My dreams fade away
To the rocky bottoms where I lay
My thoughts grow cold and voices say
“I’ll come in waves to wash you away”

Oh, God it cannot be
This watery reflection is me
Take me down to that river I see
Bring me back to reality

Mother earth, she had a daughter
Came down from her like Acheron’s water
My mind is gone but my feet still wander
Deep devil water, dip me under

The scenery turns grey
And in time my senses will fade
Under this earth is where I will lay
So I dip down my hands and begin to pray!

Mother earth, she had a daughter
Came down from her and the rapids caught her
My soul is gone but my mind still wanders
Deep devil water, dip me under

My feeling is gone
Something is wrong
That devil is strong
As I drift along… ACHERON!

Eric:

The song Acheron was born from the desire to write a song about a specific image in my mind of a possessed river. Grayish white-water in a rocky bottomed river running along through some kind of haunted forest thicket. I came up with the main chords on the guitar, as I had been using it at the time instead of the piano at the time for new musical ideas. The words and the music just filled out themselves after a minimal amount of effort which was great.

Acheron is the name of a real river in Greece. According to Greek mythology, it is one of the rivers that flows through the underworld, or Hades. Interestingly, among the other four rivers is the Styx…yes, like the band. – Eric

Luke:

We used to play this cool “devil jam”… it was written in group of 6′s… the measure grouped in 6 or 6/4 time, and it revolved around the “tri-tone”, an interval that is 6 half-steps apart that medieval religious music avoided because it was the “Devil’s interval”. It was really cool, but we felt that the “underwater” jam before it would build up a ton and really want to peak out, but instead it went back to more tension. I’d like to bring it back some day…. but I sure do love resolving that big erie jam on to a nice fat A-Major to D-Major progression! – Luke

Often Eric will sing “BRAD GARONE” instead of “ACHERON” due to Brad’s guitar solo that follows the lyric.