RAVENSIRE LYRICS

1. Dark Abyss

[Instrumental]

2. Night of the Beastslayer

While gazing at the fire
Hear me, o dark soothsayer
We meet in this moonlit night
Old clairvoyant and beast slayer

No witness to our conclave
But skulls with hollow eyes
Black shadows dance with the flames
And tonight the creature dies

Ready to strike
With torch and steel
The beast in the night
I'll fight and kill

With sword and fire I rise
Tonight the creature dies

I vanish into the black
And mingle with stone and tree
My quest will have but one end
My death or my victory

Ready to strike
With torch and steel
The beast in the night
I'll fight and kill

A flash of the blade
A flaming arc
Will announce my arrival
And ignite the dark

3. Gates of Ilion

Before the gates of Ilion
The bodies of brave warriors lie
We have come from distant lands
To siege and conquer or die

Far above the storm clouds gather
Dark as the high stone walls
We attack never to yield
Until the city falls

And lightning struck from the sky
And we marched to kill or die

Gates of Ilion
Fire burns the sky

Behold the son of Telamon
Fearless, strong, godlike
As he casts a whirling rock
The heir of Priam to strike

Diomedes' charge is deadly
Many men he fells in rage
And the gods walk the fields of battle
As both armies engage

And arrows rained from the sky
And all throats howled the war cry

Gates of Ilion
Fire burns the sky

[Sarpedon's speech:]
My friend, if we could escape this war and live forever without growing old;
If we were ageless, I would not fight on in the first line of battle, nor would I send you to those wars where men attain glory.
But now, a myriad of shapes of death attack us, no mortal man can avoid.
So let's go forward, and bestow glory upon others or conquer it for ourselves!

And lightning struck from the sky
And we marched to kill or die

Gates of Ilion
Fires reach the sky

So many fallen lie dead
So many men to be mourned
And the tears stream down Tethys' face
Of her son's fate she'd been warned

Soon we will cross the gates
In victory to burn and destroy
Forever all men will remember
The fall of the city of Troy

4. Fate Is Inexorable

Since time immemorial man has prayed to the gods
Carving altars sacrificing to avert disgrace
Statues have been sculpted to the blind goddess of luck
But nothing will prevent the course of Fatum god of fate

Fate is unyielding
Fate did decide
Relentless god whose rule is law
By which even gods abide

Fate is inexorable

Fate will crush your life
Or fate will place you on a throne
To triumph you must fight
But you can't triumph on your own

Fate is inexorable

You cannot cower you must suffer
The arrows and slings
And you may yet receive the prizes
That good fortune brings

The ancient sisters weave the threads
Dictate your destiny
You walk the road that leads to glory
Or fatality

Fate is inexorable

And if you have the strength
For taking your life in your hands
Maybe fate will smile upon you
Before your journey ends

To gods above for love and bliss you may wish to pray
But maybe only fate's the one that truly leads our way

What hold the hands of fate?

"Ducunt uolentem fata, nolentem trahunt"
[Cicero]

5. Drawing the Sword

When the sun begins to rise
And the mist fades and dies
Night is left behind

On towards a clear sky
In a sea of golden light
I taste the freedom that's mine

I draw the sword
I draw the sword!

Friends now gone are left behind
But I did not run out of time
And I still carry my sword

Winding road where do you lead
Will I triumph, will I bleed
I trust my strength and my speed

I wield the sword
I wield the sword

My own lord
I draw the sword

6. Iron Pits

Taken down below where the decadent assemble
To the hole whose name makes all gladiators tremble
The place where slaves are crushed and fed to human beasts
The caverns made of iron like the shackles on my wrists

Iron pits
Sand made of ground bone
Iron pits
I stand to fight alone
Iron pits
Where savagery dictates
Iron pits
Who lives to cross the gates

The darkness foul and primal holds torches flickering
Specks of diseased lighting circling the ring
Arena drenched in blood where gods of death abide
Where if one survives only strength and speed decide

One day I'll kill the tyrants I'll wield the iron blades
Laugh as I behead them and watch as their life fades
But now there's just a whirlwind of swords that clash and sing
And a longing for the glory that my victories will bring
Bludgeoning and slashing, screaming as I maim
To live beyond this horror is my one and only aim
With sinew, bone and blood, with strength and skill and wits
I'll fight to slay and vanquish and rise from the iron pits

7. Mire of Delusion

To the mire of delusion I was cast
Gnarly trees around me hide the faint monsters of my past

Visions in my mind
Dire warnings of the terrors I may find

Foul beasts that lurk
Deadly in the murk
I must vanquish

All that's left behind
The life that was mine
I relinquish

Distant lightning, death or worse
Fearing neither hex nor curse

Into the night, ready to fight
I walk in this accursed maze
Fighting my fear knowing evil is near
Ever 'til the end of my days

Any time may be the time to die
Mortal weakness the gods are deriding in the sky

Beastly howls I hear
Inhuman throats drawing near

Gust of wind blows
Terror that grows
I suppress

Fear holding sway
Ready to slay
On I press

Twisting pathways, rank damp stench
Knotted root and crooked branch

Into the night, ready to fight
I walk in this accursed maze
Fighting my fear knowing evil is near
Ever 'til the end of my days

Vile forest, deathly gloom
Evil fate, swamp of doom

8. Homecoming

A life spent walking dusty paths
Twixt endless realms to roam
A cave upon a windswept crag
Was for a while my home

I swam a channel full of sharks
And climbed the steepest walls
And I saw phantoms gleam at night
And I heard their eerie calls

Upon a blacksmith's anvil
I have seen the sparks fly mad
And often since my sword's blade
Has been painted bloody red

Golden spires blazing
Beneath a baking sun
And dark valleys were witness
To the wanderings I have done

"And I have known a deathless queen
In a city old as death,
Where towering pyramids of skulls
Her glory witnesseth.
Her kiss was like an adder's fang,
With the sweetness Lilith had,
And her red-eyed vassals howled for blood
In that City of the Mad."

I sometimes find myself
As if by chance alone
To tread old well-known pathways
Of ancient cobblestone

The air itself whispers to me
My weary bones are sore
So maybe I can spend the night
To then journey evermore

"And I have slain a vampire shape
That drank a black king white,
And I have roamed through grisly hills
Where dead men walked at night.
And I have seen heads fall like fruit
In a slaver's barracoon,
And I have seen winged demons
Fly all naked in the moon."

[Quotations are from the poem 'Homecoming' by Robert E. Howard]

9. Beyond the Portcullis

Behold, the dark spire looms
Perched upon yon mountain black
Howling winds like furies scream
As if flying to attack

Across the moat's watery depths
Hiding shapes that swim beneath
Jaw-like gaping drawbridge beckons
With dark metal pointed teeth

And I cross
Towards the dark
Beyond the portcullis

Spiders weave their fatal webs
Framed in tragic bony white
And town madmen tell the tales
Of spectres dealing mortal fright

Is the bounty worth the risk
Can a blade kill what is dead
Does the labyrinth hold foes
That lie in wait to cut my head

10. Warriors to the Slaughter

A dark banner stabs the red sky
Winds of war blow
And armoured fighters march on
Heavy are the hearts of men

Voices silent, unbroken the sound
Of chain mail and shield
Under the red sun of Mars
And the ominous flights above

Ravens fly
Birds of doom
Kill or die
Battles loom

Warriors to the slaughter holding their swords
Warriors marching to die

Dark grim helmets never turn back
Ravens caw, dead eyes will be pecked tonight
Relentless the gods of war

Drums will pound
Steel will sing
Dreadful sound
Fatal sting

Warriors to the slaughter holding their swords
Warriors marching to die

The Ravensire holds up the sign
All about it the fray will be chaos unleashed
But forward to the end we march

March on





RAVENSIRE LYRICS