Opeth lyrics are bad.

[LexPWeller]

Originally Posted by froghawk

Still, Coil, Burden, and Porcelain Heart have godawful lyrics, and GR is pretty bad throughout as well (with the exception of Isolation Years). Most of D&D isn't great, either. However, Heir Apparent and TLE have awesome lyrics, as do Still Life, MAYH and many parts of BWP.

In short: his lyrics are inconsistent.

i totally quote, "incosistent" is the right word.
i also quote that guy who said that the moor is epic, that's true... one of my favourite songs ever.

[Illidan]

Opeth lyrics tend to focus on imagery and phrasing. Mikael's phrasing, especially when growling, is impeccable. His choice of words, as someone who learned English as a second language, shows that he selects them for their sound and feel just as much as for their meaning.

[Mantraschism]

The lyrics on 'My Arms, Your Hearse' are just great. They're what gives that album the last push to make it my favorite.

And then there's 'Isolation Years'. Holy cow.

'There's a sense of longing in me
As I read Rosemary's letter
Her writing's honest
Can't forget the years she lost

In isolation
She talks about her love
And as I read
"I'll die alone,"
I know she's aching

There's a certain detail seen here
The pen must have slipped to the side
And left a stain
Next to his name
She knows he's gone

And isolation
Is all that will remain
"The wound in me is pouring out to rest
On a lover's shore.'

That lyric has so much emotion just from the narrator's point-of-view, and what's so amazing is that he barely talks about HIS feelings at all. He mentions a sense of longing, which, to me, indicates that he is in love with Rosemary and always has been, despite that she was already with somebody. None of her letter concerns the narrator, seemingly; she wrote to him to talk about her feelings and love for another, and he sympathizes with and feels her pain - and he's patient with her. And the verse about the pen slipping to the side, and how he knows from that that she knows her lover is gone forever (I sense that he had been away for some time, but only just then did she realize that he'll never return), is just stunning. It gives me goosebumps. The selflessness of what he's saying is what strikes me, and it makes me pity him, getting that feeling that his love for her will never be requited. He cares only for her as she is, not for her as she could be to him.

Sorry if it seems like I'm going overboard with the analysis, but it's such an astounding display of lyrical prowess that I couldn't let this thread go without discussing it.

[LexPWeller]

Originally Posted by Amaran9th

To TC: you really can't have an opinion on Mikael's process of writing them since you weren't there, that's your assumption. You also assume that there's no meaning behind the lyrics because he prefers not to discuss them, that's not an opinion, again an assumption.

Not a very IMO thread IMO. A very negative and presumptuous view of Opeth's lyrics and/or writing process which you can only assume to know about.

well, ok, you're right.
but from that point of view NOTHING can be discussed because noone can have an opinion on anything, and that's kind of foolish in a forum.

[LexPWeller]

Originally Posted by Lenni

Have anyone of those who criticized the lyrics ever tried to write some themeselves?
Right now I'm actually trying to write lyrics for a song and it tends to sound all rubbish very quickly.
I think that there are seldom lyrics of any great merit whatsoever. Telling some sort of story is always a good way bring the right atmosphere to extreme metal IMO. How would you do it??

yes, and that's not easy because you have to take care of:
- metrics that usually have already been written;
- the general meaning of the song;
- in my case a language that's not my native one;
- trying not to be too trivial and banal;

well i think that the only solution is a lot of practice and to take a good chance when you're in the right mood.

[Slynt]

Mikael Åkerfeldt has written some brilliant lyrics compared to most other metal lyricists and certainly they are better than whatever shit is spewed out on commercial radio and TV channels.
The lyrics on Orchid are bad in one way, the lyrics on Ghost Reveries and Watershed in another way.

The lyrics inbetween these releases, however, are pretty good in my opinion; especially the lyrical compositions on My Arms, Your Hearse and Still Life.

Some good parts from these two incredible masterpieces include:

It was me, peering through the looking-glass.
Beyond the embrace of Christ.
Like the secret face within the tapestry.
Like a bird of prey over the crest.
And she was swathed in sorrow, as if born within its mask.

Our abode 'mongst the stars is waiting,
long enough for our last breath of life.
You stare at nothing, right through me,
at times resembling the Devil's concubine.

It was the only task I would undertake.
To reap the harvest that was mine.

I have gone away. The bed is cold and empty.
Trees bend their boughs toward the earth.
And nighttime birds float as black faces.

The sigh of summer upon my return
Fifteen alike since I was here
Bathed in deep fog, blurring my trail
Snuffing the first morning rays

Outcast with dogmas forged below
Seared and beaten, banished from where I was born
No mercy would help me on my way
In the pouring rain nothing is the same

Ripped from my embrace
Melinda reflected in shafts
Red line round her neck
Met the earth in silence

White faced, haggard grin
This serenity painted death
With a halo of bitter disease
Black paragon in lingering breath

This is forgiveness, so I know
Once I repent I seal the lid
I slither for you and I'm dying
I find trust in hate

They wear white for me
Seemingly jaded and lost
I forge myself into your dreams
And here I am your life

[Gramm]

Sigh.. IMO you would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to see any beauty in Åkerfeldts lyrics.

Have you read any peotry at all?

IMO his lyrics makes a lot of sense and I'm awestruck by his ability to put words on feelings I didn't even knew I had.

Furthermore; The meaning of the words comes from YOU. It is how you interpret them. It can, or course, be pretty damn hard to see any meaning in words if you don't have any imagination.

[LexPWeller]

Originally Posted by Gramm

Sigh.. IMO you would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to see any beauty in Åkerfeldts lyrics.

Have you read any peotry at all?

IMO his lyrics makes a lot of sense and I'm awestruck by his ability to put words on feelings I didn't even knew I had.

Furthermore; The meaning of the words comes from YOU. It is how you interpret them. It can, or course, be pretty damn hard to see any meaning in words if you don't have any imagination.

read Thomas Mann and then we can talk about the ability to put words on feelings.

btw the thing is: i'm tired of all those lyrics about emptiness, despair, death, hounds, domination and perdition, because most of the time they don't have a point IMO. it's not completely true that the meaning of the words comes just from the listener, that's not right at all, otherwise anyone could proclame himself an artist coming out with the first shit he has in mind. poetry is not totally random metaphors. poetry is when the artist can justify every single word he used to the advantage of the major sense of the composition.

[Hedon-]

Originally Posted by LexPWeller

read Thomas Mann and then we can talk about the ability to put words on feelings.

btw the thing is: i'm tired of all those lyrics about emptiness, despair, death, hounds, domination and perdition, because most of the time they don't have a point IMO. it's not completely true that the meaning of the words comes just from the listener, that's not right at all, otherwise anyone could proclame himself an artist coming out with the first shit he has in mind. poetry is not totally random metaphors. poetry is when the artist can justify every single word he used to the advantage of the major sense of the composition.

these only go for gr

[LexPWeller]

Originally Posted by Hedon-

these only go for gr

and cowboys from hell.

[Lothlorien]

lol, reading all these posted opeth lyrics have made me re-realize how talented Mikael truly is at writing lyrics. change the name of this thread to "Lyric Appreciation Thread"