Opeth
- Thread starter Cornfed Hick
- Start date
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
When the "rise to submission" part (the chorus?) hits for the first time and there's that running double bass... wow. Then there's that demented haunted circus house thing in the middle...
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Listening to Orchid and I’ve decided it’s a concept album.
The main character travels deep into the woods, drawn by the moon and urged forward by an unknown calling. He passes a familiar lake only to find a tempting, dark woman on the other side. He reaches out to her and in their connection his soul is stolen into another realm of pure darkness, cold, and evil. He awakens under the weeping moon consumed by demonic spirits and tries to recover his old sense of self, but the Morningstar is all encompassing and though he searches, and finds himself as a silhouette of his former existence, he cannot escape his new demonic calling. The forest becomes a permanent home for the shell that formerly held our main character’s soul. Although there is a longing deep down to be human again, his soul has touched the darkness and he is now no more than a dead leaf in the cold autumn wind. The demonic form accepts his new pact with evil and swears an oath to his new master, even if remnants of his soul still question this turn into the twilight. We say goodbye to all hope, to the soul that once remained, as our main character becomes an apostle of darkness. Only then does he realize that he is trapped in the same body, but has become a prisoner of evil. He cannot find what his soul was longing for and he is now alone, even in his acceptance of darkness. The woman that lured him into damnation was nothing more than a statue and his legacy is now just another notch in the black stone of her fingers. His soul is lost to death, to a light beyond his comprehension, as his spirit is doomed to wander this forest immortally lost.
I accept this as fact since I know this is more thought than Mikael ever put into Orchid’s lyrics.
The main character travels deep into the woods, drawn by the moon and urged forward by an unknown calling. He passes a familiar lake only to find a tempting, dark woman on the other side. He reaches out to her and in their connection his soul is stolen into another realm of pure darkness, cold, and evil. He awakens under the weeping moon consumed by demonic spirits and tries to recover his old sense of self, but the Morningstar is all encompassing and though he searches, and finds himself as a silhouette of his former existence, he cannot escape his new demonic calling. The forest becomes a permanent home for the shell that formerly held our main character’s soul. Although there is a longing deep down to be human again, his soul has touched the darkness and he is now no more than a dead leaf in the cold autumn wind. The demonic form accepts his new pact with evil and swears an oath to his new master, even if remnants of his soul still question this turn into the twilight. We say goodbye to all hope, to the soul that once remained, as our main character becomes an apostle of darkness. Only then does he realize that he is trapped in the same body, but has become a prisoner of evil. He cannot find what his soul was longing for and he is now alone, even in his acceptance of darkness. The woman that lured him into damnation was nothing more than a statue and his legacy is now just another notch in the black stone of her fingers. His soul is lost to death, to a light beyond his comprehension, as his spirit is doomed to wander this forest immortally lost.
I accept this as fact since I know this is more thought than Mikael ever put into Orchid’s lyrics.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
The story continues in what we now know as an indisputable trilogy...
Morningrise...
Our main character from Orchid begins the new day in a new life, and he believes everything is simple and normal. He quickly learns that everything in his nightmare was true. The woman he met in the forest is but a figment, a statue of hope in eternal darkness. He and this “woman” exist in the void and they are so close to something more, yet always farther away. A new protagonist, a descendent of our Orchid character, mourns the loss of his ancestor. He is drawn to the same darkness that previously corrupted his family, but he believes he can be unlike them. He digs into the photographs of his ancestors even though his family does not care to speak of history. Despite the distance, he feels the same pull towards the darkness as his ancestor, the same draw into the night and the water...
Our new protagonist lives inside of a dream, drawn forth by a sweet lullaby sung by the stone temptress that damned his ancestor. The sweet nectar that is the gift of everlasting life through offspring will never exist for this young man: he is damned for all time. He does not know it yet, but his future is already sealed by the fate of the woman he truly loves in his town. Simply by hearing the song of this dark, evil temptress, he has given up the hope of tasting a bright future. The morning mist is always but a dream. Death is his, death is hers. And in death there is a sweet form of peace and madness...
We finally hear from the dark figure, the statue, the black rose immortal. She was once alive, but now exists in eternity waiting for a kindred spirit to match her loneliness. Any man who turns toward the darkness becomes her prize possession, even though she does not desire his affection. He is a desire, but one without color; a desire doomed to repeat forever. The face of this desire is forever changing. She consumes this new creature, the descendant of our protagonist, but the craving is immortal. The black rose is always in bloom...
Our protagonist bids farewell to the black rose as his place is taken by his descendant. The younger man has become doomed to an eternity of darkness. They bid goodbye as they question why they ever gave into temptation. The younger man shall never see his lady love again. The night holds nothing for him. The day holds no new truths. This is the end. They bleed for her, they cry for her, they end for her.
My Arms, Your Hearse...
Spring arrives and our new protagonist greets the new day. Sent forward by the dark woman of the forest, he embraces the rebirth of nature as he strolls through the dawn. His hopes for new life are born again. After all, he is to be a father soon. Flashes of death, of coffins, of damp gravestones, tug at the outer banks of his memory, but he does not give in.
Life, however, is beyond his grasp. He hears his family whispering from far away and he knows it is time to go. But he is already gone. The woman, the stone, she is death and she is forcing him to die again and again. He exists in a lifeless void. As soon as he realizes he is dead, she makes him feel alive again. The red sun rises and he is alive, the sun sets and he is dead. There is no time here. He can never know when or where he truly is. He returns to his home in a pitch black fever dream, only to discover he is a ghost. He has been allowed to return to the world of the living only to see his loved ones in the parlour mourning his loss. He sees his former lady love, the woman that means so much more to him than the brief temptation in the forest and he longs to be with her again. To leave the demon that holds him eternally and flee to the stars with his true love. He visits her again and again. By summer, she is utterly distraught and becomes withdrawn. He watches her try to cope, using prayer to no avail.
Only then does he notice that since his death in October she has not physically changed. Though they never spoke the truth aloud, they both knew that she was pregnant. Their child should be born any day in mid-summer, yet she has not changed a bit. He is consumed with rage, believing that she is responsible for the loss of the child. He believes her grief is solely for this child and not for him. As summer turns to autumn, he cannot sustain his hatred anymore. He fully embraces the darkness and devolves into a purely demonic creature. Evil warps his mind. He believes she never loved him at all, that as soon as he died she purposefully rid herself of the child so she never had to be reminded of him again. In the dead of night in the middle of the fall, he stalks her and attacks. His demonic form almost kills her but they lock eyes for just a second...and she recognizes him. In that moment he knows that his thoughts have been twisted by darkness. She always loved him and mourns for him every day. It was her grief that caused her to lose the baby in the first place. It was his fault. He flees back into the woods, confused with madness and despair.
She searches for him, but her voice is as empty as shadows. They can never be together again. He visits her one more time, losing his grip on the mortal realm. Appearing to her in a mirror, he says his goodbyes and fades away into blackness as she weeps. His soul returns to the forest, doomed to live every season the same way. Stuck on a loop, from morning to night, from spring to winter, his soul is entwined with the forest. They shall speak of him as a ghost, as a part of history, or maybe they shall not speak of him at all. After all, his family line will soon be ended. The beginning of the end, the end is in the beginning, forever.
End of Opeth, Phase One.
I feel like I just escaped the most linear, yet most insane David Lynch film ever.
Morningrise...
Our main character from Orchid begins the new day in a new life, and he believes everything is simple and normal. He quickly learns that everything in his nightmare was true. The woman he met in the forest is but a figment, a statue of hope in eternal darkness. He and this “woman” exist in the void and they are so close to something more, yet always farther away. A new protagonist, a descendent of our Orchid character, mourns the loss of his ancestor. He is drawn to the same darkness that previously corrupted his family, but he believes he can be unlike them. He digs into the photographs of his ancestors even though his family does not care to speak of history. Despite the distance, he feels the same pull towards the darkness as his ancestor, the same draw into the night and the water...
Our new protagonist lives inside of a dream, drawn forth by a sweet lullaby sung by the stone temptress that damned his ancestor. The sweet nectar that is the gift of everlasting life through offspring will never exist for this young man: he is damned for all time. He does not know it yet, but his future is already sealed by the fate of the woman he truly loves in his town. Simply by hearing the song of this dark, evil temptress, he has given up the hope of tasting a bright future. The morning mist is always but a dream. Death is his, death is hers. And in death there is a sweet form of peace and madness...
We finally hear from the dark figure, the statue, the black rose immortal. She was once alive, but now exists in eternity waiting for a kindred spirit to match her loneliness. Any man who turns toward the darkness becomes her prize possession, even though she does not desire his affection. He is a desire, but one without color; a desire doomed to repeat forever. The face of this desire is forever changing. She consumes this new creature, the descendant of our protagonist, but the craving is immortal. The black rose is always in bloom...
Our protagonist bids farewell to the black rose as his place is taken by his descendant. The younger man has become doomed to an eternity of darkness. They bid goodbye as they question why they ever gave into temptation. The younger man shall never see his lady love again. The night holds nothing for him. The day holds no new truths. This is the end. They bleed for her, they cry for her, they end for her.
My Arms, Your Hearse...
Spring arrives and our new protagonist greets the new day. Sent forward by the dark woman of the forest, he embraces the rebirth of nature as he strolls through the dawn. His hopes for new life are born again. After all, he is to be a father soon. Flashes of death, of coffins, of damp gravestones, tug at the outer banks of his memory, but he does not give in.
Life, however, is beyond his grasp. He hears his family whispering from far away and he knows it is time to go. But he is already gone. The woman, the stone, she is death and she is forcing him to die again and again. He exists in a lifeless void. As soon as he realizes he is dead, she makes him feel alive again. The red sun rises and he is alive, the sun sets and he is dead. There is no time here. He can never know when or where he truly is. He returns to his home in a pitch black fever dream, only to discover he is a ghost. He has been allowed to return to the world of the living only to see his loved ones in the parlour mourning his loss. He sees his former lady love, the woman that means so much more to him than the brief temptation in the forest and he longs to be with her again. To leave the demon that holds him eternally and flee to the stars with his true love. He visits her again and again. By summer, she is utterly distraught and becomes withdrawn. He watches her try to cope, using prayer to no avail.
Only then does he notice that since his death in October she has not physically changed. Though they never spoke the truth aloud, they both knew that she was pregnant. Their child should be born any day in mid-summer, yet she has not changed a bit. He is consumed with rage, believing that she is responsible for the loss of the child. He believes her grief is solely for this child and not for him. As summer turns to autumn, he cannot sustain his hatred anymore. He fully embraces the darkness and devolves into a purely demonic creature. Evil warps his mind. He believes she never loved him at all, that as soon as he died she purposefully rid herself of the child so she never had to be reminded of him again. In the dead of night in the middle of the fall, he stalks her and attacks. His demonic form almost kills her but they lock eyes for just a second...and she recognizes him. In that moment he knows that his thoughts have been twisted by darkness. She always loved him and mourns for him every day. It was her grief that caused her to lose the baby in the first place. It was his fault. He flees back into the woods, confused with madness and despair.
She searches for him, but her voice is as empty as shadows. They can never be together again. He visits her one more time, losing his grip on the mortal realm. Appearing to her in a mirror, he says his goodbyes and fades away into blackness as she weeps. His soul returns to the forest, doomed to live every season the same way. Stuck on a loop, from morning to night, from spring to winter, his soul is entwined with the forest. They shall speak of him as a ghost, as a part of history, or maybe they shall not speak of him at all. After all, his family line will soon be ended. The beginning of the end, the end is in the beginning, forever.
End of Opeth, Phase One.
I feel like I just escaped the most linear, yet most insane David Lynch film ever.
Lord of Wolves 78
Educated Fool
Great in band. I seen them live in Temple Bar in Dublin back in 2002. I know it's blasphemy but I just can't get into the newer stuff.
The Flash
Dennis Wilcock did 9/11
Even though I can't relate, it's not blasphemy at all. A significant portion of their fanbase turned on them because of their recent output. Any Opeth related news/discussion online is dominated by dozens of fans expressing disappointment about the band's direction.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Right? These fans have to exist.
I’m personally the biggest fan of the middle Opeth era, but Pale Communion is in my top three albums by them.
I've been coming around on Ghost Reveries. I love listening to it if I skip the first two songs which I don't like. It's their best produced album for sure. Perfect sound.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
I think they are both a jumbled mess with some good parts.
Onhell
Infinite Dreamer
It's the album I go back to the most and is quickly replacing Still Life as my favorite Opeth album.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
I went through Opeth's discography around the time Watershed was newly released and now I'm discovering them again. Lots of material to go through, lots to be inspired by. I really enjoy their 00s stuff, haven't delved deep into their older and newer albums yet. Ghost of Perdition is currently haunting me the most out of their songs, amazing-sounding album overall. Akerfeldt's growls are hella juicy.
Last edited:
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
IMO Ghost of Perdition is the perfect Opeth song.
