: I’ve only recently understood the lyrics of ”Hedon” (that are, btw, one of Sundin’s best works)

Agreed, although there are a couple of songs that have even better lyrics.

: Imo, Hedon is a song about greed (hedonism: getting all the (material/carnal) pleasure of living) and about what it leads to. The lyrics include e.g.
straight suggestion to apocalypse, wich deals with the end of the world and so-called ”judgement day”:

I'm not quite sure, if it is about what the greed leads to, but rather what our "hedonism" prevents us from realizing. In other words, the apocalypse is
coming, but because of our greed, we can't see it - the true reason for the apocalypse could be something else (though the greed is perhaps part of
it).

: ”Fed with the hooves of apocalypse
: that galloped down, disordered worlds behind.”
: --> we’ve been told a thousand times the ”right way” to live our lives: moral laws and manners, virtues. Still we won't obey them, but like to live our
lives in carnal pleasure and joy.

That "From word to a word I was led to a word" seems to imply on that, too.

: Someone suggested on this forum in an earlier conversation that the part ”We need not the horns/ that emanate from our dying haunted bodies/
seven in number they are” would refer to seven deadly sins. I think that was the insight I needed to understand the song, so thank you whoever you
were (can’t remember…)! I’d say the verses stand for ”we don’t want to be sinful, but we cannot help it”.

Perhaps more like "we know we shouldn't sin, but we want to".

: ”So, is the future still open?
: Then, enter, hornet from our hive-dark hearts
: To draw down the end from within.”
: --> Do we still stand a chance? Can we still be saved despite our sins? The suffering in the end comes from within, it is our own fault. Can we change
that?

At some point earlier someone (Jeroen or Rahvin) suggested that the hornet means an un-individual part of a machinery (society); but if so, what
does that "from our hive-dark hearts" mean?

: ”Skin deep we carve our immeasurable sorrow
: in the fold of your shivering arms.”
: --> Following Hedon’s footsteps we make our own destiny (damnation?).

Could also be "Our greed prevents us from seeing that we create our own sorrows" (this is perhaps a bit inaccurate for this phrase only, but fits IMO
with the previous lines: "Nihilist, Hedon / the priceless art of their lives / Sorrow is a wing laid atop their heads").

: ”Hedon, ---
: the whore that carried the apostle
: to the mating point on the graves of giants.”
: --> Hedon tempts even the good ones to do wrong, to sin.

OK, that is obvious.

: And finally, the summary: 
: ”We look at you afraid
: to see what we really are.”

Actually - this is of more importance than it first might seem to be - there is a comma between "you" and afraid" in the booklet, so it could also be
"We look at you, / afraid to see what we really are". The difference is, that we can either with fear look at him to see what we really are, or we can look
at him to see something, but are afraid to see ourselves. Did you got my point. Mikael sings it as you wrote it, but the actual meaning can be
different, if we read the lyrics...

: --> For you (Hedon, that is) are exact reflection of us. Thus, what we would see is ourselves. But we’re not ready to admit that we’re like you (”bad”).

At least as long as it is written the way you wrote it, I agree completely. But...

: Am I getting too theological…? ;)

LOL! I don't think so...

: Thora, still atheist :)

-Villain (an atheist, too)