I’m dedicating my 1000th post to this great piece of art: Kamelot’s Epica+Black Halo albums that together add up to a version of Goethe’s Faust. This playlist includes all the tracks in succession with a written interpretation of the lyrics.

I first found out about this thanks to my cousin… in a time where I rarely listened to music, disliked most, and those rare times consisted of the classical music radio station, this was the prelude to finding out… that music is not just the crap I heard everywhere: the popular ones. My cousin showed me March of Mephisto, because it featured Dimmu Borgir’s singer Shagrath. In it… I finally heard a song with meaning, with varied tempos, different instruments blended masterfully. I had received musical education since child, but before, I was rarely captivated by it.

This marked my introduction into carrying a CD-player and headphones, and into metal, mostly power and symphonic metal. Some time later, after I started looking more into Kamelot, I found out that this album, Black Halo, which had weird undefined references to “Helena”, and other seeming elements of narrative, with some relation among the tracks themselves, was actually the second part. There was also this other album called Epica, and finally the pieces were complete.

It’s the story of an alchemist in a pursuit of knowledge, who sold his soul to the devil to be able to realize it. In his quest, he reaches several highs and lows: some carnal, some mental; he experiences gain and loss; like everyone’s life, and he copes with them in several ways. He journeys across several life changing realizations, shortened to specific verses like “What does the winter bring, if not yet another spring?”, “How could I be condemned for the things that I’ve done if my intentions were good”, “There is a god in each society so right is wrong where wrong is right”, “The more we know the more we yearn”, among many others. All of which have served as guide in my life, and as guide in the life of others I’ve had to help, even in times it’s too dark to be able to read. 

This album’s both saved and changed my life. And they remain the single one thing I add to every one of my music players. While some songs always pop up occasionally on shuffle, every so often I go back to playing them all in succession. Every time relevant.