Floating on mist
Crept up the caverns of my brain
Received no warning
From nothing to a life code

Walk with me, you'll never leave
Wait to see your spirit free
Tell me how your heart's in need
As I drown you in the sea

Unwinding snares of distrust
Your wrist in my fast grip
Look me in the eye, I'm clear
This is your time

Face down beneath the waterline
Gazing into the deep

From love to death
In a time span of seconds
Oblivious to regret
Pushed into belief
In liquid cellophane
Gasping for air
Mercy in my eyes
Is the shade of the night

The piercing sounds you make
Soaring higher, higher now
And once left in my wake
Your memory's nothing but the scars on me

All over now
Forgotten why I needed this
Standing down
Disappear into the obscure
Resting days
Waiting for new disease
Biding time
Locked inside insanity

It always burns within
The downward spiral never ends
When driven into sin
Your salvation's found in a sinners deed

The devil guides the way
Tells me what to say
Pours himself inside
And snuffs the final light

Deliverance
Thrown back at me
Deliverance
Laughing at me


Lyrics submitted by rjbucs28

Deliverance Lyrics as written by Mikael Lars Akerfeldt

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Deliverance song meanings
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47 Comments

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  • +5
    General Comment

    This song is about Mikael jizzing all over people.

    Kevboon August 16, 2005   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    It could be taken as thoughts that repeat themselves compulsively in your head over and over. ones that you know are seperate from reality but are illusions that you dont know how to defuse. they could be suffocating through someone else and cope through hatered. they then seek revenge blindly to feed their own self destruction as their means of coping.

    ScaredOfHimselfon December 03, 2004   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    The main character here takes someone he cares for to a body of water and drowns them. Perhaps he believes he is somehow doing something good and setting this person free.

    "All over now, forgotten why I needed this Standing down disappear into the obscure Resting days waiting for new disease Biding time locked inside insanity"

    The deed is done, but he's forgotten why he needed to kill. The ordeal has scarred him and eventually drives him into insanity. This murder is always burning at him, probably thrusting him unto a state of regret and depression.

    The first verse could be about some huge idea that's suddenly comes over him. "From nothing to a life code" -- this idea has given him a sense of purpose, creating some need that drives him to kill this person he loves.

    If any of you have seen the movie Inception, this insight makes me think of the part Leo Dicaprio's wife kills herself..

    spiralingouton November 26, 2010   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Fun song :) good to play on guitar too. and yes it is about drowning someone

    billybobhenryon May 16, 2004   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    I think one of the most important questions to ask about this song is not what is it about, but why.

    Why would the narrator drown somebody? Just look at the third and fourth verses: "received no warning/from nothing to a life code". A life code? As in...pregnancy, perhaps?

    One could make many interpretations of this song (and, indeed, all songs by Opeth). In this case, I feel like the narrator is talking about a woman who has become pregnant, and so he drowns her. Who's child? His own, perhaps, but more likely somebody else's - why else kill her?

    What a dark, beautiful, haunting, epic song. It single-handedly got me into the band.

    theothernesson May 01, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    This song is about Satan.

    the devil guides the day tells me what to say pours himself inside and snuffs the final light

    deliverance thrown back at me

    deliverance laughing at me

    Perhaps the narrator is insane or actually under the control of Satan. I think the life code part means electrical impulses from his brain to his muscles(life code). Nothing, then he starts to think about killing and can't resist.

    all over now forgotten why i needed this standing down disappear into the obscure resting days waiting for new disease biding time looked inside insanity

    Waiting for new disease to me means that he is waiting for the urge to kill to come again.

    methodlessmanon June 23, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Mike has said it himself, this song is about a movie of the same name, which Burt Reynolds stars in. The movie is basically about a camping trip that goes awry and somebody starts drowing the people or something to that effect. It's basically famous for a scene where one male rapes another, I believe

    vashts80on December 10, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    i love the song, it's really great songwriting but i dont really get the lyrics.

    does he metaphorically refer to a relationship or ist this just chliche deathmetal stuff about sin, darkness and ..death without any deeper sense behind it?

    laokoonon July 02, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    It looks like hes talking about drowning someone (face down beneath the waterline/gazing into the deep); the "piercing sounds" would be the victim's screams. Once the person is killed, all thats left of him/her are the scars he/she left on the narrator.

    Salvation for the victim comes being murdered, and in commiting the murder, the narrator has lost his deliverance.

    Kodos86on April 07, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    When I saw them live, they said it was about Satan.

    quiffpornon June 25, 2004   Link

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