Opeth's lyrics, on a whole, suck. Badly.

[The Sound Gardener]

 

[Static]

I don't give a rats ass about what form they're in, and if Mikael's got some errors on the way...pfft so what.

I like em.

 

[Fervisson]

Hey I like Opeth's lyrics. They get the job done. Even if he did just pick a bunch of phrases and jumble them together.. he did a damn good job of doing it.

I'm listening to Yes - Heart of the Sunrise right now, and you know what? I have no idea what this song is about, or why it is written. I know nothing about the story behind it, and I don't even know all the lyrics to it, but when he sings "Feel lost in the cittyyy," its emotional.

I think you get what I'm saying.

 

[[0hr]Sunlapse]

Originally posted by Schraiber
Yeah, sorry, this is a little trollish. I just mean like... look at "Dirge For November" Badly written lyircs, AND stupid concept. Wow.. suicide. So original. I'll give it to Mike that they're slighly better than average for suicide lyrics... but the fact that they're suicide lyircs... you dig.

You know what? Its totally a matter of opinion..... Not only is Dirge For November one my favorite songs by them, but guess what......... THEY ARE MY FAVORITE OPETH LYRICS!!!!!!! So you can just shut the fuck up.......

Gotta love that title too, "Dirge For November".......

Overall though, I think BWP has the best lyrics albumwise..... how can you not think Harvest has good lyrics..... and the title track has awesome lyrics too........

 

[[0hr]Sunlapse]

Lost, here is nowhere
Searching home still
Turning past me, all are gone
Time is now
The omen showed, took me away
Preparations are done, this can't last
The mere reflection brought disgust
No ordeal to conquer, this firm slit
It sheds upon the floor, dripping into a pool
Grant me sleep, take me under
Like the wings of a dove, folding around
I fade into this tender care


I have these lyrics in my AIM subprofile.... DirgeF0rNovember

 

[IntoObscurity]

Eh. It's all opinion really. Personally I think about half the lyrics on BWP, and basically all of Orchid were nonsensical, but I still like them, Sure Orchid is kinda goofy, but thats ok. I obsess over the lyrics to BW Park, Drapery Falls, etc. But the main point I wanted to bring up is one that often comes up with poetry/lyrics. Someone will complain that it doesn't make sense, that the writer should make it more accessible, or whatever, but I disagree. It only matters if the lyrics make sense to, in this case, Mikael. I highly doubt he is writing to make you happy, I know I don't write anything for other people. But, to each his own. I agree that the music is better than the lyrics though.

 

[Protected Witness]

Ya know, lyrics are about the last thing I notice in songs that I like, but I like Opeth lyrics...they make sense to me (at least in that I can pull interpretations from them).

 

[Sacrilicious]

Wow a lot of you are real morons. "HAHAHA IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE LYRICS IT'S OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND THEM YOU FUCKING DUMB GUY!!!" Shut up.

 

[Stinkfist]

Give Mike a break, English isn't even his first language. Although he does make up words sometimes (perplexion).

 

[locust]

i think Mike himself has accepted the "weak" use of english in Orchid. This is somewhere written in the recording sessions of Orchid or something, so lets all stop criticising Orchid for that matter.

 

[Ecto]

people, let's face the truth...opeth is performing self-destruction...i love the band, i have all the albuns, i'm starting to enjoy deliverance etc...

i can't point out reasons for that, but maybe, in my opinion, the fact that they enter in the studio without nothing done, i mean, no lyrics done, no ideas for them is the problem...that's is true, check out the studio diary in the offical site...it seems that now mikael writes all the lyrics in a hurry and maybe that's why the lyricss now sound so below quality if we compare to later albuns.

 

[jester00]

Originally posted by Ectoplasma
people, let's face the truth...opeth is performing self-destruction...i love the band, i have all the albuns, i'm starting to enjoy deliverance etc...

i can't point out reasons for that, but maybe, in my opinion, the fact that they enter in the studio without nothing done, i mean, no lyrics done, no ideas for them is the problem...that's is true, check out the studio diary in the offical site...it seems that now mikael writes all the lyrics in a hurry and maybe that's why the lyricss now sound so below quality if we compare to later albuns.

as long as they keep producing great music i dont really care if they improvise the whole thing!

 

[forest of october]

Mike writes the lyrics in a couple days. You expect amazing lyrics in a couple days work????

 

[Ecto]

Originally posted by forest of october
Mike writes the lyrics in a couple days. You expect amazing lyrics in a couple days work????

that's what i said

 

[Sfarog]

Originally posted by Schraiber
Though they do have a few songs which I believe are pretty damned good, lyrically (Black Rose Immortal comes to mind), the majority of their songs consist of Mike putting together cool words that make no sense. It's all pseudo-intellectual crap, and for the most part sounds like amateur poetry. I could probably find a good portion of students in my school who can write better stuff. At least Mike succedes at being pretentious. On a note, the new album REALLY sucks. They don't even sound cool any more.

anyone can be a critic... but in the end what are you?

just a critic... nothing more

 

[Duvall]

Mikael simply pours out his emotions onto paper (or Notepad)). What I like about Opeth's lyrics is that they're REAL.

They're not altered by the record company to include subliminal product placements. They're not about my heart going BOOM, or doing some dance about a condiment. They're about real things that real people feel - and while I may never kill a man, I'd say Bleak paints a pretty clear picture of some of the emotions I'd go through after stabbing that bastard to death.

My tastes tend to lean toward appreciating art for art's sake, and to criticize based on someone's linguistic skills (while they're baring their soul onstage and on 6 albums) seems a little moot.

If they seem to be about nothing, just imagine what Mikael was thinking when he wrote them. Do the same for the music. A good musician can communicate his or her emotion through the mess of strings, wires and magnets. It can make a lot make a lot of sense.

---

I think Dirge for November has really nice (?) imagery. Sometimes a word seems improperly chosen, but it's there for a reason - and it won't go away. Why not appreciate what's been done?

 

[forest of october]

Oh yah, and fuck you for basing how good his lyrics are compared to the rules of poetry. Amature poet? Ya, maybe to the stuck up english scholars who know nothing about emotion, because they're too busy obeying the god damn "rules".

 

[R.I.P.2]

Originally posted by SunlapseVertigo
Its totally a matter of opinion..... Not only is Dirge For November one my favorite songs by them, but guess what......... THEY ARE MY FAVORITE OPETH LYRICS!!!!!!! So you can just shut the fuck up.......

Well done. No, really

 

[TyrantOfFlames]

Originally posted by EvilGenius
At least it's more intelligent and tangible than writing about Satan, gore, or destruction.

Originally posted by shivering corpse
i like their lyrics, they're definitely a lot better than the average metal band's lyrics

You guys are qualifying the lyrics. Yes, many other bands do have crappy lyrics, so does that mean we should lower the standard of what makes lyrics good?

Originally posted by inferenzum
Maybe you're just too dumb to understand unconventional syntax? Or maybe trisyllabic words scare you? It all makes perfect sense to me, and one of the reasons I like Opeth so much is their masterful use of lanquage to tell a story with words that evoke the same emotion as the music.

This is a very absurd and immature comment. Unless "unconventional" is synonymous with "wrong", your first sentence doesn't apply to Opeth. Wrong syntax is, by its very nature, difficult to understand, simply because it is not how the English language was made to be read/written. Are you trying to come up with an argument just so you could call him dumb? Now who is the fool here?

Originally posted by The Sound Gardener
It's not fair to say their lyrics are shit because they (Mike) poured their heart and soul into writing those lyrics, and when you go bashing them like you do, it is really disheartening. If you, Schraiber, posted some poetry you worked your ass off for, and then I sad it was crap, worst stuff ever, wouldn't that make you feel just a tad bit unhappy?

Pouring your "heart and soul" into lyrics does not automatically make them good. Have you read any poems by teenagers who believe they can't relate to anyone? They are almost invariably about some emotion or another and were written at the very peak of that emotion. Such poems have had "heart and soul" poured into them, yet they also tend to be painfully simple and disgustingly cliche, not to mention unoriginal and unemotional to anyone but the writer. The true art in writing lyrics/poetry is conveying your message to the reader. If the reader (or listener) does not get the same feeling or thought that inspired you to write, then you have failed (at least partially) in writing your lyrics/poem. Quality isn't about fairness.

Originally posted by inferenzum
I think Mikael speaks pretty good English for a Swedish guy. Besides, grammatical accuracy isn't the same as intelligent use of words.

You are right, grammacial accuracy isn't the same as intelligent use of words; however, it is necessary for intellgent use of words. How can you possibly convey your message well if you aren't very good at grammar? Are you saying that gangsta rappers has potential to use words intelligently, without any modification to their grammar at all? A person can be intelligent, but still suck at using words intelligently.

I meant Opeth's music evokes emotion with imagery and strong description. The words make perfect sense for the emotions they portray. Maybe I'm the only one who sees it this way, but it's a group of descriptive scenarios which evoke a set of emotions. The 'story' is told by the way the listener travels from hope to despair to rage and everything else.

In this case, the words in Opeth songs can't really be considered lyrics, but rather an integral addition to the song. In your interpretation, they are inseperable from the music, because they mean nothing without it. Lyrics have the ability to stand alone, (theoretically anyway...I find that rarely is it actually true).

Originally posted by Duvall
My tastes tend to lean toward appreciating art for art's sake, and to criticize based on someone's linguistic skills (while they're baring their soul onstage and on 6 albums) seems a little moot.

Come on, Duvall, surely you, an artist, knows better than that. Lets say a photographer had the perfect idea for a photograph. He waited until the conditions were just perfect for it. He stayed up until 4 am, so no one would interrupt his picture, then set out to start. Once he got the film back, though, half of the pictures had part of his thumb in them, some had important parts of his pictures cut in half, some had terrible lighting, and the rest he accidentally exposed to the light. He had a great idea, but was never able to convey it to anyone but himself. Does this make his photographs good? If you are going to produce a form of art, you must be apt at your medium, or else you will be doomed to inadequacy.

If they seem to be about nothing, just imagine what Mikael was thinking when he wrote them. Do the same for the music. A good musician can communicate his or her emotion through the mess of strings, wires and magnets.

You shouldn't have to strain and create meanings to achieve this in good music or good lyrics/poetry.

Originally posted by forest of october
Oh yah, and fuck you for basing how good his lyrics are compared to the rules of poetry. Amature poet? Ya, maybe to the stuck up english scholars who know nothing about emotion, because they're too busy obeying the god damn "rules".

Have you even read much poetry that was written by the poets that English teachers love so much? Many of them are definitely overrated, but some of them are downright amazing. You may not realize this, but there is more to poetry than emotion. Besides that, many of those poets knew alot about emotion; maybe you should read some of them. Try Keats, Tennyson, Eliot, Yeats and Shelley (especially Yeats and Eliot).




Edit: Code error

 

[Ra-kot]

well...i am pretty sure Mikael sits with a vocabulary when writing his lyrics and tries to find some special words, some which sound "beautiful" for the phrases he wants to put in.

But the thing is: some songs come our still real big imo.
Take "To Bid you farewell" f.e.
The lyrics are just amazing beautiful there no matter even if he just adjusted the right words from dict. like i mentioned before.

Ya cant write smth better and suiting to the music of this song.
They are both perfect, lyrics and music and make this song one of best ever written imo.

"I stand motionless
In a parade of falling rain
You voice I cannot hear
As I am falling again

Devotion eludes
And in sadness I lumber
In my own ashes I am standing without a soul
She wept and whispered: "I know..."

Only bec of this already ya have to give BIG respect to Mikael and his lyricswriting. Orchids lyrics are pretty weak though, agree.