Ok, before I go anywhere, I just want to point out that I think Mikael Akerfeldt is a near unrivalled musical genius. That said, I DON'T rate him as a lyricist. The words aren't humane enough for me. They are too concerned with sounding 'poetic', that they often just end up being pretentious. Luckily, Mike knows how to write AWESOME vocal melodies, so this is easily compensated for. I voted Damnation, because the lyrics are more 'personal' sounding, and therefore I can relate to them on some level.
Personally, I think Jonas Renske is a much better lyricist.