Prodigal Son (Pt. I - Funerale, Pt. II - Burden of Shame, Pt. III - The Journey)

I think this is one of the clear songs on the album. The funeral-like intro is obviously about Jolee's death, and how both brothers coped with it back then and now. Jolee incorporates pure love and goodwill throughout the story.

"Stranger to love and affection" This stanza is also obviously about Robert. Unlike his brother, he most likely never found the love of his life, which might have contributed to his decision to kill Aurora.

All in all, I feel like this song doesn't really "capture" one single episode of the story, but rather "concludes" and looks back at everything that happened, together with a chorus at the end which sounds a bit like the morale of a story:

Given love or given name Determines everybody's fate in life Be careful what you give

I'll take a stab at this one. The song is divided into three parts, and the album concerns a family that lost a daughter named Jolee in an accident - I call the family Silverthorne but I don't think it's confirmed anywhere this is the name.

In part I Funerale, the narrator (who I think represents each of the brothers of Jolee) are singing about her death, about how pure and good she was and how her loss was untimely. In part II Funerale, they dig deeper into their own feelings, expressing that they are responsible for their death, begging their mother for forgiveness, and promising to keep the dark secret their family harbors of her loss locked away "until death."

In part III The Journey, things get interesting - we learn what has become of the brothers. In the earlier Veritas, it seems one of the brothers has strayed from the memory of his sister and tried to drown his grief in conquest. The Silverthornes are likely a powerful noble family, and he has decided to take control of it through less-than-noble means. Well, here in this track, it seems that his conquest did not bring him the peace he hoped for. He lives his "destined life" behind the palisade (within his castle), and even surrounded in lavish music, he weeps and can't escape from the nightmare of what he's done.

The song then shifts to the other brother, "a stranger to love and affection on the run, in search of shelter in the solitude of sin." Sounds like the other brother has fled from his home and his family, perhaps turning to hedonism to try and drown his woes - alcohol and whores, perhaps. "A drifter in the dark, a soldier on the run, a constant slave under the belt of misery." Even as he flees and hides from the truth of what he's done, he is a slave, constantly beaten by the belt of misery - he can't escape the grief.

The song seems to close with the refrain that explains that the love and hate you give determines the fate of those around you, and the narrator cautions that you take care, which I wonder if he's referring to what they did to Jolee, or what they did to everyone else while they grieved for her loss.

Whether or not I've got it right, the point is that it seems that the song is showcasing the woes of two brothers who've lost their sister, and what terrible things they've done in their grief - whether it be the indulgence of sin or, as Veritas implies, the pursuit of power. Truly a very sad concept album, and it shows that the writer (Youngblood) really can paint an almost Shakespearean sort of tragedy, and give it to us through music.

Oh, a quick follow up, Youngblood implied that the "Silver thorn" has a literal meaning in the album, but says it's up to the listener to determine what it is. I don't think he's referring to the name of the family being Silverthorne, but he describes silver thorn as a contradiction, that is something both beautiful and painful. I think Silverthorn is a knife; perhaps it relates to how Jolee died, or perhaps it relates to something the brothers did.