Hordes Of Yore : Of Splendour and Ruin

Folk Death / Portugal
(2005 - Self-Released)
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Lyrics

1. SETTING STONES ON FRATRICIDE

Offspring of Mars
Their ominous birth
Obscured the gleam of the Sun
In Lupercal raised
Under Howling of Wolves
The fate of all Europe was spun

In malice deserted
By nature nurtured
Two sibilings came onto age
Their bloodlust stirred
By their divine father's blood
Pulsating with murderous Rage

Their vengeance done,
Their freedom achieved
by Amulius's blood on their blades
With their fate propelling
The call in their birth
They set to Palatine's glades

A small square of stone
Marked Romulus' home
The stage of a destiny fulfilled
A nation to be born
Under fratricide's mark
Baptised in the blood that he spilled

Built upon the stains of murder
Blood allegiance set aside
Rome shall spawn Splendour and Ruin
Setting stones on Fratricide.

Child of the War God
Took no grievance at the death of his kin
As the firstborn settler of Nod
Building upon the the blood stains of sin

The Gods speak:

" The tides of the world
To be shaped on this deed
Corruption and greed
Will bring ages of gold

But our spell should they heed
As is hereby foretold
To the deities of old
Should they come in their need"


2. OUR BLOOD FOR NAUGHT

From Hispanic valleys
through Alpian hills
I [was] the spear Aimed straight at your heart
The Victor of Trebia
And the scourge of Cannae
[I] Made short work of you foolish Braggarts
Soon the mighty of Rome
Locked the bolts of their Homes
Their proud leaders frozen still with fear
The vengeance of Carthage
Banged loud at the door
And Rome Trembled as Hannibal neared

Rome trembled as Hannibal neared!

Blood sacrifice
Rome's heart laid at Baal's feet

But guile and betrayal
Weigh higher than bravery
On Rome's less than honorable code
My swordarm unmatched
dared they not to defeat
On to Carthage the cowards Rode
My glorious dream
Now a nightmare it seemed
As Tanit in dreams to me spoke:
"My temple's defiled
Carthage lies in ruin
Its majesty shrouded in smoke"

If a gladius pierced my heart
no deeper pain I'd feel
Than the sight of my fallen home
Rent under roman steel

Our blood for naught
was spilled across Italy

Our blood for naught
was spilled across Italy
Our grand designs
Paled 'neath their treachery

Pariah I am
Deep in Antioch's land
Now only this quill
tests the strength of this hand
who once swinged blades in war

'Ere the eagles hunt me
and feast on my flesh
A vial of poison
Shall lay me to rest
My life as mine shall wane.

Our Blood For naught...
Our Blood For naught...


3. THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT

The trumpets have sounded
Their legions advance into war
Before us an enemy
Of power like none other before

For freedom we fight
Lest we end enslaved and Dishonored
'Ere facing the shackles
Our hands free to deal death at [the] tip of a sword

Our armies beaten and scattered
Our dead may fill the field
But our souls remain Unscathed
We may fall but never yield
Our hands be cut and piled
Our broken knees may kneel
But our souls remain unscathed
We may fall but never yield

Lo!, as these dogs cross the fields
Of the lands we call ours since birth
Seeking naught but our lands and tribute
(knowing) Not the glory that burns in our Blood

Our submission purchased
At too costly a price
Scores of romans impaled
By our swords victimized

Though our tribes have been vanquished
Crushed 'neath sandals of steel
The strength of our spirit
They're unable to kill


4. OF SPLENDOUR...

" The tides of the world
Woven as we decreed
The Romulian seed
Lives its age of Gold

But their covetous greed
will bring ruin foretold
To us Deities of old
They would do well to plead..."


5. Dementia Wears a Laurel Crown

Bright as the Sun in the Heavens
Thus shone Rome in her Prime
From Iberia to Hellás
Rules an Emperor Divine
Celtic Gauls, once Proud brittons
All Bend knee 'ere the throne
Wherein rules [the] Holy Genius
Praised in the Emperor of Rome

Yet a looming whisp of a cloud
Shrouds this Empire's noon
Soon this genius begat such insanity
Augury of its Doom
Here a man sings ill verse to a crowd
After burning their homes
There some other heeds solemn advice
From his favorite horse

Black as a Moonless Welkin
Was this Empire's Heart
Legions Raze the lands of the East
Tearing kingdoms apart
Babylon, Alexandria
Once proud realms of their own
Now their heads bow in Homage
To Rome's Laureled Crown

Yet a looming whisp of a cloud
Shrouds this Empire's noon
Soon this genius begat such insanity
Augury of its Doom
One in skins would parade as if Hercules
Came to Earth in his form
Yet another turned fools into martyrs
By the deeds of his scorn

Almighty enthroned madmen
Revered as gods made flesh
Brought Rome's splendor to the ground
Its name in foul deeds meshed

Treachery and war
Corrode Rome from inside
The Once spire of the world
Now sinks deep in the mire
Men seen as Gods
In their madness take toll:
A nation's own soul
Burning high in a pyre

The Once spire of the world
Now sinks deep in the mire

An Empire tumbles down
As Dementia Wears a Laurel Crown

Dead as the cultures they trampled
was this Empire's soul
New blood tainted with folly
(Long since gone was the old)
Now the eagles are fodder
Upon which wolves predate
Doomed [and] bereft of it's glory
Rome Will Fade!


6. WANING OF MIGHT, WAXING OF SPITE

[The Gods' lament:]

"Behold! they set our Temples alight
-By decree of Imperial Might-
They tear down the stones
Of our once sacred domes
And defile the effigy of gods once held high"

The gifts of Minerva they scorn
(See the arcane Serapeum burn
[Dying] embers where wisdom once glowed),
As new faith tramples old,
The breaking of an oath
That rome will e'er rue to withhold

[The Voice of Mars:]

" Their Betrayal I'll cleanse in their blood
And reign supreme in the age of this God"

[Jupiter's decree]

"Perjurers the lot,
Scourge of traitors foul and ingrate
Let my sentence be wrought
Let barbarian steel seal their fate"

[The Voice of Mars:]

"Mine own offspring I'll drown in their blood
Under guise of their slanderous God"

[Speaks Venus:]

" The pleasures of flesh once bestowed upon me
To be draped in the cloth of new false modesty
Coloring of grey the once red blushing of love
Some stale Ascetic virtue to buy favors above"

"Tell to the king that the carven hall is fallen in decay;
Apollo has no chapel left, no prophesying bay,
No talking spring. The stream is dry that had so much to say." *

Refrão

The age of our dusk
Is the breaking of your night
Though your treason we'll suffer,
We're avenged in your plight
See your splendour in ruin
Countless years of decay
(is the) Final gift of the Gods
Whom you swore to obey

[Minerva speaks:]

"Your contemptuous desertion
Spells the waning of our might
Gods once revered now demons
Held in fright

Your ignorant abandon
Marks the Waxing of our spite
Once children blessed
In wisdom's light
Now fools that cling to shadows
In the night"


7. THE FLIGHT OF TURUL

"Kiss the edge of Isten Kardja
Take your pledge and rise as King
Tonight rest your men for battle
For morrow you shall make them sing
For Rome's fall an eulogy,
Sung each time your blade does swing.
Westwards flies the bane of Rome
Carried swift on Turul's Wings..."


8. A DESTINY WROUGHT IN INFAMY (AN ILL EMPIRE CANNOT STAND)

Few'd have guessed such quaint allegiance,
side by side Roman and Goth
Once cruel foes, now bound as brethren
Such the twist their fate has wrought

A Destiny Emblazoned
Now unravels near its end

Perched upon the hills of Chalons
Aetius' troops prepare for war
Their number pales next to the splendour
Of Caesar's Proud legions of yore

Few they seem
Against their foe
- horsemen counting
thousands strong-
Neath the banner
of Attila,
gathers fierce
and mighty throng
Hordes of Franks
ride with the steppesmen
Rending havoc
Throughout Gaul
"The Scourge of God",
A wolf Amok
Makes a feast
On poor sheep's souls

Rome's sweetmeats
Ripe for the taking
(an ill Empire
Cannot stand)
Twixt such fate
Stood strong Aetius
Of Rome's Dead Kin
The finest man

Last seed of a nation's Splendour
whose stones stood on fratricide,
Aetius Thwarts Rome's foreseen Ruin
Driving off [the] Barbarian tide

The Huns charge uphill
Deep into roman ranks

The Gothic Allies
Flail deep Attila's flanks

Fate smiles to Rome
The field is theirs this day

The battle turned
The Huns driven away

Such carnage wrought
On the field rot man and horse

Among those to mourn
Lies Theoderic's shattered corpse

To the old gods
Prayed Aetius
(for such a grace
renewed his faith)
By his hand
an Empire saved
-at least reprieved-
of grim fate
But such is rome
fhat an emperor
quite less grateful
than one'd think
Paid his deed
With a stabwound
Thus in infamy
Rome would sink

As throughout its history
Rome ate its own kin.
As their last spark of Honor
Fell neath grievous sin
Their destiny emblazoned
Now moves towards its end:
From the East countless hordes
Upon Rome Descend...


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