ow lift your cup in celebration
Indulge your lips
I do insist
Drink up drink up

Long ago
I grew deaf
To the echoes of my footsteps

Long ago
I grew blind
To the world through your eyes

I overcame
The bleak destiny
Of your lead filled convictions

I prevailed
And now I soar relentlessly
Beyond the north

In my ascension I scorn the eye of envy
And he who flies is hated most of all

I celebrate the distance
Over which you spill your grief
By your belief you waste your tears
On a liar and a thief

"How could you ever be just towards me?
I choose your injustice as my portion"

Now for the grand finale
You will be protagonist
This tragedy you did inspire
Crucifixion with a twist

Bring me my wine
And the head of the world
I will drink to her demise

For this last meal
My righteous friend
I serve Thee cold


2. Scarab

As the sun returns
From the shades of night
So am I reborn from my own corruption

I invoke the consuming fire
And from the ashes mould
The renaissance of my decadent self

At the dawn of my rebirth
The heart is overflowing
I indulge and dissipate

And when the cup is empty
I drink from nothingness
The venom by which I disintegrate

This is not merely pride
Or lust for eminence
This is the reoccurring cycle of my existence

As the sun returns
From the shades of night
So am I reborn from my own corruption

Behold - the god returns
Solar balls upon his back
A sacrifice

I invoke the consuming fire
And from the ashes mould
The renaissance of my decadent self

My Sacrifice - My Corruption - My Death


3. Unhealer

[feat. Mikael Åkerfeldt on lead vocals]

Prayers
Confessions
The peaceful tools
Of a righteous man
Redemption
Forgiveness
Serenity complete

And you believe
That time will heal
Erase your wounds
Your lies conceal

Cleanse your soul
In dreams of death
Wherein you may concede
But when you wake
Remember this:
In my domain
Those scars will bleed

Your peace is not my peace
Where you redeem
I summon guilt
Your fear is not my fear
I summon the fire
Your hell is not my hell
The life you shun
Is mine to live
Your sins are not my sins
In me you find no heir
Your lies are not my lies
Such grace
I do renounce
Your god is not my god
Where he forgiveth
I will unheal

Shameless
Ever defying
The pride and joy
Of a nemesis
Fallen
Godless
Solitude complete

Yet - I will see
Your faiths defeat
Thy will undone
My kingdom come

Wash your hands
In frozen convictions
Beyond you make your plead
But come the end
I guarantee:
In my domain
Those scars still bleed


4. Emancipation

The open air
Atop this mountain
Welcomes my hungered voice

Yet - in the echoes
Of my indulgence
I hear a calling from below

Silent cries
To my solitude profound
In too deep
There is no return
For the soul unbound
In too deep

I draw circles
Sacred boundaries
Around my desolate temple

Blood is spilt
And thorns grow
On the path to liberty

Eternally
In pain and rapture

I was summoned
And I was forced
Yet - I willed it so


5. Malediction

Sacrilege
Profanity
Rabid convulsion
Of blasphemy
Thus appear my venomous cries
To your ears
Were they truths or were they lies

Rejection
Eternal
Tyranny
Of denial
I would surely burn myself at the stake
Were my demons the spawn
Of your lusts and perversions

Parasite
Mundane creed
Dispassionate
Betrayal
In times of moral crisis
The darkest places in hell
Are reserved for the neutral

And so you earn
My contempt
My enmity
Malediction
Though my path be that of thorns
The way of my affliction
Is the way to myself

The devil will not let me go
Though I do not mind
Through fiery lakes to where cold rivers flow
I honour the contract I signed

Sacrilege
Profanity
Rabid convulsion
Of blasphemy
Thus appear my venomous cries
To your ears
Were they truths or were they lies

Rejection
Eternal
Tyranny
Of denial
I would surely burn myself at the stake
Were my demons the spawn
Of your lusts and perversions

No - the devil will not let me go
And I never did mind
Through fiery lakes to where cold rivers flow
With pleasure I honour the contract I signed


6. Alchemist

Again I find myself in this narrow chamber
And my kettle simmers with the same old brew
Now turning sour
There must be more to this than chemistry
As my soul burns with fever

Instinctively I do repeat the simple formula
"Solve et coagula"

He stands to face his fate alone
Who will not be content with stone

Some distant glimmers used to lessen my despair
Since then this darkened cell has lost its charm
Now I seek a lightning's glare

"Grips thee, thou Superman! Where is the soul elated?
Where is the breast that in its self a world created" -M

"Why grinnest thou at me, thou hollow skull?
Save that thy brain, confused like mine, once sought bright day
And in the sombre twilight dull,
With lust for truth, went wretchedly astray?"


7. Elevator

Night comes with the smell of murder
And shadows fall long on my trail
Such are the hazards of my craft

All lights disperse
And the devil takes me down

There is panic in my fascination
Like soothing wine is my despair
Gracefully I fall to pieces

Then lights disperse
And the devil takes me down

The gears keep turning
And the ropes stretch far
In this world of hopelessness

I have come a long way now
The fatal riddles
Beckon me
I have come a long way now
A leap from faith
And gravity
I have come a long way now
To find the nest
Where treasures sleep
I have come a long way now
The fairest lies
Are hidden in the deep

In the deep

There is vanity in my destruction
There is mockery in my ordeal
Indefinite is the course of my decent

When lights disperse
And the devil takes me


8. Threnody

He lies quiet now
In the nothing
And there is no epitaph
No stone

Yet - his legacy flows
Like a river

Walker of barren paths
Seer of night
Friend of shadows
A carrier of light

And his legacy flows
Like a river from ice
The hungry heart opens
And drinks from this fountain
So cold

There are no promises
In his solitary grave
There is no salvation
Only words

But what then are these precious streams
Of coldness from the heights?
They will never reach the fields below

What is this silent grave?
To those who never sought to find it?
What is greatness to the dead?

And his legacy flows
Like a river from ice
The hungry heart opens
And drinks from this fountain
So cold


9. Monolith

It was never
The icy winds of the heights
But the coldness of the world
That hardened my foundation

Whether your approach
Is that of praise or blasphemy
The construction of my being
Will remain the same

If my soaring presence
Threatens to break your neck
Then so be it
You shall dread my name

There is a fundamental cleft
Between your world and mine
One of divine origin

Were you to witness
The nakedness of your own soul
It would still appear a tower of Babel

Is it such a crime to go apart and be alone?
Your holy simplicity turns gold into stone