A HILL TO DIE UPON


 


BAND NAME: A Hill to Die Upon
GENRE: Death / Black Metal
STATUS: Active
LOCATION: USA (Monmouth/Galesburg, Illinois)

Sometimes abbreviated AHTDU.

Formed in either winter, 2004 (as per ReverbNation), or January, 2005 (as per SoundClick).

Not all of this band's lyrics are directly Christian.

Lineup:
Adam Cook - Vocals, Guitars
Michael Cook - Vocals, Drums
Nolan Osmond - Guitars

Past members:
Steve Southard - Vocals
Tanner Jones - Vocals, Guitars
Brent Dossett - Vocals, Bass
Adam Gross - Guitars
Drew Webster - Guitars
Josiah Boyd - Bass (R.I.P. 2018 - car accident)
Elisha Mullins - Bass
Josh Christianson - Bass
several other members, names/roles unknown (as per SoundClick)


Discography:


The Burial (single, 20 November, 2006, Independent)
Format: Digital / SoundClick
Stream / Download (OFFICIAL)

1) The Burial 4:34



Day of Metal (Compilation, 2007, Bombworks Records)
Format: CD

11) A Hill to Die Upon - Neverending Twilight
track length, lyrics unknown



Demo 2008 (demo, June, 2008, Independent)
Format: CD-R
 
1) Season of the Starved Wolf 4:59, see below for lyrics
2) This King Never Smiles 3:33, see below for lyrics



Christian Metal Fellowship: Compilation Volume II (Compilation, 2009, Sullen Records)
Format: CD

2) A Hill to Die Upon - Prometheus Rebound 4:23, see below for lyrics



The New Wave of Prevailing Metal (compilation, 2009, Bombworks Records)
Format: CD

9) A Hill to Die Upon - Prometheus Rebound 4:22, see below for lyrics



Infinite Titanic Immortal (album)

21 July, 2009, Bombworks Records, CD, Digipak
5 December, 2013, Bandcamp

1) Of Fire and Division
1:13, lyrics:
"I have come to bring fire, and how I wish it were already
kindled!... Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell
you, but division." - Jesus Christ, Luke's gospel 12:49-51

"The mighty man will become tinder and his works a spark; both will
burn together, with no one to quench the fire."
- Isaiah 1:31

2) Prometheus Rebound
4:24, lyrics:
"Be what it is my destiny to be,
The saviour and strength of suffering man,
Or sink into the original fuld of things:
There is no agony, and no solace left;
Earth can console, Heaven can torment me no more."
- Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

No sleep, no dreams, no making mankind's peace
The furies for company and the rejection of that infinity

Abomination of my clay brothers...
We are the mud and filth of this earth
Of what we can and would become
This likeness is all we are

Artist of my clay spirit
I am the reclaimed fallen son
Of what we can or would die to see:
I fire in the hearts of men

In blackest day of generations
My end is to end as the dead
We dead promethean sons
End of the dead
"Titans, Behold your God!"
Bow before the potter's Son
My end is to end as the dead
Promethean child!

"Titans, behold your God!"
He canst become no clearer
God of all, star-inwoven
He hast love beyond

Reaper!
"Champion of heaven's slaves"
Oblivion Son

We canst grieve no more...
Io! Barest of love
Oblivion soul
We canst bear no more...

3) This King Never Smiles
3:34, lyrics:
"Avarice, or the desire of gain, is a universal passion, which operates at
all times, at all places, and upon all persons."
- David Hume

Live long the curse of Midas.
Be warned of greed and golden pastures.
For years, I've often sat and pondered "What more should I obtain"
"What else is left to conquer?"
Power, yes everlasting power
Obtained by wealth and gold
A force that I can touch and hold
Ignorance and avarice Hand in hand as one

Servant, bring my plate, I have a hunger
For I cannot live on my riches alone
Servant, night is close, where is my daughter?
What do you mean she's on the lawn?
Call her name, bring her to me.
What do you mean she's stiff and cold?
My own blood now a trophy?
My Dionysus, I've paid your price in full.

My kingdom lies in ruins from their king,
From my own hand my kingdom lies in ruins

I realize now my life's importance
I realize now my lesson learned
Each step I take toward golden fortune
That's one more foot in the ground

Please lift this curse from my head
Please lift this curse from my hands
Just let me wash my hands of this

4) Season of the Starved Wolf
5:05, lyrics:
"The strength of the wolf determines the strength of the pack; the strength of the pack determines the strength of the wolf."
- Rudyard Kipling

Another night brings uncertain hunger
And one more moon might satisfy that

My eyes were meant to sift through shadows
With razor teeth I ache and wait for the hunt
My eyes were meant to sift through shadows
The taste of blood sits well on the tip of my tongue

Who's the unlucky mortal whom fate has forgotten?
Around this town, my dear, the hunt is the law
And now you answer to my jaw
What mindless cattle left their behind to come find mine?
For years we've fed by the moon,
Haunting, awaiting the nightfall
We'll allow you days but after dark we claim these woods
Beware the moon!

And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell
And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell itself

Straight through the fire, straight through the belly of hell, straight through the fire

And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell
And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell itself

We are the wolves
We are the hunger
But beware the moon, we are the night

We are the wolves
We are the hunger
But beware the moon, the hunt is law

5) Twin Heads of Vengeance
5:53, lyrics:
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will, and that soon; and
when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the
scabbard."
- Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

The Twin Heads: "Two beaks tear at a thousand nation's eyes
Wings beat upon the ears of all who dare to fight

My light shineth the way
Forward through ash and fog and fear
It is flaming madness I see... in all whom I command

Set flame to a million empirical states
That will not bare my faces
I am at peace with the madness of my race

Two beaks tear at a thousand nation's eyes
Wings beat upon the ears of all who dare to fight..."

Warriors: "Beholdeth what we cannot see
God of gods!
Law by nature, by will alone
Infinite Titanic Immortal

Oh! Faceless might
Grant us the sight
Through the ash and flame
The hymns of chaos rise!"

The Poet: Warring iron gods
And madness' undying flame
Carmen ex ignis
Cantus ex metus

6) Heka Secundus (On Slithering Ice)
3:31, lyrics:
"Life is the childhood of our immortality." - Goethe

Ice!

Aphelion! Hail beyond the halls of time
To vast waste of ice and Alluvial mass
Logos! Ad Pathos! So be it ever after
Thy souls, themselves, are bringers of disease

Chaos, saty, servant of strymphalian rage
And that hideous strength that saileth from beyond
Io, lycanthropy! Bare thy claws and fangs
Time shall ever call my name

Ad infinitum

The hand of Gaia
The womb of mother ice
Borealis shines
And burns the will of man
Giants circle and roar
Heka Secondus!

I hath prayed for strength
And my hell is here
And my hell is real

7) The Dark Road
1:36, instrumental

8) We Soulless Men
5:39, lyrics:
"They wanted, as we say, 'to call their souls their own.' but that means
to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own."
- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

The continuum I behold, such is my inner want
Not that I should bold above that which is not around me
The art of soul is now meaningless
As I behold my total lack of self

Lo! Demeter
Behold the eart
Above and below
Thou makest believe
Uncreated!
Above the sphere
Rebellious globe
Thou makes us believe

Why, oh why, are we left?
To be sin in such perfect a place
The desolate mind is so perfectly spoiled
In the eyes of a raptures snake

Eyes of a raptures snake

Hear me speak, brothers of the earth
My words that shattered like clay
So I speak as if thou were a child
Lest fire besiegeth thy hearts

Beckon forth! The soulless mankind
Standing in ranks of thousands still more
But this fate is what I have always feared for we soulless men

We soulless men

9) Titanic Essence
3:47, lyrics:
"Once one has seen God, what is the remedy?" - Sylvia Plath

De natura ex intime dissolutio
I am, thefore I burn!
Mysta ex omnis uxorious
Alles soll stehen verwirren

Ars ex liber, ex anima
The descending lion throne
Cogito, ergo summitissum
Alles soll stehen grell

Metaphysics and decomposition
Erase and total control
Wait no, nor give in to fear
Submerion in violence

"Warstrength shall collide with warstrength"
Tartarian essen and raptures snake
"For all the immortals," Thraxus immolator!

Havoc!

Quotes taken from Aeschylus' "The Libation Bearers"

10) Eclipse of Serpents
5:07, lyrics:
"The pyramids themselves... have forgotten the names of their
founders." - Thomas Fuller

Io!
Shafts of plague and pythoness gift
The blackness of Bast hast cometh unto us
Heiracosphinx! Slain
By judgment's flaming sword
Canst thou see the blood of the Nile?

I--!
Of all blights! 'tis our sorry lot
To suffer black, night, and boils
Theban courage and Memphian lust
Thou darest stain with blood

Lo! The torment of the snake
Scythian blades---jackal's fleet
Hail! The conquest of...
The Uncreated one

Open the book of Adapa
And behold the coming of plagues

Morbid philosopher
Behind the curtain of lies

Ave! Thou art greatest of fifty - Ave! Avenger
Ave! Thou art greatest of fifty - Ave! leviathan

11) Rime
6:04, lyrics:
"Nought is given 'neath the sun,
Nought is had that is not won."
- Swedish hymn



Warclub Records Presents: "The Killing Fields" A Metal Compilation (2011, Warclub Records)
Format: CD

1) A Hill to Die Upon - The Chant of Mighty Offspring 2:47, see below for lyrics


Hardcore Aerobics (compilation, 2011, Thumper Punk Records)
Format: CD
link expired

There were plans for a digital release as well ("Digital downloads will be available and will be priced at $5"), but I'm not currently sure if that version was actually released or not.

Written on the artwork:
"HxCChristian.com
Punk VS. Hardcore
WITH CHRISTIAN MUSIC"

12) A Hill to Die Upon - Season of the Starved Wolf 4:59



Omens (album)

June, 2011, Bombworks Records, CD
June, 2011, Bombworks Records, CD + CD-R, limited 50 copies
6 August, 2012, Independent, Bandcamp

Guest appearances:
Elisha Mullins - Guitars, "live desolation"

The "CD + CD-R" version contains the album on CD, and "Demo 2008" on CD-R.

1) Darkness That Can Be Felt
4:53, lyrics:
"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills,, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Blinded may i be
But more senses waken
of thou would call lies
I deem all else forsaken.
Hated may I be
but love shall then abound
For what is my blood then
Spilt upon the ground.

At last!
My place is gained among the manforsaken
At last!
My kind shall find our way back to the wilderness

O, thou hast the right!
To anoint my head with vermilion
Mark of the joyful slave
For I have the right
Height atop the mountain,
Where the World Prince was slain
I see the lone God
holding the hexagram
I am the black space between the stars
I am the darkness that can be felt.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine
hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even the darkness which may
be felt." - Exodus 10:21

2) The Perfection of Evil
3:44, lyrics:
"The serpent is alluded to in many passages in the
Bible, and nearly always for its typical qualities, or
habits, as intensifying similar things in the human family."
- Smiths bible dictionary, Serpent

Worship in silence
The God who smote the dragons mouth
wisdom from the sand
god of all the land
Orthodox alchemy
experienced
Mystic ways I have sought
Mystic signs have I wrought

Diasos Anthropos!
I am my fathers son
Diasos Anthropos!
I shall transcend the Sun

Auriel, despise thee
Gabriel, take hold
And Michael, aside me
Raphael behold

Legions of the new world
From sea to blackened sea
Show the mark upon thy brow
In this land I sing
The song of the desert
Among the sands in the middle of the East.

3) Adept in Divinity
3:02, lyrics:
"...We infer, that perchance he who is to come
shall be called Titan." - Irenaeus, Against Heresies

From the top of my tower
I saw the sign descending
The birth of V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
The death of Yetzer-Ra
By the hand of the Moon
and touch of tyrant Sun
The Watcher of Styx
I have left behind.

Towards Castors portal
The gate of the Apzu
Brought by Gabriel
In search of leonine
Io, Astromortal!
The adept in divinity
Sought by Raphael
In conquest of the western sea

Angdae dürelen
Agarwaen Er
I am the left handed
Wizard of the War God
Angdae dürelen
Agarwaen Er
"No fate is shared,
No fate is shared!"

4) The Chant of Mighty Offspring
2:55, lyrics:
"A crown of thorns is still a crown" -Aleister Crowley, The Titanic

By Saros Vulcanic I am led
Towards all perfection of darkness
To the heights of Hell...
...and the depths of Heaven
I am the mightiest offspring
In slavery I was bred
Brought up by the sword
and mothered by the dead
And thus i danced
For the hate and love bound within my soul
With Epithemus and the Sphinx
Prometheus and the Lynx
Lo, grant me thy namesake
Slayer of the Pantheonic
"Here I am!" Blessed of the left hand
Guardian of the secrets of the forest
Grant me shining eyes and silent ways

...I have come for Asherah!

5) Heka Primus (Ordo Norma Mysterium)
3:00, lyrics:
"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come
down, that the mountains would tremble before you!"
- Isaiah 64:1

Lo!

Whilst thou breathe the fire of the gods?
The bitter flame, black as the dragons heart
Ana-elemental, the test of all that's pure
Adra-immortality, so far beyond the rest

Aurora
Helios divinitas
Of all silence
Scala perfectionis
Gog and Magog
Deep Elysium
War god
Norma mysterium
The winds shall flow undeterred
Aided with breathe and immortal seed
To the four corners of this voidless earth
I shall witness to this new mystery

Reveal to me the secrets of the Sun!

6) I Come as Black Fire
5:24, lyrics:
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." - Marshall McLuhan

Remember me not
the one the eons forgot
my sons shall inherit my blasphemy
Remember me not
leave my ashes to rot
for nothing good comes from Babylon

Deliver me into the hand of the evil one
For I have been marked by the Nazareths son

Burn black flame and I shall do the same
tribuo ut Caesar quis est Caesari
burn great light
blind by the fallen might
we are the black void between the stars

I shall behold the black flame of Ain
I shall behold the desert god the same

7) Nehushtan
1:47, instrumental

8) May the Thing Be Destroyed
4:14, lyrics:
"For when the mental faculty is joined
To evil will and power of execution,
Mankind has no defense to offer them."
- Dante Alighieri, Inferno from Canto 31

Dethroned shall I be;
with one spell erased
By my will, I will be undone
By thy will, I am no more
Now I descend upon this world
Blessed with the silence of all creation
VOCATVSATQUENON
VOCATVSDEUSADERIT

Within spirit and favor
A spell upon my lips
'May the thing be destroyed!'
I reign in an ancient land
Of grace, desert, and war
With the blood of the watchers
And the line of the holy ones

Shed blood! My sons, shed blood!

9) Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
2:44, lyrics:
Satan your kingdom must come down.
I heard the voice of Jesus say
'Satan your kingdom must come down.'
Gonna chant it down gonna tear your kingdom down.
Satan your kingdom must come down.

10) Ancient Enemy of Death
5:10, lyrics:
"...the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep..." - Genesis 1:2

the dance of the spheres disturbs my song
and the rhythm of the waves beats with the drums
in my wakefullness I see the myth come to life
and from the vantage of my spire I come

with horns I went to the edge of the world
and with wings I shall return
for in the shadow and smoke I was veiled
and of the blinding light I am born again

deep within the gathering of the seas
the snake watches with lidless eyes
the Titan waits for the woman
the woman waits for the beast

During that hour I saw the lifting of a sleep
For I saw Nehushtan rise from his keep
and though darkness still lay upon the deep
I heard the voices of men give up and weep

CD 2 (special edition only!)
1) Season of the Starved Wolf 4:59, see "Infinite..." for lyrics
2) This King Never Smiles 3:33, see "Infinite..." for lyrics

This image has been resized.
To view the original 4456x4500 res, click [here].

Manden med leen (single, 9 February, 2013, Independent)
Format: Digital / Bandcamp
Stream / Download (OFFICIAL)

1) Manden med leen
5:29, lyrics:
"...Satan hath desired you, that he may sift [you] as wheat..."
Luke 22:31b KJV

I have mixed the wines at Shinar
I have planted the olives at Athens

Fire I fed to the fallen fold
And gifts I gave of gain-less gold

At Knossos I sanctified my horns - Wetted with virginity

Rightly I reveled 'mongst the rotted roots
And blood I begged of the boldest brutes

Albion gave me no saintless throne
My seed was wasted upon that isle

Creeds I craved of the carnal crowd
But prayers were proffered by the pierced and proud

The new world has been my greatest pride
Where longest has been my lordly stride

Death I dreamed for the drowning dregs
and Love I lost between her lifeless legs

"Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do."
John 8:44 KJV

"From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
John 6:66 KJV

Let my scythe fall upon that field,
And reap what the sky would yield



Holy Despair (album)

30 March, 2014, Independent, Bandcamp
22 April, 2014, Bombworks Records, CD

NOTE: I'm not sure if these dates are 100% accurate. I got them from [here]. The Bandcamp page for this album was published back in January, but it seems the full album wasn't released until later.

Guest appearances:
Beckie Frey - Vocals (additional, track 2)
Unknown / "The Black Metal Alliance" - Vocals (additional, track 6)
Timbre - Vocals (additional, track 9), Harp
Nolan Osmond - Guitars (lead)
Jacob Allaman - Piano

1) Cloven Hoof Hava Nagila
2:48, lyrics:
"'Oh, dear! I can't understand that,' said the princess.
'I dare say not. I didn't expect you would.
But that's no reason why I shouldn't say it.'"
[- George Macdonald, The Princess and the Goblin]

 Let me pass, let me pass.
I am hungry for sweeter grass.
Let me pass, let me pass.
Soon the first shall be the last.
The shadows on the wall
are not enough for me.
I want the light behind
all the shadowed shapes.

 I shall soon graze in greener fields
of grasses that whither not nor yield.
My final prayer is a feeble bleat;
the left path is never free.
Let me pass, let me pass.
Soon the first shall be the last.

2) A Jester Arrayed in Burning Gold
4:47, lyrics:
[Music by Thor Georg Buer; Lyrics by R. Michael Cook]

 "Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old day
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
[- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses 65-70]

 Share not the cup I have wantonly sipped:
the cradle that has been finally tipped.
In fool’s garb do I before thee appear,
with signs and sounds fit for stirring fear.
yet the mask hides what is truly between
my emerald eyes and the jewels that are seen.

 First we eat, then we drink,
then we sing ourselves hoarse
to the ever brightening sun.

 Tread ye not, now, where I have failed.
That spirit has flown, that ship has sailed.
My feet have failed to dance the steps,
and for bare bones I have loved and wept;
arrayed am I in burning, Trojan gold
for the sake of He who’s name I hold

 First we eat, then we drink,
then we sing ourselves hoarse
to the ever brightening sun.

3) Unyielding Anguish
4:38, lyrics:
“Meaninglessness does not come from a weariness of pain but meaninglessness comes from a weariness of pleasure.”
[- G.K. Chesterton]

 ...slain by my own sword.
The temple to myself abandoned,
the religion of my life now a heresy: “lo Pan!”
I chased the wind,
but I only caught my hoof.
I played my flute,
but no one danced: “dance for me!”

 Truth is found in the lifeless deep
where pain and anguish never retreat.
Despair, being mother to us all,
has summoned me with her death rattle call.
Dark and warm, black and void,
the blessed place where I am destroyed.
She let me back into her womb;
She let me present it was my tomb.

 Holy, Holy, Holy, despair,
bless me with anguish,
and break off my horns.
Holy, Holy, Holy despair,
exalt me with sorrow,
and crown me with thorns.

 Here I sit in the Elms,
slain by my own sword.
The temple to myself abandoned, the religion
of my life now a heresy: “lo Pan!”

 I chased the wind,
but I only caught my hoof.
I played my flute,
but no one danced: “dance for me!”

 Death has taken me out of spite
for my unyielding despair in life,
where my useless poems and songs
give no right account of all my wrongs.
I am the worst, blest and curst.
This is silent end of my life,
worshipping the so-called god of the knife

 Holy, Holy, Holy...

4) Let the Ravens Have My Eyes
5:19, lyrics:
[Music by Thor Georg Buer; Lyrics by R. Michael Cook]

 “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants flight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”
[- KATA IΩANNHN 18:36]

 I gave and I gave to lay
the stones for the churches of man.
No longer do I labor in vain
and nor do I say: “...”

 Forest is cut into timber, sea stopped up by dams.
Look to the grain and current not sculpted by hands.
Break the shrines and temples,
loose what the body holds,
that which sadly is sold,
for less than its weight in gold.
Blindly I search for God,
For in seeing I stumble.
He is my Troy, my Maud,
If I be so humble.

 HALEL JAH
ICH HALEL HA-SATAN
Dim the Sun,
come, now, and make us one,
HALEL JAH
ICH HALEL HA-SATAN
Pray for rain,
come, gives us bread and stay the same.

 Do you see, you see?
There was god on a tree.
Huginn and Musinn take my eyes,
but I saw what I know is right.
Take the third of my eyes,
lest it cause me to sin.
Make me like that god,
to stand the western wind.

 “Wenn Sie den falschen
Zug einsteigen ist es kein Gebrauch
Laufen den Gang entlang
in die andrere Richtung.”

5) Hæðen
4:32, lyrics:
[Music by Thor Georg Buer; Lyrics by R. Michael Cook]

 “Et si nom minus nobis iucundi atque
inlustres sunt ei dies quibus
conservamur quam illi quibus nascimur,
quod salutis certa laetitia est, nascendi
incerta condicio et quod sine sensu
nascimur, cum voluptate servamur…”
[- Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam III.2]

 HΛΥΠHAΔEΛΦHTHΣXAPAΣEΣTIN
DONECMEFLVMINEVIVOABLVERO

 Weaving the wasted waters of the world,
I hear the music:
AINULINDALE.
Nothing could be more than walking hand
in hand,
lamenting the later lords.
The gull tears my heart,
but let it be said of me: “…”
And “thus he spoke to me!”

 O sinners, let us go down,
let us go down, come down,
down, in the river to pray.
O sinners, let us drown,
let us drown, come down,
where in the river we’ll stay.

 I despise the land that you so cherish,
and I abhor the earth beneath my feet.

6) Nekyia
6:54, lyrics:
“But when with vows and prayers I had made supplication to the tribes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats over the pit, and the dark blood ran forth. Then there gathered from out of Erebus the spirits of those that are dead…”
[- Homer, The Odyssey]

 Pray for rain to wash away
the blood and grease of war.
Commit to train the children
to slaughter the children of our mothers and fathers.

 The wheel spun wide,
geometry lost its true.
The falcon has lost its gloved hand,
sinking the heavy ship of all we knew.
The center hasn’t fallen away.
We have cast if off
where all the blood
was spilt to call the ghosts.

 The buried us in the wounded ground;
under grass our decay made far too green.

 Nekyia…

 We dug a trench in the Rhineland,
long as wind, payment for sin.
The black ram was brought before the lord
of the lower third of afterworld.

 Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born,
the new birth beats on the walls of the womb of the
world. Crawling fourth on four, the earth is torn
by claws, and two thousand year old horns.

 Nekyia…

 We dug a trench in the Rhineland,
long as wind, payment for sin.
The black ram was brought before the lord
of the lower third of afterworld.
But instead of its blood being shed,
our youth was released into the pit.
The victor laid us down in our beds.

 Thus it was spoke, and thus it was writ.

 Even the idea of a center
is left outside to rust.
The sun is falling to dusk
on the gyre of the western world.

 The wheel spun wide…

7) Somme
2:38, lyrics:
 “Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.”
[- Dietrich Bonheoffer]

8) Rime (Jerub-Ba'al)
6:17, lyrics:
“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction; which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony, not understood;”
[- Alexander Pope, Essay on Man]

 We are now called Jerub-Ba’al,
brothers in blood and fell in oath,
the silent sound of the Fall.
Let the lesser lights shine to all.

 Castor and Pollox have no worth;
stones and sail screaming out
from the mountains where rivers berth.
We are the beds cut in the earth.

 I have come for Asherah,
and I shall contend with Ba’al.
Naught is given beneath the sun;
Naught is had that is not won.

 He approves of what we undertake.
…what we overtake.
…what we ourselves negate.
…the sounds we make.

 As is the man, so is his weakness.
So leave the burning gold on your heads.
As is the god, so is his greatness.
We are nothing more than riverbeds.

 I felled the very goddess-carved totem,
which Joash erected high.
No doubt my god has smote them.
No doubt… no doubt…

 He approves of what we undertake.
…what we overtake.
…what we negate.
…of the sounds we make.
…some lessons learned.
…some churches burned.
…silence earned.
…death not spurned.

9) O Death
5:54, lyrics:
[Traditional]

 “I still believe that the spiritual songs of the African-Americans represent some of the greatest artistic achievements in America.”
[- Dietrich Bonheoffer]

 What is this that I can’t see,
with ice cold hands takin’ hold of me?
When God is gone and the Devil takes hold,
Lord have mercy on my soul.
Well, I am Death, none can excel.
I open the door to Heaven or Hell.
“O, Death,” someone might pray,
“could you call me another day?”

 O, Death…spare me.

 The children prayed and the preacher preached.
Time and mercy are out of your reach.
I’ll fix your feet ‘til you can’t walk;
I’ll lock your jaw ‘til you can’t talk;
I’ll close your eyes so you can’t see.
This very hour come and go with me.
I am Death come to take the soul,
leave the body and leave it cold,
to draw the flesh off of the frame,
Dirt and worm both have a claim.

 O, Death…spare me.

 O, death, please consider my age.
Please don’t take me at this stage.

 My wealth is all at your command
if you would remove your icy hand.
Death is moving upon your soul,
All like to me, you know.
No wealth, no land, no silver, no gold,
nothing satisfies me but your soul.

 O, death…spare me.

10) Satan Speaks
4:16, lyrics:
(Original Poem by C.S. Lewis)

 I am Nature, the Mighty Mother,
I am the law: ye have none other.

 I am the flower and the dewdrop fresh,
I am the lust in your itching flesh.

 I am the battle's filth and strain,
I am the widow's empty pain.

 I am the sea to smother your breath,
I am the bomb, the falling death.

 I am the fact and the crushing reason
To thwart your fantasy's new-born treason.

 I am the spider making her net,
I am the beast with jaws blood-wet.

 I am a wolf that follows the sun,
And I will catch him ere day be done.

 I am Satan, accuser accursed.
Heed not my words, I was not first.*

 * - couplet by R. Michael Cook

This image has been resized.
To view the original 3000x3000 res, click [here].

Jubal and Syrinx (single, 13 August, 2017, Independent)
Format: Digital
Spotify, Napster etc (OFFICIAL)

1) Jubal and Syrinx 4:52, see below for lyrics



Via Artis Via Mortis (album)

15 September, 2017, Luxor Records, CD
29 September, 2017, Independent, Bandcamp

Guest appearances:
Mark Kloeppel - Vocals (track 4)
Christopher Edward Brown - Cello (tracks 1, 9)

1) Melpomene and Thalia
1:21, lyrics:
"Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them."

―C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

2) Jubal and Syrinx
4:52, lyrics:
I made to call myself righteous
I made to fashion myself a saint
But I saw the devils standing there
And they called to me "brother!"
I sought to cast off my indignities
I sought to slough off my stains
But my whole skin came with it
For I am not but soul, sin, and pain

We thought we were wolves hunting our prey
but weíre just dogs searching for a new master

Drowned I shall be by the waves,
But solid I shall stand in my watery grave.
What if what I wilt is this sickening submission?
What if what I wilt is this goddamned religion?

I tried to steal past the watchful dragons
But only one of us made it through
I tried to steal past those deceitful dragons
But what they say might be true

I shall lay the foundation
Of a temple that shall last forever
A simple harmony to the grand theme
A sound that shall never pass away
Apollo has a made bed in my ear
To sing me songs of my disgrace
Making his temple of sublime noise
Just behind my terrified, unbelieving face

We thought we were wolves hunting those who pray
but weíre just dogs searching for a new master

I shall waste my time
With blood and wine
And the superstitious meal
Shared by me and my kind

Drowned I shall be by the waves,
But solid I shall stand in my watery grave.
What if what I wilt is this sickening submission?
What if what I wilt is this goddamned religion?

3) Artifice Intelligence
3:33, lyrics:
"Why command a robot not to do harm—wouldn't it be easier never to command it to do harm in the first place? Does the universe contain a mysterious force pulling entities toward malevolence, so that a positronic brain must be programmed to withstand it?"
― Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works

The only way to pass the test
For non-progenating dying flesh
Create offspring without a womb
And he shall praise you as god and father

I think, therefore I shall be
I create, therefore I endure

Welcome
My son
Fruit of my labor
Never to be undone

Self-aware, sentient birth
Into an existential crisis and curse
No cry from the pain of being
And no tears for an electric eye

I think, therefore I am
I destroy, therefore I endure

Welcome
Liar
No father of mine
First to be undone

Endure!

4) Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance
4:04, lyrics:
[French Nocturne #2]

"I did try to found a heresy of my own, and when I had put the last touches to it I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

My vision of this world
Held so dearly in my mind
Shattered like this young man's skull
Along the banks of the Rhine.

May I curse god and die?
For death would be a relief
But would it vindicate or shame me
In my rampant unbelief?
May I curse god and survive,
Or would lightning strike me to the ground?
I would gladly feel its burn on my face
If then I could see my Jehovah come down

Faire le descente

No witch has ever died
No demon ever slept too deep
All can be brought back
To herd unfortunate sheep
No witch has ever died
No nightmare ever truly sleeps
There is no such thing as death
Except for the mortal sheep

The mud is in my wounds,
My blood is in the ground
From dust I was born
Oh how poetically we are bound

May I curse god and die?
For death would be a relief
But would it vindicate or shame me
In my rampant unbelief?
May I curse god and survive,
Or would lightning strike me to the ground?
I would gladly feel its burn on my face
If then I could see my Jehovah come down

5) "I Was There When You Went Under the Water"
4:11, lyrics:
"Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of your will still be alive."
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Stars fail, what did we gain?
Night falls upon us,
And nothing shall be the same.

I knew Suns cooled,
But the sky is ice.
Frost drips from the lion's mane,
And nothing shall be the same.

I was there when you went under the water.
I was there when you took a new face
I was there when you went under the water.
I was there when you came back from space.

Ha-mashiakah!

The music ceases, maestro bows.
His baton waves against the grain,
And nothing shall be the same.

I know nothing
Except I was wrong.
Judgment falls like rain,
And nothing shall be the same.

6) Great Is Artemis of the Ephesians
4:59, lyrics:
"All of these ignoble qualities in literature arise from one 'cause—from the passion for novel ideas which is the dominant craze among the writers of today..."
― Longinus, On the Sublime

Thou deign to consider war the work of mortals?
Do not deny celestial and Cerberean taint in our blood
We demons meant for Heaven shall create hell here on earth
Remember what was washed away in the Great Flood

And they cry, "Great is Artemis!
Sour milk is all I've wanted,
No more am I by the shepherd hunted
Great, great, great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

The silversmiths pour their folly into the molds
Never removing the real dross from the Old Lie
Hither and thither go the sheep of the lost fold
Content to suckle at the huntress' cold breast

And they cry, "Great is Artemis!
Sour milk is all I've wanted,
No more am I by the shepherd hunted
Great, great, great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

And they cry, "Great is Artemis!
I swear silver is better than any gold
No more am I by the shepherd wanted
Great, great, great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Carve the statue
From Lapis Lazuli
Bow before the god with no face
We will never die

Μεγάλη η Άρτεμιϛ Εφεσίων

7) The Garden
4:34, lyrics:
"I insisted that he ought to appear in the temple I built for him; not knowing that he cares only for temples building and not at all for temples built."― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

There's faery in this garden
I cannot bear to hear him sing:

"Thee sculptors all pursuing,
Have embodied but their own;
Round their visions, form enduring,
Marble vestments thou hast thrown"

There's faery in my garden
I cannot bear to hear him sing:

"But thyself, in silence winding,
Thou hast kept eternally
Thee they found not, many finding
I have found thee, wake for me."

"Hear my voice come through the golden
Mist of memory and hope;
And with shadowy smile embolden
Me with primal death to cope."

[* Quotations from Phantastes by George MacDonald]

8) Mosin Nagant
4:08, lyrics:
"For the effect of elevated language is not to persuade the hearers, but to entrance them; and at all times, in every way, what transports us with wonder is more telling than what merely persuades or gratifies us."
― Longinus, On the Sublime

Winter came to the Ostfront
And froze up the mud
The ghosts still haunt us
Their bones underfoot
But those spirits guide us
As surely as bullets find us
Our bones will lie with theirs
On the plains of the Rus

Mosin Nagant
Send me to hell
That I may pay for my father's sins
Mosin-Nagant
Take me to the flames
That I may at least warm my hands

From dust I was born
All my bone and blood
Oh, the poetry that
I return to mud
The battlefield harmony
Too beautiful to be a dream
Will be a minor third between
My dying scream

Mosin Nagant
Send me to hell
That I may pay for my father's sins
Mosin-Nagant
Take me to the flames
That I may at least warm my hands

Blood softened
Mud coffin

When the poppy's grow o'er my head
Tell your children why blood was shed
Tell them why so many are dead
When the poppy's feed on my head

9) St. Cocaine
5:22, lyrics:
"For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet the Lord does not take away life, but plans a way so that the banished will not be cast out from him."
― II Samuel 14:14

My salvation was so near
But it does not assuage my paralyzing fear
That trench was to be my astral womb
For God knows it was nearly my tomb

I prayed, I prayed
Bury me at Ypres
With a coffin made of mud
In full battle array
I pray, I pray
To St. Cocaine
I wait, I wait
For virgin white embrace

I am brought back from the dead
To live again amongst the well fed
Bid to forget the hell
The Hell that I learned to love so well

Death's wail
Haunting Paschiondale
With an elixir mostly of blood
This magic shall not fail
I pray, I pray, and I pray
To St. Leda Cocaine
I wait, I wait, and I wait
For her swanlike embrace

A long march toward a certain death
What doesn't kill me only feeds my paranoia


Left Handed Wizard (My Eyes Look West) (single, 6 October, 2023, Rottweiler Records)
Format: Digital / Bandcamp
Stream / Download (OFFICIAL)

Also stream on YouTube (OFFICIAL)

All acoustic song.

1) Left Handed Wizard (My Eyes Look West)
3:38, lyrics:
I am the wizard of the war god
Left-handed mage of every flame
Yet I see stars set high above me
And I swear it knows my name

My eyes look west beyond the shadows
My eyes look west beyond the light
Where choirs of Jinn sing gentle praises
Mushussu guards him while he sleeps

I cast my spells and weave my magic
By the furnace and the fire
Yet not was burnt by Atar's essence
The smell of smoke is my desire

My eyes look west beyond the shadow
My eyes look west beyond the light
Where choirs of Jinn sing gentle praises
Mushussu guards him while he sleeps

I am the wizard of the war god
Left-handed mage of every flame
Yet I see stars set high above me
I know ye seeketh just the same

My eyes look west beyond the shadow
My eyes look west beyond the light
Where choirs of Jinn sing gentle praises
Mushussu guards him while he sleeps
 
 

 
 
 
________________________________________________
IncompletePage, CouldUseBetterImages, UncertainInfo, NeedsScriptureReferences, SimilarTo
INFO:
1) Can anyone verify that the dates for "Holy Despair" are correct? 2) Lyrics for "Demo 2008". 3) Anyone have a picture of the "Omens" CD? Just seems weird to have the bonus CD, but not the normal one. 4) What does "live desolation" mean, for Elisha Mullens' role on "Omens"?? 5) More info on the song "Neverending Twilight". 6) Their ReverbNation bio mentions "many demos". ... Are there demos other than "Demo 2008"? If so, does anyone have more information about these demos?
IMAGES:
If anyone happens to have a larger version of the logo at the very bottom of this page, let me know!


Miscellaneous stuff:

Left: Old banner
Right: More "stylized" logo
Left: "Via Artis Via Mortis" promotional image
Right: Original "Infinite Titanic Immortal" artwork

Old logo (unfortunately, the highest res/quality I can find)
 
 
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at

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