The Ministry of Lost Souls
The Ministry Of Lost Souls is the seventh track on Dream Theater's album, Systematic Chaos.
A small sample of it was featured in the Electronic Press Kit that the band released on April 27, 2007. It is the second longest song on Systematic Chaos.
According to writer John Petrucci, the song tells a story of a man who saves a woman from drowning, but himself dies in the process; the lyrics revolve around the woman being unable to live her life with the memory. The woman wants to "go to the other side" to meet the man who saved her. The man eventually pulls her through to the "other side."
The first line, "The water's edge is where she waits, lost soul still wandering, meant to die, but she's stuck not crossing over" is apparently a reference to the mythological river Styx. According to the story, the ferryman Charon transported the souls of the newly dead across this river into the underworld. If they didn't have the money to pay, the deceased had to wander the banks of the Styx for one hundred years.
It is predominately in the key of A minor, save for a lengthy instrumental section midway through the song (which modulates chromatically upwards) and the very ending (which modulates up a minor third twice, thus ending the song a tritone away from the home key).
According to Chaos in ProgresS: The Making of Systematic Chaos, the song's working title was "Song #4" or "Schindler's Lisp".
Credits
- James LaBrie - vocals
- John Myung - bass guitar
- John Petrucci - guitar
- Mike Portnoy - drums, vocals
- Jordan Rudess - keyboards