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Ihsahn - Arktis. lyrics



Tracks



01. Disassembled

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
A shattered soul presented
Like a disassembled gun
Assassins rushing up the stairs
All allies on the run

Grasping for the pieces
With hands of swarming flies
A sleeper agent set to face
A death where no one dies

Cold sweat dripping
Like hammers to the floor
Panic eyes fixated
On the light beneath the door

Shadows move like fire
Hysteric seconds tick
Until the zeros of the clockwork
Applaud the final click

Finger on the trigger
Back against the wall
Counting rounds and voices
Not enough to kill them all

So, you thought you could escape without a fight
That we would loose the scent of your despair
Like rabid hounds we'll hunt you through the night
Along a crooked trail of blood and fear

A shattered soul presented
Like a disassembled gun
Assassins rushing up the stairs
All allies on the run

Engage the code to self destruct
It cannot be undone
The last of the resistance
Outnumbered one to one

02. Mass Darkness

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
In a world of haunting mirrors
Your eyes should have been closed
Instead you lost your shadow
To become, like them, a ghost

Immersed within a mist of death
You withered in the light
And left your disillusioned soul
To tremble in the night

Look beyond the fear
And take it back
The contours of your spirit
Make them black
You just have to

Give in
To the hunger
Give in
To the solitude
Give in
To the rapture of life
Give in to darkness
Mass darkness

Complete the shadow's circle
To become all that you are
Surrender to the darkness
To shine just like a star

Give in
To the hunger
Give in
To the solitude
Give in
To the sanctity of your heart
Give in to darkness
Mass darkness
Give in
To the fire
Give in
To the cold
Give in
To the rapture of life
Give in to darkness
Mass darkness

03. My Heart Is Of The North

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
I have felt the hunger,
The restless howling call,
To lift my gaze across the seas
And seek out foreign shores

Yet, for all riches
They may bring forth,
The undeniable remains;
My heart is of the North

Beyond horizons
There is kinship to be found
The challenger of summits
Is by no direction bound

Still, untouchable
Are those who hold my soul
For them the fire burns
And our enemy shall truly know the cold

And should my spirit soften
Like snow in early spring
Or waver in the sultry haze
That soothing summers bring
Engage the compass of my heart
All arrows drawn to N
When night falls on my journey
And my path comes to an end

Take me north again

04. South Winds

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
Static
Dogmatic
Death cult
Fanatic

Hidden
In the open
Masked
By tradition

Your face, your heart
Fervent to obey
Your face, your heart
You gave it all away

I'd rather live a life in sin
And take a devil's fall
Than let the madmen of belief
Make fools and martyrs of us all

Get up off your knees
Get up off your knees
Your burden is a lie
So, get up off your knees

Lift your head up high
Lift your head up high
Your burden is a lie
So, lift your head up high

Your code
Your line
Your mouth
Your spine

A hammer
To fictitious sins
A cold field
To south winds

What kind of promises
Could justify
the sacrifice you make?
This shame and fear
You force upon this
world for heaven's sake
Life you forsake

Hope ran out
In the desert sand
Cancel all flights
To the promised land

05. In The Vaults

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
Screaming
Into a void of disbelief
Bleeding slowly
The victim of a narcissistic blow

Life can be so unforgiving
Yet, what is there really to forgive?
All you really have to do is....

Longing for the hopeless
Loosing all to own the end
Maybe you will find the courage
To trust yourself again

Why wrestle all this guilt
When you can pick a fight with death?
Why nurture weaknesses and flaws?
You chose a life at war

Now choose a worthy enemy
If not to conquer, then to taste the blood

Screaming
Into the void of disbelief
A conjurer of sorrow
A parasite of grief

Life can be so unforgiving
Yet, what is there really to forgive?
All you really have to do is live

Why wrestle all this guilt
When you can pick a fight with death?
Why nurture weaknesses and flaws?
You chose a life at war
Now choose a worthy enemy
You know, it doesn't always have to be yourself

06. Until I Too Dissolve

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
The early hours
Of this late autumn dawn
All ready taste of winter

Cold mist rise
From blinding waters
Gracefully into the light

And I can choose to watch
Absorb this careless beauty
Without restrictions make it part of me

Until I too dissolve
A fragment of it all

These fleeting moments
Between ashes and dust
May well taste of winter
And yet I choose to dream
To form this life like clay
Universal insignificance will guide my way

Until I too dissolve
Like mist in autumn dawn
A fleeting moment to behold
A fragment of it all

Cold mist rising
Until I too dissolve

07. Pressure

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
I know I put this pressure on you
To deal with and accept my being
And the darkness that sometimes leak
Through the cracks of my skull
That slow grimy shadow
Like oil spill from a sinking ship

Still breathing and conscious
Stare through a stranger's eyes
Devoured and sedated
Slow motion muted cries

Now I need to put some pressure on myself
Put some flesh on these bones in my mouth
Rearrange these fragments in my head
Ignite those dreams with a few bolts of lightning

The spirit seeks to be a hammer
That forge the future as it glows
The mind curls like an anvil
To take the fiery blows

The heart will sing of danger
The brave and reckless call
Set sail towards a distant shore
Misgiving memories lurk
In the darkest pitfalls of the soul
Like an anchor hauled across the ocean floor

I put this pressure on you
To deal with and accept my being
Now I need to put some pressure on myself
Burn the oil, ignite the dream

08. Frail

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
The air is thick with strangers
Laughing through your screaming lungs
Imploding in your chest like death

Absent exit signs ignite the flames,
The fear, the rage that tear down walls
Alas, in dreams alone they all collapse

These hoarders of paragraphs
And alibis and secret lies and hollow needs
And enemies that draw you in
These pillars of everything mundane
Are but a gateway to oblivion

Fever burning, weak and pale
Like vultures to the wounded they'll come
You can't afford to be this frail
They'll steal you

Not cut out to follow
Nor fit to rule
A dethroned king of diamonds
In the garments of a fool

This jest of chaos
This irony of common fate
Some like dominoes
Some like angels
Apart
In love
From grace
We fall fall fall

Fever burning, weak and pale
You can't afford to be this frail
Like vultures to the wounded they'll come
To steal you
Deceive you
Mislead you
Erase you

09. Crooked Red Line

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
Stranded at the borders of perception
Onto a blackened heaven, washed ashore
In voluntary exile from deception
A peaceful mind, alas, a heart at war

A solitary voyager upon uncharted land
Left beaten on the rock, nowhere to go
But to face an arctic map and with a cold and bloody hand
Draw a crooked line through ice and snow

Across the callous fields and valleys deep
Through winter storms towards the mountains high
He carved a path and from the summit laughed
Into the unforgiving northern sky

He came here clinging to a wreckage
Only guided by the violence of the sea
But not content to merely stay afloat
He built a ship from memories and debris

10. Celestial Violence

Music & lyrics by Ihsahn
Stay
And I will turn these
Unforgiving words into a star

Stay
This scenery would change
If we could watch it from afar

Pain
Like icons of our suffering
Distilled to works of art

Pain
A sting of life to bind us
To these heavens torn apart

Celestial violence
Eternal wars unfold across the sky
Celestial violence
Feel the unrelenting pulse inside

Sing
And celebrate the chaos
On this canvas that is night

Sing
But strike a chord of dissonance
When harmony betrays
To lure you blind into the light

An emptiness so deep
Even time will disappear
Hand in hand with all the whispers
Of the intermission
The still anticipation
Of a scream