1. LAND OF HOPE

(Instrumental)


2. ANTIGONE

Behold crossing through the city gates
Beyond walls too narrow for her fate
Comes Antigone, as told by
These old rhymes

A brother that they chose to disregard
And nothing more than an offended heart
She doesn't fear to defy
Decrees nor crimes

No mourning for this deceased
Soon the prey of ravenous beasts
Excruciating sight of flesh
Mundane frailty is all that is left

An echo of these noble lines
One more time

Honor this mortal corpse
A veil of dust on the dead one
Hades wants equal laws
Two of us whom Death has won

Summon the inner voice
The city of stone and order
Love is the daimon's choice
Undergoes a tremor

Defiance worthy of praise
Sent her alive to the grave

An ideal of fortitude
The one who never bends
Feeds its heart of solitude
Is either way condemned

Such are the radical deeds
And their tragic outcomes
Ethical beacons we need
At the forefront

A glimpse of the light that still shines
Across time

Honor this mortal corpse
A veil of dust on the dead one
Hades wants equal laws
Two of us whom Death has won

Summon the inner voice
The city of stone and order
Love is the daimon's choice
Undergoes a tremor

We don't know that we're blind
Nor the harm that we inflict
Without great figures by our side
To guide us on this journey


3. OF VOLITION

We cannot strip off from
Our emotionnal chaos
As if it was borrowed clothes
Covering our true self

This is what entirely speaking
The actions to which we commit
That we soon merely drape
In a cloak of wit

Whoever thinks he is speaking
By the free degree of his will
Or keep silent, or do anything
Is living a daydream

Elation or disarray
Passions are the potent forces leading us along the way
Within this mayhem
Reason is solace but doesn't have empire over them

Chaos, the mighty
Cradle of causality ruling over reality
Kairos, the right time
To embrace disorder in order to sire the sublime

Our free will is so frail
Volition is but a judge
Lifting more and more the veil
On what drives us

What we seek through reason
Is only to understand
The sole way to craft freedom
Within our hands

Speaking out for justice
Observing the silence of the wise
By the conscious degree of the will
Is living with open eyes

Elation or disarray
Passions are the potent forces leading us along the way
Within this mayhem
Reason is solace but doesn't have empire over them

Chaos, the mighty
Cradle of causality ruling over reality
Kairos, the right time
To embrace disorder in order to sire the sublime


4. LE RADEAU DE LA MEDUSE

Ahead of her fellow ships
The Medusa strayed from its path
First secession in a long series
With a dire aftermath

Stranded far from shore
The castaways escaped on crafts
Some carried by running oars
Others on a hastily built raft

Like the waves of the sea beaten by the winds
Crashing in their course above the abyss
They'd be tormented in a thousand ways between
The boards and the sails of the infamous machine

Among the woеs that struck them
And were worthy to rеlate
Was to remember those men who'd put them there and sealed their fate

The raft is hauled by the small fleet
Helpless and exposed to deceit
They dropped the ropes at the first fright
Breaking the bond that kept them tied

Maudits par leur nom leurs visages changés en pierre
Comme si la gorgone avait paru devant eux
L'hostilité primitive sur eux se resserre
Sous les plus sinistres cieux

Twice doomed by mankind
Exiled on the seas
These branded soldiers were just out of their cells
Caught up by the spite of relentless furies
Once more prisoners of hell

Thirst had soon devoured them, redoubled by the sun's rays
Legs and feet were skinned, salt water eating them away
The counting of the drowned taken by despair and storms
Paced the days spent on this narrow and precarious floor

Hunger had them slice the dead flesh of a former friend
Feeding with dismay on this omen of their coming end
Thrown into the sea, the wounded gave a tragic sight
Yet all this was none compared to the violence unleashed at night

One by one nocturnal madness made them slaves
Echoes of the fury of the waves
Primeval fear filled them with sedition's breath
Rising toward them from the ocean depths

Like the waves of the sea beaten by the winds
Crashing in their course above the abyss
Out of a hundred remained only fifteen
Saved from the ordeal of the infamous machine

Although the woes struck again
These living wrecks back on the earth
Remember those other men
Who rescued them, restored their worth


5. ROOTS AND LEAVES

What could be possibly true
For all knowledge is incomplete?
How relative is every value
Making any norm doomed to defeat

Shall we grow in the dark
With beliefs only for guides?
Rejecting them like old bark
Ever received deceitful hides

Soon the bitter season of decline
Will take away the regrets
Like fallen leaves covering the ground

Praises go to outgrowing oneself
All praxis entails harmful effects
Can one be driven by a dual will?
A fulfilled life but devoid of guilt

Now condemned to chase conflicting stakes
The salience of suffering stains the pride of the human race

We shed a new skin every year, getting strong
We forget about fear, nothing's wrong
Pushing all our roots into the depths
Expanding all our springs with more breadth

Driving us deeper into evil
Dwelling closer to storms in new heavens

The more we absord light, with higer thirst
The more we increase our fearsome lust
Aspirations to heights mostly implies
Reaching at the same time the lows of vice

We can't even throw away our values and beliefs
There would be nothing left of us
We can't even cut apart our desires and needs
We wouldn't even be alive

Blame is laid on repressing oneself
Virtue doesn'tensure helpful effects
The relentless raise of awareness
Gradually unveils the onepremise

Now condemned to chase conflicting stakes
The salience of suffering stains the pride of the human race

It remains when all certainties fade
The science of joys and pains imbues all life with grace


6. VAGUE A L'ÂME

(Instrumental)


7. STRIDER

Let me tell you my story, my young fellows
Sheltered by this new moon night
I was not always this broken and old
My veins have once throbbled with life

A strange day came whan i learned by chance
That each bit of my flesh and bones
Did not belong to me alone, but to a man
Who had claimed me as his own

So, I raced, swifter than any of my peers
In longer strides
Every day that dawned on my serving years
Until the fatal ride

Wheather we are hindered by chains
Or a burden under which others bend
Our nature is one and the same
We run forward until the end

My unfortunate story does not end there
A broken horse, almost dead
I've kept on toiling for someone else's welfare
Still standing on my four legs

Soon the day will come when i'll be led apart
And each piece of my flesh and bones
Will no longer belong to me, nor to one man
But to any beast on the prowl

This is how i will die and then disappear
Under the moon
My owner's buried body, covered with tears
Will be of no use

Wheather we are hindered by chains
Or a burden under which others bend
Our nature is one and the same
We run forward until the end


8. PANTA RHEI

To forget the law of constant change
Is like swimming against the tide
All passes, nothing remains
Yet our identity fictions abide

Here we're unable to move
Drowned in a maelstrom of pretense
Here Zeno's turtle proves
That stillness is not a lasting defense

Although we've set an internal order
To which we try to subdue others
Our Parcae are still blind
And they claim no sire but the endless night

Far upstream, the source takes shape
In a dream or an escape

Sometimes a narrow, meandering maze
Finally widening to embrace
The horizon as a whole

Calm and warmed by the sun's gleam
Then turning to a rushing stream
Ending in a waterfall

We see attributes and their exact inverse
Rivers are called by many names
Even if their natures seem to be diverse
Water remains to stay the same

Gently, but without a moment's respite
Drawn by the flow of time
Drop by drop, it all becomes a part
Of a future fully unknown

There's a before to everything
But nothing like a beginning
Going further onward
Is merging more with the great course

Soon downstream, in the watershed
All the rivers will coalesce

Sometimes a narrow, meandering maze
Finally widening to embrace
The horizon as a whole

Calm and warmed by the sun's gleam
Then turning to a rushing stream
Ending in a waterfall


9. A DREAM OF WILDERNESS

In the days of yore
The spirits roamed the earth and sky
Teeming with meaning
A world of gods and magic rites

Then knowledge gave laws
To all as well as means to rule
Creatures divided into
Masters and soulles tools

Disavowing the altars
Of shrines built by human hand
This is where we take shelter
In a dream of wild homeland

They go their own way under
The aegis of an alliance
Behind the ruthless struggle
A fable of beastly choirs

Dive in the woods, the ivy is starting to coil
Round your feet, rising up from the soil

Out of time, in this liminal space
One must get lost to discover unknow ways

We are there, on the edge of an ontological shift
Lingering on the threshold
To release or to tighten the grip
On the wonders we behold

Or shall we now drain the sea?
To find something left to dig up underneath?

Grieve because never the world
Will be enchanted again
Two lost paths clearing a third
One last nostalgic lament

The conquering lords have reigned
The gods and magic are dead
Rejoice because what remains
Is a whole new tale to sell

BONUS

10. OLD FRENCH SONG

(Instrumental)


11. LE RADEAU DE LA MEDUSE (FRENCH VERSION)

Au devant des autres navires
La Méduse avait quitté sa route
Sécession présageant le pire
Une Désastreuse déroute

Echoués au large
Les naufragés abandonnèrent le bâteau
Certains portés par des rames
D'autres sur le funeste radeau

Tels les vagues de la mer, battue par les vents
Se brisant dans leur course au-dessus de l'abîme
Ils devaiеnt être l'objet de millе tourments
Entre les planches et les voiles de la terrible machine

Parmi les malheurs qui affligèrent
Ces infortunés humains
Souvenez-vous que c'était leurs frères
Qui avaient scellé leur destin

Le radeau remorqué vers le rivage
Est dépendant du soutient illusoire
D'alliés qui larguèrent les cordages
Rompant ce lien garant d'espoir

Maudits par leur nom, leurs visages changés en pierre
Comme si la Gorgone avait paru devant eux
L'hostilité primitive sur eux se resserre
Sous les plus sinistres cieux

Deux fois condamnés, par deux fois bannis
Ces soldats flétris exilés sur les mers
Rattrapés par la rancune d'implacables furies
A nouveau prisonniers de l'enfer

La soif les dévora bientôt, redoublée par les dards du soleil
Leur peau écorchée par l'eau salée les privant de sommeil
Le compte des noyés enlevés par la détresse et les tempêtes
Rythmait les jours passés sur ce plancher étroit et précaire

La faim leur a fait trancher la chair de leurs compagnons morts
Se nourrir de ce consternant augure de leur propre sort
Jetés à la mer, les blessés offraient un spectacle absurde
Tout ceci n'étant rien comparé au déchaînement de violence nocturne

Un par un la folie fit d'eux ses esclaves
Frêles échos de la fureur des vagues
La peur primordiale soufflant la forfaiture
Remontant des profondeurs obscures

Tels les vagues de la mer, battue par les vents
Se brisant dans leur course au-dessus de l'abîme
Ils ne restèrent que quinze sur bien plus de cent
Sauvés du supplice de la terrible machine

Bien que les maux de prirent pas fin
Pour ces épaves affligées de douleur
Souvenez-vous de leurs frères humains
Qui sauvèrent leur vie, leur rendirent leur valeur