The Leper Affinity

Ok Ok Ok... I created an account just for this song. I've listen to this so many times and saw the lyrics even more often. First of all YES ! it's about rape and murder NO there's no leprosy in this. A leper is also and outcast which is the case here. The last sentence confirm it "It was worth it for the wait alone". Is a way to say, it's my vengeance to the world. Ok lets take the lyrics part by part.

"We entered Winter once again" Keep in mind that's the first lyrics of the album, it means we forgot the happy ending of still life : this is gonna be raw and cold, like winter.

"Naked, freezing from my breath" Have you ever felt the breath of someone in your neck ?

"Neath the lid all limbs tucked away This coffin is your abode from now" He's above, she can't move

"Your body is mine to avail Such a tragic sight you are Slave under my creed Spurring me with those tears" This is were insanity begins, feeling all powerful makes him bursting in madness

"I am beyond death" A lot of murderers, rapists etc... felt the same when they commited their crimes, feeling like god because you play with the life of someone

"Midst a dreaming affinity Saving strength now, faint whispers Come erotic communion in its splendour Fever mirrored ghosts" She lost strength and resigned to fight, she let him do the dirty job, he fucks her

"Night time consolation, cross the line Draw murder into art Sleep inside through days In the wake of this relief Shivering, longing for more Insanity at it's peak Love me to my death" He kills her, obvious enough : night means death, "cross the line" "Insanity at it's peak"

"Lost are days of Spring You sighted and let me in Keep the beast inside Shackled within my hide Screaming out too late Losing to my hate Grew together with your skin And paced the trails of sin" I can pretty much see the scene clearly. His madness stoped, he stand amazed, got scared. Then he talk to her, yell, and tell her it's her fault. MAAAAN i can almost see his eyes, in a mix of surprize, fear and anger.

"Your gaze covered with virgin snow Rigid features It's the shallow deeds who is to blame Deafening shrieks pierced the night A step from oblivion Moving into the dim lights Hiding within a reverie" He now looks at the body, starting to get covered by fresh snow, the beauty of the white constrast with the horror of the murder. He feels like in a dream, unreal.

"It was worth it for the wait alone" Like a cry against sociaty that made him an outcast.

This song is perfect and very vivid

I think the obvious interpretation is that the narrator is a necrophiliac. Whether he kills them or not is pretty ambiguous but he's definitely performing sexual acts on a corpse.

The more I read the lyrics, the more I think it is nature itself, talking to somebody who has died and been buried: "We entered Winter once again, naked, freezing from my breath. 'Neath the lid all limbs tucked away, this coffin is your abode from now and onwards. Your body is mine to avail."

This, to me, is nature or the earth itself speaking. The "breath" of the land is the wind, freezing the ground and all below it. The earth now avails, or uses, the body to its own advantage. The soil itself is nurtured by the corpse, and the decomposition causes the body to return to nature - dust to dust, you know? These lines seem to fit that: "Grew together with your skin, and paced the trails of sin. Your gaze covered with virgin snow; rigid features."

All that suggests somebody dead and buried under the cold winter earth. Yeah, I can see it being a metaphor for human failings - it could even be an analogy for a controlling or smothering relationship, in a sick sort of way. But in a literal sense, I believe it's about death and the eternity of burial.

I think its about Nosferatu taking someones life.

I think it is made to get us to think it's about rape at first, but I think it's not. My guess is that theres only one character, mutilating himself.

"Lost are days of Spring You sighted and let me in" Could be a kind of mental disorder speaking to its victim?

"Keep the beast inside Shackled within my hide Screaming out too late Losing to my hate Grew together with your skin And paced the trails of sin" Looks like someone who hates himself for whatever sin he has (or thinks he has) done and harms himself as a punishment, no?

Well, my two cents!

I've another possible meaning: the one we think is a rapist is in fact leprosy itself. It could be the illness speaking in the way of a character.

I personally share VoiceOfWisdom's interpretation. It could certainly be the voice of leprosy, speaking about how it enjoys claiming its victims.

"Neath the lid all limbs tucked away This coffin is your abode from now"

Evidently the victim of leprosy has died and been buried.

"Your body is mine to avail Such a tragic sight you are Slave under my creed Spurring me with those tears"

The disease is basically talking about how it now owns the victim's body, and is looking over it and saying (Kind of ironically) what a tragic sight this person is.

"Sleep inside through days In the wake of this relief Shivering, longing for more Insanity at it's peak"

This is probably a different victim. These certainly sound like symptoms of fever or sickness; perhaps the disease is claiming another victim?

"Keep the beast inside Shackled within my hide Screaming out too late Losing to my hate"

The change from Mikael's growls to clean vocals suggest that maybe this is changing to the point of view of the dying victim. He knows that he is dying, and that nothing can be done to save him now ("Screaming out too late"). He also wants the disease to stay with him and not claim any more innocent people - "Keep the beast inside" and "Shackled within my hide" (ie Kept inside his body).

"Grew together with your skin And paced the trails of sin"

I have a feeling this might be the second victim, now dying of leprosy, speaking to the first victim, who may have been a loved one, and was also who he caught the disease from. "Paced the trails of sin" suggests that maybe the first victim was careless, which led up to them catching the disease. That would certainly give the song the "lost love" undertones that many Opeth songs have.

"Your gaze covered with virgin snow Rigid features"

This is back to the disease, looking over the second victim this time. The "virgin snow" may refer to the frozen gaze of the dead person.

"Deafening shrieks pierced the night"

The second victim's body has been discovered.

"A step from oblivion Moving into the dim lights Hiding within a reverie"

This is the second victim passing on into the afterlife.

"It was worth it for the wait alone"

I have a feeling that this can apply if it were spoken by both the disease and the victim. From the disease's point of view, it would mean that the disease has enjoyed waiting to claim the victim. From the victim's point of view, it would have been worth dying, because of the wait for death - in other words, life - or possibly the second victim's wait, after the first victim had died, to be with them again in the afterlife.

Well, that's my input. The whole "rapist" thing sounds highly unlikely, and I personally think that this interpretation that the speaker is the disease is far more likely. ;)

"Your body is mine to avail Such a tragic sight you are Slave under my creed Spurring me with those tears I am beyond death"

That doesn't mean that he's some girl, it can also mean that he's seeing himself in a mirror or maybe having a split personality.

Vampires man, its about vampires lol

We entered Winter once again Naked, freezing from my breath Neath the lid all limbs tucked away This coffin is your abode from now---Old Folklore of them sleeping in Coffins

and onwards "Your body is mine to avail Such a tragic sight you are Slave under my creed Spurring me with those tears"--The attack of a woman I am beyond death--Vampires are immortal Midst a dreaming affinity Saving strength now, faint whispers Come erotic communion in its splendour Fever mirrored ghosts Night time consolation, cross the line Draw murder into art Sleep inside through days---vampires cant come out durning the day

In the wake of this relief Shivering, longing for more Insanity at it's peak Love me to my death Lost are days of Spring You sighted and let me in --- you have to invite vampires in to your house

Keep the beast inside Shackled within my hide Screaming out too late Losing to my hate Grew together with your skin And paced the trails of sin Your gaze covered with virgin snow Rigid features It's the shallow deeds who is to blame Deafening shrieks pierced the night A step from oblivion Moving into the dim lights Hiding within a reverie It was worth it for the wait alone

In this song I believe, first of all, the first person character is a sadist "Spurring me with those tears"

Has anyone ever considered that the seasons described (winter and spring) refer to chronology surrounding the event of the song, rather than literal seasons?

The song definately has sexual connotations to me, being perhaps about a rape and murder or necrophilia, but I also thought that the first person character repents or at least realises what he is doing is wrong, "Such a tragic sight you are Slave under my creed" and

"Keep the beast inside Shackled within my hide Screaming out too late Losing to my hate" suggests maybe the character realises what he is doing is wrong, or maybe doesn't want to do it but is overtaken by his impulses? Just ideas people.

Feel free to drop me a PM, I love to talk about music

Fantastic song, though I prefer Still Life as an album =D