Wolf & Raven

This is a truly beautiful song. At first I thought it was kind of corny but the more you listen to it the more it grows. Personally I think it's about someone willing to do anything, even illegal activites, to please a person, only to look back on the experience in disgust and disdain.

this song to me has a bit of a macbeth by Shakespeare feel to me - talk about killing in the king and and the master is his pride and need for power how his need to be king lead macbeth from being the hero to the villian. He hates his 'master' but he cant escape it it wont let him go hence the begging for it to 'let his go' which could also be begging for death

also the part of the song saying 'You say I am unbreakable, I cannot die' is a strong link to macbeth as it links how macbeth could not be killed by one given birth to by a woman

I sense the Macbeth undertones too, although if you watch the music video you get a very different story:

A man (Kakko) is being chased through the woods by a wolf; he seeks shelter in a mysterious house. He explores the house and finds a beautiful naked woman in the bathtub, who transforms him into a raven, her new servant. The last shot is of the wolf running away from the house--the woman, a werewolf, is in search of more victims to enslave.

Throughout the video, Kakko's spirit is seen singing the chorus--"let me go, master I hate you so"--and pleading to "be a human again, mabe someday". It seems he is trapped as a raven in slavery to the werewolf-woman, and has nightmares about the punishment she would inflict for his disobeying--"I had a nightmare, the wolf eating the raven."

However, this doesn't explain the next line: "entrails of life on MY plate, and I ate 'em", or the parts about "killing the king", unless that's just supposed to be a mark of his devotion. Anyone who can explain those parts would be really appreciated.

I think Tony is just looking for another chance to become a man again since he's trapped in the form of a Raven.. In the video, when he's running through the woods hes running from something he did and feels ashamed of, the wolf could simbolize that. i think thats why he wrote: "I am now like Judas, done" he betrayed someone and he's ashamed of it. Hes trapped for something he did and regrets it with all his heart but its too late now.

@RedFox, not sure about "killing the king", but i think it simbolizes Betrayal, thats what hes running from... about "entrails of life on my plate and I ate 'em" maybe is the 'leftovers' of his life and he ate em because he was ashamed if someone would see what he did with his life.. about the: "I had a night where the wolf eating the raven.." I think it represents betrayal again, the wolf is his master and hes the servant (raven), hes too afraid of what his master can do to him, in this case the werewolf lady.

Anyways, thats just how I see it, maybe you agree, maybe you dont, but it wont make me change my opinion.

Okay, just one note. A lot of people have posted that to them it feels like Macbeth to them. There is no basis for this. The song clearly states that he is serving a master, and while it was originally Lady Macbeth that convinced Macbeth to take Duncan's life, Macbeth took over from there, not caring in the end who lived or died, only killing those who he thinks may take the throne from him. However, Lady Macbeth does feel remorse for Duncan death, the killing haunting her, being the basis for her suicide. Yet this cannot even be from her point of view, as she is neither master nor servant to Macbeth, but grows apart from him.

It wasn't until I started reading Macbeth in school that I saw meaning in Wolf and Raven. The references to regicide, fitfull sleep, ravens, supposed invincibility. It's an amazing song for that reason alone.

This is a fight between man and beast... It's someone, or something, who lost all his humanity for a ideal or a master's thought... Now he killed the king and lost all his humanity and is forever inside a monster, is someone who falls for ever... Some like the Gollum, I think

i agree with the first two posts. wow, Tony must be into literature. both this and The Power of One contain literary references.

The very first time I heard this song (which was also the first SA song I'd ever heard) I though MacBeth...It fits so well!