unearthly distance" - the same 'force' causing our depression, as the sky naturally protects us from the outer radiation - if it doesn't, we are doomed - the same is when that 'force' is 'attacking' us and we have nothing to do about it (our heaven/sky is gone, has suddenly disappeared).
"If I had wings, would I be forgiving?
If I had horns
Would there be flames to shy my smile?" - the feeling that being an angel ('good') or being a devil ('bad'), nothing really matters: it's all the same. even if he was an angel, he would not be forgiven (the beams of lights won't come back). and if he was a devil, could the things be worse than now?
"Hymns of loss are heard
From the masses in the streets
Praising the last of days
I punish" - ok, people are sad/depressed (the cosmos has charged at us all), perhaps enjoy the fact that these are the last days of sadness. because these are the last days he punishes, the days that follow don't deserve to be punished, so they are (or hope to be) good days.
"It's the choice between heaven and hell" - it's a choice between his heaven (his sky/beams of light) and his hell (darkness/depression/nothingness/trivial/etc.)
"My soul bears all the weight of mountains" - the weight/tiredness/etc. you feel when you're very depressed.
"I curse the heaven above me
As the light sinks through
My outstretched fingers
Fading in my open arms" - the last beams of light pass through his fingers and fade away. and this is the feeling I said above of frustration, that he is casted out: "curse you!".
"On this last day of light" (the light is dying)is the same as
When our autumn leaves fell" (the nature is dying = something of us is dying)
(the end comes)
is the same as:
"As the light sinks through
My outstretched fingers
Fading in my open arms" (the last beams of light = the light is dying)
"And as heaven itself commands me Out of its lair
I fear not, My face lined for darkness I'll go!" - ok, it's either heaven or hell. he was cast out of his heaven (the last beams of light) and thus he remains/goes into the darkness (depression/nothingness/trivial/end of hope/end of joy/end of fantasy) which he called it hell.
by the way, fantasy = that little thing that makes us feel that life is more than the obvious trivial, meaningless, empty reality.
by the way, that was my first post. I have just registered to this forum. I hope this forum does not prove to be very boring..
btw... would you (anybody) please post/give a reply, just to know that somebody still reads from this thread?
That would make me feel that I did not write all in vain : ) )
That would make me feel that I did not write all in vain : ) )
People do read the threads, but Rahvin's answer is really what it is. Poetry / lyrics are more often than not open in their interpretation, and meant to be open in their interpretation. Particularly DT lyrics. That's why you get few answers... Rahvin is "right" in that it means what you think of it, within reason. It's not about structural adjustment in developing economies in Africa or Michael Vick's 4 pass TDs and 2 rushing TDs on Monday.
This is the case with a lot of creative text. At least in my experience. I've never studied poetry, outside of high school (I guess I like Lorca a lot, but I'm no scholar).
This is the case with a lot of creative text. At least in my experience. I've never studied poetry, outside of high school (I guess I like Lorca a lot, but I'm no scholar).
sorry, I was a bit confused. I somehow read the date of a post from this thread as "2009" and I thought that people stopped answering long ago.Naglfar said:
Like with most of bands with very abstract lyrics, I suspect alot of the lyrics aren't really about anything in particular, but rather they're trying to convey certain aesthetics or express certain emotions or states of mind. Like with Punish my Heaven to me it sounds it is about wanting something, expecting it, waiting for it, but then fucking it up because you think you don't deserve it, or because it's some bizarre expression of free will, or because you're just that pissed off about something. But it's mixed it with a whole bunch of apocalyptic imagery, like maybe the whole of humanity had utopia within it's grasp but decided to destroy itself instead because we don't deserve utopia.
I'm not saying it's about that specifically, but that kind of thing. Mikael may have had something in particular in mind when he wrote it, but it's so obscure and abstract there's no way you can figure out what it was so functionally it's about nothing more than whatever images/thoughts/experiences the song conjures up for you.
If you make something abstract enough, people can map it to their own experiences and make it more meaningful for them instead of just going "this is a song about the time my girlfriend dumped me, waaah waaah".
Also, I don't think it pays to have an overly optimistic view of how lyrics actually get written: I think a lot of the time "Does it sound cool" pays as big a part as "deep inner meaning", if not bigger. I don't really care, so long as it's coherent from an aesthetic/emotional point of view.
I'm not saying it's about that specifically, but that kind of thing. Mikael may have had something in particular in mind when he wrote it, but it's so obscure and abstract there's no way you can figure out what it was so functionally it's about nothing more than whatever images/thoughts/experiences the song conjures up for you.
If you make something abstract enough, people can map it to their own experiences and make it more meaningful for them instead of just going "this is a song about the time my girlfriend dumped me, waaah waaah".
Also, I don't think it pays to have an overly optimistic view of how lyrics actually get written: I think a lot of the time "Does it sound cool" pays as big a part as "deep inner meaning", if not bigger. I don't really care, so long as it's coherent from an aesthetic/emotional point of view.
i have wondered about this song in particular since i first heard it in the 90s,
and it has always given me this rebellious aftertaste,
the message is what's between the lines,
the rebellion that starts within,
denying the self the bliss of the expected (the norm) and plunging into the darkness of the unknown...
it has always reminded me of Caine, cast out, forlorn...
the 90s were the all about resetting the values, redefining the norms, mtv, grunge, marilyn manson... the whole scene was like a volcano of rebellion against the monotony of the previous decade. the 90s were like a shock to the system, a shock in every possible way.
the shock came on various levels:
appearance (fashion), conduct (behavior), and spiritual.
Punish my Heaven redefines the self image.
in other words: it moves the person's self image from an unconscious act into a conscious act of will.
and thus, rebellion begins!
and it has always given me this rebellious aftertaste,
the message is what's between the lines,
the rebellion that starts within,
denying the self the bliss of the expected (the norm) and plunging into the darkness of the unknown...
it has always reminded me of Caine, cast out, forlorn...
the 90s were the all about resetting the values, redefining the norms, mtv, grunge, marilyn manson... the whole scene was like a volcano of rebellion against the monotony of the previous decade. the 90s were like a shock to the system, a shock in every possible way.
the shock came on various levels:
appearance (fashion), conduct (behavior), and spiritual.
Punish my Heaven redefines the self image.
in other words: it moves the person's self image from an unconscious act into a conscious act of will.
and thus, rebellion begins!
Liquid Crystal Sunshine
Alter Ego
I completely agree with Zenith with the meaning, before reading his post i though it was what zerkz said. Now punish my heaven has grown to me lyrically. I'm a bit sick of metal lyrics that are about death, or with death around there. Some sorrows in life can be unrelated to death and still being so hard.
