| Opeth – Moon Above, Sun Below Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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I think this is a breakup song following the discovery of cheating. The partner sleeps untroubled with what's happening, no guilt, with a "flock" of lovers, worshippers, that are "preyed" upon with lies (the devil's breath). The flock will live with the liar, the cheater, forever with a grasp on their heart-- for eternity, because nobody forgets what it's like to love someone and feel betrayed by them. The partner is the sun, and when the moon is in the sky, at night, the sun is nowhere to be found, and the memories of how the sun felt are fading... instead, all there is are whispers of the truth, and sorrow, which is that the relationship is at the very edge of ending, of failing and falling. The sun will take a "road to nowhere", be free, meanwhile the worshipper will be left with no choice but to return to and empty home. Relationships end when there isn't anything left to say and two people part ways. All that's left is the internal monologue of despair, dreading the end. The sun in this instance can't just be one real person, but has to conjure up a "society" of lies, which are what caused the relationship to fail. The next bit I think is pretty clear, but the line "there is a need to sever myself away from happiness" hits hard here because it shows that the worshipper is a true believer. The sun brings happiness, but also everything else mentioned to that point. And what follows is the lament that the sun is now gone and nobody really understands... because from the outside, someone who lies and cheats should be left behind and forgotten, but love isn't that simple. At the end, all that's left are circles in the water, which is a reference to a play, The Man Outside: "A man dies … only a few circles in the water prove that he was ever there. And even they quickly disappear. And when they’re gone, he’s forgotten, without a trace, as if he’d never even existed. And that’s all" This reminds me of a piece of poetry by Beau Taplin from Worlds of You: "The sorry thing about loss is that it's not the pain that beats me but the fear the pain will pass. That sooner or later I will pull myself together and move on. That's the killing blow. To know that someday, no matter how hard I fight it, I will forget how it felt to love you." Circles in the water. |
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