Visions envelop us warm and dear
Afflictions nurtured, unfathomable depths
Its art form leaves us sullied, smitten
Born from our mortality
Brushes stroke sanity never so gentle
Lost; deranged in a crippled mind
Scratching the surface - nuance denied
Devoid of spectrum - here we are blind
Worlds bare and stricken (beckon me)
Fears beyond counting (lost within)
Trapped in the core of our sanctum
Tell me, where is the purpose?
Lost in the half-lives once spent
On fading memories and times that never were

By nature this hellhole will persist
Fed far too long - now festers within
This part of me that is not me
Yet without which I'd cease to be
Nightmares consume, futures unfold
How could we rest with such stories untold?
We may be mere human; from what we have seen
Beyond this vessel there are worlds between

Behold, as I watch from the shadows
A stranger looks back from far away realms
An altogether different hue
Surrounded by maelstroms of wistful tunes
I am locked in an aura of dissonant chords
Hear them die on the searing winds
Caressing hands they sculpt a resonating void
Familiar whispers and mocking throats
Mimicking the unsung vowels flowing from the heart
A counterweight here made flesh
Where time fleets and seeps in a purgatory of meaning and structure
Forever lost within and without, through the nothing and nowhere

Harnessing the madness I swore would be the end of me
Turned ashes into glory to last beyond my time
Striving for perfection I turned the very stars
Still it's not enough - forever unfulfilled

Trudging through the path, step by torturous step
Insight waits for me; emptiness made real

No sight, no senses, no feelings, no more

Climax closes in
Buried underneath - all that should have been
The guilt of non-creation
Grueling is the search for the master's piece
Ever so slightly out of reach
Mournful statues wail; empty sockets judge
"Father, why have you denied us eyes?"

The past is but a fading shroud
Now let go and stride with sure step through these halls
Visions struck me blind - I have no need for eyes
Here I am the one who dreams the way
Enigma at the end of all
A sapphire cruel, so radiant and vast
As I reach out to touch it crumbles, as do I
I am reborn and closer to my transience

Instrumental

Time is a beast, inadherent to rein
Trapped in its hounding, unbreakable frame
Few, few are we - impossible the odds
To witness as mortals the fabric of the gods

I never saw what came for me
And yet it lives within my dreams
It whispers from a restless void
Sleeps with eyes wide open

The deep and slumbering question rears its head once more

Is it reality that dwarfs the dream?
Or a realm of illusions that rules supreme?

I've seen too far beyond the veil and peered into its soul
And once it answered once I was complete

Witness the birth of legacy, of sacrifice
In pursuit of paths still veiled
In the shadows of a great unknown
Our desperate covenant was made

All must come to pass
Time is my foe and I wonder:
Was it worth to be bound in this ravel of dreams?
The vast Stygian labyrinth lives on
Traversed only once we are gone

From the lowliest worm to the cosmic scale
Sum principium fines omnes
Shrouded in luster from trivial to grand
In the hollow we are made whole

Woven through birth and demise
Struggling to grasp the patterns of
An essence leaks from every source
Transcending human concepts

Lost within the awe and splendour of all
That slipped between our fingers
As a bastion of wings appeared to our needs
Mold ourselves to be

Threads of future, yarn spun between
Ever elusive - never in sight
Fools presume to see the knots in the ever twisting chaos

Lost in a maelstrom of folly and unwritten paths
Multiple strains move beyond comprehension

In a strange familiar place
In a murder of wings
I beheld the fate of all
Of all that is as it becomes
And our cruel lineage

From the birth of time we have wandered
Primordial depths we have dwelled
From an abyss of worlds we venture
Through the shades of a great unknown

Long as time was abstract we have wandered
And sought solace in turning of tides
Mere threads in the grand tapestry
Cursed envoys of a lost legacy

Life is a canvas laid bare for all to see
Man is a mirror imprinted with lock and key
Dichotomous gates lead to dormant ways
Where every path was split in half
We wander 'til we fade

Time confounds and mystifies
Awareness cuts like a blade
The duplicitous curse of the gifts we share
Soon lost on wasted days
Let senses draw blood - drown in their flood
A maelstrom of sweat and cold regret
Life's paint seeps from our veins

Through the portals that we left
Our shades will follow through

Embrace the struggle
Learn to grow with your pain
Hope lies in the solace of a dying dream
Beasts trapped in a corner fight fiercest of all
Does the light not shine the brightest in the depth of night?

Once our souls moved softly
And tiptoed through the world
The Atlas weight a gentle ache
But this could not be us
A slave to wretch nature
A rag doll to our hearts
To relish burden like a fool while shadows tear at our mind

We have shaped our sorrow and became the forge
Infernos that consumed us once have wrought a tempered flame
But bitterness does suffocate and stone breaks all the same
Our sculptor's soul, though marble-made
Eclipsed by the shadow of the heart

Beasts trapped in a corner fight the fiercest of all
Does the light not shine the brightest in the depth of night?

Instrumental

Wanderlust in my heart
Restless blood- fiery veins
As grim ghosts of my past came haunting
Seething with doubt
I could sparse hold my ground
Searching for signs when a raven struck down
Judging my soul with an ice cold stare
Ages of wisdom
Ageless black eyes

A soul laid bare before those pits
Bereft of want and fancy
Of aspirations made by man
Fool's gold- false glory
Relish in the dream untold
Within it grander paths unfold
What once was dear proved meaningless
Our need is far beyond

So meet me on the winding road where only the desperate dwell
Behold in me a vision three
They shape the flow of all

In days of yore I craved release
Now must decline death's invite sweet
It was far too soon our paths would meet
Yet part of me is still there
For I was damned with clarity
A path of thorns and agony
Transfixed in eerie silence and overwhelming woe
Existing out of space and time it spoke with not a word:
"I'm here to give thee counsel... But never consolation..."
And worlds I knew came tumbling down in crumbling ruins and ashes
Dead planets and extinguished stars as far as the eye could see
Did fill my soul with ecstasy and nigh inhuman glee
Did shatter all that had been thus far, for the first time I could see

Then in the cry it uttered
That shattering banshee's wail
A universe within enclosed did lay, proclaimed in unknown tongues
Yet my heart, it understood each poison word
Did strike the anvil of my soul
Of my soul

And every road entwined did graze
Adrift where lost souls wallow
On pathways where my answers lie
No child of man could follow
Cosmic storms swept all I was
The end of my existence
Within I braved a horror though never did I flinch
For in these dreadful eons my essence was reforged
An influx of wisdom blinding the virgin retina

Witness to damnation
Shepherd of the end
My despair is hollow
It heralds of rebirth

"Rebuild then in the places
Where only thought exists
As the others taste but ashes
In the furnace of your will"

A mighty fall, now forced to be
A vessel for purposeless misery
In remembrance dear I once lived more
Mere shadow of what was before
Such rigid sight, a puzzled past
Of what should be yet could not last
Not here nor there yet lost between
I am trapped in the eye of the Raven

It was the sound of rustling wings
Tore me from my vision grand
Defeaning silence pierced my being
Like a storm of nails

Lifeless, torn and broken
The beauty of my own demise
I collapsed unto myself
And plunged the heart of the abyss

Drifting
Lost in a timeless void
Cursed to eternally behold
The mirrored path unfold

How I howled and wept
Laughed and cried
Lived and died
I was empty- whole and perfect
A creature most fulfilled

Gone is the flame
Smoldering the ashes

A flickering fades into my eyes
Pursued by the howling of life
The shadows cast by fading pyre
At the hour of twilight stand guard
For creatures lurk in deepest dark
Waiting for the light to grow sparse
Their hopelessness, the endless mist
As long as I breathe they are mine

So I beg of the wind for a whisper to my fallen kin
But their shadows on the trees are nothing but a fantasy
So distant the calling of forgotten dreams,
How they yearn and beg for release
I stand idle as they all are crushed by the turning of destiny's wheel

A nomad of the wasteland journeys through the fog
Where my feet have trodden, deepest are the bogs
Where the wind is howling its song I wade through the snow
A journey of the heart, no path can take me where I go

I am a withered wanderer, wayward are my goals
Lost in ancient forests, crystallised by souls
Was my burden once an honour, it's reduced to plight
In this fortress of the mind I have been haunting all my life

Beyond the great golden divide
A cadence frail so warmly strikes
For whom it fades the soul divides
Forever gone to where the daylight died

Fixed on the horizon ever is my gaze
Bitterly I stride on, blinded by the haze
Is it dawn or will the dusk fall, I'll never know
For the darkness that surrounds me is reminiscent of my own

The mist envelops ruins, (their) purpose lost in time
Statues in seclusion, empty are their eyes
How I long to find a reason this world to endure
But all I see are corpses of those who were lost -
Before...

The cadence frail now slowly fades
A formless pale steps from the shade
And whispers to my mind:
"The time has come to leave your shape behind"

Oh flame of life, mother regret
Have mercy on this fallen wretch
Grant me the strength to travel on
And reach the hall to where the raven guides

My body's too cold to move on, in one final act of defiance
My feet stand steadfast in the snow but the frostbite takes its final toll
I heave my hands towards the sky and sound my final forlorn cry
I plead and beg the sky for mercy

As my heart is freezing slowly, I embrace the storm
And as I die I see the veil lifted by the sun

Instrumental