Song Meaning
This track paints a vivid picture of escape and transcendence, beginning with a yearning for a past "epoch" and a present where the narrator "is not." The repeated "Gateway" acts as a powerful incantation, a portal to a desired state of being. The initial imagery suggests a desire to "run amok In Heaven," hinting at a wild, uninhibited freedom sought beyond current limitations. This sets a tone of urgent longing for a radical shift.
The core tension lies in the push and pull between existence and non-existence, past and present, and the desire for an ecstatic release. The lyrics describe a tumultuous ascent, "like riding an earthquake," and a forceful breaking through of boundaries, "smash through the crystal dome." This isn't a gentle transition but a violent, exhilarating rupture from the mundane, moving "up and up we go."
The most striking craft element is the juxtaposition of cosmic and deeply personal imagery. The journey involves "exploding out of the clouds" and being "bathed in The Milky Way," but also diving "deep into the well / Of tears we cried." This suggests that the path to transcendence, or the "gateway," involves confronting and integrating past sorrows, not merely escaping them. The "golden thread" implies a guiding force or destiny through this emotional landscape.
The effectiveness of these lyrics stems from their raw, almost primal, expression of desire for transformation. The language is active and forceful, conveying a sense of unstoppable momentum. By blending grand, almost mythological imagery with intimate emotional states like crying, the song creates a powerful, cathartic vision of breaking free and finding a new, albeit perhaps bittersweet, form of existence.