Season 1 Finale - Opus Eponymous

Our tale begins with a man who has no name, in a society ruled by those who claim to be the men of God. Oppressed and broken spirited, the Church has a solid rule and all those in the land must follow, for fear of punishment not just in this life, but the next.

This man however, is no normal man. In every form of undesirable rule, there will always be that one that sparks change, whether through action or words or a combination of both. All it takes is that person to reach a breaking point, which we arrive at now.

Disillusioned by the actions of the Church and the treatment of his fellow citizens, our no named man begins his research. Under the cover of darkness, he reads. He reads the texts prohibited by the Church, texts talking of other deities and historic events that could potentially influence the population. He begins to do what all oppressive rulers fear: he begins to learn.

On one fateful night, this man is in the library, candle by his side and door firmly jammed so as to avoid detection. He glances upon a book of forgotten history, and in this book are the details of one Elizabeth Bathory, the blood countess.

Drawn to this name, the man delves further into her history. An evil woman, yes, but one who was not shackled by the chains of God. Instead, she was set free by the hands of Satan, whom she struck a deal with. Our mans mind begins to wonder. How is it that the perceived evil one is allowing the freedom humanity deserves, while the divine justice of God snuffs it out? He continues to read.

Weeks pass as he learns more and more about Elizabeth. Detailing her time in power and most importantly, her rituals concerning eternal youth. He becomes obsessed with the idea. If he can show the population the power of another God, maybe, just maybe, they will see sense and turn from their oppressors and rise up against them.

With the power of conviction and justice on his side, he does what must be done. To emulate his heroine, he must bath in a Virgins blood. The man takes to the streets, silhouetted by street lamps, with knife in hand. The first victim of a religious war. He succeeds. He bathes. And out of the tub of blood rises not a man with no name, but a father to all humanity. Papa.

Months pass. Papa, now knowledgeable with the rituals of Satan and the determination to destroy, has spread his word. Not in public, not quite yet. He is no match for the Church at this time. He approached those that were similarly disillusioned but did not quite have the bravery to lead with his new view of life. They accept his teachings, donning masks of demons and departing the Church, like Ghouls in the night.

With this small group of supporters, Papa takes to the streets. While he is a learned man, but he is young and naive and convinced that, since he has some supporters, the rest of the population will follow. He preaches to the crowd in a courtyard, disguised by paint and surrounded by figures in masks. The people, brainwashed too heavily to listen, shout the group down. Pelting them with whatever is at hand, the group is forced back into hiding, forcing an alternative plan to be made.

A change of seasons, a passage in time. The Clergy have continued to grow at a slow pace, developing a cult following amongst the stray sheep they can capture the imagination of. With their help, a place to hold their sermons is constructed, hidden from the rest of society. A gothic, white marbled structure that is greyed from the dirt of the smoke of the fires that light it. A chapel of Ritual.

And in this chapel of Ritual, the plan is formed and the path forward discovered. If Papa himself could not bring down the Church, he would enlist the help of the one he worshipped. By bringing forth the anti-christ, this would give Satan a vessel to walk the Earth and convert the masses.

A plethora of sacrilegious acts take place in this location, with bodies writhing in bold sexual defiance of God. As Papa shares his revelation with the clergy, they come together to celebrate the beginning of the end.

While this is taking place, the Church is continuing their domination of the masses above. Taking advantage of their position and a stance against the population of women, they enact to start burning those they perceive as “witches”, guilty of nought but refusing to fully comply. Papa hears word of this and, sensing a pivotal moment in his war on God, decides to come to the aid of those in need.

And with good timing. The Church has in their clutches a woman that will play a vital role in the future plans, one so far from God and his ideals that one could say she was even in love with the Dark One. Her mortal name lost to time, she would be known as Lilith from this day forth.

Striking a blow upon the Church, the clergy celebrates their success with their biggest congregation yet. With the word of their kindness and acceptance towards all spreading, the clergys numbers grow dramatically. The Church become aware of this growing power amongst their people, however with the influence and secretive nature of the clergy and their followers, they can do nothing but hammer their message of God harder and harder onto the people in hopes of stopping the sway, perhaps doing the opposite and beginning their own downfall.

Sensing the time is now, Papa enacts his final plan. With Lilith on his side and a devout following, the anti-christ is conceived. A chill descends across the land, the populace shivers in unison and the Death Knell of the world can be heard across the land…

Weeks later, a woman runs through a courtyard, rain falling from the black sky that is briefly lit up with lightning to reveal her heavy cloak and disguise. The woman, Lilith, pregnant with son of Satan and bringer of destruction, is in hiding from the Church who still out-number and overpower the clergy. Her will being tested, her resolve must be strong as the Prime Mover in the machine of destruction. She runs.

Show Notes: Prime Mover

Welcome to the show notes! This is the section where I take the writing/research I’ve done for the episodes and post them for you to see!

Clad in cloak
A secretive nun
Bearing the old ones' bastard son

Mental Image: In my head, the “nun” in question who is potentially Lillith is on the run. Whether the Church have found out about the plan and are chasing her, or is she is worried and hiding from the population in general is open to interpretation.

I think it shows that even though the clergy took quite a bit of power from the Church throughout the album, they are still a weaker organization and instead of being able to protect her, fleeing and hiding was the only option.

Varucose phallos
Obsessed and poised her
Cast a veil of dusk upon the cloister

Veiny Penis?

Obsessed and poised her could refer the state of “Lilith”. Obsessed could possibly mean she is preoccupied or even haunted by the previous episodes events. Maybe it wasn’t what she had imagined it?

A cloister is a type of covered walkway, typically found in religious buildings such as convents, monasteries, or cathedrals. I think from this we can infer that with the conception of the anti-christ in Death Knell, the sun has started to set, metaphorically, over the foundations of God.

Prime mover
Maternal slave
With child of her grave

Prime Mover is defined as “a person who is chiefly responsible for the creation or execution of a plan”. This could be referring to “Lilith” who is responsible for keeping the plans of the clergy going, or the anti-christ himself being the executioner of the plan in the grander schemes.

Maternal slave is a pretty powerful statement, again it could be coming from two sources. Either Satan himself sees her as nothing more than slave, or indeed the anti-christ inside her.

With child of her grave: Possibly meaning the delivery of this beast will be so traumatic to her body she will die, or referring to the fact it will be the grave of all of mankind, including herself.

Mother
Filth in her womb
Father
Waiting in tomb

I think this is quite frankly a literal definition of the current status. Filth in her womb, perhaps it’s how she’s coming to see her offspring. “Tomb” has the definition of “a structure or underground room where someone, esp. an important person, is buried”. We could infer from this the “underground room” where the father is waiting is simply hell.

Sathanas
AntiChrist
Spiritus Non Sancti

This is the first time the “unholy” trinity has been named in one of their song in the most obvious sense. Satan (Father), Anti-christ (Son) and the Spiritus Non Sancti (Unholy Ghost).

Selected heir
Machinary insect
Bloodline of the dark architect

This is just highlighting the importance of the anti-christ, marking him as the heir to Satans kingdoms.

Machinery insect, this could refer to the mother. If we are to look at the plan as a whole unit and one giant “doomsday machine”, while important, in the grand scheme of things she is an insect compared to the Gods.

Toxic blood
Of not known birth
Antichrist will walk the earth

We can probably link this back to the “child of her grave” line. Whatever is inside of her isn’t human, probably not even mortal so it is killing her from the inside as a mother and her child share blood while she is pregnant. It’s feeding off her, she’s dying from him. Big metaphor for Satans eventual rule maybe?

Show Notes: Death Knell

Welcome to the show notes! This is the section where I take the writing/research I’ve done for the episodes and post them for you to see!

Say, can you see the cross?
Inverted solemnly

Inverted cross (also known as the Petrine Cross) is what many consider to be a sign of Satanic ideals, however, its actual meaning is a symbol of catholisicim, specifically that of St Peter, and more fittingly for our comparison, the papcy (aka, the pope).

St Peter was set to be crucified in Rome, however he requested to be crucified upside down as he did not feel he deserved the same fate as Christ. Because the Pope, head of the catholic church, is viewed as a successor to St Peter with him being the first pope, this symbol has been adopted for their usage.

I think this line drawns an insane amount of detail with the very first picture we have. Yes, in this instance the Petrine Cross is being used as a Satanic symbol, however, it also works perfectly with the fact that our Papa is the first pope of his Church, thus drawing an indirect comparison between the Church and the Clergy.

“seriously and without any humour” is the definition of solemnly. I think what Papa is trying to convey here is that he knows what he and his followers are about to do is wrong even for them, however it is something that has to be done to fufill their goals.

A symbol for the goat
Of a thousand young

For some reason, Papa seems to be referring to a lovecraftian diety here known as Shub-Niggurath. She is an Outer God (or Outer Goddess) in the pantheon (direct descendant of Azathoth, ruler of the Outer Gods). Why Papa is refering to Shub is unclear however, it is most likely because she is described as a “perverse fertility deity” which fits rather perfectly with the act that is about to take place.

(Side note: Do you know why the devil is referred to as a Goat? It is not because of Baphomet. It actually stems from a parable when Jesus seperates the sheep and goats, with the sheep representing the “saved” and the goats the “damned”)

Six, six, six

Number of the beast? Think about this one.

Evoke the king of hell
Strike the death knell
Death knell, death knell, death knell

Evoking the king of hell, calling forth Satan using the bells.

A death knell is actually the second of a set of three bell tolls related to the death of someone/something. The first is a “passing” bell, indicating that someone/something is about to die. Then, the death knell which was typically rung upon the death of that individual, then the third which we know today as a funeral toll, typically rung at the burial/cremation.

I don’t think Papa is refering to a singular person in this matter, but more likely meaning that with the ringing of this Death Knell, this is humanities/gods end.

Meriam Webser also defines Death Knell as “an action or event presaging death or destruction” which would certainly describe this situation. It could be that this is actually the first bell of the trio, stating that humanity/god is ABOUT to end, with the actual Death Knell to come later.

Say, can you hear the chimes?
Tolls now for the end

Bells call out our doom

This leads in from my point just a moment ago. This could be perhaps the second bell, the actual Death Knell, that Papa is referring to. I think we can probably assume all of these are metaphorical unless Papa’s got really good timing.

As victor reaches womb

Obviously a reference to the sperm cell that managed to reach the egg, however Victor as in the name Victor also means “conqueror”. Double entendre that this is conceiving the anti-christ, the first step to the conquering of mankind.

Sex, sex, sex
Receive the beast of evil
Of evil

This verse is as close as we will come to get to Ghost describing sexual assault in their albums.

The beast of evil is actually describing an alternate name that evangelical and theologians for the anti-christ who blieve that “the beast” and the anti-christ are one in the same, and not two different beings.

Can you say his name?
Carrier of the light

To me this at least somewhat confirms that a nun of God has been forced into the conception of the anti-christ. What else could carrier of the light mean?

Papa has not referred to either the anti-christ or Satan as anything to do with “light”, so it cannot be that. It also sounds like Papa is insulting this person, mocking their faith in God.

Legions of this seed
A child you a spouse will feed

Legions of Satan. It may be reaching slightly, but there is actually a painting titled “Satan summoning his legions” which depicts a distinctly human looking Satan summoning his army. It’s been speculated that the meaning of the painting is “heroic defiance of the Almighty could be taken as a model of resistance to a distant and arbitrary power” which is exactly Papas MO.

A spouse can mean “mate” or “consort”, not wife or husband.

S-A-T-A-N
Under spell
Of death knell
Death knell, death knell, death knell

You could take this literal spelling out of Satans name purely as a chant, but it could also very well be related to the ritual (or spell) that conceives the anti-christ.

Show Notes: Satan Prayer

Welcome to the show notes! This is the section where I take the writing/research I’ve done for the episodes and post them for you to see!

Brief: I believe this is a turning point of the population, they have started to turn en-masse away from God into the arms of Satan.

Believe in one God do we
Satan almighty
The uncreator of heaven and soil
And the invisible and the visible

This verse, infact the entire song is based on the Nicene Creed, one of the earliest statements of Christian belief and the beginning reads as follows:

“I believe in God,
the Father almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible”

So in direct comparison, the people of the clergy are now mocking the followers of god, or perhaps showing their change in faith by using the texts they had been forced to believe to praise their new lord.

Can we also discuss how quiet these lyrics are sung, almost in hushed tones. This grows stronger throughout the track. Also note the dual voice effect, giving the impression a crowd is singing this.

And in his son
Begotten of father
By whom all things will be unmade

“begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.”

Talking of the anti-christ yet again, it’s getting closer to the time of his conception.

Begotten is a word that is commonly used for Jesus and God. It can mean “only” as in his only son in this context, or it can mean a son of such a similar nature that the two beings are one. In this case, the anti-christ would be as destructive as Satan if he were to arrive on Earth.

All things being unmade is a powerful line, especially in the context of a crowd turned from God. To go from a live of “utopia” in their eyes to wishing the destruction of that society, what has happened in the Ghost universe? Are they being fooled by Papa?

This sounds like a drumbeat to march to, perhaps a call to arms.

Who for man and his damnation

Incarnated
Rise up from Hell

“For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven”

Incarnated has a definition of “a diety or spirit embodied in a human form”. Talking about the plan of the anti-christ.

From sitteth on the left hand of his father
From thence he shall come to judge

“and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
to judge the living and the dead”

The opposite side of the Father actually has a distinct meaning, even though it says the same thing. Sitting on the right hand of someone is considered an honour, however, it brings on a new meaning when you bring occultism and magic into the mix.

The left hand path and right hand path are two choices made spiritually by everyone. The right hand path is usually taken by those who live their life in hopes of getting accepted as good by a divine being such as god. In magic terms, it is associated with benevolant white magic.

The left hand path is often said to be the darker of the two, with people who travel this path embracing “evil” and whos ultimate goal is not to be accepted by a divine spirit but to surpass and become one themselves. It is associated with black magic.

Out of one substance
With Satan
Whose kingdom shall haveth no end

“being of one substance with the Father;
“Whose kingdom shall haveth no end”

This is pretty much ripped straight from the Nicene creed, just replacing Father with Satan.

Hear our Satan prayer, our anti-Nicene creed
Hear our Satan prayer, for the coming of seed
Hear our Satan prayer, our anti-Nicene creed
Hear our Satan prayer, for the coming of seed

This is where the clergy steps out of the shadows, no longer hiding. It’s been building the whole song; HEAR our Satan Prayer. This is the true turning point in the Ghost universe, one where the clergy finally wins some power against the Church of God.

Also coming and cumming are interchangeable. “Seed” can refer to the Son himself, however it could be a literal definition of the act which will take place shortly, with Satan spreading his seed as it were.

Unholy ghost
Overlord and taker of life

“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, “

The switch of Lord to Overlord is so subtle. It means “lord of lords”, proclaiming Satan does not just rule over people, but God himself.

Show Notes: Stand By Him

Welcome to the show notes! This is the section where I take the writing/research I’ve done for the episodes and post them for you to see!

The Devil's power is the greatest one
When His' and Hers' holiest shuns the sun

I believe this line speaks about the power of Satan growing through belief, kind of like a parasite or idea. It’s also Papa trying to convince whom he is speaking to that the power of Satan outweighs God.

The sun is in my opinion a double meaning: it means both the literal sun and the light of God. By turning your back on God, you will be forced underground or into the shadows of night while the clergy is still growing.

A temptress smitten by the blackest force
A vicar bitten blind in intercourse

This could refer to two things: “the blackest force” meaning either withcraft or Satan (the two are often intertwined). Or even in the eyes of Papa, the blackest force could be devotion to God. This is his perspective after all.

A vicar bitten blind in intercourse. To me this speaks about the sexual abuse of this woman (or women in general) at the hands of the holy men of the church. Bitten by temptation, his lust blinded him.

The witch hammer
Struck her down
On our Sabbath
She is unbound

Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) was one of the defining historical texts relating to Witchcraft, shaping what we know today of the trials women suffered at the hands of the men of god.

I believe that the woman in question has been condemned as a witch for her so called “lies” surrounding the actions of the vicar earlier. It is simply a case of the Church abusing their power to avoid prosecution.

“Sabbath” can mean either a religious day or a gathering of witches at midnight, in the context of this song more likely the latter.

Unbound takes on a double meaning in this early verse I believe: The woman is not unbound of her ropes physically as she is still to stand trial, but unbound in a spiritual sense from the ties and ideals of God.

It is the night of the witch
It is the night of the witch tonight
And the vengeance is hers for as long as she stands by him

Papa telling her she has the power to take revenge, but only if she pledges her life and loyalty to Satan.

"All witchcraft comes
From carnal lust
Which is in women insatiable"

The belief of the Church that women could not control their carnal desires and thus made them weaker and untrustworthy compared to man. It is the Church excusing themselves for prying on women but not men.

I think however Papa is rather approving of it in this case, whether true or not.

A moon shone bright above her trial
As flames ate through her body defiled

The woman in the song has been put to death at the stake for her accusations against the member of the Church, confirming it with the line “body defiled” in my opinion.

The witch hammer
Struck her down
Through our Sabbath
She is unbound

Similarly to earlier, but this time I believe the “unbound” could be a more literal sense. Going on to talk about vengeance in the next few lines, it could be that the power of the Clergy and Satan have protected her (lucky they were doing this burning at midnight) through their sabbath, perhaps going so far as to rescue her entirely, unbinding her ropes.

It is the night of the witch
It is night of the witch tonight
And the vengeance is hers for as long as she stands by him
It is the night of the witch
It is the night of the witch tonight
And the vengeance is hers for as long as she stands by him

Drilling the idea that this was all possible with the help of Satans powers. I think it is safe to assume this woman takes her vengeance on those that have wrong her with the aid of the clergy, now completely devoting herself to her new Dark Master.