This song is partially inspired by lyrics from the song “Diana” from Comus’s album First Utterance, which is in turn based on the 1634 play “Comus” by John Milton.
The central theme is of a woman lost in the forest and her attempted seduction / rape by a character named after the ancient Greek god...
I hear the baying of the hounds in the distance
I hear them devouring
Pest-ridden jackals of the earth
Diabolical beasts and roaming the forests
In wait and constant protectors
Calling you to sit by his side
Your self-loathing image in his flesh
A revelation upon which you linger
His words are flies swarming towards the true insects
Feasting on buried dreams and spreading decay upon your skin
His eyes spew forth a darkness that cut through and paralyze
Casts light upon your secrets forced to confront your enemies
His mouth is a vortex sucking you into its pandemonium
Fools you with a helping hand of ashes reached out in false dismay
His body is a country, the cities lay dead beyond despair
Friends turned enemies unable to come clean
In a rising fog of reeking death
Everything you believed is a lie
Everyone you loved is a death-burden
So you take comfort in him and you are receptive to stark wishes
No longer struggling to declare your stand
You would inflict no harm to others
They are unaware and in a loop of futile events
You are everything, they are nothing
Drown in the deep mire with past desires
Beneath the mire, drown desire now with you
Drown in the deep mire with past desires
Beneath the mire, drown desire now with you
Lined up verses on dead skin
The tainted lips of a stranger resting upon hers
[Instrumental Break]
And I embrace bereavement
Everything beloved is shattered anyway
I would devote myself to anyone, I would accept any flaws
I am too weak to resist
Tension vibrating with horror, finding the outcast in my eyes
Pushing nerves on a puppet, endless poison in my veins
Clean intent now tainted with death
And so, cold touch now inhumane
Every waking hour awaiting a reverie to unfold
And now they are calling me
Louder by the minute
The baying of the hounds calling me back to my home
The Baying of the Hounds was written by Mikael Åkerfeldt.
The Baying of the Hounds was produced by Jens Bogren & Opeth.
Opeth released The Baying of the Hounds on Mon Aug 29 2005.