POSTHUMOUS SILENCE

Lyrics on progressive rock usually don't get much attention on reviews. Seems like most fans and critics (and all that are somewhere between these two points) are basically interested in the music. In fact, good music may be enough for our pleasure, and it looks like the majority of the listeners remember a lot more of the music. On this album, the lyrics and it´s interpretation are so incredibly surprising and touching, that I decided to dedicate almost all the review to analyze only this aspect of the work. If you've never heard this work or didn't pay attention to the lyrics, then you are warned that I'm going to give a lot of spoilers on this realm. And if you're (much) more interested on review(s) about the music than about the lyrics, you can easily find it on PA. The first track is all instrumental. It's short, and makes an ethereal introduction that quickly turns dark. Very floydian. The story begins on second track, that has a delicate piano and a sad cello. It's a very adequate atmosphere for somebody who is telling about a person that has gone away. When this person's smile is mentioned, there is a child's laughter on the background. The title of this music, "Bequest of tears", is printed on the booklet where it has images of ruins, painted in grey spectrum. Indicating that this person ? is it the child? ? left letters or a diary where melancholy reigns. In the rest of the booklet, a fine and elaborate visual production, there are many images of hand-written pages, besides other images indicating chaos and destruction. Third track brings the writer's perspective and self-examination. She or he tells about the coldness inside, and the feeling of being lost in his/her own mind: "searching, I´m searching the world in my head. Hoping, still hoping to find it somewhere". Even though he/she recognizes there are some individuals which are interested on his/her well- being, what prevails is loneliness. One sentimental distance is reported as being particularly difficult: "There are times, when I miss Daddy's hand that's guiding me". The only unquestionable and remarkable company of the writer is a diary, supposedly the way to express most sincerely the cry for help. Before I continue to analyze the lyrics, I want to point a very brilliant aspect of them. The ability to keep almost until the end of the album the mystery about the gender and exact age of the writer. And sometimes the lyrics composer intentionally doesn't specify who is narrating, or for whom. Giving us the opportunity to interpretate some parts in different ways. This is the case on the next track, when the writer can be talking to himself/herself, or to na intended recipiente of the letters. It can also be the case that the reader of the letters is talking to himself/herself (it isn't clear untill now who is the reader). Let's jump to the next track, "Pane of Truth", which is a turning point on the story. The writer enters a phase where he/she becomes nostalgic about the distant time when some hapiness, joy and/or innocence was part of his/her life. This person starts to believe that these feelings have become irreversibly gone. On subsequent tracks, the psychopatological phenomena spreads throughout his/her whole existence, every day getting a little bigger. "I try to see the sun but I just see clouds ? and people pass my way. So with a known disgust I quickly turn around ? it's just a normal day". The individual gains some strength to find some colours on the world, but soon finds that it's a strategy to hide from others the morbid feelings. The future sounds as a constant suffering and challenge with no perspective of bringing reasonable answers. "Will I crack up when they change all? Will I dry out, will my mask fall?" The reader's point of view comes back on 12th track. And now it's revelaed that the writer is a girl. The impact of the diary, or the letters, subtracts from the reader his/her remaining strength. "Naked of power and naked of hope, I'd give all my fortune to stop you tonight". The cello, in undertones, and the vocals, sung as if it can fade away any time and with a little whispering touch, brings an atmosphere of disenchantment. Paralysed, but with many doubts, the reader also feels fatality is coming closer. The child responds to that. "Stop me now or let me go. I am your child and you are my God ? I'd take your hand, but would you follow me now? (...) I'm sick of it all ? I have to break up my chains. These walls have to fall ? I'm going to kick them away". Indeed, the next and penultimate track reaches it's clímax. This is one of the most smooth and tranquilizing composition of this work, musically speaking. The girl decides she shall not suffer anymore. "Sink into the deepest quiet ? unchangeable I close my eyes". "Please let me know you'll understand, it's not your fault I'm leaving". Here it is revealed who the letters are for. "I'll cry the tears for you, oh Dad, please let me reach my Eden (...) Vanish from the world out there, for the wind got colder. Pleasently I found the truth guiding me back to my roots". And she kills herself. I think these lyrics deserve a 4,6 on a scale of 5 stars.