A Gothic Romance (Red Roses For The Devil's Whore)

The lyrics tell a gothic story of a speaker who meets a captivating woman at a masked gathering and becomes consumed by desire for her. The mood shifts from excitement and fascination to confusion, fear, and grief. After waking alone, the speaker searches for her, but the attraction seems to draw him toward danger rather than happiness.

Several images make the woman seem both alluring and threatening. Her “icy kiss” suggests a chilling, possibly supernatural presence, while the “bloodletting moonlight” blends romance with violence. The repeated references to graves, ghosts, and darkness create the impression that the speaker’s passion is entangled with death. Calling her an “enchantress” also implies that he feels spellbound and unable to judge clearly.

The story can be read as a supernatural encounter, but it may also portray desire as an obsession that distorts the speaker’s sense of reality. The lyrics do not fully explain whether the woman is literally a ghost or monster, a figure in a dream, or a symbol of dangerous temptation. The speaker’s language is intense and unreliable: he both fears her and longs to worship her, so the song leaves his feelings—and the events themselves—deliberately uncertain.