XANTHOCHROID LYRICS

1. Open The Gates, O Forest Keeper

[Instrumental]

2. To Lost And Ancient Gardens

My love is petals and dew
The Erthe, the wilderness too
For a fonder man, there is none
Who admires her like the Sun
Shining down so she may glow…

But a maid stood alone
In the trees, overgrown
And she pondered the plight
Of the rose

She drank the dew from the rose
I drank the dew from the rose
I envy the one that she chose
His stare and longing did grow

Then she offered me a sip,
But I dare not touch my lip
Where the serpent’s tongue hath coiled

For a man she desires,
And indeed one she would have
If I should but meet
Her gaze

A man like you I’ve never known
Her words a womanly moan
So lonely he must remain alone
Her dress so perfectly sewn

If you’d come away with me,
We shall never lonely be

What a travesty it would be,
Have you never felt the touch
If our eyes should fondly meet
Of a maid politely struck
By a man so handsome as you?

Come away, silly man
No, no
‘Tis a green and pleasant land
This cannot be
That awaits us through the trees
She has led me through the trees

The Erthe, she whimpers neath my feet
Her tears, they beg me not to leave

Although sadder tales have been told,
None so truthful
Or so old
As the man
And his maid
Gladly joined

3. To Higher Climes Where Few Might Stand

Beyond the feeble reaches
Of conscious memory
A voice long forgotten
Echoes through the chamber of my thoughts

I cannot recall
The speaker or what was spoken
Just a whisper now
Still, it’s crying, screaming, wanting to be known

As dawn greets dew-wet grass
A brother returns at last
Seven years in patience passed
Long since have I laid my dreams to ash

Oh rekindled Flame
Dare not speak His name
Oh unfettered son
What gifts you were given
Why, then, did you run?

As night drapes silted shores
No laughter is heard anymore
Tales of terror and of war
Hang heavy in the dampened midnight air

Oh, recall the dream
Hunger's rising scream
Rays of glinting light
Glancing off dew-wet blades this night

I was there
Where once our fathers rode
Beyond this mortal coil
Toward that precipice of stone
Which stands unchanged, uncaring, and old

Countless wonders I have seen
Endless skies of emerald green
Minds can never idle be
When magic stirs beyond the trees

You know things of which I speak
Secrets buried deep beneath
Still eclipsed in jaded truth
By the nameless wonders of my youth

Oh, recall the dream
(In dreams we cannot die)
Hunger’s rising scream
(It calls us to its side)
Rays of glinting light
Glancing off dew-wet blades this night

Come with me to better days
To higher climes where few might stand
And never shall we tread again
On silted shores, on blackened sand

4. To Souls Distant And Dreaming

There are few of us who know
What wonders we were shown
In the visions of our youth
For children, as we were,
Think only half formed thoughts
And now, as men, we recollect
A dull and shattered dream

But some of us awake
With phantasms so strange;
Enchanted hills and golden plains
And cities made of stone
Where ancient heroes rode
Caparisoned with gold
We come alive and then we know
We’ve looked back through the gates,
The gates the Forest Keeper made

5. In Deep And Wooded Forests Of My Youth

I know the place
Where Memory sleeps
And secrets hide

It is not far
Or hard to find
Or too ancient to recall

A sighing stream
This endless forest's dream
Are you still too blind to see it?

The force that feeds
Our endless need
This deep and wooded dream that is my heart

But night will fall
And trees once tall
Will bend to his will

That scorching Raven’s smile
Writhing, putrid, vile
His sharpened tongue
A spear to kill

A song of soil
The vine’s exquisite coil
All but faded footprints of my past

But night will fall
And while the midnight
Forest breathes
I will not leave my home

6. The Sound Of Hunger Rises

Ne aveas Mortem
Non dat is pacem
In enim morte
sciemus morsus
quos reliquimus

*Do not welcome Death
He offers no Peace
For even in Death
We will know the pains
We have left behind*

Just as he came
So he shall go
In woe, in pain, in poverty

Have you ever felt this way before?
Can you feel the power surging through your soul?
And once it’s over, you’ll want more
Can’t you see it’s what the earth is for-

Can you hear the sound of hunger rise?
We could bring an end to all those mournful, helpless cries…

Take then good heed
Heed To your end
For as I say
So it shall be

We, the paragons of creation
We, the arbiters of change
Was this not the dream we shared
When we were young and unafraid?

But you saw her there,
Gentle eyes, tempting stare;
And still you’re bound by her

No, no, not bound but held
And you needn’t think this way

We, were but children you and I
We, thought, as only children think,
This world was ours to conquer,
And its blood was ours to drink

How far you have wandered,
How deep lie your pains.
Bask in this eternal summer
Revel in Morning’s glow
Join me on silted shores once more

How long have I labored
How deep lie the crusted jewels of my innocence

7. The Sound Of A Glinting Blade

I heard the Forest sing
Songs of my youth
I’d never felt such pain before

You held my hand that day
You were my Sun before the dawn
The darkened morning I have loved so long

I don’t recall that day
And I never thought of you when I cried
You know the place
And I never wondered why

Where memory sleeps and secrets hide
You left so suddenly

Silence fills this place
Naught but a memory of your embrace
You, servile and sweet
Soft as the sediment beneath our feet
Far beyond the trees
We roamed
Yet, now, I plead:

Recall the plans we made
Dreams once so bold
The jealous Sun stood still and cold

What now has time revealed?
A tepid pool of youth misspent
A faded tapestry of dreams undreamt

Strange, how you recount
Wanton days, blissful nights
Strange, as it seems,
There was suffering
And pain you never knew
How could you?

Do not welcome Death
He offers no peace
For even in death
We will know the pains
We have left behind

Far beyond the trees
I long to be
A deeper stream
Free from
Flows endlessly
Your incessant dream
Toward my dream

8. The Sound Which Has No Name

No ancient script
Was ever writ
No jewel-decked throne
On which to sit

Soaring high,
The Watcher waits
To slake his thirst
To clean his plate

His jaws agape
His claws unfurled
The Winged-Watcher
Swallows the world

The oceans rise and fall
With his heaving chest
And in the wind
We feel his breath

No cries are heard
No tears are wept
For wise ones know
The bond once kept

The price he asked;
The cost of death:

A single drop,
Still glistening wet,
Of crystal'd pain
To pay a debt

As time went on
The debt accrued
And we foolish Men
The price refused

Now all is lost
And we, Erthwile
Peer at the stars
Through his crooked smile

Your soul is crumbling, rotting
Beneath the chains of hate

Can you hear those mournful, helpless cries?
The sound which has no name
Open your eyes
The blackened fog has blinded you
And with this darkness you have shrouded
Our deep and wooded home

He is our fatal end
Our recompense
He is the fear
We all can sense

The creeping serpent
The reeking breath
The fangs of Erebus
The certainty of Death

The fangs of Erebus
The certainty of Death





XANTHOCHROID LYRICS