SONATA ARCTICA LYRICS

1. The Wolves Die Young

Weather's getting colder
Winter claims the land
It is said the Queen is dressed in
the warmest gown in the whole land

They say it is a wonder
a dress is made of thunder,
The Wolves, who cannot see it
will one day dethrone the Queen

The citizens all cower
the beauty of the power
Makes them see a flower
bloom in the Winter Wonder Land

The walls keep getting closer
breathe fear in your cage,
for the Queen will hear today
the reason in the rhymes
children play

The Queen is naked
and no one sees her amber eyes
Now the innocent kneel down
and ask forgiveness for their lies

The court,
the meek,
will obey the tyrant Queen
Bring us their heads for...

This is the day when the wolves die young
They'll never see a new midnight sun
I'm gonna make sure the prophecy is undone
Find out where those children have run

Mutiny is rising
against the wall of fear
Mirror, mirror of the fall
sees her final spiraling
downfall

The Queen is naked
and no one sees her amber eyes
Now the innocent kneel down
and ask forgiveness for their lies

The court,
the meek,
will obey the tyrant Queen

This is the day when the wolves die young
They'll never see a new midnight sun
I'm gonna make sure the prophecy is undone
Find out where those children have run

This is the day when the wolves die young
They'll never see a new midnight sun
I'm gonna make sure the prophecy is undone
Find out where those children have run

Find out where those children have run
Find out where those children have run

2. Running Lights

The sunset will make the night,
He feels the road with his headlights
He's one of the wilder kind,
In his yellow and red skyline

Young man... and... his... fast car
Squeezing... the wheel...
Knuckles white

Speeding, turning, sliding, drifting
Deeper in his bucket seat,
Running all the lights with the girl of his dreams

And they enter the night when
The young ones need no sleep
Laughing at the lights they keep running
Becoming color of the night
When the song on the
Radio sings "Such a perfect day"
Tomorrow slowly fades away

The world only ends once in one life time
These nights of the young last forever
Around and around, with the clearing smoke
These days drift away altogether

The peak of the perfect times
The sunrise always ruins the night

Racing... for one... final kiss
Drifting... away... don't touch... the wheel!

Turn left slide right, initial G-feel
Deeper in the red line,
Screaming louder underneath

And they enter the night when
The young ones need no sleep
Laughing at the lights they keep running
Becoming color of the night
When the song on the
Radio sings "Such a perfect day"
Tomorrow slowly fades away

World only ends once in one life time
This night of the young lasts forever
Around and around, with the clearing smoke
These days drift away altogether

Once in a while night's a full lifetime
These nights of the young last forever
Around and around, with the clearing smoke
These days drift away in the shades of time

3. Take One Breath

New human has seen the dawn of day,
Overcame the limitations
Of evolution by learning to apply
S-C-I in fi, you cry silence!
Science is blasphemy!

My brainchild, intermingle,
Come foretoken of trans-human
Already supersedes men like you and me
Transcending the old human... silence!
Sci-fi blasphemy
Silence, blasphemy
Sci-fi human, sci-fi human
Has arrived

Once upon a dream
I was to fall deep in a goldmine
I had a world within my reach
I had to choose between my life
And something, I cannot see

Standing at the gates of the evolutionary endpoint
Reaching for the key we cannot yet see
High above the all seeing eye of this reality

The lines we learn to fear
Drawn safely in the distance
Slowly we become the new species of tomorrow
Mankind lives or dies by its boundless dreams

Once upon the future,
We're gonna blame our evolution
For the lack of light far behind the sun
As we try to rise on our self made burning wings

Take one breath, just take...
One breath away, the future, today

Take one breath, one breath...
Slip away from the dream, you're awake

Take one breath
One last breath,
Prophesy, sci-fi, pigs that fly

Take one breath,
One last breath,
Not faraway,
Pre-order your future today

4. Cloud Factory

For every child there dawns the day,
They wonder from where they come
Why is the sky so pink tonight?
How fast do clouds fly by

And so you come up with stories you tell,
Eyes are open wide
When you tell them about the sky
All that beneath resides

There is a factory clouds are made in
They make 'em big and blue
The factory eats you,
It swallows you whole
It fills you with conceit
And never lets you leave
If you ever dream at the end of the day
That you're gonna live as a free man
There's no hook, no sinker, no line
And you will never leave the cloud factory

If you join the same brigade,
I did when I was young
You will never see beyond
The skyline of this town

Take my word, my son, and run!
While your dreams fly free!
Have them write my story down
Like silence breaking sound!

There is a factory clouds are made in
They make 'em big and blue
The factory eats you,
It swallows you whole
It fills you with conceit
And never lets you leave
If you ever dream at the end of the day
That you're gonna live as a free man
There's no hook, no sinker, no line
And you will never leave the cloud factory

It's sad if you never leave
You believe what you see
And you follow the lead (woo ooh)
But the eyes they deceive
There is nothing to see
But cloud factory creams
Ooh ooh!

But hey!
Isn't it fun at the end of the day
When everyone looks like me!
Swallowing pints of stale apathy
Having dreams where I would be without the factory!

If you ever dream, at the end of the day
That you're gonna live as a free man
There's no hook, no sinker, no line
And you will never leave the cloud factory

There is a factory clouds are made in
They make 'em big and blue
The factory eats you,
It swallows you whole
It fills you with conceit
And never lets you leave
If you ever dream at the end of the day
That you're gonna live as a free man
Irony shall be the justice you find
In case you never leave the cloud factory

5. Blood

At first you kindle life
You place it in a man
This man, he has a heart
That's filled with fire

The man will have a wife
The wife creates the home
They multiply and so
Their hearts are filled with fear

The man creates a wall
He arms, defends them all
This fear becomes his fall

"Blood is a bodily fluid in animals that
Delivers necessary substances such as
Nutrients and oxygen to the cells and
Transports metabolic waste products
Away from those same cells"

The color of life and arrow of fear made flow
Auburn rivers in the snow dance the death
Of fading peace of mind

Kept awake by the night
Of the twilight’s cold, sad weeps
What the child of Orion
Has sown his cubs will reap
The fire is out
And there's an ominous silence
But he can see them in the dark
Under the moon, the shadows find them

Wolf - stares in your eyes
Blink first and die
Beauty and fear, of wolves and of people

There's a cave on the hills,
In the woods not so far away
Never once had he seen the descent
Of majestic gray coming this way

Now he can see those blue eyes
Burning through the darkened night
"He knows the fur, he used to love her"

Ready or not, there will be blood!
Life is a gift you have no lease for anymore
There will be blood!
You will buy our blood with your own blood
You will buy our blood with your own blood
The last thing you'll see is a

Wolf - stares in your eyes
Blink first and die
Beauty and fear within

Who's more of a beast
A king or a priest
What do you believe?

Wolves or the people things we fear
Wolves or the people
Wolves fear the fear of the people
Think, how one fearful man can destroy this world

At first you kindle life, you place it in a man
This man, he has a heart, that's filled with fire

The man will have a wife, the wife creates the home
They multiply and so, their hearts are filled with fear

Maybe men cannot live when their hearts are not
Filled with fire instead of love
For fear is a powerful thing
Maybe only the might and
The power of fear maintains our life
We function when it's controlled by denial

The wolf in your eyes blinks first and dies
Beauty and fear, the wolves and the people

Those hills have no eyes, but they hear your cries
Beauty and fear, the blood, the wolves and the people

6. What Did You Do In The War, Dad?

Dad, what did you do in the war?
Something to answer for?
You say too young I am to know

Dad, I've heard you cry at night
Mournful and desperate plight
Where did you learn that song you sing

"War is in me! I was the war!
And your prying brings back the suffering
No, please, don't start to cry
I only pray you'll never know
Things I see every time I close my eyes
Angels still have faces"

What did you do in the war, dad, tell me
Why can't you smile when the children sing
Did the wages of war cut your soaring wings
And your soul is now torn, unlike mine
Do you fear yesterday will in someway
Define the life of your child?

Dad, I know what you did in the war
Deeds devils would abhor
Did you fulfill the oath you swore?

Dad, did you do it for me?
Their blood for my life to live
In the hollow without reprieve, without you

"War is in me! I am the war!
Don't you force me to live the nightmare again!
I'm sorry
Please, don't make me cry
My son, you never ever want to know
How when guarding your sleep serene I hear
The silence of the children who sang"

Far and beyond the stars there's
A place where all the love,
All the goodness we could have still resides
But we choose life away from the light
You can find ghosts of loss in the gaze of your
Beautiful child

7. Half A Marathon Man

An 89 year old man learned how to run
And as he passed me by, he said, "Come on, son!"
I really thought my bones weighted a ton
As I dragged them up and down the block
Now a couple of weeks have passed
Gone are the makings of a lazy man

When I saw the usher of change
Her flaming hair in slow-mo
Gliding past my window
I had to trace her down
"You look like a really nice guy
But can you keep up with me?"
Away she ran

I'm doing everything I can
To be half of a marathon man
How many things can life conceal
Deep in the mist everything is unreal
If you believe in me, I can
Become your own half a marathon man
I am half of a marathon man
Yea-yeah

Good morning, somebody kill me right now
I've never felt this kind of a burning cold
I read it somewhere, running is like a drug
As for the second day, I can say it is not
It's bright white burning pain
Bring it on, baby!

10 miles and I feel hell-bent
I'm gonna make sure this rainbow has an end
I seem to have hit an invisible wall
Trying to find out if this here endless tunnel is really
A cave

So here I run between the fields
I am half of a marathon man
Follow the river down from the hills
If I can do it, then anyone can
Now her eyes reflect my skies
You can hear love in the 21 cries
Of half of a marathon man

[4x]
It's a beautiful day, it's a beautiful day,
It's so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

[Solo]

So here I run between the fields
I am half of a marathon man
Follow the river down from the hills
If I can do it, then anyone can
Now her eyes reflect my skies
You can hear love in the 21 cries
Of half of a marathon man

[3x]
It's a beautiful
It's a beautiful
It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day

8. X Marks The Spot

“I was in a really dark place.
I even thought of packing it in, but I just could not bring myself to do it.
I met an old friend that I had a real connection with
And he saw my despair
He asked me if I’d like to play with him
And as we played I felt, slowly but surely, rock ‘n roll grabbed me by the neck, and I, well...”

You are a man of impeccable taste
And you know when the X marks the spot
We all need a map for the trail of your thought
Where to go, well, the X marks the spot

You seem to have a misgiving
Hell yeah, you make a living
Don't add bricks to what we're heaving
We would so much
Rather enjoy the beach, beer and a fire

You think something somewhere
Has a copyright for the world
And you've signed where the X marks the spot
You join a cult, fill the void that you've got
Deep within where the X marks the spot

There you stand and talk and holler
How dark are all your colors
When you paint another sunrise
You leave out the sun

Birds like you fly straight to heaven, heaven
Or they slowly float away

How well do you know those you're calling your own?
I mean... come on dude! (X marks the spot)

Your starving soul in your house of skin and bone
You're an island, the X marks the spot

“Testify children, testify.”

There you stand and talk and holler...
How dark are all your colors
When you paint another sunrise
You leave out the sun

[2x]
Birds like you fly straight to heaven, heaven
Or they slowly float away...

"Rock’n’roll allowed me to join this band
And there was a period of time when I hadn’t exactly lost my soul
I just didn’t know where I’d put it
And I ended up in some very dark places and some dire circumstances
Now let me tell you, children, I was trying to fill a void in my heart
To fill that void I got what I always wanted:
Success, prosperity, the admiration I wanted as a player
I got a place in big shows and travelled the world from end to end
And the next of it all, I had this yearning in my heart
Yearning in my heart for rock’n’roll."

"I was called to join this band
And I was surrounded by good folks there and servants of the rock’n’roll who passed on the love
I’ll testify: the fear was in me, I was afraid of everything
I can swear I saw my own living heart beating through my shirt."

You are a circus, but where is the clown?
There's no map, still the X marks the spot

There you stand and talk and holler...
How dark are all your colors
When you paint another sunrise
You leave out the sun

Birds like you fly straight to heaven, heaven
Or they slowly float down into the night with senior John Barleycorn.
Heaven, heaven
Or they slowly float away

"Now you children, are you ready to spread the word?
Everybody sing, “Eo – wohoho – hey-hey – wow-wow – hey-hey – hu?"

[2x]
Birds like you fly straight to heaven, heaven
Or they slowly float away...

"And the funny thing was I was like a spiritual baby running around with diapers on where the X marks the spot.
I'd given my life to rock'n'roll but I still wasn't sure was there rock'n'roll? Is it real?"

9. Love

Oh I love the face you try to hide in your hands, we are in love
Oh I love the snow angels we make hand in hand, we are in love

Give me the stone you're hiding within
Shimmering, frozen, all it does is make me feel the cold
Rules don't apply, gravity lies
The moon gently smiles when we silently sway while I sing

How long have we been dancing?
You are all I see...

Oh I love the smile you try to hide in your hands, we are in love
Oh I love the sand angels we make hand in hand, we are in love

Summer in bloom, lovers in swoon
Never believed I also could walk in the air like a fool
The greatest of stories, heavenly bliss
Now and forever may sometimes end with no kiss

Now we wonder are we both crazy getting into this

Oh I love the face you try to hide in your hands, we are love
Love the way you get older with me day by day, we are in love
Oh I love the snow angels we make hand in hand, we are in love
And I love how this love makes us strong day by day, we are in love

10. Larger Than Life

I climb up on the stage
Wearing an old man’s face
I've said those words a thousand times
I memorized the lines of Paris, The Prince and Friar
I might one day play them too

To get here took its time, I forgot to make a life
Between the scripted ones I knew
When admiration grew I was only loved by few
My true love and passion - everyone knew

Hamlet in Lapland, King Lear died in Vienna
Venice and Othello, Madrid I am Henry the 8th
I am, I am

We all shall one day become what we play
The marvelous, magical, bewildering array
Of trees and stones as we work our way up
To become these icons of lust and what not

"We live in the sin of self-indulgent... larger than life
Yeah, that's what I am!
I am a goddamn Peter Pan, maaaaaaan!
But the one palace I won't grow up in
Staged a broken leg deep in my grave"

When life becomes a play and I don't know the role
I'm cast it's all wrong out I cannot escape before the
Curtain call.
One last time build myself a wall to cry on,
To hide in plain view
I will fall deeper into the role written
In a drunken haze, it seems, by Shakespeare in me

Stage, film and television,
Twenty-four seven on the scene, I'm
Larger than life...
Nightclubs, cabarets, spotlights never turn away now
Larger than life...
The meaning of the fame is getting
Lesser by the day for me somehow
Larger than life...
My friends all have families
Who now have their families
I lived half a century abiding deep in vanities
Am I now wise, when I've learned all the traits
Of a fool?

The mirror now cries, ageless mask fades to true life
To taste the immortal grace I lived the role I played
Alone in a golden cage

Life is what we make of it sometimes, sometimes,
Sometimes we just want to play

So don't take life so seriously
Play, love, have fun, leave misery be
Regrets are built in a cold dark cage
Where nothing ever happens
Where nothing ever happens

Where nothing ever happens...
Where nothing ever happens...
Where nothing ever happens...

I climb down from the stage
Remove the young man's face
And underneath reveal a sage
"Young man, you play my role
Breathe life into that soul
Prepare to live a thousand lives"

Now when you think it's all over, you find love
A flower starts to bloom, a chapter starts anew
The greatest moment in life

Mirror still lies, time is cruel, silent landslide
It builds you up within, destroys the shell you're in
And everything will fall into place

When life becomes a play
And I (you) don't know the role I'm cast (you're cast)

It's all wrong, but I (you) cannot
Escape before the curtain call
One last time, build yourself a wall to cry on,
For anybody to see
You will fall deeper into the role you wrote in a drunken
Haze, it seems, with Shakespeare within

Stage, film and television, twenty four seven on the...

11. No Pain

[Japanese Bonus Track]

What you are, and why today
All that's tragic, feels the same
There's no feeling, there's no pain, cold, rain

Cannot stay away from you, light
'Cause you are my cyanide
If I can't feel, why is there pain?
Give me my rest, cold, rain...

From the darkness, into the light
Face the demons, left and right
If there's no wrong, can there be right?
Only a thin, fading line

Now everything here seems so wonderful,
And different, and still
In the boot of a soldier a tiny red pill
Has a purpose to fill
I am wasting my time, writing lines,
That will never see your light
Now my Dark Soul Distillery fills all the bottles,
The essence of life
Wow!
I am running my fingers through pages of...
Insanity, hair
And I try to stay drunk as I walk back
And forth on the flickering line
I have lost all the ones and the twos,
I'd take fifteen, if I can choose
I can pass out and forget today
Or then go back in time, face the pain

Dream of me and let me go
I am still my own worst foe
Try to smile and face the light
My starry sky, burning night

When embers dance high in the air
My demons die without an heir
The sun I touch and do my share
Why would you care, why would you care...

I answer my own silent query, unwillingly, with a tear
As I see the two ravens of yesterday
Fly pass my window in fear
I should take down these curtains today,
They just seem to make things gray
I will clean all the stains but I don't want to know how
That window got smeared
Wow!
A new morning dawns, I am paralyzed,
I lie awake, dead
As that same stupid melody plays in my head,
Not again, not again...
I'm a ghost of that once scared young man
Wake me up, please, if you can
It's a nightmare, it's sick, I confess
But I am needed, I clean up the mess

What are you, and why today,
All that's tragic, feels the same
There's no feeling, there's no pain,
Cold, rain

From the darkness, into the light
Face the demons, left and right
If there's no wrong, can there be right?
Only a thin, fading line

Dream of me and let me go
I am still my own worst foe
Try to smile and face the light
My starry sky, burning night

When embers dance high in the air
My demons die without an heir
Maybe one day I'll make amends
And this song will make some sense







SONATA ARCTICA LYRICS