DARK TRANQUILLITY OF CHAOS AND ETERNAL NIGHT Mikael Stanne - vocals Niklas Sundin - guitars Fredrik Johansson - guitars Martin Henriksson - bass Anders Jivarp - drums ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Of Chaos and Eternal Night (Sundin, Johansson, Jivarp) This is a tale long to live but alas so short to tell by the wind and by time, by everything that flees A torment of my liking: exploring extremes All thoughts secluded as fear stalks its blooded soil In the winding path where a chain now rattles With links merely death can break Stains of pride - derelict In feverish visions of agonising light Pulsating rhythms unpure So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos So scream out to the skies: Of Chaos and Eternal Night Never is the dark any threat to my existence Comforting ravens claws grip the stars that fell tonight THe stealth of infinite beauty Nevertheless heaven fell tonight Racing along with the strangled teardrop Life's elixir in benevolent lust Slit open the throat that is virtue Let fire ravage its caverns with joy Ardent but silent in twilight resigned Delivered from virtue in vehement plight Yet ask not of your vanity (The hooved agitator in your creed) To let loose all the stars of heaven Stray across the vault your seed Concealed cravings must through fulfilment be broken Hide no longer behind the veil of unconvincing lies So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos So scream out to the skies Of Chaos and Eternal Night I've seen fires waving patterns Forging ornaments - hidden from a world of distress Grace through hatred Of Chaos and Eternal Night In shadows now vengeful waiting out your bitter foe The mirror distorts Sinful is the perceiving eye Tearless in nondescript form Scarlet secrets tell of nightmarish fear Illusions that speak of endless night A venture in terms of one hazardous journey into Chaos and Eternal Night Deliver me from virtue, Hidden no more beneath tender veil of lies And let 'em all out; unseen and sinful ... Of Chaos and Eternal Night ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - With the Flaming Shades of Fall (Sundin, Johansson, Henriksson) Colours burst in wild explosions; Fiery, flaming shades of fall All in accord with my pounding heart Behold the autumnweaver In bronze and yellow dying Colours unfold into dreams In hordes of a thousand and one The bleeding Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming Colours burst within Spare me those unending fires! Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall September flies beyond our reach As the flames reborn their fall October is the art we teach With the Flaming Shades of Fall November, Robe of prophet - heart of false redeemer Night whispers as the flaming shades of fall now die Darkness, wild and unchained Towards its heart we plunge We must crush the false redeemer With the flaming shades of fall ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Away, Delight, Away (Henriksson, Johansson) As false as our minds our eyes refuse to see They claw for the falseness in me From where all life springs anew We are cleansed through the crystal fire Fill me with sound, fill me with hatred Let my life bring life to the soil The soil beneath my feet Messenger of pain sailing silence Commander of my sorrow riding rage Infinity is eternal - never born so it may never die Colours speak my name Through the crowns I am baptised in the First gnawing rays from a blackened sun In the name of my blood I curse thee Shelter me under the trees Spread your twilight wings My broken body is dripping with sin Your skin so delicate Your undemanding bliss will carry me far I bid farewell to this godforsaken land Nevermore shall I return I join with the riders on the horizon For they are my blood! For they are my saviours! They bring me hatred, bring me fire They take me down to the land I know not Then crush me - Take me down Then they build me once more again Slayer of my anger sailing silence The angel of my lust She is tasting shame ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Alone [taken from _Skydancer_, re-recorded with new vocals] (Henriksson, Sundin) "Let me die", I cried as the curtain fell and I stared in woe at the world before me My weeping eyes could not bear to tell or the shattered kingdom in ruins before me What became of the lands that were? A pearl in the nest of memories Forever gone... departed by the minds of man Scavengers, feeding on your mother's blood Parasites of life, with my heart I condemn your ignorant ways Like the leaves of the high trees I wither and fall, Borne by autumnal winds to my funeral hall I'm all alone in the grip of the silent sadness I have been told to honour life and what therein I'll find, but if all I see is darkness, let me die and wake up blind As the gleaming blade before me, singing lullabies of loss Whispering "Death is your redeemer to the Paradise you've lost" Mankind, evoker of inferno Let me burn your honoured Crown of Creation and dethrone you to ashes for aeons to come Why should I stay here where I do not belong? Of weakness burns my within... An empty shell I've lost the way to the sanctity I need I'll greet the dawn that brings no life, no frail beams of sun to cleanse the black night My mournful roam has ended I hide in the shadows while biding my time, sheltered from this world which disorderly rhyme with the fury of damnation Once I held in my hand the starlight of Eden and the white sky lay open in a soul that was free (But the years flew so fast as the shadows were cast and I woke up one morning with no reason to be) I'm all alone in the shade of the nameless Sorrow I'm all alone within a shadowfire of fear Take me home to whence I came Where I'll find light to feed my flame of life Or my heart will die without a whisper of hope... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------