1. DIMMED THROUGH THE SMOKE

The weight of loss is bearing down upon me
Time, the river, flows beyond all of its eddies
Unstoppable force, immovable motion, defenseless we are... Succumb
Joy is but a lightning strike, the rest are clouds of grey
Wind carries memories like dust to collect only on the furniture in our minds
Life... and death, I know only sorrow, as those around me are whisked away by the breeze of inevitabilty
Water and time, drowning in a sea of what's next
Memory flickering, the only truth is to dream what impulses teach us
Raw emotion pours into the melodrama of what our brain creates
But then, awakening, memory fading like ghosts in the fog
Like movement in darkness our eye tries to see but there's only a flicker
Now, stand and try to live. Try to find the joy of a million sovereign moments
One by one like tracks on a train that never stops, a dreamer who always sleeps
The leaf holds to the branch by fibrous strands
Struggling to survive, it too falls victim to wind, it too falls victim to time, it too will wither and die
It too will only find joy in its past
Struggle if you will to survive. Try not to be swayed by the breeze; time will claim its prize
The seconds the minutes the hours the days the weeks and the months and the years
Time is measured in aeons not human life- Insignificance is man and our hopes
Earth is made of rock and stone not flesh and bone, and when life returns to oblivion, rock and stone
will remain and reign. And should the sun explode it will be welcomed by rock and stone not flesh and bone
And recylced through cold space
Joy is but a lightning strike, the rest are clouds of grey
Wind carries memories like ash after the ruins are smoldering
The smell...of smoke fills my nose. Again I can feel the wind at my back
Rain, appears from the grey trying to mix the ash with the dirt
A bird flies by, caught in a daydream
Moving the sky, the sound is obscured by the breeze
A moment in time, a motion that's captured
Gently it fades, an illusion that dims through smoke


2. STANDING ON THE PRECIPICE

The cold reaches into my bleak existence
Grabbing my scars, I alone can feel the presence
Or so it has been fortold
I stand upon the precipice
Feel the wind blow my hair
The mirror defies me
The shadow envelops my spirit
What will I become ?
The gods themselves have damned me to my fate
Of which I'm told that I was born too late
Perhaps the fire in my chest will flicker out
And then I'd fly to any shore to escape my presence here
Oh shadow warrior try to fly
And then what haunts you will surely die
But if you go, who will fulfill what's prophesied ?
Fly... I fly... I flee... Away
Jehovah lies crying, yet mountains move
Every step a spiral
They're hunting, destroying
The maelstrom... it churns
The elders know not, yet the gods laugh
The mirror defies me
The shadow envelops my spirit
What have I become ?
The prophecy is fulfilled
I am vengeance borne


3. THANATOPSIS

When last I sit upon this dull chair
I watch the movement of the celestial eternity
And provoke my final thoughts upon the darkened night
With chilled breath, the spirit burns my throat, my heart, my thought
The wind is longer at my back
The fog is my bereaving shroud
When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall
And breathless darkness make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart
Go forth, under the open sky
Listen to Nature’s teachings
From Earth and her waters, and the depths of air comes a still voice
Wait a few days, and the all-beholding sun shall see no more
Within the cold ground, where thy pale form was laid
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist thy image
Requiring breath, you soak in what still remains, knowing that at the cusp of the void
There is still a sense of longing, a tired hope, a need for a beyond
Play that against the knowing that eternity is an illusion
Being is like that of oak, strength, weakened, wrought with decay
Height, shortened, truncated by time, beauty withered, years bring dust
But still I stand, and nature shan’t claim a price until reckoning
Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth, to be resolved to earth again
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements
When thy remains rest buried or your countenance and body are ash
With chilled breath, the spirit burns my throat, my heart, my thoughts
The only trace is memory and even that fades
Even that dies


4. HUMANITY (THE TRUE ART)

Putrid dreams of lucid flesh
Morbid scenes of testate rest
When the light of the day star shines your rule has ended
When the final dawn arrives I am still man
Lurid rays of consciousness
Languished ebb of sovereignty
Woe to the shadow-bearer, for impure is the soul imbued with frost
And the god dost hold the hammer
Children are we, juxtaposed betwixt the ethereal imperium
Have no problem of evil
Question the watchmaker's masterwork.
The fools of time will count the strokes but upon the day's hand, death lies
Thy sculptor... thy creator... thy doom
Halogen stars far away, the gods themselves stare down
Ignite their laughter
Created in their image, but from whence did that image come?
Humanity is the true art and danger is in nature
Stand above heaven, eyes lifted to aeons beyond, where galaxies shiver
Grip the paradox and shake it to the ground
Where life still dwells, we perish not
And as I observe what remains of this vision
I scowl at what compliance with tradition has allowed
And predict a new future to rise


5. SOVEREIGN MOMENTS

(Instrumental)


6. THE APEX OF HUMAN SORROW

Call me the raven or call me the fog
But when I am reborn you’ll hear naught but a whisper
I damn the incompetence and complacency
That has allowed blood to enter the stagnant water in our wells
I condemn all who oppose the individual
And an effort to comply with thoughtless tradition
Indoctrination through poor allegiances
Kept not with nature, but with greed
I reject your wealth
I reject your soulless attempts to integrate
Vengeance burns my heart and though my fate has been rebuked
I alone am the bringer of shade
The shadow shall envelope all
Whereupon this planet we exist the planet shall exist despite us
We may destroy what we have yet what we have is larger than all
But time has run short
So burn, burn down your temples
Burn down your citadels
Burn down your ideals
And tremble at the weight of your denied expectations
I have stolen the hammer and put god on his knees
In chains I left the angels, their swords lay rusted and broken
The river has flooded, blood runs through the fields
Pitch and ash all around, naught is left but ruin
Sulphur and tears mix as human suffering reaches its apex
And as nightfall grasps the landscape
Respite is out of reach


7. SHADE OF MEMORY

It returns, the memory
I feel it, coursing through my veins
I pour a glass, and drink to life but dream of death, a kiss from beyond
My dreams are iron, but my hopes are fog, my quest to deny what fate creates
It returns, the memory, I feel it coursing through my veins
It is lost, through the smoke, fading beneath the waves
Cool, I feel the northern breeze
Thin, the air it chills my bones, yet I find a shelter in these thoughts
Bleed, bleed out your dream
Curse, curse your own name
Shriek, against the sky- the clouds only bring change
I reserve but a shade of memory, I will destroy by my hand
I rip to shreds what you think is real and reveal the emptiness behind
The womb shall reveal the blade to pierce the soul of iniquity
In bringing death and bringing hurt, vacuous existence ends in pain
To breathe life into the empty, to seek spiritual in the unholy
I try to find the right path to salvation, but why try to save what should not be saved ?
Pull what you will from what’s left as the ice still peppers the grass
Rebuild if you will, but your fate is lost in the cycle
The weight of loss is bearing down upon me
Tragically twisted, dead, denied to the world
Joy was but a lightning strike and now it’s whispered away
The smell of decay fills my nose- I can feel the wind carry my fog away
Birds, still in the sky, break through the grey, endlessly flapping


8. BLACK NEW AGE

Dressed in black with a pale expression,
I attack the world with extreme satisfaction,
I am the master, never more to be enslaved,
Broken free from the chains that restrained my needs,
There is time, but no time to waste,
There are rules, but they seem to fade,
I am the master of my own salvation,
A black cloud of obscure creation,
This new foundation, a new generation,
Bottled up on misanthropic hate,
A revolution, a new constitution,
From real hatred, rather than blind fate,
This new foundation, a new generation,
Bottled up on misanthropic hate,
Rebels in the face of conformity,
Founders of the black new age,
This is my life - This your hell - This is my exhibition - And it makes me well - What you can't stomach, you no longer can stop,
You must eat your hatred or choke it up.
All things must be broken down,
Burned to ashes, bombed to the ground,
A process og purification, where old mistakes are cremated,
No carrier of infection will survive,
No corrupted thoughts shall sound,
The new empire has found its ground.