Katatonia - Passer (Lyrical Breakdown)

I think the song is about someone the narrator has become friends with, who then ghosts them and moves out of town. Or possibly dies.

 ”You came into my circle of trust, arriving late

You could have done better, but it's okay

Contemplating summer and what could have been

Who knows?”

How can you arrive late in someone’s circle of trust? The only scenario I can think of is that when they first got to know the person, they did not trust them. The line ”you could have done better, but it’s ok” fits that theory as well. The person seemed untrustworthy at first, but eventually the narrator let them in.

I think this happened over one summer, and then ended as the summer ended, hence why they’re contemplating summer and what could have become of the budding friendship, if it had not ended so suddenly.

”But I fear you took the words from my drunken heart

And they're vanishing with you

Closing down, leaking my inactivated mind into you”

The narrator was drunk and said something they did not mean. Or they were drunk in the more figurative sense, feeling something the other person didn’t like them feeling, like anger or romantic love, and let those feelings out. And now they are afraid the other person is leaving because of the words the narrator said to them.

The narrator said too much and is closing down now. They mind is ”inactivated”, they have no more words to say. And the mind, the silence, is ”leaking” to the other person. The narrator closed down, not saying anything after the ”words from drunken heart”, which caused the other person so shut down as well and not talking, and this lead to their departure.

 ”Memorial

Let's put everything underground now

Your void eyes

How long until you come back around”

Memorial and putting underground, like in a funeral, but instead of burying a body, they’re burying everything they had between them. I think the narrator would like to only bury the bad stuff, the drunken words and the silent treatment they’ve been giving each other, but they can’t really do that anymore. Everything is too connected to everything else. They either bury everything or leave the decaying corpse of their friendship out to rot.

They still have hope that the friend is coming back, even though they seem absent, with their ”void eyes”.

This can also be interpreted literally – the friend is dead and the narrator is in denial. They’re in the funeral, with an open casket and they’re still waiting for their friend to wake up, despite seeing with their own eyes that they’re dead.

Considering the previous lines, maybe their last interaction before the death was a fight?

 ”5 a.m., I'm fading

Ghost on the pavement

I celebrate futility within

I am wretched, all colors blur to one

You did well to make me believe

It was a way to survive

To run a scar inside”

Their friend is gone and they themselves feel dead inside, like a ghost. ’Futility’ means ’pointlessness or uselessness’ and ’wretched’ means ’in a very unhappy or unfortunate state’. The first one I’ve heard before, I just didn’t remember what it meant, but the latter was a new word for me. Life seems to happen in a blur, and there’s no color in it, it’s grey and boring, pointless, useless.

The friend was their source of hope, making them believe in life. Or, it could be that the friend made them believe in the friendship, made them trust the other person, and then betrayed that trust. Either way, the fact that the friend is now gone means they no longer feel hopeful (about the friendship or about life) and that has left them scarred internally.

”Ascend now, as your chain of rust has swayed me

Observing dead air, so worn out

Contemplating summer and what could have been

Who knows?”

This certainly sounds like death. Ascending, like leaving the earth and going to heaven. But I’m not sure if they’re talking about the friend or if they hung themselves because they lost all hope. Since the friend’s ”chain of rust has swayed” them, it could be.

”5 a.m., I'm fading

Ghost on the pavement

I celebrate futility within

You did well to make me believe

It was a way to survive”

So… they’re no longer wretched, colors are not blurred nor do they have a scar inside… The other lines are still there. So they still survived? Maybe it was a suicide attempt?

If I interpret the remaining lines as they are, without connecting them to my interpretation before, these lines seem more hopeful, actually. They’re still a fading ghost on the pavement, celebrating futility within… But this time the celebration seems a bit more genuine. Before, it seemed like they were lying to themselves when they said that… They weren’t celebrating, they were pretending to be fine when in fact they felt so hopeless they tried to kill themselves, or at least had thoughts about ending it all. Burying everything, including themselves?

And the friend DID make them believe in life. This time there’s no mention of the scar they mentioned before. They’re getting over their friend not being here anymore.

”You took your gear and hit the trail

I was there by the runway

Above spires and buildings now

You have passed the horizon

In time another star will rise, dissimulation

On the wind comes the message now

You have passed the horizon

Divide like wings”

Interesting choice of words. Since 'gear' can mean the gears of a car, but also i.e. a musicians instruments... Is this about an ex band member leaving the band because they had a fight and then didn't speak to each other for some time?

"Above spires and buildings now, you have passed the horizon" - oh, they're REALLY leaving it open whether the friend passed of just left the town and their life... They hit the road, driving into the horizon, and the narrator saw them leave (being there by the runway) or they passed the horizon and are above spires (which means tower tops, btw) and buildings, because they ascended to heaven.

'Dissimulation' means 'concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character' or 'a flock of small birds'. I think the "another star is rising" is similar to "there's plenty of fish in the sea", you know? Like, sure, this friendship meant a lot to them, but it ending does not feel like the end of the world anymore. There will be other friends/bandmates to arrive into their circle of trust. Life goes on.

But then again, after that line they say "dissimulation", indicating that maybe they're lying to themselves when they think "another star will rise". As if, no one can truly replace this friend they had. You can't replace a person with another person, humans aren't objects. Sure, they will make new friends / find new bandmates, but no person is truly replaceable like that.

"On the wind comes the message now" sounds to me, like the friend didn't let the narrator know they're leaving, the narrator heard it from a third person who was still on speaking terms with both of them.

And as the friend left, now their paths divide like wings. They fly off to separate directions.