Karma

The meaning of this song is a pretty straightforward allegory. The king has spent his life ruthlessly conquering and killing in the name of "honor and glory," and now that he has reached the end of his life, he is finally beginning to ask himself whether he really acted ethically in his life. He realizes that, once all is said and done, he is just another man whose life will be judged on the ultimate merits and ethics of his actions, and not his honor among other men or any other such things of material value.

It's the story of all who act in the name of honor, glory, god, the master race, etc., who are really acting for their own selfish reasons to achieve carnal satisfaction. In the end, the truth of our actions will come back to haunt us once our temporal achievements have passed away.

I am quite confident that this song is based off of Shakespeare's King Richard the Third. The most obvious connection is the line "who will trade his karma for my kingdom," which is similar to the play's most famous line: " horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" Also, King Richard III was supposed to be a small, twisted-looking man, supported by the line in this song: "and here I stand / a small and simple man." Furthermore, King Richard describes himself in this first act as "subtle, false, and treacherous" while reflecting over his plan to murder his brother and the king, so the "karma" in the song is supported by the play.

This is such a rocking song!

I heard this song in an AMV for Bastard, and it was wild.

I guess the song could be literal, about a real king, but I think it may be about a man who is leary of doing anything for fear that it will come back to him.

Hey, me alone again.

My brother and I had a discussion about this song. We're both pretty sure that it's about a King who has either betrayed or been betrayed by his closest friends and knows that his final conflict has come.

But we both differed on an interpretation of the last verse.

"Tired, trembling, I am descending..."

I looked at it as the King being wary and afraid to finally face his friends in combat.

My brother sees it as tired of their machinations behind his back, and he is trembling with anger, ready to destroy them.

I see the lyrics like this: its about a king, who is getting old and can't do nothing about it, he is going to die. So he questions himself if he has done the right things in life.. knowing that he havnt and therefor ask after someone whos wiling to trade his karma for a kingdom... and well that can't be done since karma is a personal thing.

This makes me thing of American Psycho, because he wants a new inside and Bateman from American Psycho thinks the inside is something that dosnt really matter because you can always get a new.

So i see this song as a soiciaty criticize. Interpreted as if they say that we should stop trying always to look good in the new clothes and all, and that we should be good people because at the end you can't change that.

My opinion :)

Am I alone in being remembered of the Arthurian saga? This song, by a band called "Kamelot" no less...

To elaborate; one of the legends of Arthur was he was to die on a battlefield, in the moment of his greatest glory. I'm not too sure how legitimate this story is, but it does tie in nicely with the "karma" part doesn't it. I think Arthur did something evil or made a mistake while wielding the blessed sword Excalibur, and as a result was to die; hence the "karma".

I can't find a version of this legend anywhere though, so don't take what I say too seriously.

I think it's about King Lear.

Well I believe it is about king Arthur just as Feytalist said...as legend says king Arthur had illegitimate son that eventually came seeking throne of Camelot what resulted with war so as song says...

"my sins have come to face me"

So by legend of king Arthur those sins could be Arthur's son that eventually gave him fatal wound and from there we can find various different endings, some say Arthur died while some that he survived and stayed on Avalon waiting to return if his kingdom ever needs him again and two last verses say

"will I have to stay here and live this life again"

So I would assume Kamelot is following ending that Arthur survived if Karma is about him

Actually if it was made before the Black Halo came out, it is about King Arthur, if not, it is about Faust. The entire album "the Black Halo" is about Johanne Wolfgang Gothe's musical (or play, or whatever adaption) "Faust". Faust loses faith in God and starts practicing the dark arts and trusting in Mephistopheles (March of Mephisto) but this sounds like it's about King Arthur

The Karma album came out before The Black Halo. I disagree that this song is about King Arthur, though. it seems too vague, to me. i think its just about a king who did some bad stuff in his life, and now he's about to die, and he's wondering if he made the right choices or not.