Meet Me in the Woods

This song is about a guy who looked into the abyss and came back a changed man. Thus the lyrics "I have seen what the darkness does (Say goodbye to who I was)". The whole idea seems to be that there are some experiences in life that change you so completely that your old personality sort of fades away to be replaced by something different and still your own. It's a really beautiful song and presumably reminds other people in addition to me that there are some things that really do "matter" for lack of a better word.

I have a somewhat more whimsical interpretation that will really display the adaptability in interpretation based on the lens through which the listener is viewing the lyrics. Anyway, this interpretation has no bearing on the LH story line but none the less...

I imagine the speaker as an astronomer/astrophysicist that is enraptured and awestruck by (presumably) his work and the beauties of space in general. Every line makes perfect sense if looked at in this way.

Add in the fact that LH has visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena and they have generally star/moon/space centric shots in their music videos, I would like to think that I'm not completely off.

On a somewhat related note, I think the beauty of music in the abstract is that it doesn't matter what the writer intended, all that matters is what the melodies and lyrics make you feel. In that sense I hope LH doesn't lift the veil on the intentions of their writing as this would make some people "right" and some "wrong". We're all right and we can all enjoy it together while simultaneously finding an individual pleasure in thinking the song was written for our particular situation.

Happy Saturday.

It's about being with someone through their darkest times. For me it's about being depressed/mental illness, for someone it's about addiction, for another it's about grief, etc. Meet me in the woods/meet me in the dark and share yours with me. Holy darkness isnt necessarily about the devil but a kind of pain in your soul.

I know their songs are supposed to have a whimsical story to go along with them, but I interpret this song to be about someone's battle with (severe) depression, possibly following a life changing event. As someone who has been there, and who currently struggles with depression, I can identify with the lyrics on a personal level, and I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it because I could relate to it in that way.

"I have seen what the darkness does... say goodbye to who I was" and "I f*cked with the forces that our eyes can't see... Now the darkness got a hold on me" really stood out to me, and led me to the conclusion that the song was about mental illness. Further, "I ain't ever been away so long", "follow me into the endless night" and "show me yours and I'll show you mine" all lead me to believe this is an issue the person has dealt with before, with the last line I quoted particularly pertaining to something like self harm/emotional scars.

At the end of the day, all art is subjective, and the interpretation is left up to whomever is looking at/listening to it. As I've said, this was my own personal interpretation, and I really love this song. Check out other Lord Huron songs, though, because they are amazing (the Strange Tails album is just a good album all around).

Definitely about him taking a dmt trip that changed him forever.

For me the lyrics hold a personal meaning relating to my personal battle with nocturnal epilepsy. Anyone else who has ever experienced a seizure can likely understand why I would interpret the lyrics this way.

For me the song is about someone who has come back from war. Their a changed person, the truth is worse than his dreams, as it really happened. "The darkness has a hold on me", probably the rest of their lives. "I have seen what the darkness does (Say goodbye to who I was)". They will never be the same.

To me it means being depressed and the woods are that depression. When you go out, you come out scarred forever.

I think it also means meeting someone else to talk about it, going back into the woods to talk about each other's experiences.

There's a very interesting concept to this song and that is actually Dementia.

….ikr

Holy darkness dementia is a widely used term in churches mainly. The writer is trying to convey this disease through the lyrics of the song. "How long have I been away" the diseased has felt like they have been gone for ages which is a common feeling when someone is having a episode, some feel like they are reliving month worth of memories but have only 'blacked out' for an hour. This is the darkness that he is describing and although its only been a short while he comes back changed from the feeling, something is no longer right in his bones... dementia has got him (the darkness) and he is lost in his own woods of fears, isolation and confusion.

He expresses the disease with his mind 'fucked with forces that our eyes cant see' he sees his struggle as a war against himself. Filled with torment and strange occurrences that he can no longer explain 'the truth is stranger than my own worst dreams'

Towards the end of the song, with the echoes of the chorus it represents a almost fading sense...of sadly saying goodbye 'goodbye to who I was' and his constant fight in his mind even though others around him cant hear/see it 'don't look back those days are gone' trying to reinforce to himself to prevent the darkness/disease, trying to talk his mind out of causing a almost flashback black out.

Woods can be seen as a dark, lonely place which hides dark secrets and memories...fears. The writer uses the feeling of 'woods' to convey the isolation that the diseased feel in the darkness...also representing with 'meet me in the woods tonight', a plea that he don't want to be alone anymore with his betraying mind...he needs a guide but also proof of what he is going through which no one not in the situation could ever understand...he wants to show them.

Anyways quite a sad song if you re-listen with this perspective..

About drug addiction ruining his outlook on life, going into the woods means being under the influence of hard drugs