A.C.T - Last Epic... DARK AS HELL

        I've had this album for years... I've always loved it, especially for the music and melodies, but I never completely understood the lyrics (my ears and the singer's accent didn't always match up). Tonight, I sat down with the lyrics to analyze it... oh dear god! This story is so DEEP! So incredibly DARK! There's rape, and kidnapping, and suicide, and all sorts of terrible things... the MUSICAL approach may be light-hearted, but the LYRICAL approach is incredibly dark, especially in contrast to the music.

If you have this album, give it a closer look... the concept is a lot deeper and tightly-woven than most prog concept albums... it brought me to tears...
    

Edited by Man Overboard - December 02 2006 at 02:40

It's an odd sort of duality. Furthermore, A.C.T have asked people not to print the lyrics on the internet, so that people would actually buy the album.

What I find REALLY disturbing is that out of the 45 reviews on progarchives, not a single one mentions the darkness of the lyrics, and many go as far as to say that they're upbeat and happy. How could we have ALL missed this?

Moatilliatta wrote: Haha, well, I have noticed that the lyrics do get pretty dark in a few places, but I've actually never taken much time to look at the booklet and fully realize what you speak of. I don't doubt it though. I should take a look soon, besides, I'd like to understand the story too.   The Smiths did this very some thing pretty often. I'm glad these bands do it; it prevents the music from being extremely depressing.

I should listen to ACT, but normally I dont like thouse bands that are dark yet play light music...like the Cure, WTF?!?! That is not dark! Boys dont cry, Friday Im inlove, Just like heaven??? Cmon, the only thing dark about them is Robert Smiths hair.

But then again, they might be lyrically dark, in, maybe the songs that dont come out as singles...but its just bothers me when they give this kind of...false look

I've transcribed the lyrics to The Effect... it doesn't make -too- much sense outside of the context of the rest of the context, but yeah.

The Effect:

Narrator (Apartment):

From the stairs, through the door
With the wind
A sudden atmosphere
Woke her up and made her realize
A dream it wasn't, no that was a call

From a floor, through the wall,
to her room
A desperate cry arrived
Stuck in bed, she could not move at all
She wished the dream
Was still inside her head

And everyone knew who he was
But no one did a thing
And the building appealed;
There's no time to be selfish tonight!

Ted:

"Your question would be 'why'
But now I say goodbye
Figure this out for yourself, let's try
The answer's in the sky
This is my final day
And soon I'll fly away
Something to learn
You might see that soon
What did I have to say?

Remember me now, you will
Your memory of me will not fade away"

Narrator (Apartment):

Could he feel what they thought?
Had he known they did not care at all?
Was his crying all because of that?
Who is he to bother them at night?

Morning came, brought no light to a life
That had begun to fall
He would never walk this earth again
His final words are still inside their minds

I will give "Last Epic" another listen. I love Herman Saming + the other vocalists in the band, but I always felt that their lyrics did not make sense in many places; too many fragments. Have you heard the album "Silence" yet? Same dark lyrics to it?

My mistake, I have listened to the album again and even found some lyrics printed out online. I have never been very good with lyrics and I misunderstood a fair share of them.

Ahh this makes me want to buy "Silence". A little off-topic, but that cover art freaks me out everytime I look at it!