For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages (2016)
Despair Is A Siren
Let down a rope
I know there is another world
In their geometry
Is a straight line to a living death
The earth is shifting like a plate
My skin doesn’t fit anymore
I’m hanging by the noose of their lamp cord
I see the bars of the cage
Like paper dolls we’re linked here
Homesick for chains
In their gilded whalebones
We gasp and wilt away
The earth is shifting like a plate
My skin doesn’t fit anymore
I’m writhing in the flame of their ghost lights
I see the bars of the cage
Despair is a siren calling through the night
The earth wraps itself in a shroud
I curse my fate, I curse my free will
In you, I see the glass towers coming down
In you, I see something that died in me fester and ignite
I’m not sleeping in glass chambers
Who’s the dead one now?
My stand lives on in gas chambers
Who’s the dead one now?
Wound Of The Warden
The wound of the warden
From cradle to the grave
The senseless apprehension
Of freedom’s wily ways
I know one day they’ll be grateful
I know one day they’ll worship me
Choice is too precious
To be wasted on vermin
That’s how we’ll keep them
Sheltered, fetal, fed and glutted
The sweet drug of anesthesia
Hell is easy to find
And I know that in time they’ll be glad I kept them blind
I will save you, I will absolve you
I will spare you, I will rob you
I’ll take upon me the canker of knowledge
I’ll take upon me the fetid price of glory
How great it is, the transcendent goodness
The self-assurance of the pure
Suffering eases at the gates
And laughter ceases at the gates
Someone above you always knows better than you
There’s something comforting in the stranglehold of a shepherd’s crook
How great it is, the transcendent goodness
The self-assurance of the pure
Not one misstep, not one mistake
All calculated for our sake
Like children we’ll step into the fire
Black Majesty
Isn’t it good to be acquainted with darkness, to caress it gently, to slit its throat, to know the hidden pockets, caves and grottos of the mirrored landscape, to catch a glimpse of black majesty, to know there’s more horror to this existence than anyone could ever know, standing in the shadow of our own?
Isn’t it beautiful to know exquisite remorse, to see the truth that drives men fleeing into early graves, to be wise, to dream every day of a great escape, of a Houdini blade?
We love the taste of false perfection – the more the lies, the more we laud.
Isn’t it beautiful to live and die alone, to carve a path out of unyielding stone between the crushing narrow divide of the war of two tribes steeped in a hate so narrow and deep it leaves two inches of earth on either side to save you from the final breath-taking fall into a deep hush – a silence so profound that your ears run and melt with the deafening sound?
Il Cappio
L’amore e come un cappio che ti strozza
Che ti lascia sospezo a mezz’aria
Senza respiro, senza forze, indifeso
Come una marionetta
Killing Rapture
Revealing love to be a test tube of untidy sludge
Is the greatest triumph of the modern era
Evolution belies this unfortunate defect
We’re smoothing out the gross chaos of biology
Antithesis to precision
A threat to order and reason
Inverse of numbers
The fruits of the heart are a useless and troublesome thing
A waste of time, thief of quota and peace of mind
Rapture is such an inefficient emotion
With the surgical arts, we’ll free them from their foolish hearts
To feel is the enemy
To be a dead tomb is a mercy
Hanno combattuto la battaglia della loro vita per questo
Per essere fatti a pezzi, per venire ridotti al nulla
The time has come to take someone, anyone
Courtship is no more than a menu of flesh and blood
We’re interchangeable as dung at the city dump –
A city laid waste, where everything’s been decided for us
So get a ticket
Erase all difference
Undo the burden of identity (your body is not your own)
Troubled Cells
There, beyond the windowsill
Lies the child that we all dread
An affront to our ease and our lassitude
A thorn in our side
How soon will she die?
Now every road I take, no matter how far
Leads me back here again, convicted by your smile
And every waking dream, and every wasted hour
Seems veined with a disease that I cannot escape
Soft music plays on the gramophone
A fire in the grate, arm around your wife’s waist
Warms your crocodile tears
As you think of the child under the cellar stairs
When will she disappear?
If there’s no way through for you, there’s no way through for me
I refuse the cool gardens, I reject my honored seat
If there’s no way through for you, there’s no way through for me
I don’t need the golden banners, I don’t need the vain embrace
Now, every road I take, no matter how far
Leads me back here, convicted by your smile
All is veined with a disease that I cannot escape
For troubled cells do not a healthy body make
There is no greater good if you’re trodden underfoot –
There is no greater good.
Paradise is a lie if we have to burn you at the stake to get inside
Paradise is a lie if you’re not by my side
More Constant Then The Gods (2013)
The Usher
All of my life, I’ve been waiting for you
Come lay down your head, rest in my arms, you’re free tonight
You’re in the eyes of those whose luck has run out
A tender end to a life of descent
Every lawman knows that you cannot be argued
Even despots know that when they die, you’ll rule still
You’re supreme, immutable, unchanging
You’re never-failing through the ages
You are the usher at the unknown portal
You stand silent among the din and clamor
All of my life, I’ve been waiting for you
With open arms, I’ll come running towards you
You’re supreme, immutable, unchanging
You’re never-failing through the ages
You’re more constant than the stars
Because they change their paths with the seasons
You’re more constant than the moon
Because she hides her face in the shadows
You’re more constant than the sun
Because one day her embrace will melt the Earth
You’re more constant than the gods
Because sometimes when we call, they don’t answer at all
All in all, we end the same
(Come lay down your head, rest in my arms, you’re free tonight)
Ghosts Of A Dead Empire
One score for stepparents and the Seven Dwarves
Falling all over yourselves
To be the fairest in the land
Slavery to a cruel idol
Slavery to a hollow fable
Don’t forget that your Aryan lust has led
To one hundred men hanging from trees amid the circling crows
And as only the obscure know, the tainted fruit never ends
They opened your mouth and they poured in the good of the land
Then they chained and leashed you to their heavenly plan
Now the ghosts of a dead empire are written all over your face
Along with the failed ruins of their version of eternal grace
Cosey Mo
Oh Cosey Mo, I feel your pain
When they all want you but they don’t know your game
I guess your death will pass in time
But in the meantime, let me build your shrine
I promise you that I will find you
I’ll dig up every unmarked grave
I promise you that I will find you, darling, find you
And on your tomb I’ll carve your name
Oh Cosey Mo, I feel your rage
When they hunt you down and put you in their cage
I understand your need to hide
Not from fear but from losing your mind
Burning instead of beauty
Fat Of The Ram
I live in a place where the horizon rises up to meet the sky
And a dead lake lies fallow underneath a burning sun
In the houses people dream what life would be like without a tally
In the houses people dream what life would be like shadowless
In the houses people dream, they dream, they dream
Cities by dead lakes and a million miles of barbed wire
Come to the altar and lay down your numb consecration
Sorrow, desolation
Sorrow, desolation
There’s no shelter for me in the halls of the righteous
All preserved corpses and mummified dancers
They are all gentlemen
They only kill by common consent
Everywhere I look all I see is famine
A famine of form instead of feeling
Everywhere I look all I see are blanched bones
And a loud starvation that drowns out the cries of the holy
There’s no shelter for me in the halls of the righteous
They’re too busy anointing themselves in their finest
After all, they’re gentlemen
They only kill by common consent
They are all gentlemen
They only kill by common consent
She stands like the statue of a deer in the moonlight
Listening to the sound of a faraway band only she can hear
The wind pours down the canyons to the lakeshore
And the ancient trumpets cry
Mute applause and no perception
No perception of these mountains upon mountains
Affliction
Oh, sweet God above, please take me home
Show me the mercy that he denied
I’ve paid my dues, and I’ve served my time
The shadow’s haunting me the way it haunted him
He looked in my baby’s eyes and he felt nothing then
He felt nothing then, and he feels nothing now
Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him
I don’t know what he suffered, Lord, and I don’t know what he’s seen
But he’s spread his sadness like a disease
The shadow’s haunting me the way it haunted him
He looked in my baby’s eyes and he felt nothing then
He felt nothing then, and all I feel’s anguish now
There is a darkness born out of time
It creeps along the edge of our excess
Its hatred ripples in our fertile hearts
Like heat waves shimmering with their mirage
It gathers chessmen and loaded guns
It snuffs the candles out one by one
Oh, sweet God above, please take me home
Show me the mercy that he denied
No Safe Harbor
For you I would cross the glass oceans of green
Full of sights best unseen, and the worst kinds of dreams
For you I would pass through deserts of fire
Full of burning and ire, waterless and futile
For you I would brave the disgust of the mob
Walk completely alone, disavow all of them
For you I would give up mountains of gold
And possessions untold, health of body and of soul
But don’t ask me to do what the strongest of men|
Seeks to kill deep within, trembling sick to his bones
Don’t ask me to do what the strongest of warriors
Backs up from the drawbridge and puts down her sword for
Don’t ask me to feel the moon on the door
Or the fire on the shore as you bring my ship in
Because the truth is, there is no safe harbor
Because the truth is, there is no safe harbor anymore
The first time that I saw you, I felt the knives set in
The first time that I saw you, I felt my life cave in
A perfect mirror tells no lies
That’s why I shattered you
The truest mirror in my life
A broken mirror cannot tell the truth
That’s why I shattered you
I’ll pick up shards for all my life
No Help For The Mighty Ones (2011)
Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes
Heads on spikes, symbols on skulls
Give me a reason to go on
The winter sky is full of ash
Broken homes, endless trash
But in the darkness he holds his son
He’s all that’s left, the only one
In the hills, the people hide
Join together, rot inside
In this land, the only hope
Is to die young, to not get old
But in the darkness he holds his son
He’s all that’s left, the only one
In the darkness he holds his son
There is no God, there is no love
Stripped to the marrow,
Their empty platitudes can’t
Clothe them, feed them, heal them
They shuck them off like a thin, useless skin
That they’ve outgrown when hunger calls
How long must my journey go?
And my sorrow no one know?
Beneath the Crown
Don’t tread the path of the enlightened
Don’t swallow their sugared seeds of poison
Their Da’ath leads to that black moonrise
Where the bodies stack up to the rafters
We touch the planets yet we’re no closer to the heavens
We gaze at the stars from our pig trough
We map the silver depths of the ocean
While we bathe in the blood of the hated
Spare me from your kingdom
Born without a coin in my mouth
I still crawl toward the sun
Hands in the cracks of the walls of your mind
I dismantle your thoughts
Eating grapes in dens of steel
Buffing that old carnage wheel
Sitting safe on marble thrones
Perched atop levees of bones
Stonecarver
Mountains swallow you
I separated myself from the earth
I separated myself from the sky
I separated myself from the crowd
Then I separated myself into two selves
O Lord
Then I turned myself against myself
I waged a war within myself
I turned myself against myself
I waged a war against myself
There’s no help for the mighty ones now
The Inheritance
Subgenus lace
A chain-linked fate
The bees fly North
They can feel the hangman coming
Millions of machines
Never before seen
Unstitched, unraveling
Laid to rest in a dying world
Oh sister/brother, we’re all burning high
I see white dust against the sky
This genocide rivals Dachau
In its endless march of victims
They say the meek
Shall inherit the earth
But all I see are the helpless
Crushed by the wheel of man
They look away
They hide their face
Black market backwash
You see, in this world, money kills
We’re in the shadow of a dying world
Attack on Golden Mountain
Walk just behind me
In my shadow
Walk just behind me
Never stray
The sun is setting
Mountains on fire
We’re so alone here
Don’t go far
Sing a lullaby, sleep now
It’s just a dream, sleep now
This can’t be real, sleep now
The starlight marks
The path of the fearful
The ice caves glitter
In the dark
They’re coming fast now
Blood on the snow
He holds her hand
Shuts her lifeless eyes
It’s just a dream, sleep now
This can’t be real, sleep now
The cold invites, sleep now
Open wide the gates
Horns sound from the bay
Open wide the gates
Don’t look back in vain
You are like a swan
Trapped in ice
Beautiful, strong
And now I’m alone
This can’t be real, sleep now
The cold invites, sleep now
I’ve found my peace, sleep now
Whippoorwill
Oh, my Sally’s done gone
And it’s all my fault
Oh, my Sally’s done gone
I never listened to a word she said
The purple hills
Seem to call out her name
Like the whippoorwill
I didn’t listen to the warning she gave
I know there’s no turning back
She tried to share
All her worries with me
But I was bowed down with care
I didn’t see the trap I was in
One look in her eyes
Full of knowledge and pain
Oh, my pack of lies
Melted fast as my alibis
I know there’s no turning back
And one day I’ll be like a bird in flight
Floating over this valley so wide
And one day I’ll be like a bird in flight
Floating over this desert so wide
House Carpenter
Well met, well met, my own true love
Well met, well met, cried she
I’ve just returned from the salt, salt sea
And it’s all for the love of thee
I could have married a King’s daughter there
She would have married me
But I have forsaken my King’s daughter there
And it’s all for the love of thee
Well, if you could have married a King’s daughter there
I’m sure you’re the one to blame
For I am married to a house carpenter
And I’m sure he’s a fine young man
Forsake, forsake your house carpenter
And come away with me
I’ll take you where the green grass grows
On the shores of sunny Italy
So up she picked her babies three
And gave them kisses one, two, three
Saying, “Take good care of your daddy while I’m gone
And keep him good company”
Well, they were sailin’ about two weeks
I’m sure it was not three
When the younger of the girls, she came on deck
Sayin’ she wants company
“Well, are you weepin’ for your house and home?
Or are you weepin’ for your babies three?”
“Well, I’m not weepin’ for my house carpenter
I’m weepin’ for my babies three”
What are those hills yonder, my love
They look as white as snow
Those are the hills of heaven, my love
That you and I’ll never know
What are those hills yonder, my love
They look as dark as night
Those are the hills of hellfire, my love
Where you and I will unite
Twice around went the gallant ship
I’m sure it was not three
When the ship all of a sudden, it sprung a leak
And drifted to the bottom of the sea
Dark Country
No one ever sees the puppet strings
No one ever sees the dark country
I know you’re coming for me now
I feel you coming for me now
No one ever feels
The heavy weight of lies revealed
No one ever feels
The burning towns, the burning fields
I know you’re coming for me now
I feel you coming for me now
I see that black horse coming now
I know you’re coming for me now
Swans Trapped In Ice (2009)
Sexual Collateral
Not an equal, no one’s sister, no one’s best friend
Just a faceless mannequin to buy and sell
Fair exchange is alive and well
The exotic markets grow and grow
Don’t look at me; it’s her economy
We buy and sell. Fair exchange is alive and well
I’m only taking what’s freely offered
She must want to be there if she’s chained to a bed
We buy and sell. Fair exchange is alive and well
We buy and sell. Slavery is alive and well
Dark Country
See No Help For The Mighty Ones lyrics
Attack On Golden Mountain
See No Help For The Mighty Ones lyrics
Strega (2008)
Sugar Creek
I know a path in the woods
Don’t be afraid; they’re only shadows
It’s safer here when there’s two
I thought I heard her calling
I thought I saw her falling
(I swear I saw her falling)
You look so lovely in the shadows
I’ve forgotten why I ever angered
I see your eyes in the shallows
Her reflection lies in dirty water
And now her body’s like an angel
Now her body’s like an angel
And now I know I’ll never anger
Crucible
We’ll scour the ghettos
For the trash of the earth
Put em on the frontline
They won’t be missed
Step into my crucible
Warm yourself in my crucible
Burn and die in my crucible
We’ll bribe their grieving families
With the fat of the land
Spread distorted visions
Till they eat from our hand
The victims of the system
Are the first to be served
To propagate that system
They’re meat in our mill
Cast into the futile battle
In the caste system
Of feudal lords
Crying from the
Bottom of the pile
In the voice of a number
We’re paragons of virtue
And you are the same
When you die in our turnstile
We’ll protect your name
Christine
Whispers on the back porch
They don’t want you anymore
He beat you till you were raw
Then he took something more
Christine
At school the girls call you a whore
Your lunch money on the floor
But they look you up and down
They know you have it down
You found that you were weak
At forgiving enemies
So much darkness in that room
No one gets you, no one could
Never giving in
Never again
Strega
Watcher in the North
Regulus estate
Watcher in the South
Fomalhaut inverno
Watcher in the East
Aldebaran
Watcher in the West
Antares autunno
O Strega
Beneath the walnut tree
O Strega
Between the moon and the sea
Royal stars
Watchers
Four points in the star
Take me in your arms
Diana Dianus
Stag and Wolf
Kiss me, bless me
Always myself
Isaac
He’s a long way from home
And the shots cut him down
I saw it in a dream I had last night
I saw the shots cut him down
And smoke all around
And his broken body lying in the sand
Though I know that my son died for a new day
And for all the millions that would pass this way
If God himself should knock upon my door
I’d turn him away, say I ain’t got no more to give
Well, the prince keeps us down
Steals our money for his crown
And the lies he tells us never go away
In the darkest night
We had to stand up and fight
It was that or die forever on our knees.
The day he left for war,
Silhouetted against the door,
I had to look away and hide my face for shame.
Black Joan
Out on the quay
Trash for the day
I’ve got a feeling
I can’t explain
Is it my future
Buried in my past?
All that I know is
It might just last
Black Joan
This begging life keeps
On dragging me down
I’m sick of small change
I’m sick of this town
Gotta find a new way
To make things right
Gotta write my own story;
It begins tonight.
Black Joan
I hear my train a-comin
Black wheels like thunder rollin’
Won’t you help me pack my bags?
I’m leavin’ and I’m not comin’ back.
Dissatisfaction
Plagued me all along
But I never felt my lack
Till I heard your song.
The Hours I Keep
Oh mother
Oh father
You gave me life
You gave me death
Oh mother
Oh father
You loved me well
You can’t help me now
There is no escape.
Dark water is all around
On the broken bridge
Revere is bound
A dead-end maze
Dark passageways
Synapse collapse
Reality break
It’s morning
Twelve hours of sleep
You won’t believe the hours I keep
A veil is placed before my eyes
I can’t see myself;
I can’t see their lies
I’m buried in this bag of skin
With sham circuitry
Where do I begin?
Oh mother
Oh father
You gave me life
You gave me death
Go Down, Moses
When Israel was in Egypt’s land
Let my people go
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land
Tell old Pharaoh, let my people go
So Moses went to Egypt’s land
Let my people go
To make old Pharaoh understand
Let my people go
Thus spake the Lord, bold Moses said,
Let my people go,
If not, I’ll strike your firstborn dead
Let my people go
How to Neglect Your Heart
They laugh at me
I’m all alone
They question me
In jagged tones
They try to tell me what’s true
And what’s not true
As if they knew
As if they knew
They tell me how to feel
They tell me what I’m worth
They tell me how I’ve failed
All in their own words
They tell me how to love
And how to get along
Passion’s all right
As long as it’s not too strong
Here’s how you play the game
Here’s how you play your part
Here’s how you go along
Here’s how to neglect your heart
Fixed life
Like the stars
Never moving
Never far
Self-Rule
Fixed bayonets in the crisp autumn air
And I have to wonder why I don’t even care
Scarlet epaulets and well-oiled hair
I invade the nations of the poor
But I can’t fight my own battles, can’t find a cure
I’ll make them feel my rod till they can’t take anymore
A cry of war is heard throughout the land
But all I have is self-blame on hand
I’ll crush their kingdom with a fistful of sand
I’ll subject you to horror
I’ll subject you cause I can’t rule myself
I rule a nation
I rule a nation but I can’t rule myself
Fixed bayonets in the crisp autumn air
And I have to wonder why I don’t even care
I have to wonder why I don’t even care
The Worm Has Turned (2006)
The Hours I Keep
See Strega lyrics
Self-Rule
See Strega lyrics
Indian Summer
Midnight
Harvest moon
We’ll catch the coach
Not a moment too soon,
My love.
Let’s fly away from here.
Autumn blush
Your first touch
Indian summer
Awakes at dusk,
My love.
Our love will never die,
Our love will never die.
Winter pale
Killing frost
The doctor says
Prepare for loss,
My love.
Let’s fly away from here.
Steel ground,
Fresh grave,
They laid us together,
We’ll make our way,
My love.
Our love will never die.
Jailbreak
It’s been 18 years in this prison cell
Separated from my best friend
He lives out in the men’s wing
I send him pictures in my head.
How long must I suffer, Lord?
How much can I take?
How long must I languish, Lord,
Before they come take me away,
Take me away?
Gonna get free,
Gonna get free tonight.
I send the blueprints from my thoughts
And we plan our escape.
We ain’t goin’ nowhere without our friends,
So we tell them all the date.
Bessy’s got the sledgehammer
And Marvin’s got the screw.
Sally’s got the heart of the guard,
She knows just what to do.
Gonna get free,
Gonna get free tonight.
We make our way in the moonlight,
It helps us on our way,
By the time they find our empty beds,
We’re 18 miles away,
18 miles away.
Hold me tight.
Hold me tight tonight.
How to Neglect Your Heart
See Strega lyrics
Rapunzel
Flailing under the auspices of a broken kingdom
Stuttering up the stairs of a broken house
The golden mansion
The hanging boudoir
The flowers, thick and heavy.
Blown away by rusting debris
In the belly of the gutted tower
Rapunzel dies today
Rapunzel dies
Cinched tight by her own hair
Golden self-destruct,
Miles long,
Neverending, neverending.
Passes over your skin soft as angel’s breath
Help me. Help me. Help me.
I found myself choking on golden stardust
Coming up from my gut
My innermost nucleus
But then I realized
I was choking on the ashes of a dead sun.
Help me. Help me. Help me.
Mirror
I took the safe road
I took the easy road
It looked so safe and comforting
There wasn’t any trouble as far as I could see.
Avoided the twisty road,
Avoided the unknown,
My daddy said that was the devil’s way
And God don’t work in mystery noways.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there’s an end to all this pain
I just keep moving on, I can’t stop to think too long, oh no.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there’s a way to be set free
I just keep losin’ hold of the things that once gave me relief.
Got married in the winter
Gave birth in the summer
In five years’ time I had five young ones
But there was something missing, there was something wrong.
One day my husband came back from town
Said honey, you better sit down
There’s been another woman for all this time
She’s my one true love, can’t get her from my mind
Now I break my back from crack of dawn
It’s midnight when I get home
There never seems to be enough to eat
And I listen to my children cry themselves to sleep.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there’s an end to all this pain
I just keep moving on, I can’t stop to think too long, oh no.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there’s an end to all this pain
I just look in the mirror and I know I only have myself to blame.
I took the safe road
I took the easy road
But I learned there is no safety there
You gotta push against the current to get somewhere.
Colder
Look how far I’ve come today
I feel I could go forever this way
My back is strong, my legs are long
My coat is warm, my shoes not worn.
But it grows colder, colder still.
It grows cold, it grows cold, it grows colder, colder.
I mark my day on the widow’s walk
I watch the sea, hear the sailors talk;
I pined away on my deathbed,
Can you blame me for the things I did?
You grew colder, colder still.
You grew cold, you grew cold, you grew colder (your memory),
You grew cold, you grew cold, you grew colder, colder.
I broke the trust I had with you;
I broke your heart, I wasn’t true.
I denied myself of pretty things;
I lied to myself to go on breathing.
I grew colder, colder still;
I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew colder, colder still,
I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew cold,
I grew cold …
Force
10 a.m. and I’m drunk again
Bitter cognac, sweet relief
I held your mother
Before she floated away
Sweet baby skin
Broken window latch
Your nail lash
Your warm flesh
The only way I’ll ever love
Is by force
I’m asleep in the chasm.
The only way I’ll ever love
Is by force
I run from hell through golden aloe
Everything moves so slow
When all your lovers leave you
Hillbilly Death Song
Oh, it’s good to die when you don’t want to live no more
It’s good to die when you don’t want to live no more
When the happy moments of your life seem like tiny isolated islands
And the pieces of your soul are reaching up and choking you like liquid violence
Oh, it’s good to die when you don’t want to live no more
(Yee haw!)
SubRosa 
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