Opeth – The Funeral Portrait

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  General Comment:this song is simply about portraits painted on funeral scene and whenever he is talkin to some one in the song like - "you wait by the window" is about the potrait model whom he is going to kill and then make his or her portrait....mikael is a psychic ho kills people and paints them....rainwashing sins and liquid gown is actually using paint thats what the meaning of idle hands given another try...."your loathe" refers to his own loathe of killing....from the part "like derelict child" onwrds till the song ends its a bout a person he is going to kill but thinks a lot before doing that maybe he has fallen in love with her and lets her go but still tells her to fear him when they meet still holding her arm(grip around nucleaus of joy).....but then he realises that she is also like all others.

  Flag psychdeadheadon July 13, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:In my opinion blackwater park is a concept album talking about a place called "blackwater park" that during winter is infested by leper. I think that the whole story is narrated by the same man that in the first two songs sees his lover dying by leper, until in harvest she dies. After he also becomes infected and he is disgusted by the fact that everyone has abandoned him, so in "dirge for november" he decides to commit suicide. In "the funeral portrait" he is a ghost , infact in the last song we can read the word "Fluttering",and he describes how his dead body is covered by snow. Finally in the last song he is like a spectator that describes the other lepers death and he reflects about how healthy people were insensitive whit this situation.
  Sorry if my english is wrong but I'm italian :D
  That's just my interpretation

  Flag silver34324on October 14, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's simply about Funeral Portraits.

  Flag TOOLrule3on August 05, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song doesn't have anything to do about murdering, but just as the title suggests - about funeral. I imagine a guy-the narrator dying in the morning "Idle hands given another try So you wait and you savour the moment" - this could mean they examine his pulse and the "you" person (I imagine it being his wife maybe so that's how I'll keep on calling the person) waiting and hoping that it's not true. Then we get to the funeral procession, "Ruby eyes in the fog" - eyes may be red from crying. I think the next lines mean the narrator took his death calm and agreed to it, but his "wife" keeps thinking about him.
  "Like a derelict child
  Heart burning for a stranger
  Ascending to the meek
  Flock round the liars in awe"
  The wife is alone and tries to find contentment within the other participants of the funeral, but he sees them as liars who are there only cause "they should", he finds his wife being pathetic. The next few lines may describe the burial itself, "Fear me when we meet" means that meeting him might be a sign of death nearing his wife, or simply, he might be haunting her in her dreams.
  "Enough of this
  You will leave me now
  You will see it now
  Perish at my hands"
  He's starting to get annoyed by all the drama surrounding his funeral, he wants people to leave him already. Then he realises his wife simply cannot bear the loss of him, so he decides to take her with him into death. In the last, clean sung lines, he's saying that he's actually ok with his death, so he leaves the suffering to others.
  And I gotta say that 6th sadistic sniper interpretation is really impressing.

  Flag Nasiron February 12, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Ok, this song is a bit confusing in my story line, but I'll try and explain my view.
  
  One of the lovers moves on from the affair that died in 'Dirge For November' and starts a new affair, but while doing so begins to see the similarities from the past.
  
  Or the lover starts a new affair, but meets someone more cynical than they are that is out to hurt them and will destroy them as they did their past lover.

  Flag VileVinceon February 04, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I actually got the impression that this song was about masturbation.
  I could be very very wrong. But he's talking about what sounds like an exorcism. "you will leave me now"
  that and "idle hands given another try"
  then he's talking about washing away sin, but while he's still locked on the "pinnacle"
  biblically it's a sin to masturbate...
  plus, many of the allusions in the song are to loneliness, and how, whoever is at the window is Begging for a stranger. The person watching him isn't doing anything, and the narrator is probably just an omnipitent presence.
  ...firm grip around the nucleus of joy...
  ...perish at my hands....
  the best secret within
  
  there's too much talk of hands gripping things and too much talk of sexual euphoria.
  It could be about strangling someone. but i don't think so.

  Flag hallotheranon February 24, 2008   Link

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    Interesting interpretation, though I doubt Opeth would write a Song about Masturbation. Most Opeth Songs are about Death Or Loss.

    Flag TOOLrule3on July 17, 2010  
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  General Comment:I'd say it rehearses the theme of its preceeding songs, harvest being the initial dating of a girl, the drapery falls being the decline in the relationship, dirge for november being the breakup, and this, the funeral portrait, portraying their relationship after they're separated
  
  Ddadutta, I partially agree with you, it sounds like this guy has some kind of psychological issue, but it's not to say that he rapes them throughout each of these songs. The album, as a whole, felt more like a poetic description of some psychosexual indevelopment, but talking about different specific incidents in each song.

  Flag apolyonnon February 13, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:by In the mist on 09-18-2007 @ 09:08:37 PM
  ''by Brain_Muncher on 03-07-2007 @ 09:03:15 PM
  Most all Opeth albums are conceptual...
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  not true, only my arms your hearse and still life are concept albums.''
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  You forgot Ghost reveries, although it's only partly a concept album (Isolation Years has no relevance to the plot), I would still consider it a concept album

  Flag Lärson December 09, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:what strikes me is the eerie similarity (thematically of course) between Deliverance,bleak and this song....all three of them deal in one way or another with serial murderers...okay bleak just describes a single stalking and murder but the fact remains that three songs are intimately related to the thought of homicide...
  i think both sniper and ddadutta make a good point but i am leaning slightly towards ddadutta's interpretation because i feel thst the three songs i mentioned are linked in some way..a trilogy if you will...

  Flag harvested_todayon October 03, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:by Brain_Muncher on 03-07-2007 @ 09:03:15 PM
  Most all Opeth albums are conceptual...
  ------------------------------------------------------------
  
  not true, only my arms your hearse and still life are concept albums.

  Flag In the miston September 18, 2007   Link

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