1. OUR CASTLES HAVE FALLEN (ETERNAL WINTER)

A white veil as far as the eye can see...

The breath of the beast rages wild
The howling and the snarling
And our windows have broken
And our walls have fallen

The place we lived our quiet, sheltered lives
Surrounded by beauty and warmth
Knowledge and fantasy
Is gone

And we're no longer young
And we no longer feel the warmth
Yet we lie among the ruins
For at least it's safer than outside

The art that we created is scattered by the wind
Torn and opened, revealing mold inside

Which era is this? Which year is it?
I do not remember
The sounds my tongue makes
I don't recognize (screams like whispers...)

My poetry, soured in mouth
Filled with the poison of cowardice
Devoid of meaning


Enough! Bring down the ruins!
I cannot stand the half-light anymore

The nature landscape folds upon itself
There's nothing here but hot concrete.

The omphalos was never cut
The noble king still reigns

The poets have lied.

We live during the dying throes of the old world
Hoping for a few last peaceful years
Of a futile, narcissistic apex
For a cushion fall into oblivion

Will we fight at last?
Will we finally walk
Into the mouth of the beast?

The time has come.
The axe age, the wolf age is now.
The old world is dead.

The old world
The radiance, the glory
and the monsters that it created
Begone


2. MOIROLOI

(Instrumental)


3. IN THE DOMAIN OF THE DARK SUN

Βack in my youth, I built a graven image of my ideal self
Grisly and colossal, which I've destroyed
Its parts I put together and buried under a creek
That went into a river that fed a mighty tree

And I was content with myself and satisfied
For I thought that brave is the one that rebuilds
And that the beauty of the vision will be enough
To become one with it

I believed its time to turn the gaze outwards
To speak, to sing, to never stop
That I was full of might and wisdom
And yet, after a while, my body hurt each night
again like old times past...

I must fall back into my dreamworld of lightness and allure
In the lands of an infinite dreamscape I must ride again
To breathe fresh air, to taste sweet fruit, to see wonders of magnitude...

A gentle wave pushes my boat into the icy coast
Snow covered mountaints around, embracing me with warmth
Our fortress standing tall in the horizon, as it once was

I see my ancestors clad in mighty red and gold, awaiting on the shore
Yet, my hand goes through them as I approach
An eerie silence pervades as I return

Sorrowed I leave, heading into my solemn sanctuary
To breathe again the sweet air of longing and rememberance
Το read tomes of glory old, heroic songs of past deeds
To drink from magic waters and see the dance of the nymphs

As days, nights and epochs pass...

I awake from a procession of people in the night
They carry my sword which lights their road ahead
They stop outside my door and plead to me
And then I hear again the breath of the beast

A rumble from afar shakes the ground beneath
Cracking our fortress

I join them and we march into the horizon's end
The earth turns barren, a dark horde appears
Engulfing all that the eye can see
They charge into us with chilling screams and hateful wrath

I wage battle, killing thousands with my sword, they fall
Like ashen trees from a soft blow of the wind
Yet there, in my greatest hour of triumph, everyone vanishes
The cacophony of sound turns into defeaning silence

A black dawn rises from the mountains
Colors, shapes and forms become inversed
Words and meanings in my mind suddently alter
An infernal river that flows in my veins awakens

I am of the same blood as the dark sun
Ι see my anger and my pride mirrored on its radiance

A voice deep as time speaks.

"For millennia spread ideas created by the plight of the slave
Who in great numbers sought to destroy everything excellent in man
We let them be as long as they promised salvation in dreams
But when they set their eyes on the tangible, they acted

They have shed light on our temples and the foundation of our empires
They fed the beast from the south, until its breath has cracked our walls

The greatest truth we kept close, is that there is no God above
But it the destiny of those who are strong to become gods
Of those few among us, who shall rise through endless war

Who will gain the trust of the masses, so that they offer themselves
In the altar of our Becoming"

Must I lay fire upon these fields?
Must I leave them to waste and wither?

So much wild, untethered beauty.
Of my dreamland, split open and wailing
To which I do not even hold the keys for?


4. SOLITARY MIRRORS

"Yes, the Spring-times needed you deeply. Many a star must have been there for you so you might feel it. A wave lifted towards you out of the past, or, as you walked past an open window, a violin gave of itself. All this was their mission. But could you handle it? Were you not always, still, distracted by expectation, as if all you experienced, like a Beloved, came near to you? (Where could you contain her, with all the vast strange thoughts in you going in and out, and often staying the night.) But if you are yearning, then sing the lovers: for long their notorious feelings have not been immortal enough"

The light caresses the stone this morning
I open my eyes and remember
The vastness of our legacy
The gate is closed, the beast cannot be heard

Laughter resounds towards the clearing
A graceful sweep of a wind
Undecaying beauty, virile power
A scent of rebirth brought by the innocent

How sublime to hear my heart sing again
How glorious desires are, unrestrained by mediocre ideas
Flowing effortlessly like a furious torrent
And how even mightier when entwined

But behind every angel is a terror
The moment after the awe
Fleeing beauty, purity lost
Musn't you embrace it forever?

And behind every ecstatic memory there is an object
Behind the object there is a person
Who did not feel or want the same to you
Shouldn't all heavenly bliss be shared?

Behold instead an avatar created by your own projections
An eternal idol
Unburdened by difference and conflict
The ultimate self-love

"Junctions of light, corridors, stairs, thrones, spaces of being
Pollen of flowering godhead, tempests of storm-filled, delighted feeling
And, suddenly, solitary mirrors: gathering their own out-streamed beauty
Back into their faces again"


5. THE WANING / THE GREAT WHITE FORTRESS

There's a silence that cuts deep into the ancient stone
The pulse of the earth's song has dried up
The wind carries an echo that so soft to remind me
Of the ghosts of things unsaid and missing

Life can sustain itself through the winter that never ends
The force of denial is stronger than any bonfire
It warms the crops and provides plentiful game
It draws power from the dark part of the sun


And if our once glorious castles have fallen
Our gates and walls stand again as high as ever
We've rebuilt them stone by stone
With the invisible mortar of eternal progress


And the striking of the anvil is ever-present
It fills our hearts with safety and assurance
Mightier than any music of the earth could
And drowns the screams of the dying outside

A ruinous, rotten smile
The burden of complicity
Broken memories, inverted self

Welcome a silent death, with absent shame
Surrounded by opulence spoiled
I close my eyes again

~
A breath, a whisper,
A note, a melody
An utterance, a scream

To be loved, to be seen, to be embraced
To be more than a phantom
Hiding in the alley behind the noise
A great future planned

The black cloud of every morning
My weary steps, cast aside
Casting spells in magnetic scrolls
An ornate tapestry woven

The all devouring monster of failure
Dressed in its finest attire, returned
I shall be a small king in the kingdom of the eye-eyed
A graceful dancer among the savage

But eons have passed and the spells have waned
A violin left unattended screams in the ugliest voice
I've brought you down and still I haven't risen
And the dark sun stains our bones the same

The voice from the deep speaks again.

"Α black emperor like us is what you always yearned to become
You remembered your youth, a stricken weakling seeking for revenge
And have not dropped your sword in the lands of the subconscious


Now hear me, those of us inside the walls are of the same blood
Despite your meager quibbles, you serve it with your mere existence
Heed the call of the blood, or remain insignificant
Submit to the creed of the dominion of superior life

Heed now my prophecy, the wolf age has come
It shall not be winter, but endless drought and fire
Millions of wretched will come from the south, and all men of power
Will hold behind our mighty castles
The Great White Fortress will never be defeated"

A gate is opened, so high it reaches to the skies
A wall around it that goes as far the eye can see
Multitude of guards in golden shining armor
Inside, a procession of thousands can be seen

I turn and walk away towards where the sun sets.

If that which cannot die, doesn't allow the new one to be born
I would prefer to die on its place instead
Than to live an eternal lie

Let my name be known throughout the ages as the traitor
Let every memory of mine erased as if I wasn't born


6. COLLAPSING

(Instrumental)


7. A NEW ROAD AHEAD (BONUS TRACK FROM PART 2)

Τhe ground I step on is burning in scorched heat
Vultures fly in the sky above
The earth is shaking in a rhythmic chant
But the sun above is true

I thought I'd die alone outside of the masters' fortress
Yet all my friends awaited me outside
For they have been braver than I ever was
And they have given me another chance

We have traveled among imaginary landscapes
We have seen our adolescent dreams get crushed
In this meaningless world
We've been set on a course to submit and let go
And yet we still stand together

Τhere must be something greater to it all
Fear of death has made us turn against life
Embittered tyrants devouring the world itself
The voice of the conqueror calls for more and more
But we have discovered a different kind of light

Once we saw ourselves as the universe looking back on itself
It's true that we are special, but what do we make of it?
So many questions still left unanswered, visions not yet come to pass
We won't abandon them in the hands of usurpers

Our spirits soar above reaching for the stars
For it's not us, but our truth that is eternal and divine

When the world comes crashing down
Together with its facades and its deceit
We realize that there's nothing left
But to create our own meaning in the time we have left

And all we have is each other
To love, to trust and to be inspired by
To fight together against the dying of the light
To become what we dreamed when we were young