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Rating: A Saturday night like many I return home in the late hours, after a fun evening with friends. Insomnia had trapped me in its castle and the sacred and due sleep was drifting further and further away. I decided to put on a record, with the aim of falling into the arms of Morpheus. "Still Life" by Opeth was my choice to defeat the ghosts of the night.
I fell asleep and the dream began...
My senses experienced intense, unclassifiable emotions. I was transported to fantastic and evocative landscapes. "The Moor," refined and inimitable, is the beginning of the end as it weaves its web of acoustic guitars, ghostly yet fascinating. The complexity of the sound, never trivial, is accompanied by Mikael Akerfeldt's wonderful voice, ready to implode within my heart with dark and powerful growls. I continue on my path and encounter stronger sensations with "Godhead's Lament," more decisive than the others, but still an episode of great elaboration and immediacy.
My brain cells undergo a relaxing daze on the arpeggios of "Benighted," crafted by Akerfeldt with the help of Lindgren.
The dream pauses for a limited period: just enough time to return to reality and sense that "Moonlapse Vertigo" could become one of the soundtracks of my life.
I get back on track and feel like I'm touching the sky with a finger listening to "Face of Melinda," inspired by the woman responsible for the apocalypse depicted in the lyrics of the entire album. Touches of class intertwined with original ideas, gently and passionately caressing my face.
"Serenity Painted Death" is dark and deadly. It contains a great touch of genius, made even stronger by an enchanting atmosphere, rich in colors and evocative sounds. A melodious and captivating voice brings pleasure to my soul, giving it unique sensations, thanks to a songwriting that is long, inimitable, sensitive, and never tiring, accompanied by the melody that makes this music unique. I end my journey with "White Cluster," the final mix of neoclassical refinement and dark experimentation, definitively vanquishing the darkness.
The dream is over. I wake up and return to the harsh reality, flanked by a life full of pitfalls and crossroads to face with courage and determination.
With one more awareness though: that of having a wonderful album in my personal collection and that Opeth is a unique band, guilty of inventing a genre that guarantees extraordinary imagination, absurd technique, and fascinating melody.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Godhead's Lament (09:47)
Marauder
Staining the soil, midst of stillness
Beloved fraternity to an end
Red eyes probe the scene
All the same
Stilted for the beholder
Depravity from the core
Hand carved death in stone laden aisles
I hide the scars from my past
Yet they sense my (mute) dirge
This is when it all falls apart
White hands grasping for straws
Sly smile, poisoned glare behind
Undisguised manmade nova
Mute cry, don't dare to tread
Searing beams tracking you down
Adoring what never has been
Some will bring with them all they have seen
Searching my way to perplexion
The gleam of her eyes
In that moment she knew
Thought I could not leave this place
On this imminent day
As I've reached the final dawn
To what's gone astray
What would they care if I did stay
No one would know
What would they care if I did stay
No one should know
Thought I could not leave this place
On this imminent day
As I've reached the final dawn
To what's gone astray
What would they care if I did stay
No one would know
What would they care if I did stay
No one should know
Still brooding, soothing calm
That rigid, twisted face
Blank godhead, tear my name
Lost virtue, frantic lust
Sly smile, poisoned glare behind
Undisguised manmade nova
Mute cry, don't dare to tread
Searing beams tracking you down
Adoring what never has been
Some will bring with them all they have seen
Searching my way to perplexion
In crumbling faith I saw her
Bearing her pain in the wilderness
The gleam of her eyes
In that moment she knew
03 Benighted (05:00)
Come into this night
Here we'll be gone
So far away
From our weak and crumbling lives
Come into this night
When days are done
Lost and astray
In what's vanished from your eyes
What came and distorted your sight
Saw you benighted by your fright
Come into this night
Your plight alone
Carry your weight
You are flawed as all of us
Come into this night
You only home
It's never too late
To repent, Suffer the loss
What came and distorted your sight
Saw you benighted by your fright
What came and distorted your sight
Saw you benighted by your fright
Come into this night
When you're able
To undo your deeds
And atone with your lonely soul
Once you're into this night
All minds are stable
Forget all your needs
Lose the grip of all control
04 Moonlapse Vertigo (09:00)
Kept warm by the light of the lantern
Lost sight of everything tonight
My presence blackens their pattern
A pock in the healthy and calm
Their scorn behind your back
My promise would put them down
No trace of reverance left
Immemorial fire in their eyes
I would perish at the given signal
At the slightest touch from my soul
Tainted prophet in flesh
For all the plagued and lost
Dripping sin
Decision in stalemate
Dare to feel death at hand
Surprised me with its voice
Through the forest came the morn
Across the leafy pathway
Their deeds smeared in blood
For all to behold
The council of the cross
Must have sensed my coming
The pest through the air
With despise for squalor
Lashing out at the poor
I turned away my eyes
In pallor escape from the end
Fading time to leave from here
And less to fulfill my task
She would be safe and firm
Nothing of this is in vain
Taken away from stifling grace
And saved from the past
05 Face of Melinda (07:58)
By the turnstile beckons a damsel fair
The face of Melinda neath blackened hair
No joy would flicker in her eyes
Brooding sadness came to a rise
Words would falter to atone
Failure had passed the stepping stone
She sworn her vows to another
This is when no-one will bother
And conceded pain in crumbling mirth
A harlot of God upon the earth
Found where she sacrificed her ways
That hollow love in her face
Still I plotted to have her back
The contentment that would fill the crack
My soul released a fluttering sigh
This day fell, the darkness night
I took her by the hand to say
All faith forever has been washed away
I returned for you in great dismay
Come with me, far away to stay
Endlessly gazing in nocturnal prime
She spoke of her vice and broke the rhyme
But baffled herself with the final line
My promise is made but my heart is thine
07 White Cluster (10:02)
Still it came passing by
The pieces weaved together rose the sun
And fooled me with another day
The knocking message called for my life
Sealed the spell of my scrawny body
Soil to skin, My next of kin
Damp air grasped, Stole the words
And greeted me with a hiss
This is forgiveness, So I know
Once I repent I seal the lid
I slither for you and I'm dying
I find trust in hate
They wear white for me
Seemingly jaded and lost
I forge myself into your dreams
And here I am your life
Hangman, Clutching at his tools
I will come for you
The noose is tied
Murmur through the crowd
Plunging into anywhere but here
Cloak-captured sighs of relief
As the primal touch brought me back
And the last sight I did see is still here
Beckoning right behind me
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