there you go + although I think some of Opeth's songs may seem meaningless and I admit sometimes Mikael writes in such a rush, there's much more meaning in those lyrics than one might think... just my opinion.
Opeth - Wreath - Deliverance
Demoke
We start Wreath and the album Deliverance with kick-ass double base and an evil guitar riff. After 15 seconds this riff goes on while vocals come along to tell us:
Falling inside again
This nightmare always the same
Still never enough
Halting at the brink of discovery
Moving into the darkness
Leaking inside to cover up
Dragging me down and under
Entangled and undone at once
There are some verbs of movement even used in the progressive form of the verb implying even more motion. They are "falling," "moving" and "leaking." The kind of movement is one from up to bottom and also from outside to inside. This is also shown by the adverbs and prepositions ("inside," "into," "down" and "under"). We enter a dark world, that of nightmares, which is always the same, implying they often come upon the narrator not being able to get a solution or explanation to them as they disappear. We are already involved within the setting and already have a dark feeling supported also by the strong and heavy music.
Old memories
I'm not in need but wish to know
What are the tragedies
The history behind the walls
From 0:44 to 1:12 we find the second different riff. Here we are starting to get an answer to all this nightmare. The pictures coming to our first-person narrator, made explicit here, are "old memories," something from back in the past, or memories that have repeated for a long time. He wonders what the hidden meaning of these "tragedies," the ones causing this fear, is (nightmares are usually related to a feeling of horror).
Pacing further down
Familiar children's laughter
Dissonant and out of time
And their eyes are dead
Watching myself in a pool of water
Wearing the mask of a ghost
Smeared all across my skin
Rotten earth and insects
Up to 1:42 we go back to the journey we started in the first stanza and also to the first riff. Now we follow with our movement downwards the way to those nightmares. Two senses and two images are here involved, the first one being the laughter of children with dead eyes, and the second, the reflection of the speaker in a pool of water, showing himself rather like a dead and buried person when starting to get rotten with insect. What a view!
(Guitar riff)
For one minute we listen to a guitar riff repeated 4 times. Those guitars are way softer and the pace, slower. It is like getting some fresh air after the first amazing 1:42. The bass is here especially remarkable. Listen!
Endless night
Always preserving the calm
Movement behind
Bleeding animals in a field of fire
There is no absolution
Death is but a fairy tale
They are mere visions
They are afraid of me
From 2:44 to 3:40 we find a different riff with the same sort of tempo from the immediately previous section. The lyrics here follow almost a stream-of-consciousness technique. Phrases come here just juxtaposed just as some more images from those nightmares come. In this calm but endless night there is a wish implied for it to finish. Going back with another movement we see another vision, that of bleeding animals. The common point between the different visions is death, suffering... Despair is clearly felt in Mikael's death vocals.
(Guitar riff)
We listen now to the same structure we had before, yet for a shorter time (3:40-4:10). It is repeated twice.
Clear insight
A smoke is rising nearby
Dust covering my coat
Blend together to spell my name
Pale, covered me with sweat
There are no words left
Sole provider of death
Distorted faith in myself
From 4:10 to 5:06 we continue now with a similar section to the one starting "endless night." The guitar riff is the same and this part lasts for the same amount of time. The structure, the stream-of-consciousness technique persists and the image here is quite a frightening one: it describes in first person the moments before death. The listener is, then, identified with the main character here. The words "my," "me," "myself" support this view. His coat is covered with dust. Things get covered with dust only when time has passed by, so the writer sees himself aged in his death-time, pale and sweating, unable to say more words, and just hopeless. This leads to one of the peaks in the song.
(First solo) 5:06-6:53
We were left with the picture of our character dying. It is almost a theatrical moment and it is of a dramatic kind. The guitar solo starts off, and then there is some repetition where the production is really outstanding with sounds seemingly coming from unconsciousness. They really fit with the whole story at this point, especially 6:10-6:40.
Human harvest burning
Blackest pages turning
Twisted perception come true
Captured in dreams connected
This stanza has exactly the same riff from 6:10-6:40, lasts for 30 seconds and continues focusing on the last vision we had before the solo, that of the dying person. Here, rather than a visual image, we have an understanding of death in general, like "human harvest," not only that, but "burning." It is the very end. "Blackest pages"--pages get brown with the passing of time are now not only black, but "blackest," in what is a clear hyperbole or exaggeration- are turning. This dream is almost like real. "Come true" shows that the boundary between nightmare and reality is here especially thin now. This, together with the first person narration, are the two main devices used to "scare" the listeners more. The production also contributes to this effect.
Now we approach the second peak, the highest point in the whole song. Intrigued as we are, the second solo, preceded by some soft tambourine by Martin Lopez and soft sounds to undoubtedly highlight it even more. We reach now the 9 minute mark.
Staring right back
Spiritual decay -still seeking
Frozen in time
Mourn this departure - all watching
Calling me back
Closure to bleak matters - I'm leaving
End of a search
Coming of morning
Up to 9:51 we can see that the tempo of the song has slowed down, we hear the first soft vocals, the end of the song is getting closer and it seems as if we are approaching the solution to the problem, the understanding of the nightmares and the coming of morning and, with it, the coming of light and stability again.
As I said, there are here now two voices: the guttural vocals and the clean ones. They represent the narrator and the latter, the nightmare itself "talking" to him. This is more clearly found at the end of the song, where we see the last lines from the previous part but now also the key word of the song: "returning." It seems as if morning is coming and we will get back to a normal state. However, the whole feeling and accumulated fears come back again with the riff we had at the very beginning of the song. This makes the whole story start over and over again. In fact, this is cyclical, the fears cannot be either left behind or overcome, and I think this is the reason why this song is called "wreath": first, because of its connection to "death" and the second, because of its circular shape.
Calling me back
Closure to bleak matters - I'm leaving
End of a search
Coming of morning -returning
