1. |
Delirium
05:08
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Solitary
A wanderer at night
Darkened path
No guide but my fading faith
Her hand in the blackness
Her voice in the whispering void
Leads me on
In my delirium
I find the answer to my fears
My oblivion
My release
As we struggle
Against our damaged minds
Locked in war
With the scars that trace our past
A hand of forgiveness
A voice speaking words of peace
Leads us on
The clouds are parted
Soothing the storm within my soul
The broken-hearted
Once again made whole
In my delirium
I find the answer to my fears
My oblivion
My release
In my delirium
I find a purpose for my heart
Its dominion
Has set me free
Where I am weary
You are strong
When you falter
I reach out my hand
When in our nightmares
We lose ourselves
The fire we set
Guides us back to life
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2. |
North Brother Island
03:50
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I hold on my breast the weak and the infected
I hold in my bottomless stomach the bones of the dead
My friends are the damaged, the dying and the disconnected
The tales of their betrayal and burial are left unread
Cast out from society, the jetsam from its ship of fools
Afflicted and marked with the red badge of despair
Their bodies abandoned, dissected with useless tools
Unseen and unwanted, their sick flesh beyond all repair
No man's island, forgotten, unmarked graves
Names and lives dissolve beneath the waves
Blackened and drowned, my kin are washed up on the shore
Their would-be salvation dragging them down to the deep
Their faces are lost to the tide and the mud evermore
Their bodies are secrets that I alone must keep
I have heard the sorrow of the symptomless carrier
The messenger who cannot read the word that she brings
I can see the world beyond the watery barrier
I can hear the beating of grey retreating wings
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3. |
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There stands a stone in the vastness of the desert
Thrust like a dagger in the bosom of the sky
Its surface pitted with messages to no-one
Left by the lost as a final goodbye
We left our homes with a bright and burning vision
A faith to guide us in the bleak and boundless night
We had no fear of straying from the pathway
We had no knowledge of what lay beyond our sight
The roads beneath us showed no mercy to our weakness
We had no respite from the screaming in the gloom
Nameless horror in the all-consuming blackness
We lost our way beneath this obelisk of doom
We walk on until all that's behind us
Are bloody footprints and a memory of fear
We started out with the clearest of intentions
How the hell did we end up here?
Monument to intentions corrupted
Monolith of resolutions interrupted
No hope can last for ever
Before the statue of corrupted endeavour
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4. |
Dissolution
03:24
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Comes the flood
Comes the fire
Tearing earth and sky
Human terror
Without meaning
Before the tide of death
Thousand voices
Call on God
Looking for an answer
Desperation
Brings no refuge
From water or from flame
Sightless
The world is torn asunder
We cannot withstand
The breaking of the earth
Fists are raised
Statues fall
Beheading of the nation
Battle rage
Freedom cry
Blood runs ever deeper
A lord despised
A tyrant slain
The palace walls are shattered
Victory
Your sons lie dead
Liberation is a lie
Endless
Cycle of oppression
Violence replaces
One tyrant with another
Murder waits
In darkened streets
Violence unprovoked
Life is cheap
To take or lose
Chaotic desecration
Death becomes
The only language
Life's meaning is lost
No restraint
No limitations
No-one too young to die
Mindless
Premature unmaking
We do not know
The meaning of our deeds
Faithless
Soulless
Hopeless
Mankind is a dead end
We are lost for ever as
We tear our world apart
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5. |
Ignis Fatuus
03:57
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Falling from the thorny mountain
To the raging sea of doubt
We, the eyeless wanderers,
Seek a fire long gone out
Wracked by storms, pressed by darkness
We swim towards escaping light
Flickering ever out of reach
A phantom in the all-consuming night
The roiling tide of ink floods our lungs
We trust to books to keep us from the wave
The pages fall away and swamp us
Our philosophy pulls us to our grave
Strength failing, adrift in despair
We wash up on the shore
At last, the solid ground beneath us
Our struggle is no more
But certainty brings no solace
On this beach of dead men's bones
At the last we turn to dust
Hopeless, sightless, and alone
'Huddled in the dirt the reasoning engine lies,
Who was so proud, so witty, and so wise.'
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6. |
Where Two Rivers Meet
03:43
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Sudden rush of panic
Fleeing from the flood
Fragile bodies cling to safety
Holding on amid the tide of blood
Torrent of destruction
A world is swept away
Empty minds await in refuge
For the grave new world that comes today
Total desolation
Brutal recreation
A kingdom falls
Back into the mud from which it grew
No mercy from the wave
No time for you to save yourself
A reign of horror shall be forged anew
Receding darkened water
The destroyer slips away
Weak with hunger, flecked with filth
Survivors crawl back only to
Betray the one beside them
With whom they had endured
Murderous desperation
With bloody claws the new world is secured
Violent betrayal
Fighting tooth and nail
Chaos reigns
Across the mire that taints the broken land
The legacy of woe
Polluted with the flow of blood
Its wellspring is the traitor's savage hand
Rack and ruin, shattered crown
Towers laid low upon the ravaged ground
After the deluge, humanity's defeat
Do not pray for mercy where two rivers meet
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7. |
Jackals
03:31
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Scavengers circling round the carcass
You feast upon the dead
Yellow teeth tearing limb from limb
You bathe where they have bled
Mindless cannibal indulgence
Red in tooth and claw
Without empathy you feed on desperation
A feast of bones and dust
Hold on high the entrails of the mourners
And feed the people's lust
Profit at the sacrificial altar
Self is all your law
Bait the hook with the sorrow of your kin
Construct a shell around the void you hold within
Exploit the hearts of those you will devour
As you hunger for their dying hour
Jackals
Race to the bottom
In the name of the bottom line
Truth of little consequence
Deceptive by design
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8. |
On Stony Ground
03:16
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Bright lights standing on the river
Reflecting branches without trees
Icy glass and towering concrete
Petrifaction spreads like a disease
Feeding on the blood of the pelican city
Every profit brings a new cost
White knuckles clutching the cutting edge
Who can say just how much they've lost?
Hollow men, carrion crows
Stone bodies with withered wings
The trees have long since rotted
Among the towers of the vampire kings
Desperate arithmetic
Scratching the ground for scattered seed
No roots will push through stony pavement
Nothing lives to satisfy our greed
Can we find a place where the ground is soft beneath us
Where rivers shine with sunlight
And trees hold up the skies?
For even in the garden there are dark and hungry creatures
Hunting in the moonlight
With bloodthirst in their eyes
We can never free ourselves from the threat of teeth and talons
Never leave the cycle of death begetting death
Caught between the stone and tree we strive to keep the balance
And so it shall continue as long as man draws breath
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9. |
Alkahest
04:05
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Wandering alone
In the shadowy vale
Of my cold meditations
Out of the earth
The water is flowing
And it hastens me to the light
Deep in my core
I am drained of the darkness on which I rely
No more can my struggle define me
The acid well runs dry
Eager I rise
Hearing the rush of the wind
In my quickening heartbeat
As my blood
Commingles with fire
I depart from this cage of fear
I am alive
Remade and transmuted in my crucible mind
I am changed by the road I have taken
My elements combined
Approaching this higher state
Freed from my doubt and my shame
To create
An ever-burning flame
Here I am, emerging anew
From out of the darkness that once was my home
I have walked through the shining water, cleansing, clear and cold
Emerging anew
Forever remade in the brightness of dawn
At one with this world
I will transform this iron into gold
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Phlebas London, UK
Phlebas is the solo project of London-based musician and producer Nick Siepmann. A synthesis of melodic death metal and influences from the folk and classical worlds, this project is an ongoing journey of musical and lyrical discovery.
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