Blind Guardian lyrics explained

It’s been 14 years ago that I posted a short but nice explaination about the meaning of some Blind Guardian’s songs. Today, I thought it was just about time to renew the post, as my old blog is broken and the original link (still there, for the records) is gone.

Enjoy!

I looked around the web to find some ref­er­ence about Blind Guardian’s (wikipedia entry)lyrics and I found a nice Russ­ian page on the topic. The only com­plaint is that the page has an annoy­ing back­ground music that I am not able to switch off. So, I decided to copy the mate­r­ial here: I know it’s not a nice thing to do, but I gave the source of the infor­ma­tion. If some­one has any com­plaint about this, just drop a line and I’ll fix it, delet­ing this post.

I hope you will enjoy!

Analyse the lyrics
Thanks to Yohan Thams from Twi­light Hall from the idea and ana­lyz­ing some songs!

Bat­tal­ions of Fear

Majesty

Obvi­ously this song is ded­i­cated to the Tolkien’s world, or, more accu­rately, to the book “The Lord of the Rings”. The line “[…] hunted by gob­lins, no Gan­dalf to help […]” surely indi­cates this. How­ever, it is not clear who “Majesty” is. On the one hand the line “…hunted by gob­lins, no Gan­dalf to help..” is evi­dently point­ing at Aragorn, the title suits him well. But more likely that the Majesty is Dark Lord Sauron him­self. The refrain speaks in his favour “…your king­dom is lost… and ruins remind of your time…“
and more­over, “…deliver our king­dom and our reich… just give me the the thing that need or I kill…”. The thing is appar­ently a Rul­ing Ring. How­ever, the last line may point at Boromir as well, and the one before “…no Gan­dalf to help with swords in the night..” may point at Frodo too. Yes, yes! You know that there is sim­i­lar chap­ter in “The Lord of the Rings” called “The knife in the dark”, it’s about Morgu­lian sword-blade and bro­ken sword of Aragorn. Fol­low­ing lines speak in Frodo’s favour “…eyes they are watch­ing They look for me but can­not find Crea­ture is fol­low­ing no place to escape…” — it looks like Frodo’s jour­ney in Mor­dor to Orodruin.

Guardian of the Blind

Based on the Stephen King’s novel “IT”. There is also screen ver­sion of this book.

Wizard’s Crown

It seems that this song is by Tolkien too — song of Sauron, The Dark Lord. This speaks in his favour: “…Years ago I came back this has been my hard­est attack…” “..I’m loos­ing now my life but can­not die for­ever life..” — it looks like Sauron’s return and his defeat.

Run for the night

One more song about Middle-Earth. The lines “…There comes the last part and end of our old age with thun­der and light­ning the dark lord is tak­ing the crown of whole world…” indi­cate the end of the III age, Sauron’s return and war of the Ring, “…I’ll see the hill but it’s so far away I know I can’t reach it…” — Frodo’s jour­ney with the Ring to Orodruin.

The Mar­tyr

About Jesus, about the Exo­dus.
”…He is born now to take all our sins..”

Bat­tal­ions of Fear

In this song Ronald Rea­gan and his meth­ods are crit­i­cized “…The way of RR, to show hers a star…”

By the Gates of Moria

Instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion that is also ded­i­cated to “The Lord of The Rings”. Rapid tempo indi­cates, prob­a­bly, a appear­ance of under­wa­ter mon­ster and escape of Guardian’s detach­ment behind the gates. Eva wrote: “By the Gates of Moria”, the title already says, is about Moria, but the music is from the com­poser Antonin Dvo­rac: Sym­phony No.9 in E minor, op.95 ‘From the New World’, part IV, Alle­gro con fuoco.

Gandalf’s Rebirth

After the bat­tle with bar­log in Moria Gan­dalf “died”. Sym­bol­iz­ing his rebirth he returned as Gan­dalf The White.

Fol­low the Blind

Inqui­si­tion

Instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion with a church choir.

Ban­ish from Sanctuary

Here what Olmer tells about this song: “Com­po­si­tion “Ban­ish from Sanc­tu­ary” is not about Jesus (as you may have thought at first ), but about John the Bap­tist who call in turn to God-Father , then to Jesus him­self with his lone­li­ness, con­fu­sion, etc. Fol­low­ing aspects speak in favour of John rather than Jesus: “…bap­tised with water” — Jesus bap­tised with Holy Spirit, not water, but John — exactly with water. “… I praised the one who came behind me” — John was sent just to pre­pare the way for Jesus, who will fol­low him. The appeal to God-Father: “I can’t under­stand your famous son” — no comments.

Damned for All Time

Appar­ently, this song is built upon the books of Michael Moor­cock from the cycle “The Eter­nal Cham­pion”. Here is the story of one of them, duke of Keln, Dorian Hawk­moon, from nov­els’ cycle “The Runestaff” and “Cas­tle Brass “. Other faces of “Eter­nal Cham­pion” men­tioned in this song are Erekose, Damned Hero, Corum Jaylin Irsi (Prince in Crim­son Man­tle), Elric of Mel­ni­bone, owner of “Stormbringer”.

Fol­low the Blind

Hel­gie believes that this song is based on Stephen King’s “Tal­is­man”… I agree with him.

Hall of the King

Sim­i­lar name you can find in the books “The Lord of the Rings” and “Shan­nara” by Terry Brooks, but this song is rather about the faith and the faithful.

Fast to Madness

This song is ded­i­cated to another “Eter­nal Cham­pion” from Michael Moorcock’s books — Elric of Mel­ni­bone on the Drag­ons’ Island. You can meet him in nov­els “Storm­bringer”, “The Dream­ing City” — parts 1,2. The for­tune of Elric, for­mer Emperor of the Drag­ons’ Island, is twisted with the for­tune of his black rune-sword, Storm­bringer, engulf­ing souls the enemies.

Beyond the Ice

Instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion, but by the title and fast icy accords it is pos­si­ble to assume that it is about noldorean exo­dus from Vali­nor and cross­ing of Ram­pant Ice (Helka­raxe) by the Fingolfin’s party.

Val­halla

Val­halla — “par­adise” of vikings in sagas of ancient Ger­many and Nor­way. How­ever, in the song there are also words about advent of a new god,
”..I leave this world All gods are gone ..“
and about some mage, that leads to quite strange con­clu­sions… Some­times on the back­ground you can hear the voice of Kai Hansen from Hel­loween. May be this song is based upon the story by R. Howard “The Grey God Passes”.

Don’t break the Circle

Magic rit­u­als demand that a crea­ture be inside of drawn cir­cle or pen­ta­gram… Break­ing of it is fatal.
”…The chain is stronger if the life­line is unbro­ken
So beware the pres­ence of The Unex­pected Guest…”

Bar­bara Ann

This is old Beach Boys’ song, rein­ter­preted by Blind Guardian.

Tales from the Twi­light World

Trav­eler in Time

This com­po­si­tion is based on the sci­ence fic­tion novel “Dune” by Frank Her­bert. There is also screen ver­sion but it doesn’t match the book. Paul Atrei­des, son of Duke Leto Atrei­des, fights for his free­dom and free­dom of Fre­men, peo­ple of the planet Arrakis, known as Dune, the land of sand, against their sworn ene­mies — Harkon­nens.
You may know such com­puter games as beau­ti­ful RPG Dune and Dune 2 — the clas­sics of real-time strat­egy games.

Wel­come to Dying

There was some old fairy­tale… a man was cursed and turned into dragon that raided nearby towns
”…many times I ter­ror­ized this town ..”.
Another the­ory — this song is based on cycle “Dark Sun” by Troi Den­ning with quite sim­i­lar storyline.

Weird Dreams

Pos­si­bly, this instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion is some­how con­nected with pub­lished in Amer­ica in early 30-s “Weird Tales” mag­a­zine where such authors as H.P. Love­craft, R. Howard and other founders of hor­ror fan­tasy genre were presented.

The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is basis of this song. Here is the orig­i­nal con­ju­ra­tion of the Rul­ing Ring:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of Stone,
Nine for Mor­tal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mor­dor where the Shad­ows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the dark­ness bind them
In the Land of Mor­dor where the Shad­ows lie.

Good­bye my Friend

I’m not sure but may be this song is based on Steven Spielberg’s pic­ture about E.T. Alien friend flies away and the boy says good­bye. If you have any other idea con­cern­ing this song, let me know.

Lost in the Twi­light Hall

On the one hand this song is of human soul that found itself in Limbo — between Hell and Heaven, “Twi­light Hall”. But this song might be about Tolkien’s world once again — about Gan­dalf falling into the Pit of Moria,
”…I jump into the dark side..”,
then he died, and by his own words his soul trav­eled along strange paths –
”…I see plan­ets dying I fall into the light…”,
After that he was sent again into the world
”…Take me away from the place I’ve been
to another life in another world…”.

Tom­my­knock­ers

This is the title of Stephen King’s book and this song is based on it. There’s also quite a good film.

Altair 4

One more song based on “Tom­my­knock­ers” by Stephen King.

The Last Candle

This song is also ded­i­cated to the Middle-Earth of Tolkien (as I see it). It’s about the begin­ning of the Ring War and orcs’ attacks.
”…The elves and gnoms have to hide
when the moon is show­ing it’s face
and rag­ing orcs will set their traps …”.
“The old man” is prob­a­bly wiz­ard Gandalf…

How­ever, there are some other the­o­ries. Ia sup­poses that it has noth­ing to do with Tolkien’s world. Indeed, no wood named Cal­adon was found in the Middle-Earth. There is elven word “calen” — bright green, “galen” — green and “galad” — the tree, but I fail to find the wood ;-(( . But roots are really close to “cal­adon”. Ia con­sid­ers that “…the thing is, as I see it, that it’s about some wiz­ard who sang the song but whether his life was sold to cor­rupted old gnome (there is just lit­tle chance to save the wizard’s life) or he just died. And then they hang about in this wood with the last can­dle (there was no such can­dle in Tolkien’s books), look­ing for salvation.

But that’s just what he thinks.
There also one point of view by Lord­Cy­clo­hexane ()Zak Gillman):

“Per­son­ally, I think the wiz­ard referred to in the song is Mer­lin, of Arthurian leg­end. The ref­er­ence to Cale­don was what made me think of it, as, if I recall cor­rectly, the for­est of Cale­don was where Nimue impris­oned Mer­lin for quite a while (if you don’t remem­ber Nimue, she was a for­est spirit rumored to be a child of one of the Tuatha de Danaan who Mer­lin often went to visit).

At least, that’s my take on it. I also believe that “The Wiz­ard” by Uriah Heep is about that same wiz­ard Mer­lin. It’s just the way the lyrics flow, which show some­one being inspired to want to cre­ate a bet­ter world, that makes me think of Mer­lin rais­ing young Arthur to become the respon­si­ble, car­ing young man that would even­tu­ally build Camelot.”

Some­where Far Beyond

Time What is Time

This song is based on the old sci­ence fic­tion movie “Blade Run­ner”. A third remake of it was released recently and West­wood cre­ated a com­puter game of the same name.

Jour­ney through the Dark

The song is about an old bard with a ruined soul hav­ing sung all of his songs and wan­der­ing through the dark…

Hansi Kursch inter­viewed by Metal Ham­mer slightly revealed the mys­tery of this song. So it is about Jerry-o-Connel, bard and com­pan­ion of the Eter­nal Cham­pion from the books by M.Moorcock — Corum and also Elric (as Munglam) and Hawk­moon (?) and Herekose (?).

Black Cham­ber

The one that is lost in the black cham­ber.. sold his soul to the Devil…
”..And death would be so sweet…”

It’s cre­ated, as Hansi con­fessed, on the basis of Tween Peaks and for those who found them­selves there.

The­atre of Pain

It seems to me that this song is based on fan­tasy novel by Poul Ander­son “The Merman’s Chil­dren”:
It’s all gone
What is left behind
On a desert we called earth
When the last whale went away
Did they ever see the tears…”

This novel tells about down­fall of magic crea­tures and human offen­sive againt fairy­land and Jesus tak­ing place of the old gods.
“The sea is call­ing
Now we’ve to leave it …”

The Quest for Tanelorn

Eter­nal City, Tanelorn… Only there Eter­nal Cham­pion is doomed to find a peace — whether it’s Corum, or Elric, or Erekose, or Hawk­moon… But every­one has his own Tanelorn… The quest is the main sto­ry­line that runs through all nov­els cre­ated by Michael Moor­cock about Eter­nal Cham­pion. Hansi men­tions Jerry-o-Connel, the Com­pan­ion of Eter­nal Cham­pion again.

Ashes to Ashes

“…Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…“
This is the line from dirge. This song is about our mor­tal­ity and that we all will cross the Line.

It was writ­ten by Hansi in the con­nec­tion with the death of his father.

The Bard’s song– “In the Forest”

Bards’ songs may lead your imag­i­na­tion far away, to the other worlds… just close your eyes and imag­ine…
”…These songs of hob­bits, dwarves and men
And elves
Come close your eyes
You can see them too…”

Undoubt­edly the best bal­lade of BG if not of all metal bands.

The Bard’s song– “The Hobbit”

The song is about hob­bit Bilbo Bag­gins’ travel that is described in “Hob­bit” by J.R.R.Tolkien.

Piper’s Call­ing

Bag­pipes’ leg­endary tunes… May be about folk­lore, leg­ends and sagas of ancient Scotland.

Some­where Far Beyond

The song is based on Stephen King’s books about the Dark Tower, the lines
”..I’m fol­low­ing the black man
I’m los­ing con­trol
And I don’t care
What’s hap­pen­ing to the boy…“
men­tion Roland The Gun­slinger, the hero of the story, who fol­lows the man in Black. Queen of shad­ows is also the hero­ine of the novel (or should we say two — she’s got split per­son­al­ity), pris­oner — lad called Eddy, drug addict, brought a cure for blood poi­son­ing to The Gun­slinger, and death is third Taro Card, third per­son that was met by The Gun­slinger — killer. Thank you Arven for this solution!

Imag­i­na­tions from the Other Side

Imag­i­na­tions from the Other Side

Well, this song is about child­hood gone away, that you can­not turn back, about fairy­tales that you heard at that time. The fairy­tales men­tioned here are: “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
”…Or Frodo wore the Ring…”,
sto­ries about the boy that could fly — Peter Pan
”…Was Peter Pan in Mor­dor…”,
Alice in Won­der­land by L. Car­roll
”…Or where’s the Won­der­land
Which young Alice had seen…”,
sto­ries about wiz­ard Mer­lin, king Arthur’s adviser (prob­a­bly, T.H. White)
”…Do you know if Mer­lin did exist …”,
about The Won­der­ful Wiz­ard of Oz — the book by L Frank Baum
”…May I return to Oz
Will I meet the “Tin Man“
“Cow­ard Lion” where are you…”,
and about Eter­nal Cham­pion Corum Jaylin Irsi, Prince in Crim­son Man­tle from M.Moorcock’s series about Eter­nal Cham­pion, chron­i­cles about Corum include such nov­els as “The Knight of The Swords”, “The Queen of The Swords”, “The King of The Swords”, “Sil­ver Hand“
”…Did Corum kill the gods…”

I’m Alive

It seems to me that this song is about an attempt to leave this world, to find the way to the fan­tasy world.
”…Noth­ing can stop me
I reach out for the top ..”,
”…Magic runes
With­out a mean­ing
Besides the dark
There should be noth­ing left…”.

How­ever, Ia sup­poses that I’m Alive is rather about com­puter game hero (or some­thing like lawn-mower man):
“I run through the dark fields
on a plane, which­level 99″,
“they said the sys­tem gives the
last chance to survive”.

But the third point of view by Alexey Bezverhy is next:
“This song about the DEATH GATE CYCLE (by Mar­garet Weis & Tracy Hich­man).
The “I” in the song “I’m Alive” is Haplo the Patryn thet was cap­tured in the Labyrinth (“caught in this labyrinth of walls and lots of lies”).
The Labyrinth is dev­ided to lev­els (1 – 99), if some­one sur­vives the 99’th level, he gets free! The Labyrinth is full of traps and deadly crea­tures so thet is almost imposi­ble to sur­vive in there (ALMOST imposible).(“They say the the sys­tem keeps last chance to sur­vive”). The Labyrinth was con­structed by the Sar­tan (the Sar­tan isn’t a per­son, it’s some­thing like a nation). The Sar­tan and the Patryns were the only beings who were able to use the rune magic — the most pow­er­ful kind of magic,thet’s why the Sar­tan was afraid of the Patryns and desided to take the first step — the Labyrinth — a jail thet in it the rune magic of the Patryns was greatly weak­ened (“magic runes with­out a mean­ing”).
When Haplo killed the last mon­ster in the Labyrinth (a dog helped him) he was almost dead but then he was free to use his rune magic, heal him­self and leave the Labyrinth. So he said : “I’M ALIVE!!!””

A Past and Future Secret

The Once and Future King… this was the way King Arthur was called who was glo­ri­fied by “Tales about Nibelungs”, “Arthur’s Death” by Thomas Mel­lory and the good old leg­ends.
”…Long before it started I knew his name
He’s the one who took the sword
Out of the stone …“
Only he was able to pull out from the stone his famous sword Excal­ibur, after that he ascended the throne of Eng­land. How­ever, defeated and dying after bat­tle with Mor­dred, he, by the agree­ment with Mor­gana, Lady of the Lake, ordered to throw his sword back to the lake
”…I feel cold
When I cry out for the bark
Take him back to Avalon…“
Mer­lin car­ried away wounded and dying Arthur, but the story tells that after many years the King will return and take back his sword.

Splen­did medieval ballade.

The Script for My Requiem

A hur­ri­cane of drums con­veys the image of cru­saders “…As a glory knight ..” rid­ing to the bat­tle, after all, this song is ded­i­cated to them and to the quest for Holy Grail of Round Table’s knights. Most likely, it’s about Sir Lancelot… for Grail was found not by him but by Gala­had.
”…So god please lead me through
For­got­ten realms
Mys­te­ri­ous dreams
In sun­less rooms I’d sworn
I’ll fin­ish what I started once
I’ll find my holy grail
In the holy land …”

Let me add here that this is my most favourite song of all BG’s songs.

Mordred’s Song

Song of Mor­dred, king Arthur’s bas­tard.
”…God knows how long I tried to change fate…”,
He is guilty of death of his father
”…Wash away the blood on my hands
My father’s blood ..”.

Born in a Mourn­ing Hall

One more song about vain attempt to leave the ordi­nary life in order to get to the mys­te­ri­ous fan­tasy world. This attempt is doomed to fail.
”…Will never reach the other side
The other side…“
There is the only way…
”…The only way to get out soon
Is suicide…”

Bright Eyes

And one more attempt to get beyond the Line…
”…Bright eyes
Blinded by fear of life
No Mer­lin is by my side …”,
?? “…I was wrong
If I’m right
Farewell to my last hope…”.
This story cre­ated by Hansi is some­how con­nected to the “Nev­erend­ing Story” by Michael Ende. That’s how Hansi him­self describes “Bright Eyes”:

“… It’s about and iso­lated child liv­ing in real­ity. Despite its age, he’s about ten, it’s very smart and has some spe­cial tal­ents. He’s not get­ting along well with the peo­ple around him, includ­ing his fam­ily. So, it’s iso­lated and even­tu­ally starts loos­ing it’s mind. That’s hap­pen­ing in “Bright Eyes”. The rea­son why he can’t get along with other peo­ple is that he has already shaped his own per­spec­tive about truth and he does not belong to the peo­ple who always say “yes”. In the end, through the mir­ror you see on the cover, he comes into con­tact with another world. Both sides, the good and the evil, are inter­ested in that child because of its wis­dom. In the begin­ning, the child does not accept the imag­i­na­tion from the other world with pos­i­tive feel­ings. When he does, the dilemma is cre­ated: which path will he take? Take the good path or the evil path? Stay in real­ity or jump into another world? Even­tu­ally, and that’s the end of the story, in “And The Story Ends” to chid makes that jump, finds a friend, but it is not clear which path he took …”

Another Holy War

It seems to me that this is another song about life of Jesus and Holy War for the faith
”…I am God
The only one
I will bring back
Free­dom to your heart …“
and “…My words bring free­dom and res­cue for man
To call me your Messiah…”.

Ia, sup­poses that Another Holy War is not about Jesus. It is based on the work as “Trav­eler in Time” of the same author — Frank Her­bert — on “Dune”, or more pre­cisely, on “Mes­siah of Dune”.
“You dont belive, that blind can see” –
accord­ing to the book Paul Atrei­des became blind but could see.

And the Story Ends

Imag­i­na­tion of the bard “…I’m not a king I’m just a bard …” is try­ing to get beyond the mir­ror, beyond the Line to the world of fan­tasy
”…Come with me and join me
A new life’s wait­ing for you
Jump through the mir­ror …“
and “…What can I do on this road to nowhere
Heart of dragon lies at the edge of time …“
It’s the end of the story that has begun in “Bright Eyes”.

The For­got­ten Tales

Mr. Sand­man

Very old blues by The Chordettes (music and lyrics are writ­ten by Pat Bal­lard) that was rein­ter­preted by BG. The com­po­si­tion opens the most unusual of Blind Guardian’s albums — in this album BG are pre­sented from unusual side of folk and soft rock and old-fashioned pop music of 60-70s. Merry hems at the end of song prove once more how fun it was.

Surfin’ U.S.A.

One more old tune, for this time writ­ten by Beach Boys (Chuck Berry and Bra­ian Wil­son), that was play by Blind Guardian in a dif­fer­ent manner.

Bright Eyes

One of the most stun­ning and beau­ti­ful bal­lades of Blind Guardian. The song from “Imag­i­na­tions from the Other Side” in acoustic ver­sion sur­passes the orig­i­nal a great deal.

The Lord of the Rings

The song from “Tales from the Twi­light World” in orches­tral ver­sion. Some peo­ple like it more than orig­i­nal but I rather pre­fer acoustic version.

The Wiz­ard

The song of the Uriah Heep per­formed by BG. But who is that Wiz­ard?
”…He had a cloak of gold and eyes of fire
And as he spoke I felt a deep desire
To free the world of its fear and pain
And help the peo­ple to feel free again…“
If you’ve got any idea, write me!

Spread your Wings

The old Queen’s song about poor Sammy, who was not lucky at work, nei­ther in life.
”…Since he was small,
had no luck at all,
noth­ing came easy to him…“
And he wants to fly away from all of it.

Mordred’s Song

One more great acoustic ver­sion of the song from “Imagination…”.

Black Cham­ber

Very nice orches­tral ver­sion of “Black Cham­ber” from “Some­where Far Beyond”.

The Bard’s Song (live)

Old good “In the For­est” from “Some­where Far Beyond”, this time it was per­formed mostly by audi­ence rather than Hansi.

Bar­bara Ann/Long Tall Sally

One more old Beach Boys’ tune already played by BG in “Fol­low the Blind”.

A Past and Future Secret

The beau­ti­ful medieval bal­lade from “Imag­i­na­tions…”, absolutely unchanged.

To France

And, of course, “To France” (music and lyrics are writ­ten by Mike Old­e­field), for this is first album of BG that was offi­cially released in France.

The­atre of Pain

Oh God, how long there weren’t beau­ti­ful instru­men­tals of BG — from “Tales…” exactly. But here is aston­ish­ingly beau­ti­ful, with the great sound, instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion — orches­tral ver­sion of “The­atre of Pain”. The organ’s part is espe­cially splendid.

Night­fall in Middle-Earth

The biggest thanks goes out to all Elves, Dwarves, Hob­bits and Men,
who still dwell in this world: To You!!!!

Bards you are, Bards will be and Bards you have always been.
(Blind Guardian, from the album’s cover)

Atten­tion! Analy­sis of fol­low­ing songs would be hard to get, if you didn’t read “Sil­mar­il­lion” by J.R.R. Tolkien!

War of Wrath

” …and Valar’s troops attacked fortress of Melkor, Utumno …but, hav­ing caught him, they didn’t searched the dun­geons and many of bar­logs man­aged to escape, and they failed to find Sauron…“
As the story unfolds this pre­lude must tell about First War of Wrath, how­ever, men­tioned here
”…The black one has fallen from the sky
and the tow­ers in ruins lie“
is def­i­nitely the great­est dragon of Mor­goth — Ankalagon; the lines
”…Twice I destroyed the light
and twice I failed
I left ruin behind me
when I returned…” con­firm that this defeat of Melkor is sec­ond.
It is not clear why the pre­lude is actu­ally epilogue.

Into The Storm

After destruc­tion of the Trees by Melkor and Ungo­lianta, The Spi­der Mother claimed her pay­ment that was promised by Mor­goth:
”…Give it to me
I must have it
Pre­cious trea­sure
I deserve it…“
Unwill­ingly Melkor gave Ungo­lianta invalu­able trea­sures of Vali­nor, and his left hand became empty. In his right hand he hold Sil­mar­ills, and when Ungo­lianta demanded them he refused down­right. How­ever his power dimin­ished and Ugolianta’s grew, and when shadow of Spi­der Mother over­hung him he let out cry…

Lam­moth

Lam­moth, The Great Echo. Rocks reflected Melkor’s cry and trem­ble came across Bele­riand. Answer­ing the Melkor’s call remained bar­logs arrived on time to ban­ish Ugo­lianta with flam­ing swords.

Night­fall

Trees of light are killed and Yavanna cries over them
”…No sign of life did flicker
In floods of tears she cried
All hope’s lost it can’t be undone
They’re wasted and gone…“
Melkor stole Sil­mar­ills, mur­dered noldorean king Finva, Feanor’s father, and Feanor swore to revenge and bring back Sil­mar­ills. Noldorean exo­dus from Vali­nor. Curse of the North.

The Min­strel

Fingolfin’s reflec­tions: whether to come back to Aman with shame or cross the ice
”…So I stand still
In front of the crowd
Excited faces
What will be next? ..“
On the back­ground you can hear the snowflakes falling, crackle of ice and cold wind.

The Curse of Feanor

Hav­ing lost his father, the trea­sure of his soul and trust in jus­tice, Feanor curses Mor­goth. His fate is near.

Cap­tured

Mor­goth, laugh­ing and clang­ing by chains, fet­ters Mae­dros to the rocks on the top of Tan­goro­drim. On the back­ground you can hear the poor fel­low groan­ing and sobbing.

Blood Tears

“…and then Fin­gon real­ized that he can­not break the chains. Mae­dros, sob­bing, asked his friend to kill him. But Fin­gon, hav­ing cut off the hand of Mae­dros, with the help of Toron­dor freed his friend from cap­tiv­ity. Thus the feud between noldore­ans was cured…” Since that time the shadow of Doom lied upon Mae­dros shoul­ders, sad­dened his thoughts; and hatred against Mor­goth burned inside him inex­tin­guish­ably…“
”… And blood tears I cry
You’ve searched and you’ve found
Cut off your old friends hand…”

Mir­ror Mirror

This song stands apart from other songs of this album. First of all, it became the sin­gle, and, sec­ond, it allows some rather con­tra­dic­tory inter­pre­ta­tions. In the lines
”… It lies unknown
The land of mine
A hid­den gate
To save us from the shadow fall.…“
Gon­do­lin could be men­tioned as well as Nar­gotrond, and lines
”…I know the world is lost in fire
Sure there is no way to turn it
Back to the old days
Of bliss and cheer­ful laugh­ter
We’re lost in bar­ren lands
Caught in the run­ning flames…“
are likely to men­tion the bat­tle Dagor Bragol­lah, the Bat­tle of sud­den flame.
”… The lord of water spoke
In the silence words of wis­dom…“
Ulmo offers an advice for Fin­rod and Tur­gon to estab­lish hid­den strong­holds, but at the same time he reminds that
”…True hope lies beyond the coast…”.

Face the Truth

“…The moon shined in the sky at that time,
long shad­ows lied behind the moun­tains,
and appeared the army of Fin­golfin
that bravely crossed the ice…”

“…The moon, the sign of hope
It appeared when we left the pain of the ice-desert behind…”

Noldor

The blood of Alka­val­onde is on the hands of noldore­ans. They are cursed by Man­dos…
”…Noldor
Blood is on your hands
Your bane’s
A tear­ful destiny…”

Bat­tle Of Sud­den Flame

“…and flowed the rivers of flame from Angband, and thus began Dagor Bragol­lah that peo­ple call the Bat­tle of sud­den flame…” …The end of Vig­i­lant Peace and attack of the noldore­ans by armies of orcs, drag­ons and bar­logs. Defeat of the elves..”

Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)

“…and when Fin­golfin under­stood that every­thing was lost, he sad­dled his trusty steed Rohal­lor and pull out his sword Ringil, shin­ing like ice star, and rode towards Angband…“
”… Lord of all Noldor
A star in the night
And a bearer of hope
He rides into his glo­ri­ous bat­tle alone…“
Three times he blew the horn and Mor­goth came out… and such was their bat­tle that nei­ther elves sang about it nor orcs boasted…”

The Dark Elf

The son of Eol, dark elf, named Maeglin was born…Dark fate awaited him.

Thorn

Treach­ery of Maeglin, falled in love with Idril, cap­tured by Mor­goth:
”…I’m lost in the depth of his eyes
I can’t flee
Inner pain caused insan­ity
It’s deep within
The fear and the hunger
Enslaved and denied
By my love and my ene­mies
I’m the ill­got­ten son …“
and the doom of Goldolin.

The Eldar

The song of Fin­rod Fela­gund, impris­oned in dun­geons of Tol-in-Ngaurhot, about sad fate of the Eldar in exile. Fin­rod feels the com­ing of his death…
”..Of the Eldar’s
Song of doom..”

Nom the Wise

Nom the Wise… that was the name of Fin­rod Fela­gund, son of Finarfin, lord of Nar­gotrond. He died in the dun­geons of Tol-in-Ngaurhot, hav­ing paid by his own life for the life of Beren, son of Barahir, keep­ing his vow. Beren cries over his friend:
”…Paid the price, he redeemed the oath
Farewell my friend, farewell…”

When Sor­row Sang

About Beren and Luchien. About immor­tal love that is stronger than death.
”.. Immor­tal love’s
Fooled by the hands of doom
That love means death..”

Out On The Water

Hav­ing returned from beyond the Line of death Beren and Luchien lived untill their death on the island Lan­tyr Lamat, where their son Dior Eluhil was born.

The Stead­fast

“…and Hurin was broght to the Mor­goth, for Mor­goth knew about his friend­ship with the lord of Gon­do­lin. And for the treach­ery Mor­goth promised him gold, sil­ver and post of head of all Angband, Hurin just broke into laugh­ter as the answer for Morgoth…”

A Dark Passage

Nir­naed Arnoa­diad, the Fifth Bat­tle, the Bat­tle of count­less tears. The great­est vic­tory of the dark­ness and treach­ery of the peo­ple from Uldor, Ulf­gang and Ulfast clans that pre­de­ter­mine the defeat of the Elves and Edain.
”..Allied the elves and men
They shall be damned…”

Final Chap­ter (Thus Ends…)

After the Fifth Bat­tle elves and allied peo­ple were partly slaugh­tered, partly scat­tered… the dark­ness won.
”..The night falls and great is the tri­umph of evil..”

A Night at the Opera

Well, I know now much more infor­ma­tion about analyse lyrics songs from new album, but my analyse just fol­low soon… // Eriol

Pre­cious Jerusalem

Analyse by Lord­Cy­clo­hexane (Zak Gill­man):
“Seems to be the tale of Jesus, some­one con­cerned very much for the peo­ple of his town, and even­tu­ally find­ing that he cares so much that he pleads with God to help him save the peo­ple (“Father stop it now/We must stop it now”). May indi­cate that BG believes it was Jesus’s idea to save human­ity and not God’s (which peo­ple may find blas­phe­mous), but could also be taken that God didn’t want to manip­u­late his Son and so allowed Jesus to develop the love him­self (oh, things about it being Jesus: ref­er­ence to Jerusalem, “Let’s cel­e­brate the dawn­ing of the *SON*”, “Father stop it now”, “I found myself/In desert lands”, “Rise up and fol­low me/‘Cause I will bring the light”, “I’ve come to bring it back/The seed of life”, and “My heavy bur­den brings/Eyesight to the blind”)”

Bat­tle­field

Analyse by Lord­Cy­clo­hexane (Zak Gill­man):
“Seems to be a song about a per­son present dur­ing the Cru­sades, who thought it once a holy endeavor, but now just sees car­nage. Biggest line link­ing it to the Cru­sades for me: “Take part in mur­der­ous deeds/Renowned be the Lion-Hearted” refer­ring to Richard the Lion­hearted of Eng­land. Other lines: “The field’s been left in sorrow/The Father and the Son/They’re gone” (indi­cat­ing, to me, that God and Jesus couldn’t stand the blood­shed), “Don’t you think/It’s time to stop now/We were charmed and/Fooled by the old serpent’s kiss” (old ser­pent mean­ing Satan, I assume, in his Eden form), and “Don’t you hear me crying/Crying/Come take me away/I hal­low thy name”

Under the Ice

Analyse by Lord­Cy­clo­hexane (Zak Gill­man):
“It seems to be about peo­ple being burned at the stake and tor­tured by the Inqui­si­tion, and I believe that “Under the ice” refers to the 9th level of Hell in Dante’s “Inferno”. But there’s really not enough to prove that claim. I’d need to refer to “Inferno” to see what pun­ish­ment fit with being locked under the ice in the 9th level, and I don’t have it to refer to.”

Under the Ice

Analyse by Lord­Cy­clo­hexane (Zak Gill­man):
“In the same fash­ion of “Mordred’s Song” of being a vic­tim of fate, of being des­tined to do some­thing you don’t want to but not hav­ing the strength to fight it for­ever, this song seems to be about Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. It does make an inter­est­ing idea, though, of what if Judas felt he didn’t have a choice in betray­ing Jesus, and hung him­self as a form of pen­i­tence? Things link­ing it to the story of Judas and Jesus: “A wooden cup/And a crown of thorns/Will set up the stage/For the cross”, “The Galilean”, “But is it really justified/To sacrifice/To crucify/The res­cue of the human kind”, “Nazarene your vision will come true/Will come true/They’ll get you”, and the line link­ing it to Judas’s betrayal, “Shame on me/Shame on me/I’m a tool and noth­ing more”