Kings of The Carnival Creation Lyrics
These lyrics make me think of mainstream religion: mainly, Christianity. Looking at them closely, a lot jumps at me to defend that interpretation:
"Incarnated marvels simplified" - Religious doctrine tries to take something which is absolute and undefinable (god or gods or the universe) and make it into something like a human being with human wants and agendas. It claims that you can be a beacon of good by following these steps written down or listening to a voice in the whirlwind.
"Impotence of the once so perfect living Erase and rewind" - This is interesting. It implies that humankind was once much, much better than this. Erase and rewind... so we should go back to this state? It's obviously talking about a time before most of humanity's history, so maybe... a primitive state? A time in which everyone looked out for themselves without relying on codes of morality that aren't really "moral" at all? The song might be coming back to this at the end.
"In search for the guidelines to the gateways of sin through mires of misanthropy with wrath in mind" - The tenets of Christianity appear to argue for love and humility, but there's a truly dark undertone to a religion which will seriously condemn people who disagree with it to a pit of fire for all eternity. In short, it's not loving and humane at all; it's downright misanthropic, see: crusades, witch hunts, persecutions, etc. The Old Testament has a lot more "ugly" subject matter, but even the religion proposed by the nicer, cleaner New Testament seems subject to this criticism.
"Consuming illusions made from hysteria and swallowed tongues Testimonial sufficiency declaring numbness of all perceptions" - Sadly, faith often becomes an excuse to not think or to ignore the evidence of one's world around them. The accounts of people in the Bible are taken as testimonies verified by the almighty being itself, bought by people who are basically lying to themselves.
"Glance into the blackness hidden beneath your surface And enjoy the suffering, sanity drained in disrespect" - Accepting Christianity as written means, to some extent, becoming indifferent to human suffering. To be fair, people usually don't murder each other for being nonbelievers anymore, but being content in the knowledge that those who don't follow your path will suffer endlessly doesn't make you much better.
"Left are the kings of the carnival creation Carrying out the echoes of the fallen" - As prominent and common as Christianity seems, it doesn't hold nearly as much political power as it did in the medieval ages. The very fact that I am able to submit this post which totally tears it apart and not become a social pariah means that the influence and splendor of Christianity has, in a sense, "fallen."
"Sense the withering eternity as it fades away The ultimate graceless voyage of all times Only death will be guarding your angels, silently Cripples joining arms in clamour Institutionalized for the rebirth, the herd will be hunted" - Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. Is this a prediction of Christianity's eventual extinction? It does seem to argue that the followers of the Kings are actually rather weak and pathetic, relying on the authority of their numbers to win any battles.
No offense meant to my fellow man, Christian or otherwise, but this is what I see the song being about. To be fair, more and more people are moving away from the whole "Fire and Brimstone" theology and to my knowledge most Christians don't actually wish eternal torment upon their neighbors. The true villains in this song are not members of the herd, but the Kings, after all: the people who know how twisted the whole thing is and who created this masquerade to make suckers and pawns out of people who might otherwise be decent and respectable.
As for this song being about self-righteous people who think they're so good when they're not... well, that's an interesting interpretation and it certainly makes the song accessible from different audiences. However, the language here is so carefully crafted I think it's much deeper and more specific than that.
Hope this helps and rock on.
In regards to what I wrote about "impotence of the once so perfect being": this seems to be only tangentially related to the rest of the song. Contemporary Satanism (as espoused by Anton LaVey) emphasizes strength and self-sufficiency (though not stupid and pathetic acts like killing someone to prove how evil you are), so, keeping this in mind when reading Dimmu Borgir lyrics, it makes sense to me that a song of theirs might argue that.
In regards to what I wrote about "impotence of the once so perfect being": this seems to be only tangentially related to the rest of the song. Contemporary Satanism (as espoused by Anton LaVey) emphasizes strength and self-sufficiency (though not stupid and pathetic acts like killing someone to prove how evil you are), so, keeping this in mind when reading Dimmu Borgir lyrics, it makes sense to me that a song of theirs might argue that.
@BrotherSooth I liked your detailed review of the song a lot! I totally agree with a lot of what is said therein!
@BrotherSooth I liked your detailed review of the song a lot! I totally agree with a lot of what is said therein!
I only wanted to add an itneresting idea to it all: what about if the so-called Christianity, masked behind the name of Catholicism and other big, main-stream Churches, is still in force, and does command the masses, but just in a different way? In a way that we don't directly see, but they still hold the power? That they still punish you, if you deny them, but in a different way & for different reasons (for example, not...
I only wanted to add an itneresting idea to it all: what about if the so-called Christianity, masked behind the name of Catholicism and other big, main-stream Churches, is still in force, and does command the masses, but just in a different way? In a way that we don't directly see, but they still hold the power? That they still punish you, if you deny them, but in a different way & for different reasons (for example, not for the post that you wrote, cause they've given you enough freedom as to mere think you're free, but the moment you stop playing their game, you're screwed one way or another: like, excuding you from your society gradually, and etc.)
In those lines, I have a theory, that the Catholic church and other big & known (and not so known) organizations, they all are a product of the devil. And the devil those guys (Dimmu Borgir) praise, is the very reason behind any conflict, lie, hypocrisy & war which have ever taken place upon this world - all those things they condemn at the same time in their song. Like: Hail Satan! Curse Satan! Something of the kind.
Do u get my point? :)
this song fucking rules i think vortex brings new life to the band and his singing fuckin rules i hope this line up never changes cuz its the best one yet stay (sic) dimmu borgir
This lyric is clearly about the church, as user BrotherSooth noted. More specifically, I think it was written with the Catholic church in mind. I want to add some more thoughts:
"In search for the guidelines to the gateways of sin" - Churchgoers need to understand what are the things that can send you to hell, so they can (pretend to) avoid it.
"Sophistication as cruelty and perfection as virulent truth" - God is perfect, your priest is the voice of God. What he says is the truth, you must follow it and spread it (like a virus). However, embedded in such apparent benevolent messages are "sophisticated" messages of hate disguised: that person who does not believe? going to hell!! those who do not conform our norms? bastards, heretics, shame on them!! those Muslim immigrants? hate them!! That paragraph is also a reinforcement of the "In search for the guidelines to the gateways of sin through mires of misanthropy with wrath in mind" message: churchgoers want to know the gateways to hell, but in doing so, are being manipulated by the anti-humanity sentiment of the "Kings".
"Confidently dawned, to pick the best of enemies" - again, they're always choosing the next "best" enemies: the satanism, abortion, drug addicts, democratic party, etc. When they polarise against them, they reinforce the faith and unite the Christians. That's why "best enemy": a carefully chosen enemy is very useful.
"Worshipped by anyone's mass on our planet Hell" - again, another two Christian references: "mass" and "hell".
"What on earth possessed you?" - this is pretty ironic. You see, according to the church, what possesses people are devils, spirits, etc. But here it says what ON EARTH possessed you. It's not a coincidence, what's "possessing" people, from the followers to the "Kings", are purely earthly things: hate, wrath, greed, etc.
The album is titled "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia". Could they make it more explicit?
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Anyway that said, those lyrics can also be interpreted to attach other "institutions" that are not the church itself but somewhat related to it when you ignore the explicit references of Christianism here: the media (manipulation, hatred), ignorant conservatives ("Impotence of the once so perfect living" pairs well with the "great again", "the past was much better" discourse), governments ("Peace means reloading your guns"), etc.
But let not fool ourselves, the church was once the government and the media. The church is still relevant to the media and governments (heck, Vatican IS a sovereign State). The radical conservatives are mostly Christian and aligned with those old values. The lyrics are criticising Christianity as a whole, from the time when the church ruled every aspect of Western life to the current times. In fact, the album was released in 2001, way before the radical neoconservative wave but it's such a well written lyric that it stands relevant even today. What we saw with Brexit, immigrants being attacked, etc. are just a new developments of those old values.
Bravo, Dimmu. A masterpiece.
I can't believe no one commented on this song before me! It's the best song they've ever done. As for it's meaning: it's about how no matter how good of a person you think you are or how mighty people think the human race are we are all really evil inside and we are heading towards our reing.
Agreed. It's a great song. People never learn.
this song fucking rules i think vortex brings new life to the band and his singing fuckin rules i hope this line up never changes cuz its the best one yet stay (sic) dimmu borgir
Another good song.
Song is amazing and the druming is awsome
deCarabas states the meaning pretty well. The song does seem to make some references to war. The title "Kings of The Carnival Creation" could refer to rulers and politicians who declare war, create genocide, rule with tyranny, etc, all the things that are merciless to innocent civilians. But you're on the track I'd say.
this song is perfect in some way,is it the music,the lyrics or sometging else and yet again the words hiddenly mean something about aour world about our problem.
an awsome song rock on dimmu!