Eluveitie Helvetios 1. Prologue When I reminisce about all those years I see many things. Life and Death strung together like the Mountains and Valleys in which we lived. There was Wealth and Opulence but also Tribulation and Loss. There was Laughter and Song and there was also Tears. But even more than Tears Blood was shed. And so many were left to their unadorned Graves, unburied. But to us Death was just another Journey. And close by the Darkness through which we strode there was also Light. The Lght of Life and Immortality. And after All, When I reminisce about those years, I mostly remember our Songs. We sang, as if to drown out the Sound of clashing Swords, as if the Battle Cries fell silent. Because War has lost it's meaning. 2. Helvetios Bodiacos Sunartiu Segos brigos Anauos From antumnos the life-giving winds Fanned the flames into a blaze The awen of the mighty By the force of sucellus sledge By every impact of ogmios club With bricta's invincible epiphany A tribe arose A tribe broke forth Cause we're born free Cause we're born wild Cause we are indomitable and bold Cause we are fire (brave) Cause we are wave (strong) Cause we are rock (tribe) We are one - we are helvetios The ears tethered to the divine tongue Following the ancient wise As laughter fills antumnos Drinking from the cup of life The well that's never running dry We wandered into the light of day Again taranis enthean wheel revolved From antumnos life was upheaved By the force of succellus sledge By every impact of ogmios' club With bricta's invincible epiphany 3. Luxtos At the rise of a new dawn Rose the children of the sun To inhabit a kingdom augustly crowded in rock mass vast All lakes are sanctuarys Like covert nemetons All forests are hallowed Blest groves of an invictus tribe Nertom woloutom que etsi snis karamos-e Nertom woloutom que etsi snis emmos snis riyi emmos snis widomor-e karamos-e emmos snis riyi emmos snis andometi nertom woloutom que etsi snis emmos snis riyi emmos snis a kingly tribe sublime arose in its golden time in a prosperous era the age primordial reign a horde of untameables invincible armada a dashing bold host of venturous fearnaughts 4. Home In this vigilant Times I daydream - an innocuous Crime My motionless Stane - in my Mind, I wnader the Land A bleak, dismal Trance Constrained, unsafe, left in Shame And now I can see my Town is painted red Here I'll be where once my tears were shed On that Day , in our Place I recall the Smell of the Rain And I'd protect you from themif you want me to take, take you there again. Good Night my Love, let me watch you sleep from here or above Words like these won't leave this Place Be haunted by the Trace, the Trace of our... HOME The Home they want call their own But for the Air that i breathe, the Dreams are divine The Memories I'll bring to a Place far from Home The Home they want to call Province of Rome I'm trapped without Guards, within a State I can't grasp But we're still free I am waiting for the Clouds to part, all in vain nature forsaken Once admired by us all, does it know we're scared Scared to move, scared to awake, scared just to be who we were What matters is just You and Me and the Path that leads us... Encircled by Friends, the Pressure deepens Dazed by Illusions, my Reasons weakens But I won't let you fall into deep Forlornness I won't let you ponder the why in distress A mechanical Smile as I lift my Face towards the Sun And return to denial I weep as I kiss the Ground, the trees that I'll soon miss The Songs we sang will ring out, the memories will resound 5. Santonian Shores We packed the Wagons A'thing arranged, there is no Turning Back The Time has come All to soon A Stab allthrough my Heart The Afterglow Glimmered on the Roof of our Homestead We bode the Nightfall at hand Believe set out into the Dark In this Night the Fires roared As Fields were set ablaze It rained Ashes from the Sky In a flaring hiss t Night Fromward the Land we knew Off to far and distant Shores Towards a safe Saven Off these Santonian Shores At the set of the sun As Mist bellowed over the Land We got under Way Wandering towards our Hopes I awhile in looked back Gazed into the Sea of Flames Laying waste what we called Home I won't see this Place again A Cortege as far as the Eye can see A vast migrant Parade The Glow of a distant Dream The awakening came nigh Under a starlit Sky Dreams within our Hearts Step by Step we marched Away into the Night 6. Scorched Earth 7. Meet The Enemy There at these ominous shores of river Saone There at these shores the die has been cast Valour and honour were stripped off their meaning We will not know innocence again At somber nightfall the defenseless were bestially run down Saone stained with helvetic blood You will not shake hands with arrant beliers You'd rather die than turn into minions Freedom was our highest good We ventured our lives Meet the liar This dead black night Our destiny revealed Meet the enemy It will... never be the same At these portentous shores of river Saone There at these shores the die has been cast We saw the true face of the roman ravener The gorgoneion on the cuirass appeared It was like playing ludus latrunculorum The pieces were made of flesh and of blood Valour and honour bereft of their meaning The blood on your hands will forever stay Freedom was our highest good We ventured our lives Meet the liar This dead black night Our destiny revealed Meet the enemy It will... never be the same It's not us to go under the Yoke. Of that fact the Roman people are witness. We will not bow Meet the enemy Meet the liar Meet the enemy ["Meet The Enemy" tells you about the 'encounter' the Helvetians had with the Roman legions in the year 58 BC ‒ one of the crucial points in their history, for it was basically when the Gaulish wars erupted. So the song is pretty much filled with wrath and rage, upholding the furious spirit...] 8. Neverland Behold this Proud Crestfallen Parade Dead Bodies towered up like this dividing Rampart The Hopes of yesterday forgotten and interred Burnt to the Ground Lacerate my Neverland belauded My Otherworld elapsed My silver Lining Another false Dawn collapsed A Glimpse of our safe Home Perished in Bibracte Another Hope dearly prayed When we all were betrayed The End of our Exodus Behold this egregious Mockery We refused to bow down Our godsdamn Blood was the Price we had to pay Santones Land Land we never got to When the Fiends come marching in... 9. A Rose For Epona Do you feel the thorns? Do you see the tears? Do you see the blood shed in this fell war? Have you forsaken us? Have you forgotten our faithful men calling your name? While I stand before you While we perish While I lay down a crimson rose While holding hands Are forced apart While hopes bog like condemned men Were you there? The sky is falling on me As your hand's turning old and weak I'm giving myself up to thee A futile sacrifice gone sere In your nemeton These grey stone walls Are cold and silent As the fallen Mother gone deaf Mistress of shattered hopes And forever broken dreams Were you there? The sky is falling on me As your hand's turning old and weak I'm giving myself up to thee A futile sacrifice gone sere Epo, epo why hast thou forsaken me? Together we go unsung Into thy hand I commend my spirit Together we go down with our people Were you there? Were you there? The sky is falling on me As your hand's turning old and weak I'm giving myself up to thee A futile sacrifice gone sere Falling on me... 10. Havoc I wonder what it's like to attack at Night And mow down the down the defenseless Invasions and Raids just called fucking, punitive Expeditions Like a Wildfire Devastation spreads Across all Gallia From Helvetia to Eburonia The Ravener's Insatiate Havoc Think of yesterday Ruin A mass illusion! How could it come this far? Our dormant Minds were not prepared for this Narbonensis was not enough The Empire needed more From Aremorica to Carnutia Plagued an War-ridden Land War's inflicted on free Gallia An organised Downfall A black Cloud of Imperial Rapacity unleashed Imperial needs are met At bloody Cost of free Tribes Invasion, Raid an War Atrocity Ine the Name of S.P.Q.R. 11. The Uprising Our estates are under fire Our villers fall prey to pillage How can we stay on the sideline How long will we take this lying down? Refuse to quell the anger Time has come to take up arms again The last call to rise up Bestir This is the flash of our last hope Will you ally with us? Wake up - open your eyes Reach out And seize this golden venture We've lost ourselves in strife While the raptor unopposedly claws at Gallia's free lands We have to call a halt this Unite the tribes and rise Take a look around yourself And see this time is ours The last call to rise up Our lands are under fire Our villers fall prey to pillage How can we stay on the sideline How long will we take this lying down? It is time to join forces Let the eagles beak burst on our shields Unite! This is Gallia uprising! 12. Hope 13. The Siege Scorched earth we left A barren land of ash Our fatherland laid waste Be the void our fucking monument At a leaden dawn At this ominous morn Pila loomed on the horizon Talons of the wolverine Exanimate legions formed At the very gates of Avaricum Believed invulnerable This calling wall But straight out of nowhere Before our eyes this godsdawn bane arose Thus Avaricum burns Under a dead sky Avaricum drowns In blood and demise Siege towers emerged Protruding from the ground Standing out against the threatening sky As if to mock all valiantness Face to face with an eye-levelled enemy Serried roman ranks Embattled upon our hold Cut off and trapped inside As the carnage was at hand As the creak of the winches extolled our doom The slaughter befell Avaricum Dead suffused the oppidum Left to pillage, sack and rape Avaricum the brave became Avaricum the grave 14. Alesia The gress as green as it always was that sinister day blackbird sang their songs as they always did that black-letter day the day we passed the great gate for the very last time I did not look back, I knew we`d stay I knew they I would not let us go leave the death strip I saw the gleam in their eyes of fear and enslavement suffering from the crushing weight I knelt ground take me home Alesia, alisanos wake me when I`m gone IANOTOUTA,eternity proclaim our barren sacrifice on that ground we cherished life we embraced death as the children`s cries trailed off sob yielded deathly hush the grass as green as it always was that sinister day as we walked the alleys like thousand times before I knew we`d stay oudside Alesia we offered a living sacrifice outside the doors of Alesia where our tears run dry 15. Tullianum And so it all ends, With rise a noose, Fly raven, fly. 16. Uxellodunon This is the final resistancel This was the final revolti In desperace hope With tear-dimmed eyes With wrath-torn minds We took up arms one more time Uxellodunon Oh the last stand The freedom manifesto We will nerver forget The things we've seen The deaths we died The tears we cried We will never regret We defied We will raise our arm stubs in pride We will never perish Our cut off hands Proclaimed grandeur Land can be taken but Dignity's impregnable Uxellodunon Fortress of free men Shining beacon of indomitability Bearing witness of freedom Bearing witness of our names, Cause we will never... Out from the ashes Out from the graves The offspring of antumnos Will arise to life again Uxellodunon Oh the last stand the freedom manifesto 17. Epilogue When I reminisce about all those years of tribulation, I mostly remember Our songs. We died, and our blood seeped away on the battlefields; but our Songs survived, together with those of us that returned. And as they too Will die one day, our songs will live on, and will be sung by our children, And by our children's children. This is how we will be remembered. This is Who we were. Helvetios. Chrigel Glanzmann ‒ Vocals, Acoustic guitars, Mandolin, Uilleann pipes, Bodhrán, Tin and low whistles, Gaita Meri Tadic ‒ Fiddle, Vocals Merlin Sutter ‒ Drums Ivo Henzi ‒ Guitars Sime Koch ‒ Guitars, Vocals Anna Murphy ‒ Hurdy gurdy, Vocals Päde Kistler ‒ Bagpipes, Whistles Kay Brem ‒ Bass