1. |
Snarling Chaos
04:49
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‘Ere the eons dawned
There was only blackness,
An amorphous, seething mass –
And her name was Tiamat!
Out of the mire, abominations rise:
Men crossed with beast,
Winged demons of the East;
Perdition’s brood, with claw and beak…
Night disrobed, arcane mother scorned,
The womb of doom awakes and yawns…
Thalattē, lover of Abzû,
Dragon-mother of the seas:
Snarling chaos, her searing kiss,
Gives birth to armies of god-killing beasts!
Twisted forms from the void emerge,
Horned, malformed and crazed for blood
They march against the mansions of the gods:
Who will stand against this tide of woe?
Crippling fear betakes immortal hearts –
Who will swing the sword, who thrust the spear?
They see the Serpent Queen, her hosts unleashed;
Who will their champion be?
Night disrobed, arcane mother scorned,
The womb of doom awakes and yawns…
Thalattē, lover of Abzû,
Dragon-mother of the seas:
Snarling chaos, her searing kiss,
Gives birth to armies of god-killing beasts!
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2. |
The journey of Gilgamesh
04:10
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When all gods cower in fear,
When the hot breath of death
Brushes their faces and beards,
A challenger will rise – Marduk, the Wise!
A net to trap the beast, bitter bronze to smite the foe,
An armored heart, impervious to fear…
A flame in the dark, a spear shining bright
Rending through horrors abhorring sunlight,
Undefeated and grim Bel rides into war!
His glory’s revealed in victory’s red battlefield!
Thunder peals and tongues of fire rise –
Blow by blow Bel carves his way
Through beast and fiend till he finds
The dragon’s heart, the eyes of death…
Crimson rain of blood and gore
Pours from the heavens up above:
Broken, the dragoness,
A colossal carcass falls…
A net to trap the beast, bitter bronze to smite the foe,
An armored heart, impervious to fear…
A flame in the dark, a spear shining bright
Rending through horrors abhorring sunlight,
Undefeated and grim Bel rides into war!
His glory’s revealed in victory’s red battlefield!
Then Marduk took up his sword
And cut into Tiamat’s flesh and soul
Thus, out of death and horror bleak,
Bringing forth this pristine, green world…
Hailed as redeemer by the gods,
Welcomed a hero in the immortal court –
Marduk was crowned and a scepter of gold
Was placed in his hand still stained with dragon-blood…
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3. |
Oannes rising
06:10
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When the first tears of dew
Did trick down the cheek
Of an immaculate, young world
The billows of the sea full of secrets did sing…
Half man and half fish,
Oannes rose from the deep
And Infantile mankind
Was adorned with his gifts…
The writing in clay, the tilling of earth –
He taught man the rites, the wisdom of stars…
From the vastness of the seas azure
A wise man emerged, a teacher of hidden things:
With his miter of gold and mantle of scales
Oannes brought light in elder years, in ancient days!
The mortals in awe
Beheld his coming ashore –
They fell to their knees
And praised the Wise One of Eridu…
Civilization was born
In the antediluvian world
When fire was kindled
And incense envelopped the altar of Eapsu
The writing in clay, the tilling of earth –
He taught man the rites, the wisdom of stars…
From the vastness of the seas azure
A wise man emerged, a teacher of hidden things:
With his miter of gold and mantle of scales
Oannes brought light in elder years, in ancient days!
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4. |
Wrath of the Anunnaki
06:52
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No smoke rises from the altars,
No blood fills the sacrificial trough –
The arrogance of men is rampant
Their backs are turned to Heaven…
And from their halls on high
The elder gods doth snarl in ire –
Man to chastise and to purge the earth
Their anger reeks of overkill…
Black clouds pregnant with storm,
The flood gates swing wide with a roar…
A deluge of wrath
The Anunnaki unleash!
All life crushed beneath
Their sweeping cataclysm!
Shamash is the one,
Still loyal to Ea –
Warned by the god
He hath build an ark
To brave the waves
That submerge the peaks
He safeguards within
The last seed of life…
Black clouds pregnant with storm,
The flood gates swing wide with a roar…
A deluge of wrath
The Anunnaki unleash!
All life crushed beneath
Their sweeping cataclysm!
The pillars of heaven are torn,
Eamman growls and torches glow
As Nebo and Marduk advance
Across the darkened skies of wrath…
Shamash beheld
The world turn to terror and sea –
The carnage raged on
For seven long days…
Until at last
His ark ran aground on mount Nisir
And from his hands
The raven of hope was released…
Black clouds pregnant with storm,
The flood gates swing wide with a roar…
A deluge of wrath
The Anunnaki unleash!
All life crushed beneath
Their sweeping cataclysm!
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5. |
The journey of Gilgamesh
04:57
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The pangs of bitter grief
Tear at Gilgamesh’s heart
Within his broad and mighty breast:
“Why must death be a mortal’s end?”
Roaming through the badlands,
Alone, distraught like a wounded beast,
He seeks the Faraway Ones,
Those beyond the Reaper’s reach…
“Sin, give me strength:
The night is dark and the lions closing in…”
Through caverns of horror
Where scorpion-guardians dwell
O’er mountains tall , on the Road of the Sun,
A journey to the jeweled garden of gods!
To lands no man hath seen,
Clad in lion-skins,
Gilgamesh arrives eager to obtain
The secret of everlasting life…
There, the survivors of the Flood,
Present him with a kingly gift:
The Plant of the Heartbeat
Whose fruit bestow eternal youth…
“Sin, give me strength:
The night is dark and the lions closing in…”
Through caverns of horror
Where scorpion-guardians dwell
O’er mountains tall, on the Road of the Sun,
A journey to the jeweled garden of gods!
Alas! By a serpent’s guile he was deprived
Of his hard-earned prize:
Back to Uruk, the well-fortified,
Gilgamesh returns with humbled pride…
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6. |
Lost Books of the Stars
06:31
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‘Ere creation was deluged,
Xisuthros, the philosopher-god,
Did bid the Chosen Ones
To bury the books and star-charts…
Interred beneath the vaults
Of the hoary temples of Babylon…
The knowledge divine
In astral glyphs inscribed:
From the mist of the past
Comes the future golden key!
The oracles of old,
The code of the omens
And the secrets of stars
Will give back mankind
The scepter of ascendancy…
Through ruins half-submerged,
The tombs of the old empire,
Urged by a voice from the sky
The hunt for knowledge begins…
Interred beneath the vaults
Of the hoary temples of Babylon…
The knowledge divine
In astral glyphs inscribed:
From the mist of the past
Comes the future golden key!
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7. |
Slayer of the Serpent
03:54
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Armed with thunder
And blades of bitter bronze,
Across the darkened sky
The son of Dagan rides…
From within the tumultuous deep
Litan, the twisted serpent,
Rears its seven ugly heads
And roars in primordial ire…
Thunders resound and pillars are rent –
Baal, lord of the flies, has come here for blood!
Entwined in coils, in black slime and dread,
The blows of the storm-god
Rain down like hail upon his foe:
The sky collides with the sea - death reigns supreme!
Baal, undefeated son of Dagan,
Turns churning tides into red –
Underneath Ishtar’s ghastly crescent
Victorious he stands, slayer of the serpent!
Fangs bite into bronze,
Claws madly lash in the storm –
In vain is the rage of the beast
For soon it will taste the ichor of defeat!
Thunders resound and pillars are rent –
Baal, lord of the flies, has come here for blood!
Entwined in coils, in black slime and dread,
The blows of the storm-god
Rain down like hail upon his foe:
The sky collides with the sea - death reigns supreme!
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8. |
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The vastness of the darksome sea
Hides horrors slithering in the abyss
Where sunlight doth never reach
And things unclean in forlorn caverns breed…
Dragon-spawn, the serpentine brood,
Rules the deep, uncharted wastes
‘Ere land emerged from Panthalassa’s maws,
When man was naught but a squabbling new-born…
The venom of chaos drips from their jaws;
Their luminescent eyes form constellations in the dark!
Elder terrors of the deep –
Amorphous masters of the sea;
Elder terrors of the deep –
The coils of chaos are unleashed!
Against their menace, against death,
In olden days rose the heroes of Babilim;
Akkadian bronze to face the onslaught
And claim the throne, the scepters of the Earth!
In combat locked, besmeared in blood,
A raging fire burns beneath the waves:
Leviathan’s eyes now flash in agony
When Baal’s silver lance finally prevails
The venom of chaos drips from their jaws;
Their luminescent eyes form constellations in the dark!
Elder terrors of the deep –
Amorphous masters of the sea;
Elder terrors of the deep –
The coils of chaos are unleashed!
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9. |
Master of the forest
04:52
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When Gilgamesh the king
In Uruk reigned supreme
Bleak and lonely were his halls
For no man could with him compete…
“Aruru, in thy heart
Create a man of Anu with iron will,
A friend, an equal, for our king,
And end his days of misery”
The might of his arms in blood-red clay was formed
And with each breath the thunders of Bel spewed forth…
A master of beasts and all wild things,
He knows the future as well as the past:
The man of Ninib, Eabani the beast!
Majestic and fierce, the deep forest’s liege!
No hunter can trap him, no net can restrain
His primordial powers, his fury unchained!
Yet where all men shall fail
The art of a woman doth always succeed:
“Off with thy garment, show him thy form -
Be not afraid but deprive him of his soul!”
See how the beasts flee from their master’s side
See him now in love, his powers drained dry…
The might of his arms in blood-red clay was formed
And with each breath the thunders of Bel spewed forth…
A master of beasts and all wild things,
He knows the future as well as the past:
The man of Ninib, Eabani the beast!
Majestic and fierce, the deep forest’s liege!
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10. |
Ereshkigals throne
07:31
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Beautiful and cold as night,
In the kingdom of the shades,
Queen of the Breathless Ones
Mistress of funebre laments:
Ereshkigal, a star amongst the dead,
Judgement is hers to pass –
Damnation or reprieve
Through eyes that pierce eternity…
“Welcome to the land of no return,
To the banquet of dust prepared for you!”
Where demons stalk the gloom,
Dead gods and kings slain by sword,
All, voiceless, bow before the Ebon Stone
At the feet of Ereshkigal’s throne!
Beloved Nergal sits by her side –
The riches of the earth, in veins of gold
And beryl clusters, shine:
Joyless things for those now in their domain…
Keeper of the beasts who crave
To emerge above and rend mankind;
Our Lady of Despair Neverending
With open arms she greets Inanna Descending…
“Welcome to the land of no return,
To the banquet of dust prepared for you!”
Where demons stalk the gloom,
Dead gods and kings slain by sword,
All, voiceless, bow before the Ebon Stone
At the feet of Ereshkigal’s throne!
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Downcast Twilight Birmingham, UK
Downcast Twilight were founded in December 2015 by OG, with the help of an accomplished author, Marios Koutsoukos. Every CD makes reference to a historic era/civilisation. In December 2016, Downcast Twilight signed to Stygian Crypt Productions.
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