Ghost of Perdition

To start off, this is my first review of any sort for Opeth's 2005 release, "The Ghost Reveries" which is a must have in any metal head's collection. The beautiful songs coupled with an amazing and increasingly climactic story of a man who longs for redemption from his horrible past. The ending is great, and almost made me want to shed a tear. ( and I recall Still Life had a smidge better of a story) Pick it up as soon as possible, and sit back and enjoy this excellent piece of work. Hope you enjoy.

1. Ghost of Perdition

Mikeal starts off with is classic death metal vox, growling the lines:

" ghost of mother, lingering death, ghost on mother's bed. black strands on the pillow, contour of her health, twisted face upon the head"

this starts off with the notion that his mother has died due to sickness of some sort. However, with the next 3 verses, he takes her death in a different direction, claiming that " Devil cracked the earthly shell" a hint towards posession of sorts. The next verse compounds this theory of mine.

" Holding her down, channeling darkness Hemlock for the gods, fading resistance Draining the weakness, penetrating inner light"

Kinda self explanatory, his mother is posessed and the demon kills her. The next part reads " Road into the dark unaware, winding ever higher" This could be interpretated a couple ways, but I see it as the main character ( lets refer to him as Mikeal from here on in) running away...or the dark unaware could mean he too has dabbled in the black unholy arts. After this soft interlude we continue the story as Mikeal talks of the Reaper coming to stalk his mother " Rose up to it's call, In his arms she'd fall" and thus her life was complete. The next part ( with the amazing heavy riff underneath) explains Mikeal's feelings to his mother's passing. He has no will to live any longer, and he talks of the ghost ( probably that of his mother's) seeing a premonition. " To see a beloved son, In despair of what's to come" this is a haunting ( sends chills down my spine every time) foreshadowing of the future of Mikeal. The final part of this song is slightly confusing.

" If one cut the source of the flow, and everything would change, would convitction fall?"

this suggests that his mother's soul was taken as payment to the devil. " Might be calling you to go, defying the forgotten mortals, where the victim is the prey" ends the song, and is mightily structered around Satan himself.

2. The Baying of The Hounds

After a wonderful intro, we find Mikeal being chased by " Pest ridden jackels of the earth, diabolical beasts and roaming the forests, in wait and constant protectors, calling you to sit by his side" where he is being called upon by a demon, the next verse describes said demon:

"His words are flies Swarming towards the true insects Feasting on buried dreams And spreading decay upon your skin His eyes spew forth darkness That cut through and paralyze Casts light upon your secrets Forced to confront your enemies

His mouth is a vortex Sucking you into it's pandemonium Fools you with a helping hand of ashes Reached out in false dismay His body is a country The cities lay dead and beyond despair Friends turned enemies unable to come clean In a rising fog of reeking death"

this is quite a demon, and then the demon talks to Mikeal, feeding on his grief from the loss of his mother. This paints Mikeal as an Ed Gein type of person, ( you death-metal heads better know who he is...if not, google his name now) who is lost in life without his mother.

"...take comfort in him, and you are receptive to stark wishes, no longer struggling to declare your stand, you would inflict no harm to others, they are unaware and in loop of futile events, you are everything, they are nothing" This shows the demon poisening Mikeal's mind, saying that he is a type of prophet, and what he must do will not hurt anyone. Mikeal believes these words and is told to " Drown in the deep mire, with past desires, beneath the mire, drown a desire now with you" where his desire would be to revive mother. So to make the only thing that was precious to him come back, Mikeal has to drown himself. Mikeal then accepts the demon to take over his body:

"And I embrace bereavement Everything beloved is shattered anyway I would devote myself to anyone I would accept any flaws I am too weak to resist Tension vibrating with horror Finding the outcast in my eyes Pushing nerves on a puppet Endless poison in my veins Clean intent now tainted with death

And so, cold touch now inhumane Every waking hour Awaiting a reverie to unfold And now they are calling me Louder by the minute The baying of the hounds Calling me back to my home "

the last 4 lines reffer to the demon talking inside of Mikeal, with hell being home, and the hounds being the messengers of Satan. So in short, so far Mikeal's mother had her soul whisked away by Death, and Mikeal sold his soul to a demon and agreed to do deeds for him in exchange for his mother's life.

3. Beneath the Mire

Now is the time where Mikeal talks of his sickness, which is the demon inside of him. " Haunted nights for halcyon days, Can't sleep to the scraping of his voice. Nature's way struck greif in me, and I become a ghost in the sickness" Now comes the time where the demon starts to take advantage of Mikeal:

"Willingly guided into heresy Beneath the surface, stark emptiness And you'd pity my conviction Whereas I thought of myself as a leader "

and to that, the demon responds:

"You'd cling to your pleasant hope It is twisted fascination While I'd ruin the obstacles into despair And I'm praising death

Lost love of the heart In a holocaust scene memory

Decrepit body wearing transparent skin Inside, the smoke of failure"

the demon has no intention of keeping up his side of the deal, and knows that Mikeal's body is housing love, and its killing him inside. Hence the " decrepit body wearing transparent skin, Inside, the smoke of failure". Mikeal then speaks to the demon :

"Master, A delusion made me stronger Yet I'm draped in pale withering flesh I sacrificed more than I had And left my woes beneath the mire "

where Mikealing is realizing he can't keep the demon inside his body any longer...and he slowly rises from beneath the mire.

4. Atonement

Atonement is a short song where the name suggests the meaning.

"Cleared the fog that was veiled around me And blurred my sights Suddenly, I'm no longer aching To honor my plights

Rising moon and my skin is peeling Past undone Suddenly, I can't justify What I had become"

Mikeal doesn't like how he has become, and he is now going to try and flee from the demon.

5. Reverie / Harlequin Forest

Mikeal runs deep into Death's forest trying to escape him, and the hell hounds chase after him. Mikeal believes he is rid of the sickness, and now he is trying to hide from everyone from the deeds he commited while possessed. He has a small flash back , and then his conscience kicks in which says:

" Lose all to save a little, At your peril its justifyed And dismiss your demons, As death becomes a jest. You are the laughing stock, of the absinthe minded. Confession stuck in your mouth. And long gone fevers reappear"

Mikeal is starting to realize there may be no way to finally rid himself of his horrible past deeds. He slowly lays down and is taken by nature.

" They are the trees, rotten pulp inside and never well Roots are sucking, thieving from my source. Tired boughs, reaching for the light.

It is all false pretension, Harlequin forest Awaiting redemption for a lifetime as they die alone With no one by their side, are they forgiven?"

Mikeal's life is being eaten away by guilt and nature, so he sets fire to the forest. Then he continues on to a nearby town as he escapes the hounds and the fires.

6. Hours of Wealth

Mikeal is resting in an inn, and he finds that there is only one way to take the sickness out of him permently: To make a deal with the devil himself. He finds solace in watching the innocent people pass outside, and lays down to sleep. He is not entirely sure if he should deal with satan, so he rests on it.

this is my personal favorite song seeing how Mikeal has developed his own cause in society only to be haunted by the demons that he dealt with...plus the best blues solo I ever heard

7. The Grand Conjuration

The climax of the story, Mikeal sells his soul to the Devil...and commits most awful acts.

Mikeal co-operates with the devil for to make sure his mother is brought back. When offering his body, the devil assembles a bunch of demons to take form and attack the earth. Mikeal doesn't realize that his greedy love for his mother has damned the human race. This song is truly great lyrical wise ( I honestly love the repetition of the main riff becuase it reminds me of war drums before a battle, which is what this song means). Mikeal then asks the devil to ease his pain and the song then ends, which leads to the last track.

8. Isolation Years

This is a letter from what I am guessing to be Mikeal's mother, whose name we find is Rosemary. She must have some contact with the dead, for she claims:

"...Can't forget the years she's lost in Isolation. She talks about her love. And as I read " I'll die alone" I know she was aching.

There's a certain detal seen here, The pen must have slipped next to his name She knew he was gone...And isolation is all that would remain. " The wound in me is pouring out to rest on a lover's shore"

This fills us in on what happened after Mikeal's run in with Satan. Satan took Mikeal's soul in exchange for Rosemary, and he let her know that her son abandoned her. She writes this letter to tell him that she still loves him.

Well thats it folks. When you look at Isolation Years, I noticed it doesn't seem to fit with Rosemary as his mother, but as his lover. However, after reviewing all the material again, I still think that Rosemary is his mother.

By atonement for the weak