1. BIRTHED FROM A CHRYSALIS OF ICE

Pulsing and writhing in embryonic Aurora
A gleaming dragon new-born

Birthed from a chrysalis of ice

Its lair burrowed in the highest icy peak
Watching man spew shadow and pain
A winter serpent seasoning into adulthood
From the ice it was spawned and for the ice it will reign

The sky glittering hail with its passing
Returning to its haunt after glimpsing war
This species it shares this world with
Destined to destroy the realm and more

Now legacy and lineage will be incinerated by blue fire
As the dragon takes its flight, flapping its wings, ascending higher
Travelling further to the encroaching dominion of men

Unleashing an arctic furnace, ensuring they meet their end


2. IN THE MOONLIGHT

A nocturnal peregrination, a moonlit wandering

Preternatural fear provoked, an uneasy lingering sense
Heart beats like a mechanical drum, a vicious confrontation in sight
To meet an end in rabid frenzy, prey to a stalker of the night

Metamorphosis and mutilation leaves a bleeding and butchered
Mauled by malevolence, by a flesh and blood engine of wrath
Gore spreads like crimson roots in the soft and falling snow
Causality of the winter moon’s phosphorus conjuring glow

Slaughtered in the moonlight
Devoured by indomitable feral will

A death becomes a number becomes a story they will tell
Of a trail in the woods where those rumoured have fell
Ripped by yellowed teeth, blood pooled in icy sleet
Human meat for a beast, full moon shining at its peak

In the moonlight
They go missing


3. SHELTER WITHIN A WHALE CARCASS

The campaign stole years from us, the enemy fought tirelessly
We conquered but lost so many, a fruitless victory
Now the blistering journey home, from icy edges of frontier
Exhausted, wounded, caught in a blizzard, looks like the end is near

Alas fortune favours us, destiny marks us
For as we blindly forge, we discover a whale carcass

So near the ocean sobers, we’ve circled and wandered in vain
Tonight’s haven however, a carrion tomb, within we nurse our pain
And so we carve and we chisel blubber and hunks of flesh
To gore ourselves a cocoon and be saved from the brink of death

The blizzard howls and moans like a beast desperate for its prey
Beating at the walls tonight until the break of day
But at this twilight we are safe, within our rotting haven
This encounter proving fate has deemed our lives worth saving


4. SKY FORTRESS

The prince has matriculated
And been rewarded
With his very own kingdom
Overlooked by a sky fortress

A magnificent pillar high above the sea of clouds
Where he can gaze the people of his shepherd
A floating tower, sentinel of altruism and safeguard
For the adolescent royal to prosper safe and unscarred

And maybe I could join him too
And together we could view
The dawn of us all from a legendary past
The forming of ego, from where war is cast
The rise and fall of empires and men
The survivors rebuilding to do it again

And we would see it all
From the sky fortress


5. WINTER BLADE (OF THE WAR WRAITH)

The steel blue sky streaked by lightning strikes
As the apparition reforges his sword of frost
The tundra winds echo triumphant as the winter weapon mends
Now the icy blade gleams and the wraith wars once again

An unlikely protagonist, the saviour none envisioned
Under no banner he marches, above the tainted works of men
Heart wreathed with contrition, he resolves to save the weak
Conflict for the ages, against overwhelming odds, outlook bleak

And this is the last imposition of his will
To forge amends for his sins and remain fighting still
With a blade clutched in his hand, he rides out on his saddle
To redeem himself in war and slay his foe in battle

Wielding the sword, he now defends those in another life he condemned
The wraith fighting on their side and protecting all of humankind


6. CHARIOTS OF FROST

Spurred with stalactites, spinning wheels extend permafrost
A sonic aurora blast from war horn, declaration, the battle begins
And on this hallowed arctic battlefield who dares wins

And two titanic armies clash
Circled by chariots of frost
Headed by deer snorting icy fire
Soundtracked by cataclysmic choir

Winter apparitions contact and cleave, wounds bleeding sleet
A northern lit sky tears open, hailing on this apocalyptic soap opera
Countless bodies fall, retreating back into tundra, into slumber
And for the victorious let there ring a brief rolling thunder

Now drowsiness creeps, sea-saw lazily to sleep, like snowflakes falling from a mountain steep
And both victor and slain, return to glacial graves


7. THE BELLOWING COLOSSUS SILHOUETTED WITHIN THE BLIZZARD

Tundra winds howl ferocious, hail shattering down
Can’t glimpse what lays ahead, but I can hear the sound

An enormous ancient cry
Resounding through the winter storm

Now through the frosted tempest I begin to see
A gargantuan shape lumbering towards me

A bellowing colossus
Silhouetted within the blizzard

The earth does shake and the avalanches fall
As the ageless giant moves within his squall
Unsure if near-death vision or a mythic sight
In goliath shadow, there’s no use to run or fight
Though of my presence he seems not to notice
And so luck favours for I’m frozen with hypnosis

Walking forward in his kingdom, extending his glacial reign
It's hoped he’s a guardian, not a harbinger of pain


8. THE FATE OF THE WOLF IS TO DIE IN THE SNOW

(Instrumental)