1. |
The Reflection
06:32
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I love you
My love
When I first looked into your eyes
I knew what destiny was mine
Mama always told me
Never trust a pretty face
Well I must be the king of liars
Cause mine has every noble grace
My reflection
Is perfection
I wouldn’t wanna be
With anyone but me
There is no cup more pleasing
No other name to which I bend
Your world is pale and fleeting
Eternally I shine undimmed
Beauty
Is all I can see
Every perfection is reflected in me
Flawless
Without stain a sign
That I demand worship for I am
Divine
What should I care for virtue?
What goodness is there but my own?
What should I care for the truth?
What else exists that I should know?
You will not bring an end to
This my transfiguration
I am a god ascendant
I will outshine the heavens
I’ll bathe my hands in your blood
You will not tell me who to be
My marble skin is untouched
By these the scarlet tears you weep
No womb could contain this greatness
Uncreated I remain alone
Without equal without obligation
Your meaningless lives are mine to dispose
Beauty
With wrath of the beast
These are the politics of identity
Flawless
None can compare
Look on my countenance ye and
Despair
I did it all for love
What have I become?
I am not a monster
I am my own deepest dream
I go running to the forest
Back to where this all began
I kneel down beside the waters
And with longing I look in
But what I see now
Is not what once was
What is this cruel joke?
Who is this twisted fiend?
Beauty
Or am I the Beast?
Is this nightmare or prophecy?
Flawless
Or am I depraved?
I see my reflection and I am
Afraid
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2. |
Senescence
05:28
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Is this a dream?
Not what it seems?
Who could this be?
An old man
Sitting by the wayside
Beckons me to
Come and pay heed
He would give
His unfailing wisdom
To one
Who would believe
Said he
“Oh, I
Have seen
Great cities crumble
Your gods
And kings
Usurped and humbled”
Is he true?
Or madness through?
What is truth?
He tells me
Fantastic tales of wonder
Of ages
So long ago
When he ruled
A thousand hosts and peoples
But still sought
Even more
And he said
“I sought out black magicians
And the priests of every god
I performed the secret rituals
With virgin blood
My sycophants they claimed it worked
And bowed before my throne
And then my chief protector
Dragged a knife across my throat
“‘You can’t
Escape
This fated future
Your hopes
And dreams
Meaningless illusions’
“And as my lifeblood poured a flood
Painting red the palace floor
I knew with assurance
That these traitors would be the ones to mourn
For though they buried me with great care
My bones retained their sacred heat
And with the moon I rose
Singing retribution each to each”
Then he told me of a
Secret so amazing
It woke me from the spell
His words had placed me under
And I felt a hunger
For you see though he could not die
His gift could be taken by
One who ate of his flesh
And drank his blood
To the last drop
So I unsheathed my blade
And plunged it in his milk white eye
And as he breathed his last I laughed
And claimed the crimson flow my prize
But the old man deceived me
For though I do indeed have eternal life
He has not died
No he lives on
Here inside of me
We are one
Every time we’re killed
We’re brought back in our murderer’s skin
A hundred souls stacked together
In this perverse unity of mortal sin
And every time a body grows old
We find another to join in
A phoenix born in blood
Come to bear this witness
All you love is dust
All you love
All is dust
I have seen
Cities
I have seen cities crumble
Gods and kings
Butchered
All sacred things made rubble
You cannot
Escape
You can’t run from this future
All your hopes
Vapor
Meaningless vain illusion
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3. |
The Count
04:54
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You who would be
Who enslaves me
I am sleeping
No longer
All I long for
Bloody vengeance
Satisfaction
From you
I have hungered
Thirst unslakéd
Caged in darkness
Foul
I have studied
I am shadow
I am kindness
Of the poisoned blade
Oh, you will be my guest
I am the shadow of death
I am the enemy
Prepare this final feast
Sit at my table
Secrets you’ve buried deep
No one will ever see
These are my fable
Brought me to misery
Stripped everything from me
But now I’m able
This is my masterpiece
Repaying every grief
Eye for eye, life for life
Justice be done
I am madness
Sow the wind
Reap the whirlwind
Within
My hatred intransigent
Oh, choke upon this wine
I am the poisoned vine
You took everything from me
I was cast from the light
There in the darkness a fire grew
My vengeance it burns
It burns
But my soul is as ice
Bartered your heart away
Forgot my very face
This is my dagger
Husband has cast away
This mortal coil shame
Will be your master
Wander for all your days
For abandoning me
To love a bastard
You won’t forget my name
This time I leave don’t pray
For mercy or peace for
There will be none
Oh, beloved betrayer
I will forgive you never
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4. |
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Vidar:
It’s so cold here
Everyone has gone
There are no men
Of valor
And if there were
I would not be
Counted among them
The Brothers:
Among them
Oh wisdom of my father
Oh beauty of my brother
Vidar:
Strength to carry on
Is all gone
There is no power
Left here in my bones
It’s been stolen from me
The Brothers:
From me
Oh what vengeance is there-
Vidar:
When there are none to avenge?
And all enemies are dead
The wolves have been released
The mighty gods laid low
I bring my strength to bear
The violence still undone
I hold the blood-caked jaw
Yet weep this rueful flow
The Brothers:
Oh
Mem’ry
My
Refuge
Vidar:
Where has truth gone?
Where is wisdom?
Poisoned, ravaged
Razed the heavens
The Brothers:
My
Homeland
Now
Ashes
Vidar:
Who is there now to recall
The deeds of either god or man?
The poet’s tongues have been reduced
To dust that shall not sing again
And I cannot recall the voice
Of wisdom that was once so sure
For thought and mem’ry fail me now
Those bastard children, dead of war
All our strength in vain
Every labor washed away
Justice has been brought to naught
Chaos
Every grace I have
Is formed for destruction
Who am I to restore anything?
I am without
The hands of the builder
I was never born to be king
Where has truth gone?
Where is wisdom?
Poisoned, ravaged
Razed the heavens
Can you tell me,
Sing a song,
Of any goodness
That could come?
The violent hour that was fated approaches
Vali:
Every light has died
Vidar:
The burning shadows of the enemy are growing
Vali:
All will end in ice
The Brothers:
This dying tree of life
Will not provide us shelter
Vidar:
Everything that is
Will be a sacrifice
To nothing
Everything
I thought was
Eternal now has ended
The sacred
The sovereign
So easily discarded
These wasted fragments
Of the glory that has faded
This land a withered husk
Shall be obliterated
The scalding blade of ruin
These night-black treach’rous flames
No suture could yet bind
This gore, this deepest wound
Gone is the order known
The outer darkness reigns
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