After going over Epica again I'm going to have to admit HazardPS got it right. The liner-notes are quite explicit that in Kamelot's version Helena drowns herself with their unborn child. This can also be heard in "Helena's Theme" as the river-spirit declares "Bless the unborn child tonight". This, ofcourse, ruins any point Goethe was trying to make in the original, but as said Kamelot's taing poetic license and the results are great. I think the original story fits the actual music better, so it's POSSIBLE they're paying homage to the original there. But since they wrote in the liner-notes that she drowned herself, that's the Kamelot story and the "sin" is either suicide, premarital sex or murder of unborn child, take your pick.
In any case in Black Halo, Mephisto is goading Ariel along, being generally sarcastic and making light of his grief, moving on to Ariel's acceptance of Mephisto's direction in When the Lights Are Down with "Into the void as one, marching on". In the liner notes the band explains it mostly as "lyrically it describes the peak of Mephisto's influence on Ariel in the story".
After going over Epica again I'm going to have to admit HazardPS got it right. The liner-notes are quite explicit that in Kamelot's version Helena drowns herself with their unborn child. This can also be heard in "Helena's Theme" as the river-spirit declares "Bless the unborn child tonight". This, ofcourse, ruins any point Goethe was trying to make in the original, but as said Kamelot's taing poetic license and the results are great. I think the original story fits the actual music better, so it's POSSIBLE they're paying homage to the original there. But since they wrote in the liner-notes that she drowned herself, that's the Kamelot story and the "sin" is either suicide, premarital sex or murder of unborn child, take your pick. In any case in Black Halo, Mephisto is goading Ariel along, being generally sarcastic and making light of his grief, moving on to Ariel's acceptance of Mephisto's direction in When the Lights Are Down with "Into the void as one, marching on". In the liner notes the band explains it mostly as "lyrically it describes the peak of Mephisto's influence on Ariel in the story".