I know that the band posted the actual meaning of the song on their blog, but I thought I'd mention anyway that this song reminds me of Ophelia in Hamlet. The idea of floating down a river... "the tongues of the animals," kind of like Ophelia being crazy before she drowned, speaking gibberish... "It took a father" could mean Polonius, who died earlier in the play and whose death is what caused Ophelia to go crazy. If the river is death (or the natural course of life, which flows toward death), then it makes sense that it took her father, and then took her.
I dunno, just an interesting little resonance that I found personally.
I know that the band posted the actual meaning of the song on their blog, but I thought I'd mention anyway that this song reminds me of Ophelia in Hamlet. The idea of floating down a river... "the tongues of the animals," kind of like Ophelia being crazy before she drowned, speaking gibberish... "It took a father" could mean Polonius, who died earlier in the play and whose death is what caused Ophelia to go crazy. If the river is death (or the natural course of life, which flows toward death), then it makes sense that it took her father, and then took her.
I dunno, just an interesting little resonance that I found personally.