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Ghost of Perdition
Opeth

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Ghost of Mother
Lingering death
Ghost on Mother's bed
Black strands on the pillow
Contour of her health
Twisted face upon the head

Ghost of perdition
Stuck in her chest
A warning no one read
Tragic friendship
Called inside the fog
Pouring venom brew deceiving

Devil cracked the earthly shell

Foretold she was the one
Blew hope into the room and said:
"You have to live before you die young"

Holding her down

Channeling darkness
Hemlock for the Gods
Fading resistance
Draining the weakness
Penetrating inner light

Road into the dark unaware

Winding ever higher
Darkness by her side
Spoke and passed her by
Dedicated hunter
Waits to pull us under
Rose up to it's call
In his arms she'd fall
Mother light received
And a faithful servant's free

In time the hissing of her sanity

Faded out her voice and soiled her name
And like marked pages in a diary
Everything seemed clean that is unstained
The incoherent talk of ordinary days
Why would we really need to live?
Decide what is clear and what's within a haze
What you should take and what to give

Ghost of perdition
A saint's premonition's unclear
Keeper of holy hoards
Keeper of holy whores

To see a beloved son

In despair of what's to come

If one cut the source of the flow

And everything would change
Would conviction fall
In the shadow of the righteous
The phantasm of your mind
Might be calling you to go
Defying the forgotten morals
Where the victim is the prey

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Lyrics submitted by MonkeysLikePeanuts

Ghost of Perdition Lyrics as written by Mikael Lars Akerfeldt
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind

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View by: Highest Rated Most Recent Oldest First All Comment Types (57)

General Comment
+3 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.
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.
 The Baying of The Hounds

After a wonderful intro, we find Mikeal being chased by " Pest ridden jackels o
diabolical beasts and roaming the forests, in wait and constant protectors, call
by his side" where he is being called upon by a demon, the next verse describ
demon:
"His words are flies Swarming towards the true insects Feasting on buried dre
spreading decay upon your skin His eyes spew forth darkness That cut throug
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 help
ashes Reached out in false dismay His body is a country The cities lay dead a
despair Friends turned enemies unable to come clean In a rising fog of reeking
this is quite a demon, and then the demon talks to Mikeal, feeding on his grief
of his mother. This paints Mikeal as an Ed Gein type of person, ( you death-me
better know who he is...if not, google his name now) who is lost in life without
"...take comfort in him, and you are receptive to stark wishes, no longer strugg
declare your stand, you would inflict no harm to others, they are unaware and
futile events, you are everything, they are nothing" This shows the demon pois
Mikeal's mind, saying that he is a type of prophet, and what he must do will no
anyone. Mikeal believes these words and is told to " Drown in the deep mire, w
desires, beneath the mire, drown a desire now with you" where his desire wou
revive mother. So to make the only thing that was precious to him come back,
to drown himself. Mikeal then accepts the demon to take over his body:
"And I embrace bereavement Everything beloved is shattered anyway I would
myself to anyone I would accept any flaws I am too weak to resist Tension vibr
horror Finding the outcast in my eyes Pushing nerves on a puppet Endless po
veins Clean intent now tainted with death
And so, cold touch now inhumane Every waking hour Awaiting a reverie to unf
they are calling me Louder by the minute The baying of the hounds Calling me
home "
the last 4 lines reffer to the demon talking inside of Mikeal, with hell being hom
hounds being the messengers of Satan. So in short, so far Mikeal's mother ha
whisked away by Death, and Mikeal sold his soul to a demon and agreed to do
him in exchange for his mother's life.
Beneath the Mire

Now is the time where Mikeal talks of his sickness, which is the demon inside
Haunted nights for halcyon days, Can't sleep to the scraping of his voice. Natu
struck greif in me, and I become a ghost in the sickness" Now comes the time
demon starts to take advantage of Mikeal:
"Willingly guided into heresy Beneath the surface, stark emptiness And you'd p
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 ob
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
body is housing love, and its killing him inside. Hence the " decrepit body wea
transparent skin, Inside, the smoke of failure". Mikeal then speaks to the demo
"Master, A delusion made me stronger Yet I'm draped in pale withering flesh I s
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 long
slowly rises from beneath the mire.
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
aching To honor my plights
Rising moon and my skin is peeling Past undone Suddenly, I can't justify Wha
become"
Mikeal doesn't like how he has become, and he is now going to try and flee fro
demon.
Reverie / Harlequin Forest

Mikeal runs deep into Death's forest trying to escape him, and the hell hounds
him. Mikeal believes he is rid of the sickness, and now he is trying to hide from
from the deeds he commited while possessed. He has a small flash back , and
conscience kicks in which says:
" Lose all to save a little, At your peril its justifyed And dismiss your demons, A
becomes a jest. You are the laughing stock, of the absinthe minded. Confessio
your mouth. And long gone fevers reappear"
Mikeal is starting to realize there may be no way to finally rid himself of his hor
deeds. He slowly lays down and is taken by nature.
" They are the trees, rotten pulp inside and never well Roots are sucking, thiev
source. Tired boughs, reaching for the light.
It is all false pretension, Harlequin forest Awaiting redemption for a lifetime as
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 fore
continues on to a nearby town as he escapes the hounds and the fires.
 Hours of Wealth

Mikeal is resting in an inn, and he finds that there is only one way to take the s
of him permently: To make a deal with the devil himself. He finds solace in wat
innocent people pass outside, and lays down to sleep. He is not entirely sure i
deal with satan, so he rests on it.
this is my personal favorite song seeing how Mikeal has developed his own ca
society only to be haunted by the demons that he dealt with...plus the best blu
heard
The Grand Conjuration

The climax of the story, Mikeal sells his soul to the Devil...and commits most a
Mikeal co-operates with the devil for to make sure his mother is brought back.
offering his body, the devil assembles a bunch of demons to take form and att
Mikeal doesn't realize that his greedy love for his mother has damned the hum
song is truly great lyrical wise ( I honestly love the repetition of the main riff be
reminds me of war drums before a battle, which is what this song means). Mik
the devil to ease his pain and the song then ends, which leads to the last track
Isolation Years

This is a letter from what I am guessing to be Mikeal's mother, whose name w

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 a
die alone" I know she was aching.
There's a certain detal seen here, The pen must have slipped next to his name
he was gone...And isolation is all that would remain. " The wound in me is pou
rest on a lover's shore"
This fills us in on what happened after Mikeal's run in with Satan. Satan took M
in exchange for Rosemary, and he let her know that her son abandoned her. S
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 t
Rosemary as his mother, but as his lover. However, after reviewing all the mat
still think that Rosemary is his mother.
By atonement for the weak

mudpeth on February 25, 2007 Link

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 General Comment
+2 "Ghost of perdition Stuck in her chest"
Could figure it to be a possesion of Satan or just a simple fact that she has
accepted Satan into her life
"A warning no one read"
Probably meaning she hid this pact from other, perhaps even acted Christian
"Road into the dark unaware Winding ever higher"
Like a downward spiral into the clutches of Satan
"In time the hissing of her sanity Faded out her voice and soiled her name"
Drove the mother insane over time
"To see a beloved son In despair of what's to come"
The son, knowing his mother is going mad, knows of whats soon to
come(death)

PraiseRa on January 30, 2006 Link

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General Comment
+1 I'm not positive on this but this song seems to be about someone dying (just
from the ghost in her chest and lingering death etc.). Excellent song, kind of a
week opening, but its one of those songs that gets progressively better.

ZionsVillageIdiot on October 29, 2005 Link

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General Comment
+1 this is a great song, cant stop listening to it. i like the melodic acoustic parts .

killthehopelessness on November 06, 2005 Link

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General Comment
+1
Sounds like the beginning of a story......This guys Mother is dieing from all this
seems like she was some figure of good and she can't tell her son the cause o
can just watch him walk into the Evil's trap. or maybe im totally off.

foodchainboy on December 14, 2005 Link

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General Comment
+1 Perdition = Hell

MetalTrooper on December 16, 2005 Link

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General Comment
+1 this is obviously about someone being posessed by the devil i believe, and
the devil coming to take her soul and standing beside her bed while he takes
it. brilliant song,amazing band!!!!!1

gdacres on January 04, 2006 Link

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General Comment
+1 well, according to my friend the singer's mother died during/before the
recording of damnation. i'm not really tying it into the song or anything but i
thought i'd throw that out there.

returnsandexchanges on March 04, 2006 Link

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General Comment
+1
it was his grandmother.....and the album was planned to be a concept album a
killing his mother but akerfeldt wanted to include isolation years which isnt abo
all
so the album is still sorta a concept, more of a motif like Blckwater Park. this is
murder of his mother

fozzymandias on March 06, 2006 Link

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General Comment
+1 his being the narrator of the song and CD, not akerfelt o_0

fozzymandias on March 06, 2006 Link

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