It all started with Ayreon's frontman Arjen Anthony Lucassen being impressed by a recording he received from Marcela Bovio, the lead singer of Elfonía. She had joined a contest for guest artists on the new Ayreon album. She won this competition and can be heard on Ayreon's The Human Equation singing the part "Wife". Arjen wanted to create more music with Marcela after the Ayreon album was finished, so he created a new band.
Arjen also selected Lori Linstruth, Johan van Stratum, Davy Mickers, and Alejandro Millán, and started Stream of Passion. Their first release was Embrace the Storm. Because the members lived thousand of miles apart (The Netherlands, Sweden, and Mexico), the album was mostly written over the internet.
For the following tour Marcela brought her sister Diana Bovio as background singer. Diana also appeared on the single Out In The Real World and the live CD/DVD Live In The Real World.
On 4 March 2007, Arjen said in an interview on his website that he was going to quit the band: Because I will be fully concentrating on the new Ayreon for at least the next year, I have no more time for SoP, so I quit the band. It would be unfair to have them wait until I'm ready, especially now things are going so well for SoP. Arjen also stated that SoP would continue without him.
A few days later, a message on the Stream of Passion website said that Lori and Alejandro also had decided to leave the band and focus on their own personal lives and musical projects. The message on the website stated that this is not the end of the band, and the remaining members are already busy writing music for a new album.
From 2007 on, the band consisted of vocalist, lyricist, and violinist Marcela Bovio, bassist Johan van Stratum, keyboardist Jeffrey Revet, guitarist Eric Hazebroek, guitarist Stephan Schultz, and drummer Martijn Peters.
In April of 2016 the band announced via Facebook that they would be separating at the end of the year.
Albums:
2005 - Embrace the Storm
2009 - The Flame Within
2011 - Darker Days
2014 - A War Of Our Own
Singles:
2005 - Wherever You Are
2006 - Out in the Real World
2010 - Spark
Live Albums:
2006 - Live In The Real World (CD and DVD)
2016 - Memento (CD and DVD)
Official site: www.streamofpassion.com
The Mirror
Stream of Passion Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
and your eyes can break any heart;
but what the mirror can't show you,
you can never leave behind.
I'll tear your portrait into pieces.
Blessed be the most fair of them all
For this gift you surrendered your soul,
but it ain't the prize I'm longing for.
Oh what an awful lesson...
sins that through the canvas
came to life.
Hope for some love to save you,
beg your innocence comes back.
Because time knows
where to find you
and makes you fall apart.
Soon the mirror will break.
Let the mirror break.
The lyrics of "The Mirror" by Stream of Passion suggest a reflection on the dangers of vanity and obsession with physical appearance. The opening lines suggest that the subject of the song may be a beautiful but vain person, whose grace is blinding and who has the power to break hearts with their eyes. However, the singer warns that there are things that the mirror cannot show, and that the person cannot simply leave behind their flaws and mistakes. These lines may imply that a focus on physical beauty can lead to neglect of inner character and moral virtue.
The chorus contains some cryptic lines, suggesting that the person may have given up their soul for a gift, but that this is not the prize that the singer seeks. The second verse suggests that the person's sins have taken on a life of their own, and that they hope for love and innocence to save them. The final lines suggest that time will inevitably catch up with the person and bring them down, and that the singer may welcome this as a release from obsession with the surface level of life.
Overall, "The Mirror" can be read as a warning against superficiality and a call to focus on inner character and essence rather than external appearance. It suggests that it is better to face reality than to hide behind illusions of beauty, and that true growth and change come from acknowledging and learning from our flaws and mistakes.
Line by Line Meaning
Maybe your grace is blinding
Perhaps the power and beauty you possess is so great that it can be overwhelming and blinding to those around you.
and your eyes can break any heart;
Your gaze is so intense that it can cause a great deal of pain to those who are the target of your attention.
but what the mirror can't show you,
Even though the mirror reflects your physical appearance, it cannot reveal the true essence of who you are as a person.
you can never leave behind.
The aspects of yourself that cannot be seen in the mirror will always be with you and cannot be abandoned.
I'll tear your portrait into pieces.
I will destroy any image or representation of you, symbolically or literally, as a way of rejecting or getting rid of you from my life.
Blessed be the most fair of them all
May the person who is deemed the most beautiful and privileged receive blessings and good fortune in life.
If the mirror shatters soon enough.
If the mirror is broken and destroyed soon, then there may still be hope for a better future.
For this gift you surrendered your soul,
The beauty and power that you possess may have come at a great cost, perhaps even the loss of your own identity or sense of self.
but it ain't the prize I'm longing for.
However, possessing your beauty or power is not what I desire most in life.
Oh what an awful lesson...
What a terrible and painful truth this is.
sins that through the canvas
Errors or mistakes in life that have become tangible through art, perhaps in the form of a painting or portrait.
came to life.
These mistakes or sins have become real and are affecting the present.
Hope for some love to save you,
There is a desire for a loving and redemptive force to rescue one from the negative consequences of their actions.
beg your innocence comes back.
One may plead for a return to a time before they committed their mistakes or sins and had an unblemished reputation.
Because time knows
The passage of time has an awareness and understanding of events and their consequences.
where to find you
Time can track down an individual and reveal the results of their actions.
and makes you fall apart.
The effects of time can cause one to crumble and disintegrate, whether physically or emotionally.
Soon the mirror will break.
The symbolic or actual mirror that has been referenced throughout the song will soon be broken and destroyed.
Let the mirror break.
An urging or command for the mirror to be shattered or destroyed, signaling the end of whatever it represents in the context of the song.
Contributed by Mason B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
YM Ray
Love this song. beautiful and powerful and well balanced.