1. |
Endless
06:40
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Endless are these frozen winds upon my flesh;
Knife-bearing, they slash and tear away
My courage, warmth, and will to fight back
Until hatred is all that remains of my heart.
Endless is the hate this season taught me.
Endless too is my fear.
Endless are the taunting nightmares
Bearing warm memories into this cold Hell I awake.
I always awake . . .
At the end of suffering even joy may follow.
To be torn asunder is to know wholeness.
To know how to suffer is to know exultant joy.
Even in this Hell the beauty is endless
And Heaven can be seen within.
This beauty is endless.
Endless . . .
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2. |
Desolation
06:11
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What are the words
For one who can only weep
As his loved ones senesce back into the dust
From which we all rise?
What are the words for one
Who can only watch his world die?
What are the words?
What are the words for when
Summer's gentle countenance
Falls into desolation
And Winter's dark shadow rises?
What are the words to answer terror?
What are the words to answer grief?
What are the words to answer helplessness?
What are the words to answer a broken heart?
As this beautiful world falls into chaos
- As all whom you love fade into memory
- Now, more than ever -
Find your strength.
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3. |
Darkness
07:25
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Where are all my angels going?
Isn’t Heaven bright enough for me to hold one close?
One by one, they pass from me.
One by one, the world grows colder.
One by one, the world loses color.
One by one, the world grows darker.
Where are all my angels going?
The years leave me ever more alone,
Carrying my heart grown weary.
Isn’t Heaven good enough to spare me?
One by one, they pass right through me.
One by one, my heart grows harder.
One by one, the world loses its worth.
One by one, the world grows darker.
Where are they going?
Why are they leaving me?
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4. |
Coldness
05:46
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I felt the passing of someone I loved
Spoken within me
As a powerful voice
To which I can put no color.
In that deep night
When grief came closer
I knew a different world
Was upon my breaking heart.
"Soon" was the word spoken
As the whole of a life
- an endless well of love and hope
- this flame of three -
Evaporated.
In that deep night,
I doubt even starshine
Could have fallen upon the Earth
To be my hopebringer.
And so this flame of three evaporated
And all thereafter
Became coldness.
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5. |
Echoes
07:15
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Somewhere under the storm's snowfall
A tiny life is letting go -
Passing from this world as an echo
Doomed to fall into the abyss of silence.
I cannot bear to imagine the hopeless suffering
Of something out there wishing only for its warm home.
Somewhere out there in the ceaseless cold
A final cry to the cosmos
Is lost forever in the bottomless depths of time;
Torn asunder in the endless, howling wind.
I know all too well the terrible truth
That beneath the icy sky of a world turned to hate
My small life has no more meaning,
And I too can pass alone, surrounded by Winter's fury.
Life's flame is fragile.
Even amongst Summer's vibrant leaves
I can hear Winter's eventual return,
As if the howl of some abomination
Echoes from the mountains.
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6. |
Entrancement
05:58
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It's all this moment.
It's all these mountains.
It's all this cold.
It's all this wind.
It's all my heart.
It's all one.
It's all this moment
When I am most free
And the tides of my soul
Rise to their highest.
It's all this moment
When I am most alive
And with my darkness stunned
I can reach past the sky.
It's just one moment,
My moment,
Counted in Eternity.
It's all this moment.
It's all too much.
It's all so beautiful . . .
It's all so beautiful.
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7. |
Beautiful
06:18
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Beneath this desolation,
Beneath this absence of hope,
When all is still
And only coldness surrounds,
Something breathes -
The promise of a new Earth
Upon the death of the old.
Beneath this hopeless winterscape
Sleeps that promise.
Have I - in my torture -
missed something so beautiful?
Let me stand before you
As we unify our suffering.
And in this desolation,
We can find something beyond hope.
For when all is still,
I can hear the breathing
Of a sleeping promise
I shall make my own.
A new, better world is upon us,
Even now.
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8. |
Fierce
04:38
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No matter how fierce, you will not break me . . .
As the season falls
And the ice-beast gathers
The world trembles
At what is to come.
Foul miscreation, no you don't!
You'll not have my life!
I'll call across time
And reach across space
To gather the might I need
To keep your frozen evil from me!
Come, you foul demon!
You'll not have my soul!
I must call on all I am -
- All I was
- And all I will be.
I must call on all there is -
- All that was
- And all that will be.
I will defy.
You will not break me!
I'll scream your name,
So you know
I'm still alive!
I must call on all I am -
- All I was
- And all I will be.
I must call on all there is -
- All that was
- And all that will be now!
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9. |
Eternal
06:54
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Winterscape
-Truly the land of the fallen-
For I believe that Hell
Could be no colder.
The ceaseless, assailing cold,
The endless, howling wind,
The eternal white blanket,
Fall to darkness upon the long-drawn night.
And yet when the sky does clear,
That beautiful blue
And that bright sunlight
Look as does salvation.
Is this Winter's truth?
So be it.
I'll give myself.
Winter, let me be your prophet.
When this flesh and blood fall back to the Earth,
Let my ghost howl with that torturous wind,
For suffering is the temperance
Of a soul made worthwhile.
So to all whom I love,
One more embrace.
By the union of Heaven and Earth
We are made in the image of greatness.
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10. |
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Into the abode of wolves we are drawn, we, who live so fiercely.
We, whose passions burn so brilliantly, howl our rage into the endless sky and consume this moment entirely.
Into the abode of wolves we are drawn, we, who know no boundaries between our feet and this Earth.
We, who once were the final force of balance on this land can yet instill fear of those ancient times in the hearts of the weak.
The Reign of a Million Years collapsed all too quickly, as a new fearful beast ended our grand empire.
But when he falls and his proud monuments are reclaimed by the Earth, the abode of man will return to that of the wolves.
Into the abode of wolves we are drawn, we, who hold no sympathy for the gentle grazers of this world.
And in a furious blaze, we’ll create the paths your pathetic kind always will fear to tread!
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Appalachian Winter Schellsburg, Pennsylvania
All music is offered for free download (see the Appalachian Winter website below). Some physical goods offered through Nine Gates Records.
Enjoy!
-D.G. Klyne
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