As Maven alludes to, the main lyrical theme here is time.
Reincarnation fits into it, but mainly it seems to be about
the various paradoxes of temporal existence. There is
something in some reincarnation texts called "the eternal
return"-either each life you live has the same themes over
and over, or (Lord Forbid), you live the exact same life
over and over (a la Groundhog Day). This shows up in
several places-Night of Light ("She tells my story back to
me, she said 'I'll live this chapter to eternity'"-note that
the narrator will as well...), and Roman, most notably ("I'm
never coming back again!"). Avalon, seen as a timeless
place in Arthurian myth, also pops up in Already Yesterday.
Well of course talking about it in left-brain language is
kind of beside the point I admit, but you get the idea-
obviously you should experience the themes here in
conjunction with the music...
This is as close as the Church has some to a full-blown
concept album...and the songwriting has probably never
been better. A review I read a few years back on Seance
said it was "unaffecting and dated"-dated maybe, if for no
other reason than there is simply nobody attempting this
style currently, for whatever reasons (tho I suspect that
the Church's music will stand the test of time better than
current acts like Limp Bizkit and Creed), but I'm not sure
what unaffecting means in this context-if it indicates the
lack of emotional weight then that is a completely bogus
criticism.

John DiFool