1. A MURDER OF CROWS...

(Instrumental)


2. ...AND A COLDER BREED

Harken children of reverence it speaks,
A wakening call, a thundering voice!
In the face of fatality grown weak,
With the salvation of this world at hand rejoice

Era of indignity, condemn this age of atrophy
Consuming body and soul, neither no longer whole
Gaunt from strife and burden lain over broken backs
Still bearing the spoken word, no longer to be heard

Behold the whores clinging to existence's jagged edge
Leeches on the godless who never swore no pledge
Now grasping at glass saints, all under the same curse

The demise of innocence, betrayed by the devout
Raped and battered by man, and by the sword snuffed out
Twisted fingers point to you in guilt to be immersed

Follow the waning pulse as it over compassion leaps
In darkness deep must seek, wherein the beast sleeps

Cast out the last of warmth, make way for unchained verity
Bleed all lingering doubt, seize the thorn and shed from eye to see

Era of prosperity, celebrate the age of clarity
No pity saved for slaves, benevolence dug all their graves
Revere the dead and dying reversed for kin and clan
Rise, never fall, and above all you must stand tall

The verdict reads clear for everyone to hear,
To ascend awake and rally by the austere
Purged festering hearth, quickening the seed

It calls for ruthlessness, surpassing that of fiends,
For all to secure this creed by any means
The world await as you bring forth a colder breed


3. HEARTS BLOOD

Anticipating the onset of this night
Oh! to be bathed in sweet pale light
A craving so hard to shed
When the wolves share tales and the moon hangs dead

Through a blinding haze of red
Unleashed from all bonds, by hunger led
For beast and man will merge
And be lost deep within delightful urge

Dusk comes with scent and a chill
The misty dark brings the taste for the kill
From welkin this gift did descend
Old silver sphere such treasured friend

Still yearning to be freed
To quench this thirst much prey must bleed
Raging within the soul
Come profane lust lets again be whole

Hearts blood
Yes! Hearts blood

Can no longer stop what has come
No halting the tide, no spell made undone
To see this hunt be fulfilled
Retribution instilled with each drop spilled

Driven onwards in the waking sleep
Anchored grip in marrow deep
Eclipse of humanity soon to have passed
Boon of the night collected at last

It shifts it turns, it sears and burns
It haunts in dreams, it yearns in screams
It knows the need, to drink and feed
It comes to life, through death and strife

Many moons to have this night again
Trapped in flesh and act the sane
Forever insatiable this mare will unfold
The end of this tale yet to be told

Betrothed to the dying gloom
Its hearse daybreak it arrived to soon
Lost! fleeting benediction
Morning has come familiar affliction

Hearts blood
Yes! Hearts blood


4. ED

Min troskap den skjenkes deg,
På mitt blod min ed
Mitt vot vil aldri svikte,
Min vilje ei forgå
Her ved din side står,
Rak rygg, hodet hevet
Malt for krig og klar til kamp,
ta min hånd din hammer
Vi meg hvor vårt banner plantes,
Armeres og forskanses
Med blikket rettet mot vårt mål,
Se min rygg ditt skjold

Så spill nø dine sanger på
Strenger uten anger,
Som hvasse egger slipt av hat

Når veggene til grunne faller,
Og torden utemt over gjaller,
Vil vi mektig skride frem

Vi sammen stridt mot strømmen trår,
Hvorhen vår svarte skjbne rår,
Sammen, flettet, sterkt som stål

Vårt banner over alt skal ruve for all
Et majestetisk skue,
En hyllest til vår grimme arv

La meg mette din sult og slukke din tørst
La meg lege dine sår og ruste din arm
La meg dele din sorg og bære din bør
La meg kjempe våre slag og være den som blør

Tiden er nå kommet, for å høste det vi har sådd
Ingen hvile, på oss, før vardens topp er nådd

Her ved din side står,
Rak rygg, hodet hevet
Malt for krig og klar til kamp,
Ta min hånd din hammer
Dette er mitt testament,
Over ditt fundament
Ved denne ed mitt ord,
Hør min røst ditt horn!


5. THE GREAT LEVIATHAN

In another time, another place
The serpents rode the sky in grace
Now the ghost-lands whisper a call I must heed,
Dark is the hour, dark is our need

We've read in blood, we've scryed in bone
The coming of false light spelled out in stone
Now the dreamer must awaken and quake this land
To shatter the chains wrought by the pale hand

Ignorant feet now tread our ancient soil,
It beckons my raging blood to boil
I must cut the rot from all our hearts,
And banish their taint with my dark arts

Beyond haunted shores and the forests so deep,
Taloned and scaled by the one I seek
Into mountains of cold and clouds ripe with thunder
To stir the leviathan in eternal slumber

When mighty starlight scars the sky with brutal flames
And divinity comes for me
In another time, another place
The serpents rode the sky with grace
Now the ghost-lands whisper a call I must heed
Dark is the hour, dark is our need

Through fire and ice, through darkness and blight,
My journey ends with him
The Great Leviathan of the Northern Sky


6. BENEATH BLACK WATERS

Alone, alone, so alone
Beneath black waters where I'm damned to roam
In my murky prison I rot
Drowning in this hell they all forgot

The first to forsake my blood
And shed it to all the waves
Upon my silt throne I am he
Crowned King of cuts

Alone, alone, still alone
Beneath black waters where I always roam
I fade at dusk, and rust at dawn
no one, ever, for me did mourn

Withered memories of a clear sky
Suspended here I cannot die
Bitter dreams for one day to sail
Into cold oblivious veil

A lonely shade I am
Misery my only company
Bitter-sweet consort she is
Beneath black waters

From the depths I rise,
To prey on your worst fears
I will cherish your eyes,
And drink from all your tears

Now this is my fate,
And it will be your torment
I breathe in your hate,
This is my punishment

Beneath black waters


7. VICTORIOUS, I

One life time has never been enough for me
I have set my hungry eyes on infinity
Against the frost broken free from frigid ground
And I swear I shall never again be bound

Forged from the crucible devoid of remorse
Hammered and honed, turned keen from coarse
Tempered in the flames brought forth by my ire
Fuelled by the loathing for those who'll steal my fire

Impervious, Unconquerable
With deadly pride in each end denied
I am the embodiment of defiance!
Verging on immortality
To strive for and become
Rigid, steadfast, Victorious I!

Striding through each endless battlefield
This prize, my life, I will never yield
To challenge my existence, not coerced by fear
So formidable a foe will never, I know, appear

Every bearing set against the raging storms
To traverse the arduous path, shunning all the norms
Following this road I've paved with broken dreams
All enemies remain in ashes and dust it seems

One truth so hopeless to deny
They say; time finds us all
Yet as the sands run out
I shall not fall!

Come end, come bane and scourge,
All envoys to the grave
Far from reach of raven-claws,
Such savage scythes, for me they crave

Impervious, Unconquerable
With deadly pride in each end denied
I am the embodiment of defiance!
Verging on immortality
To strive for and become
Rigid, steadfast, Victorious I!

"Chosen of war who makes a battle
with great iron and fire,
be with peace and follow me away
from this enterprise of futility
Set as the jewelled crown of most
and every man's desire,
through the conquest of life obtained
though at my gates all must stand with humility."

Come death, dusk and demise
All heralds of the tomb
Like a reed to the reapers will,
I bow to my doom


8. THE GATEKEEPER

There is a man
He stands alone
There is a man
He stands like stone

Cruel words that make all dark tales
Written, and composed by tragedy
Truly, without flaw, all sung in wails

Sought by the revenants of dead bliss
Treasured by the poets lust for woe
Alas, each time,
Sealed with eternity's kiss

Burned deep by the touch of first frost
Withered from winters cold embrace
Reflections, echoes,
Of all that once was lost

By winds that on desperation pray
From storms that churn relentlessly
Emblazoned passion now swept away

It unfurls here,
Grim fates in the making
Fade and disappear,
Joy wrought only for breaking

Seasons they come no more
Reasons they matter no more
Every day, same shade of grey
Never to be freed

With a thousand stones to weigh one down
The key in front of iced-shut eyes
And no where to be found
Dulled by these endless pins
To numb the pain
No kind awakening,
No relief from this horrid domain

Life-song torn away, gone
Bereft by the damage done
Lain barren and cold, frigid and old
Never to be freed


9. SNOWFALL

(Instrumental)


10. I LY AV LYSET

Alene er du kommet,
Til tåkerikets haller
Vi, som ei har livets pust,
Er dem du kaller

Velkommen tapte vandrer
Din reise ebder her
Evig skal du tjene,
I de dødes hær

Vi er de som går i ly av hyset
Din jammer nå over,
Minnene fortrengt
Trusen år i hvile,
Lenkene er sprengt

Vi er de som går i ly av lyset

En iskald vind som uler,
Med magisk røst, en sang
Vogger oss i stille søvn,
For aller siste gang

Vi er de som går i ly av lyset

To be continued...