Conducted by:	Azhidahak
Published:	19.12.2004

01. Love Poison
02. Reality Principle
03. Into The Depths
04. Peak Of The Fall
05. Pleasure Principle
06. Empyrean Sky

01. Love Poison:
Love Poison is about how crazy people will get in the name of love. Some guy starts sacrificing animals to concoct a love potion. Then he dreams about what he's going to do when he finally obtains the object of his desire.

02. Reality Principle:
Reality Principle is an instrumental interpretation of one of Freud's life principles. The Pleasure Principle actually comes first (seeking pleasure) and then eventually you realize that you can't always seek pleasure. You have to interact with society and try to get what you want within the confines of the system. It's a much more depressing concept than that of the Pleasure Principle so the song while similar is a bit heavier and more aggressive.

03. Into the Depths:
Into the Depths is based on the movie "What Dreams May Come". If you haven't seen it, the basic idea is that this guy is married to his soulmate. He gets killed, and she can't live without him so she commits suicide. At first he's excited that she'll be with him in the afterlife, but then he finds out that since she committed suicide she'll be going to hell. He decides that's not fair, and goes "Into the Depths" to retrieve her. Whether or not it fits your particular religious beliefs, it is a great movie. The visuals are incredible.

04. Peak of the Fall:
Peak of the Fall is about losing someone. Specifically the moment where you realize that they're gone, and that it's going to be downhill for a while. It's about all of the emotions you feel after a breakup, like anger, sadness, and remorse to name a few.

05. Pleasure Principle:
Pleasure Principle is the partner of the Reality Principle. It's Freud's idea that when you're first born your driving desire is to seek pleasure. Everything is pretty rosy at this point in life because you don't have a concept of responsibilities, only that you want to feel good and it's Freud so of course sex gets factored in there.

06. Empyrean Sky:
Empyrean Sky is the epic of the album and is chock full of symbolism. It's like a mini movie, so I'll break it down and give you a few of the crucial verses from the song. It starts out by setting the mood.

Black shapes coagulate beneath the Empyrean Sky
A harvest moon rides lightly there, an omniscient midnight spy.
Amongst the stars appears a sign, a great dragon of seven heads,
Who tears out the eyes of Heaven and with darkness fills their stead.

The black shapes are clouds forming. The moon is like the narrator of this tale, an all seeing spy in the sky? like your local news helicopter. ;-) The dragon is the storm rolling in which covers the sky in darkness and the eyes of heaven are stars, which get covered up by the storm clouds. The next verse is a narrator type statement about how temptation is everywhere. Then it switches to another scene, where it sets the mood again and is followed with:

Phul's wings spread o'erhead;
Seductive sprite with boots to the thigh.
The trees adore her gentle caress,
For in the wind you can hear their sighs.

Phul is the angel of the moon. So her wings spreading overhead represents the moonlight as it shines on the tops of the trees as they moan/creak in the wind. Next we see an innocent princess dancing round in the trees ignorant of the oncoming storm.

The black light from a cloud covered sky
Pierces the heart on this murderous night

Then she is struck by lightning and killed. Since she died in the forest, the woodlawn creatures surround her body and she is reborn as a fairy or nymph. Then we have another scene shift to a dark pond where a killer is murdering a young girl.

Now the story shifts from the wooded site
To a different place on the same dark night
Bright eyes peering through the reeds and fronds
Watching a killer at work about a dreary pond.

His victim struggles helplessly as he forces her to the ground.
She scratches at his arms, the struggle stops as she drowns.
He shows no emotion; no love, no lust, no pain, no regret.
The scratches on his arms; memories he'll soon forget.

The second verse explains how cold and callous he is, and that he truly doesn't know right from wrong. This is a meaningless act for him. Now the scene switches again to the fairy we saw before.

Remember the princess, the fairy born of the trees?
She senses this evil through the animal's unease.
They ask her to help them rid the forest of the man,
The killer, unfeeling, the one who murders with his hands.

She flies to the swap where the man is asleep and places her hand on his head. He jumps up to kill her but is overcome by her innocence and purity. In her touch he senses love which he had never felt before.

See his demeanor change from hate to lasting love
And as the mans sits down he removes his bloody gloves.
In the name of she so fair the once bitter doth proclaim
That with this newfound joy he'll never kill again.

Then the storm fades away, just as it arrived, and the sun starts to rise on a new day.

Black shapes dissipate 'neath the empyrean sky
The harvest moon once watching there now settles to close its eyes.
Phul's wings fold neatly away. The trees murmur their sweet goodbyes.
See the glow as the sun wakes up and the moonbeams cease to shine.

Remember, Phul, is the angel of the moon, so her wings folding away represents the moon going down. The sun rises and a new day begins. Clearly not all of the lyrics are here, but that's the tale of one stormy night under the Empyrean Sky. If you don't have it already, buy the album and see what all the buzz is about!