In the Presence of Enemies Pt.2

Epic. I love this song.

This song is so win.

Hey Ytse, i think "Dark Master, I'm in" is actually Dark Master, amen

Surprise...another awesome Dream Theater song. As far as the meaning, it seems to be telling a story of a man consumed by evil, who is then shown the light and saved from his hell. Just a nice, dark tale with a happy ending.

As usual, the song is partly christian, but not really. Petrucci throws Christian meanings in there, but always compromises the overall meaning. Anyways, this was quoted from Wikipedia about this song:

"The lyrics tell a story about a man who, at the moment of death, sells half of his soul to a "dark master" in order to gain power to stand in the way of the servants of an evil fallen angel, who are paving the way for their master's coming. The man is seeking revenge on the one who killed his beloved, and also seeks redemption for humanity. At the end he retains his own soul and does not fight for his master.

It is notable that the story told in the song is strikingly similar to the story of Ivan Isaacs told in the Korean comic Priest. Tokyopop, the publisher of Priest, provides a short résumé of the story that even shares certain expressions and phrases with the lyrics of In the Presence of Enemies. John Petrucci also said in an interview that one of the songs in Systematic Chaos was based on a manga [Priest]." Go here to see the Priest references: faq.dtnorway.com/question/1098

Really, this album and probably others by Dream Theater should rightfully be interpreted as a whole. To me, the whole album is telling a story, and one can't really grasp the whole concept without looking at all of it. In pt1, a man has lost his faith, and rebukes the God figure. However, (correct me if I am wrong) it seems that his father, a holy man, dies and leaves him a quest to prevent the evil to take over the world. As the album progresses, he meets remnants of old sins, sees the atrocities of man, prophecies against war. Even either experiences or witnesses the attempted retribution of a soul. At the end, in pt2, he reaches his place, and the "circle" waits there for him. They claim he is a heretic, despite his efforts, and judge him. He turns a full 180, sells half his soul in order to destroy those who claimed to be holy, but sees his own error and turns from the darkness as well, and claims the power from the good entity and destroys those who are the true heretics. Or maybe I'm full of it, I don't know, but either way one should look at the full album for the story to fall together.

I read a comment from someone who said they were one of the extras in the song for the part where they said “Hail, Hail, Hail, Hail” apparently they were actually just saying “Hey”

Before I used to listen to these and not care the fact that hes saying "Dark Master I will fight for you" but for someone like me whose getting started on Christianity the words really scared me until I remembered that the song finishes with the heretic saying he will no longer fight for his dark master. In the beginning of Pt. 1 he says I see a white light shining there before me, walking to it I waited for the end. Okay how I see that is the fact that Lucifer is the angel of light and shines it to others to trap them and make them follow, however he waited for the end part I believe is the fact that his light isn't eternal like god's light is. like others have said its definitely in my eyes a test and a falling of strength in the Heretic. Obviously he feels like God isn't fulfilling his needs and falls to Lucifer so he can gain power to try to overcome others? correct me if i am wrong on why he fell to him, however temptation definitely got the best of him and he decided to leave god for being what he would define as free. However after seeing what his "Dark Master" has in store for his followers, by using them and discarding them when need fit then he realizes his mistake. Another part that I am having a hard time with is "the one man rises up standing in their way" ok is that Jesus? or what, I mean I could see it as Jesus (God just as the son) trying to prevent Lucifer from leaving his realm or his followers helping him come out but I have no idea. any thoughts?

Some corrections I think:

Walk, Through the abyss Into the shadow of death

My, Cup overflows My enemy's blood

Death, Follow me All the days of my life

Corrected.