Song interpretations from Deliverance?

Schraiber

Opeth fanboy
Feb 5, 2002
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This album has IMO below average lyrics for Opeth, but it's fun to talk about them. I think Deliverance is about a person driven to murder by insanity, or something. "Crept up the caverns of my brain" "Devil guides the way" and such give me the insanity part, and the murder is represented by "Walk with me, you'll never leave" "Face down beneath the waterline, gazing into the deep" and such. What do you think of this and other songs?
 
At first I thought the lyrics were well written but not as good as previous albums, but then I think it was just because they don't have that foresty vibe to them, so it was different, now I think there are some of the coolest lines and some really good imagery in the lyrics
anway...for "Wreath" I don't really sense a concrete subject, I think it's more of sort of a morbid and depressing song basically about death
i love the "bleeding animals in a field of fire" line
and i guess i interpret "deliverance" as lyrics about being driven to kill someone by drowning i guess.."as i drown you in the sea"
i guess "a fair judgement" is depression or guilt, or both

not really sure about the other ones
 
A Fair Judgement is pretty straightforward. Deliverance seems to be about someone who drowns someone, and probably kills a lot of other people, in order to "save" them. Because he's crazy.

Wreath is the most interesting to me. It looks like it's about someone who cannot die, somehow, but he's obsessed and facinated with death because it's the one thing he's never done, and he's the only one who can grant it. And in the end, he kills himself.. somehow. And then goes beyond.

I honestly haven't read the other two enough to get a clear picture.
 
wreath appears to be a nightmare perhaps??


when i saw the line "bleeding animals in a field of fire"

"Dust covering my coat
Blend together to spell my name "

"Rotten earth and insects "


"The history behind the walls
Pacing further down
Familiar children's laughter
Dissonant and out of time "


i was pretty much caught by suprise i never thpough opeth would produce something like this. but i love it..


i perhaps feel that some of the songs are too crammed with lyrics .
 
well they were originally envisioned and created as one project in two pieces, or am i completely delusional?

It might just be my own expectations anyway. Even so, interpretation of lyrics are usually pretty subjective, and from what I've heard about D1 and D2 being related, I'd just like to see the story that's produced from putting them both together.
 
I pretty much agree on Deliverance, this is the only song that really makes sense to me... I can guess at the meaning of Wreath and A Fair Judgement, but so far I have no idea what Master's Apprentices and By The Pain I See In Others are about. ("Rise To Submission - I'm Still Beneath In The Soil" wtf?)
 
I think the lyrics are pritty good all though the line "liquid cellophane" or whatever is the dumbest thing I've ever heard from Opeth. One of the guys was saying the lyrics are more personal, so I thought "Wreath" was something like looking back on something bad that happened to him, not realy sure.
 
Originally posted by crimsonfloyd
I think the lyrics are pritty good all though the line "liquid cellophane" or whatever is the dumbest thing I've ever heard from Opeth.

I thought the part about liquid cellophane was a pretty cool way of saying it. Like strangling someone with a plastic (cellophane) bag, only this was done in the water. Cool image.
 
I like that line. Good imagery. And he says it right when he hits that chord, and it makes me tingly.
 
First of all I think the "liquid cellophane " line is immensely cool, I like it when bands come up with an unconventional image that is really remarkable and vivid, but totally new as well.

Now I know that Michael has said that Deliverance isn't a concept album but I have always felt that Deliverance andA Fair Judgement were linked, but I guess that's because of how I see the lyrics.

I always thought Deliverance was about a guy becoming incredibly angry and drowning his girlfriend, but then realising he had been just about as stupid as you can be (think Shakespeare's Othello, that's the link I make). And then A Fair Judgement is complete and utter remorse.

I mean it's entirely possible this is unintentional, especially given that Michael said it's not a concept album... and that I don't really see how the other tracks fit in with it, but it's just how i see it.
 
My favourite lyrics from the entire album are from Wreath:

Looking at myself in a pool of water
Wearing the mask of a ghooooooost
Smeared across my skin
Rotten earth and inseeeeeeeects!!!!!!

So evil, so creepy!
 
I thought the "liquid celophane" was really cool too.

However, my favourite lyrics in the album so far are:

"As I drown you in the sea"

....wow the way Mike sings this so softly, it makes it even more effective!

"FACE DOWN BENEATH THE WATERLINE GAZING INTO THE DEEP"

"The downward spiral never ends"

I just love these lines so much...great stuff :D