Skydancer (1993)

1. Nightfall By The Shore Of Time
2. Crimson Winds
3. A Bolt Of Blazing Gold
4. In Tears Bereaved
5. Skywards
6. Through Ebony Archways
7. Shadow Duet
8. My Faeryland Forgotten
9. Alone


1. Nightfall By The Shore Of Time

[lyrics: Sundin]

A shimmer trace of divinity lost
in the beckoning midnight vault
(We are) lulled within the wake
of a cold November's nightfall

Nightfall...

A communion of life and eternity,
of Races scattered in the depths
of the universal dark

Above us minds went sailing free
and blossomed in the vast nocturnal sea

Paragon of beauty,
Oh, spark of Creation;
We march to the rhythm of the Night

Starborn flew the Dove of Man
in the eventide of life,
whose wonders crowned
our yesterdays with light

Fire - Earth - Water - Wind

We lived beneath the waning moon of truth
And danced in hunger for the Powermind
(of Youth)

Like the dark to a dying Flame;
Sweepingly embracing its grieving remains
Defiantly blazing the black that awaits
Counting the days 'til the new Age awaits

Times' lustful cyclones arise,
Piercing the fairest of Skies
In elysian awakening of spiritual glory
we see what our history belies

Meadows of Asphodel
Burning in the hunted dawn
Tragedies die among fiery flames
as the firewood of Wisdom is sawn

Our Guardians were blind
My lightbringer ephemeral

Within the heart of all;
A cold and dusky melancholy night,
as ever sullied the fair face of light

Whose seeds of life they grind
To dust, of vapour is our mind
...evermore

Paragon of beauty,
Oh, spark of Creation;
We march to the rhythm of the Night

Nightfall by the shore of time,
a tidal wave of fire and woe
Swept away with the last of life
the core of the enigma as bestowed

Our crystal spirits melt to flow
the mountainside along
To join as one with seas of old
in symbiotic songs:

"Communion... Within the Oversoul
of the Universe"

We are but fragment of Eternity,
pale shadows of what we'll once be

In life's outer regions I will find
the foremost Tranquility
Chanting the odes of Magonia
A soulstream in flight to the Otherworld

...to the Otherworld


2. Crimson Winds

[lyrics: Stanne]

Force of anger, Mordant senseless wrath
Manifold is the Terminus of oneself
Invocate ye lord of the Left-behinds
Preserve a seat for the weakened minds

Reserving that limpid yet so used
Veil of deceiving hostility
Close now is the threshold of insanity

Neverending force of hatred,
fear, them darkened spheres
Deprecated existence, Manifest of darkness be

Manifest for unspeakable actions
Fire sermons to condemn those fallen
Fallen from pride, fallen from the manger
Father, lend to me thy wisdom, Thy wisdom of old

Now all is clear:
"Pierce the side of the neverending blindness
Then thereby be it stated in the name of the forgotten
Father of Light, Father of Darkness
-I will not implore to no master of thine!"

Everflaming

Intemperate malice in the extreme
Forms are twisted, Everfalling
Crescent skies, the wait, The calling
Eyes unseeing, Stars rearrange
Tears of our blood running from the runes

Misgivings fall silent
Excitement stir up the spheres
My sweet Norderland

To reap the fields of ignorance and lies
Trails of omission swept away
Never be found again

Release of agony
So Hebulous, yet ominous is the Terminus
Flames of Hatred burn me
Firesoul - Hear me, Blinded fool
-Take heed to the forgotten twilight
Now kneel to the omniscient twilight

Crimson Winds, Ornaments in the dark
The weep of pain, Drowned by tears
Drowned by tears of Northerly blood
Runes of force,
Fulfillment of a sombre ordeal I know
"Pierce the side of the neverending blindness
Then thereby be it stated in the name of the forgotten
Father of Light, Father of Darkness
-I will not implore to no master of thine!"

Everflaming

Everlasting lust for wisdom and for solitude
Coming of dawn, Knowledge in the image of flesh

Unbridled to the world I wander now
Light cast upon this place of mysteries
Truth hurts for my tongue is venomous

Unbound yet bound for disbelief
Darkness, I grasp your every nerve
Everflaming now and forevermore


3. A Bolt Of Blazing Gold

[lyrics: Sundin]

A bolt of blazing gold,
lifted from the horizon's edge
Another radiant dawn sends new hope,
avowed my hearty pledge
My yearning to be part
of nature's truthful solitude
Of wisdom's inner light
that shines in mystic multitude
The guiding source within,
so few of us will ever know
And few will ever climb
the great world-tree from which we've grown
But those who seek will find
the rhythm that vibrates high and far
And rearrange the cosmic threads,
the pattern of the Weave of Stars

A bolt of blazing gold,
a sunfire in zenith hurled
Oh, wingless skydancer,
rejoiced upon the warmth unfurled
What wonders do you hold ensnared
with your mighty heart?
What secrets may be mine
to brother-share as we depart?

Of richest emerald forged,
my soul still rises, longingly
From inferno's winding caverns,
through dark air soaring, restlessly
If silence was enough!
No words can grasp my starkest thoughts
No language known to man
portrays my naked sentiment

A bolt of blazing gold,
swallowed by the waveless sea
The ocean-winds set sail,
in breeze towards their destiny
On solarbeams they rode,
white sea-gull-wings in harmony
For a moment's startling glimpse
a sienna-burnt tranquility

Oh father of the coloured sky,
unwear thy robe of shadowhood
Let nature's soul once clash again
'neath blooming glades of golden wood

We're the ones who seek
to dance to fallen serenades
The magic hymns of gold;
as softly sung, the sunlight fades
...away

Of richest emerald forged,
my soul still rises, longingly
From inferno's winding caverns,
through dark air soaring, restlessly
If silence was enough!
No words can grasp my starkest thoughts
No language known to man
portrays my naked sentiment

A world of silent stone,
as frozen in the nightly sky
In heaven's dark recesses laid,
no living soul draws nigh
For seconds all is still,
no moonlight heaves throughout the dark
Nor do the heavens breathe,
no dryads wreathe within the dark

Within my dark domain...


4. In Tears Bereaved

[lyrics: Sundin]

Beautiful, oh web of stars
that looms amid the sons of Earth
Enfolds me in thine sylvan arms
that unity's vehement charms
befalls a weary son of Earth

Beautiful, in tears bereaved
in sylphlike sadness, left to bleed
Bewailed upon a bed of thorns,
impaled, a heart, on sorrow's horns
A seeker's ode to thee I read
My tearful soul thy mourning heed

The stream that leaves thine open wounds;
A life-blood licked by hungry hounds
No verdant balm to soothe our wounds
Wherefore betwixt two worlds I'm torn
Ere thralled by sin I'll die - forlorn

This slumbering world of shallow fools
may one day clasp the cosmic Hell
lest journeymen by Earthen rules
bring forth the truth for which Angels fell

To the earth and sky and sea
I call that thou may answer me;
Father of Nature, of beast and mankind,
my soul for thy love, my tears for thy pain
...An Eden in fire,
what lives shan't remain

For when I live under a different sky,
beneath the ethereal hills the clouds passing by
Remember the time of which I cried to be part
Remember these words, for they have flown
from my heart.


5. Skywards

[lyrics: Stanne]

Cast out from a world of selfdeceit
in senseless fear of denial

Forgive the others indifference
and on paths of wisdom trait
In grief thou shalt not wander
With hopefilled heart now walk

Do not fear the slow proceeding
Fear only the stillness of invention

Mocking words and actions a defeat
for intellect and mind

Saveth me for I know not how
to break free from these chains of scorn
Oh I wonder how can I turn the sense of doubt
in the minds of them all

Our needs are depending in images in life
and the more you agree in the far more they ask

I am an outcast but I am free to speak
the words from my heart
And when I know the secrets
in the minds of the weak
I shall return and be grateful
For the lessons learned from the past
Hear me, See me
I am now forever one with myself

I sense the forces that deep within me burn
I smell remains of fear forever gone
I feel now comfort with who I have to be
Now is the time for retributive thoughts

To be content is happiness
Not the overflow of material things
that we seek to make a stand
in this era of greed and self-inflicted
pain in the shape of disappointment

Do not fear the slow proceeding
That's all I ask of thee

What lies ahead you will never know
so come prepared

Oh I wish for thee to see the vast plains
and the field, The open seas, The wailing trees
The treasures of my kingdom
reach the level of understanding now
exploring, Considering the actions of the past

On a journey forever

Still you're in the water struggling
while I clasp the skies
Can you see the lifeblood dripping
from the cheek of everscorn?

Yes I can!

I am an outcast but I am free to speak
the words from my heart
And when I know the secrets
in the minds of the weak
I shall return and be grateful
For the lessons learned from the past
Hear me, See me
I am now forever one with myself


6. Through Ebony Archways

[lyrics: Stanne]

There is a silent man in a tower
Mute in a blinded world
Yet words dance on virgin lips
Freezing the winds of blood

Clad in layers of darkest velvet
Drenched in the gloomy light of dawn
...All Black

And in his wait for the grand finale
Standing atop of the stairs
From dawn to dusk his heart's a blaze

Uncovering words from an obsolete state of mind
Sharpen them! Turn them into arrows!
Descend into grief - Without a bow no arrows fly
...Bitter Black

Passing through the ebony archways
Hand in hand with the wisdom of stars
Wisdom dressed in blackest array

There is no man in that tower
Walking the shores in black
Bitter frost now bite the walls of hope
No traces in the sand...


7. Shadow Duet

[lyrics: Sundin]

\Voice of the Shadow of Beauty\ - sung by Anders Fridèn
/Voice of the Shadow of Darkness/ - sung by Mikael Stanne

\shadows play
in my wilderness' mindscape
they seek\
/one spiteful and wicked
one humble and meek/

\a windswept pale landscape
of edified thought\
/two frictional forces
a triad have brought/

\woven\
/a soft breeze whispers slowly/
\within me\
/in the valley of my mind/
\the aerial mists sink falling\
/and its breath both foul and holy
is like the deer to a dying hind/
\slowly traversing the atmosphere
calling\

/wordless, yet in soul so true/
\nameless, yet it lives in you\
/shapeless like the purity of pain/
\lawful when all fear is slain\

-one shadow of beauty caressing the flowers
the paleness of winter reflects in her eyes-

\deity of stardom\
/enticer of stardoom/
\so soft and so silent\
/maternal - eternal/
\serenity fades\
/blinded by visions of sunlight nocturnal/
\with the darkening of skies\

/one shadow of darkness
a shade of deep hate
a wanderer's spectre with fury ablaze
in sheets of sharp silver
laid youthful to die
reborn into vengeance
dark flames dance in grace

dark flames dance in grace
in the grace of storms/

\one shadow of beauty\
/one shadow of darkness/
\sailing free on the sea within my mind\

\surging dark oceans
perpetual waters
creator of life
and reclaimer of souls\
/mother ocean/
\watching the deep fjords uneasily moving\
/whipping the white waves towards the cold air/
\rising like swans in a scarred, sudden motion\
/a cascade of lost feathers
adrift on the sea/

\hark\
/a serenade in the tongue of the wind/

\the sighs of the centuries, so sonorous in the bower
hovering further athwart a leafy cover\
/a shelter for those whose time's wind make them wither
and therefore they choose to guide this time-wind hither

alas, in tune with the tide of time
i was, but I'm not
nor I'll be with its pride

yes, aeons have flown
but more is to come
for I know time/
\but time is not eternal, their life stars not immortal\
/a friend that I greet with open arms/
\setting souls can never\
/a brother soul of deadly harm/
\pass through the pearly portal\
\no bliss be given\
/and joy/
\nor joy\

/flowing down the gates of hell
fire/
\i cry for you...\
/don't spill your tears for me
but for your kit and kin/
\my scions of light?\
/deprived of the lust and the treasure of pleasure
which is the fuel for life
and glory/

\silent your dark desires within entirety's light\

-solitude
sanctity
sanctuary
sanctum, sanctum,
sanctum (tranquility)

\hear me
/you who hold the fate of stars in hand
before creation's eye I stand
my soul set free/
in summerland\

\mighty the strand of the universe\
/a chaos void tomb of dead worlds/
\hark\
/what?/
\divinity flows in your heart
cast it alight, the seed of all art
slowly reborn from a sunless state of mind\
/silent, you fool/
\a cradle of roses
embedded in stillness and shade\

/silent, you fool
thine words are untrue
remember Endymion's crestfallen tears
serene art the gods, yet pain is their way
he touched by the heavens
his hellfire nears

a silent divinity, now see your body of air/
\free now your heavenly body of air\

\come bathe in the rays of the all-seeing one
holding the fate of all life in both hands
breathing life-force
like gold made from sand\

/my winged steed of moonlight
black stallion of thunder
we rode above the greenish earth
and tore the green asunder/
\but what you left bleeding
destroyed a soulforsaken world
and your deeds of sharp silver
decoyed a mindforsaken herd\

\a duet of shadows\
a duet of shadows
\a duet of thoughts\
a duet of thoughts
\of beings we feed
with the dust of our thoughts
residing within us
the two-fold wheel of life
of insight created: a triad of jewels\

a thin leaf of the life-tree's truth


8. My Faeryland Forgotten

[lyrics: Sundin]

Labyrinth of time...
Mine alone for now and ever more
(I'm all alone...)

...and I flew
above sepulchral monoliths,
nebulously dancing beneath the dew
(Of morning, in ye twilight land of old)
Abiding teardrops borne by thorns,
thine fragments I twine true
(In mourning, stream adorned in rage untold)

...flow adorned in rage untold
Eternal - forever - more
And they'll forever grow
and hold in heart what springs anew

From the shadows glades unwitnessed
which light the flames
from deep within where we all grew
...Everlasting ember-glow

Labyrinth of Time,
in harmony confined

Thus the dark heat from
beyond the stars
engulfed a world of fear still robed in ice
A throne in fire dies...
Pulsating through the skies

He who wore the gown
shall drown the "Reich of tears" in cries
Enthroned in fire dies...
A kingdom's last demise

And I know...
The ardent hearth midst life and death
won't end my journey morrowless
(I won't laugh in mirth all sorrowless)

Come, fly afloat on a wave of emotions,
of crestfallen scorn
Oh, this my whirlwind of darkness
a tide I once lulled but alas now withdrawn

Now...hand in hand with sorrow
towards the still, perpetual seas
Into the tranquil depths of solitude
in bliss my spirit flees

Through the wind I will go
To my twilight land, alone
Where sanctuary is mine
Within my throne world, my labyrinth of time

And he who is the God
of an infinite shape and faces,
ever weaving fates of life
upon the pattern of his traces
In the Golden Dawn of Winter
he'll stand risen from the night
in serenity all solemn,
clad in moonlight's milky white

Through the wind I will go
To my twilight land, alone
Where sanctuary is mine
Within the hands of this labyrinth of time

Labyrinth of time...
Eternal - forever - more
Time...infinity of mind
Divinity of life

Labyrinth of time
In harmony confined

Burn - upon my
Might - by my
Command - into the fire

Your throne of fire fell...
Bestowed upon your Hell

Burnt shall be your
"Might", and your
command shan't drown my fire
(...My Faeryland Forgotten)

...Mine alone for now and ever more


9. Alone

[lyrics: Sundin]

"Let me die", I cried as the curtain fell
and I stared in woe at the world before me
My weeping eyes could not bear to tell
or the shattered kingdom in ruins before me

What became of the lands that were?
A pearl in the nest of memories
Forever gone...departed by the minds of man

Scavengers, feeding on your mother's blood
Parasites of life, with my heart I condemn
your ignorant ways

Like the leaves of the high trees
I wither and fall,
Borne by autumnal winds
to my funeral hall

I'm all alone in the grip of the silent sadness

I have been told to honour life
and what therein I'll find
but if all I see is darkness,
let me die and wake up blind
As the gleaming blade before me,
singing lullabies of loss
Whispering "Death is your redeemer
to the Paradise you've lost"

Mankind, evoker of inferno
Let me burn your honoured Crown of Creation
and dethrone you to ashes for aeons to come

Why should I stay here where I do not belong?
Of weakness burns my within...And empty shell

I've lost the way to the sanctity I need

I'll greet the dawn that brings no life,
no frail beams of sun to cleanse the black night
My mournful roam has ended

I hide in the shadows white binding my time,
sheltered from this world which disorderly rhyme
with the fury of damnation

Once I held in my hand the starlight of Eden
and the white sky lay open in a soul that was free
(But the years flew so fast as the shadows were cast
and I woke up one morning with no reason to be)

I'm all alone in the shade of the nameless
Sorrow
I'm all alone within a shadow fire of fear

Take me home to whence I came
Where I'll find light to feed my flame of life

Or my heart will die without a whisper of hope...

Of Chaos And Eternal Night (1995 EP)

1. Of Chaos And Eternal Night
2. With The Flaming Shades Of Fall
3. Away, Delight, Away
4. Alone


1. Of Chaos And Eternal Night

[Sundin, Johansson, Jivarp]

This is a tale long to live but alas so short to tell
by the wind and by time, by everything that flees
A torment of my liking: exploring extremes
All thoughts secluded as fear stalks its blooded soil
In the winding path where a chain now rattles
With links merely death can break
Stains of pride - derelict
In feverish visions of agonising light
Pulsating rhythms unpure
So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos
So scream out to the skies:
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
Never is the dark any threat to my existence
Comforting ravens claws grip the stars that fell tonight
THe stealth of infinite beauty
Nevertheless heaven fell tonight
Racing along with the strangled teardrop
Life's elixir in benevolent lust
Slit open the throat that is virtue
Let fire ravage its caverns with joy
Ardent but silent in twilight resigned
Delivered from virtue in vehement plight
Yet ask not of your vanity
(The hooved agitator in your creed)
To let loose all the stars of heaven
Stray across the vault your seed
Concealed cravings must through fulfilment be broken
Hide no longer behind the veil of unconvincing lies
So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos
So scream out to the skies
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
I've seen fires waving patterns
Forging ornaments - hidden from a world of distress
Grace through hatred
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
In shadows now vengeful waiting out your bitter foe
The mirror distorts
Sinful is the perceiving eye
Tearless in nondescript form
Scarlet secrets tell of nightmarish fear
Illusions that speak of endless night
A venture in terms of one hazardous journey
into Chaos and Eternal Night
Deliver me from virtue,
Hidden no more beneath tender veil of lies
And let 'em all out;
unseen and sinful
... Of Chaos and Eternal Night


2. With The Flaming Shades Of Fall

[Sundin, Johansson, Henriksson]

Colours burst in wild explosions;
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumnweaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colours unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colours burst within
Spare me those unending fires!
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall
September flies beyond our reach
As the flames reborn their fall
October is the art we teach
With the Flaming Shades of Fall
November,
Robe of prophet - heart of false redeemer
Night whispers as the flaming shades of fall now die
Darkness, wild and unchained
Towards its heart we plunge
We must crush the false redeemer
With the flaming shades of fall


3. Away, Delight, Away

[Henriksson, Johansson]

As false as our minds our eyes refuse to see
They claw for the falseness in me
From where all life springs anew
We are cleansed through the crystal fire
Fill me with sound, fill me with hatred
Let my life bring life to the soil
The soil beneath my feet
Messenger of pain sailing silence
Commander of my sorrow riding rage
Infinity is eternal - never born so it may never die
Colours speak my name
Through the crowns I am baptised in the
First gnawing rays from a blackened sun
In the name of my blood I curse thee
Shelter me under the trees
Spread your twilight wings
My broken body is dripping with sin
Your skin so delicate
Your undemanding bliss will carry me far
I bid farewell to this godforsaken land
Nevermore shall I return
I join with the riders on the horizon
For they are my blood!
For they are my saviours!
They bring me hatred, bring me fire
They take me down to the land I know not
Then crush me - Take me down
Then they build me once more again
Slayer of my anger sailing silence
The angel of my lust
She is tasting shame


4. Alone

[taken from _Skydancer_, re-recorded with new vocals]
[Henriksson, Sundin]

"Let me die", I cried as the curtain fell
and I stared in woe at the world before me
My weeping eyes could not bear to tell
or the shattered kingdom in ruins before me
What became of the lands that were?
A pearl in the nest of memories
Forever gone... departed by the minds of man
Scavengers, feeding on your mother's blood
Parasites of life, with my heart I condemn
your ignorant ways
Like the leaves of the high trees
I wither and fall,
Borne by autumnal winds
to my funeral hall
I'm all alone in the grip of the silent sadness
I have been told to honour life
and what therein I'll find,
but if all I see is darkness,
let me die and wake up blind
As the gleaming blade before me,
singing lullabies of loss
Whispering "Death is your redeemer
to the Paradise you've lost"
Mankind, evoker of inferno
Let me burn your honoured Crown of Creation
and dethrone you to ashes for aeons to come
Why should I stay here where I do not belong?
Of weakness burns my within... An empty shell
I've lost the way to the sanctity I need
I'll greet the dawn that brings no life,
no frail beams of sun to cleanse the black night
My mournful roam has ended
I hide in the shadows while biding my time,
sheltered from this world which disorderly rhyme
with the fury of damnation
Once I held in my hand the starlight of Eden
and the white sky lay open in a soul that was free
(But the years flew so fast as the shadows were cast
and I woke up one morning with no reason to be)
I'm all alone in the shade of the nameless Sorrow
I'm all alone within a shadowfire of fear
Take me home to whence I came
Where I'll find light to feed my flame of life
Or my heart will die without a whisper of hope...

The Mind's I (1997)

1. Dreamlore Degenerate
2. Zodijackyl Light
3. Hedon
4. Scythe, Rage And Roses
5. Constant
6. Dissolution Factor Red
7. Insanity's Crescendo
8. Still Moving Sinews
9. Atom Heart 243.5
10. Tidal Tantrum
11. Tongues
12. The Mind's Eye


1. Dreamlore Degenerate

[Music: Henriksson, Sundin]
[Words: Stanne]

For thou sweepst me
in thy ribe if guill
with garments forged
in spiteful steel
No tainted pride
shall make conviction cease

None shall be unto thee proven
worthy of thy outmost fear
Let alone the silent longing
instinct shun the ones you dear

As the hunter boldly stalks his prey
intoxicated
Conviction reigns where truth might sway
intimidated

Silence the bore
Shun the ones you dear

The hunt is over
so the feast begins
What feast is enduring
when all is said and done
Everchange of hearts

The hunter's reason fail
The hunt is treason

The hunt is over
so the feast begins
Why search for endurance
when all is said and done?


2. Zodijackyl Light

[Music: Sundin, Johansson]
[Words: Stanne]

Crown the impulse that deliberately fall
defeat in spiritless action
Isolation - burn the greenwood
Order of the vertical path

Descendent
crawlin the remnants of one thousand lies
Restaging
torching a world that was left behind
Zodijackyl light

Cross the sharpest void
deride the embers of his fall
The bringer that on millions horses ride

Waiting for the call within, the spark of sin
ever reminiscent of the coming of storm
Can you see the cosmic face
in which disorder lies

Burning of oppression
the inventors
is the killing hand
Be that of the darkest sin
to frustrate hope and love

I shall not be blinded
I shall not be forced

Resistance
feasting on debris from celestial wars

Burning in the sky
beyond the realm of time:
Sequence if the nucleus
the glowing dust in fligh
Zodijackyl light

And they ride, they ride
the drama takes the lead
the beast of heaven their guide
Racing through the vastness
constellation disarray
that darkness could not have existed
that bares no witness to the light

Sweet endless
Perpetually plunge through interior vaults
So seamless
Joints of time cannot shackle the beast

Zodijackyl light.


3. Hedon

[Music: Henriksson, Sundin]
[Words: Sundin]

Enter Suicidal Angels;

How hungry we've become;
like animals naked in shame
Fed with the hooves of apocalypse
that galloped down, disordered worlds behind

From word to a word I was led to a word
that spanned over cultures in rage
Crimson masses, sleeped in decadence
holding our tongues to the thirsty sun
So, it the future still open?
Then enter, hornet, from our hive-dark hearts
to draw down the end from within

We need not the horns
that emanate from our warty, haunted bodies
severed and numbered they are

Nihilist, Hedon
the priceless art of their lives
Sorrow is a wing laid atop their heads.
skin deep, we carve our immeasurable sorrow
in the fold of your shivering arms

Hedon,
Your chindren wild
and filled with death

# Jupiter in our unforgiving eves:
a pandemonium of bodies and gold
Eager, as a part of your face
and the sickness attached to your skin (stone)
as the wine-rush,
changing from androgynous wombs
to open free the lid of pain #

Hedon,
rinsed in post-human shadows
a monument scorned by the teeth of time
Stale-faced keeper of secrets,
loaded with implosive fire
the whore that carried the apostle
to the mating point on the graves of giants

We look at you, afraid
to see what we really are.


4. Scythe, Rage And Roses

[Music: Henriksson]
[Words: Stanne]

Fast fading roses
Non-lingering words
Scythe be my instrument
Through dreams I now rage

No guidance is me offered
No forgiveness thee is promised
Now van distance be a factor
when engraved in me thou art?

Nourished by the soul my flame
shall serve to torch the earth

Denial serves me

That fire cannot burn
with flames of no origin
That star cannot bring guidance
without force or form

One is darkness
The other silence
Without silence the darkness
looses its splendour

Sweet bliss that sleep now giveth
tempt with forgetful night
Ever haunting that image within
swear to the answers denied


5. Constant

[Music: Sundin, Johansson]
[Words: Stanne]

With each daring new concept
creation and form
one fragment of shelter
from heaven be torn

The bleeding through barriers
shine of redemption
The taste of renewal
let art once again be a weapon

The whim of the forger is theft from the flow
the hatchet now redden with creation's blood

Constant is forever

I am the creation
so bold in design
The errors of one thousand minds
bleed out through a world gone blind

This is the magic that a name would stain.


6. Dissolution Factor Red

[Music: Johansson, Sundin]
[Words: Sundin, Stanne]

Drenched in the perfume of hell
Impasto of burning oils
forming continents on my
outstretched naked body,
erupting

crimson
stains of shame
stains of shame

Limbs that leave their Nests of Red
to spin the reels of pain
Attach the nails and electrodes

and spin the reels again

Retreating hunger running through the years
carries the scorn on skeleton wings

Storm me thou with the sharpened claw
swift hammer nails that pierce the shoulder of
time
Behind the sunset, with movement regained

For there lie shadows even farther from the light

I run, devoid of mation,
devoid of name
attach the nails and electrodes

black moratorium, haven of refuge
...


7. Insanity's Crescendo

[Music: Henriksson, Johansson, Sundin]
[Words: Stanne]

Gently hold our heads
gently hold our heads on high

Aimless time in fear new hide
overthrow the plan
confusion lies in all my words
mad is the soul

We barricade ourselves in holes of temperament
this is the dawning of a new age
A heart that beats the wrong way
insanity's crescendo

Windcolour - second sight
a touch of silence and the violence of dark
Illusion span - the aroma of time
shadowlife and the scent of nothingness

Infinite fall of instinct
order of one spells deceit
Infinite lack of trust
order of one obsolete

Oh escaping time is all we lost ahead?
When it's found, can judgement make amends?

From force-fed impressions
let us mortify the mind
each soul to violate
each instinct to be rendered false

Torn asunder be the conventional forms and frames
now for the blood of heaven
Unlearn and the cleansing comes

Fell a tremor in the pillars of the senses
Cursed victim of a distance near
The first dreams - the clearest vision

Aimlessly steer towards our night
we belong to thee
Oh dearest bliss, unnerving silence
entangled within

Dimly begotten in clarity found
virginlike tears for impurity bound
Beseech he who darken the stars and the sky
to greet now this vision an emerald dawn

Empty the sun - carve out the wind
Insanity's crescendo
tear out the blinded eye

Lament of thunder - take comfort in fear
lightning veins in crude exterior
Voice the oppression - voice the hypocrisy
lay down the law that made instince fall

Escape now and revert
this cleansing rebirth
torn asunder be
Affect me not; darkened vision
insanity's crescendo

Grimly tread the footsteps torn
rebellious stand the seeker tall
The thorn of insanity's hand
take this darkened vision from my sight

Nailed to the image of ignorance
Each soul to violate
for the blood of heaven


8. Still Moving Sinews

[Music: Sundin, Johansson]
[Words: Sundin, Stanne]

No-one survives such an attack
and we all stood like monuments
baring the nails in her back
Still moving sinews
in a graceful impression of life
shyly the arms, shyly the breasts
fold fear die

Ten fingers driven
through the heart, through the core
as I stare into those strange, magnetic eyes
and wonder: (for you / me)
are there demons there?

I knew it all the time. The misanthropes
were right to crucify themselves in the
need of a saviour. Still moving sinews
struggle fearsome with a lifeline forlorn,
caught in the nest of the impending dark fate.

Semi-worlds, lifetight lodges
where faces stiffen,
plagued with the frost of disease
Our capsules barely meet

The worms of disorder
like living black numbers
that drip from her pergament skin
Joined in sweet fury
to anoint the decay
fragile and reddened in lifelost array


9. Atom Heart 243.5

[Music: Sundin, Johansson, Henriksson]
[Words: Sundin]

Still alive
all knowing eye
beneath your stream of words
your rapid stream of words
Though none will
ever live to share
the radiant stream
the promised hues
from which your picture fell

Re-seal the components from atom hearts
Revert, non-owner of worlds

As uncommunication becomes the manifest
our alien, architectural skeletons in unison collapse

Death rode these silent caravans
and steered them to the ?(o/a)?im of the world.

Their diaries and withered letters
all devoted to the art of dying

The enterprise, academy
the crafts held in our hands
all devoted to the art of dying

No room to arrange
the final row of masks
drenched in chameleon-ink
for the grand charade
The tongues that burn in you
the slowly altered language
that colonised your heartland
advanced through broken doors

And they still believe in you

They seem to see
so many things
booked in your pestilent eye
Your stale lids, your iris punctured
by tongues licking a lie

The enterprise, wolvenlore
the cursed seed of man
plunged through the tunnels of uncreation
We reach out to move the landmark,
hands seeping down from the chronicles of time
The quill now blunt
the scribe devoured


10. Tidal Tantrum

[Music: Johansson]
[Words: Stanne]

Come death of dearling
the claws of the raven hold fast
Enticed and starving
a lustful revenge to the last

Unlight flood the seeker's eye

Come flame or false hope
gifted in spirit as I
Forced upon freedom
Let impulse nor stillness be spared

Fierce tidal tantrum
nourishing rapture within

Come feast or fire
repellent in forceful defence
Unchained, forgiving to none
solemn in swirling embrace


11. Tongues

[Music: Henriksson, Johansson, Sundin]
[Words: Sundin]

Tongues, lost in me
yours be the sharp and the vile
Glide neath my skin
storm through my nerves

I bury the nomad years
hours in the earth
couldn't exorcise these searing, pecking tongues
Immune you say
yet venom strikes in strangest guises
as the viper in our eyes
Tongue, throat, tongue
slayer of the word and stealer of wisdom

A monumental reign of terrors
throats slit up to stain the target
We're food for the hounds of trauma,
prey to the crows of stress

No power left to retrieve my stolen language
filtered through the illiterate fingers of death

Flies
let sickness be poured
from the cupped hands of bedlam

On account of their brightness
I made friends with the word and the moon
went with the tide and left for the sound
of dead instruments thrown out of tune

The red square patterns, dragonrise and
evenclaw
decoying from pandemonic symmetry

Let ring
a dissonant note in the music of the spheres
the streak of promise in the nuclear sky
These whipping black tongues
aching to lick me back to life
to inject their truths within me