1. |
The Dark of Midsummer
08:48
|
|||
The Bard from ether wove the faerie court
But inert archetypes they would remain.
So to all earthly delights he did resort
And stitched all mortal rapture to their frames.
Yet longest nights would plague midsummer for
Disputes of Titania and Oberon,
Could raise contagious fog and gales that tore
At trees and stifled souls they came upon.
How soon the breath of man corrupts ideas
With petty squabbles and our jealousies.
So pale in our anger and bound by fear.
You would think the gift of life a disease.
How many shaking hands have warned,
Our race is nought but gutter spawn?
Yet that same Bard could scratch the quill to please
And brought us Mab a maiden without peer.
Drawn by a team of little atomies
At night delivering dreams to our ears.
Such guides we craft to spur us on,
To go explore Lord Shaper's moonlight shore,
Find purpose, reach beyond the grasp of dawn,
[dare us] to name and mould a brave future.
The breath of man can set the heart aflame
With faith and valour, inspire and exhort
To beauty, glory, sun and earth proclaim.
Only fools would sell the gift of life short.
If to warmth and love we are sworn,
There is still hope for the unborn.
|
||||
2. |
Marston Moor
04:22
|
|||
*How splendid are the spears?
How golden our hauberk.
Our watchword Liberty
Our banner the sky.
How purple [shall] our blood be?
How glorious our scars.
When the deaths upon them
Smiling at the stars.*
Sir Rupert of the Rhine surveyed his Royalist force
Awaiting battle at Marston Moor
He thought that in the morn they'd take back
The North
When thunder cracked [and] our muskets roared.
*How splendid are the spears?
How golden our hauberk.
Our watchword Liberty
Our banner the sky.
How purple [shall] our blood be?
How glorious our scars.
When the deaths upon them
Smiling at the stars.*
Our hearts and souls emblazoned
With the hopes of all creation.
We will bring our lands salvation
As we seek to tear from his head
The crown
Keep fighting to
End the divine right of kings
No man of faith could leach the life from the countrymen in his care.
End the divine right of kings
This poison will be swept aside by roundhead soldiers borne on angels' wings.
End the divine right of kings
No man of faith could leach the life from the countrymen in his care.
End the divine right of kings
This poison will be swept aside by roundhead soldiers borne on angels' wings.
Borne on angels' wings...
Lyrics marked with * taken from "A Roundhead's Rallying Song" by Alfred Noyes
|
||||
3. |
Gaia
05:11
|
|||
Cognoscere anima
Cognoscere anima
Cognoscere anima.
By the kiss of dawn I've let my shadow self eclipse the soul.
Seen how my wings of creativity have been clipped by concrete.
Sensing a truth we once all shared has been lost in society's mortar.
If I let weariness
Crack my carved persona,
Splinter knots of my struggles,
Seem so base yet so much more.
Return to the primal
Fierceness of life
Inside each sapling
Seeking to pierce the sky.
By the kiss of dawn I've let my shadow self eclipse the soul.
Seen how my wings of creativity have been clipped by concrete.
Feeling the pulse of the earth, borrow energy, seethe with insects,
Be the downpour and rage with the tempest and scream with the tide.
I can fulminate volcano.
Know that I burn with a flame I cannot name,
That religion and science have wed in the name Gaia.
|
||||
4. |
Nerthus
05:12
|
|||
Turn away iron, anoint with amber, her wain is prepared.
Hail sovereign goddess of life and death toward us she rides.
She triggers the end, mistress of decay, the death that feeds life,
Spurring on growth, calling forth crops, nourishing all.
So they give her attendants, an offering of slaves,
Said to be drowned once they have cleaned her ethereal form
But no master left me here, this is volition.
Hail sovereign goddess of life and death towards me she rides.
Beyond the veil is that pure face.
I forfeit my life for that pure face.
Pure face.
As I gaze, back at my past self,
I feel the bile of my wasted time.
See how my works crumbled around us.
How I failed my duty to loved ones
That no amount of self flagellation
Will get these stains out of my skin.
I will pledge this loathsome being
To a higher power.
Leave behind my shame and guilt, surrender to her beauty.
They leave me with trembling hands to cleanse the sublime.
This is honour, this is privilege, expunging my remnants of soul.
With no sense of loss, I cross the boundaries of water.
Hail sovereign goddess of life and death towards her I ride.
Beyond the veil is that pure face.
I forfeit my life for that pure face.
Pure face.
Nerthus use my form as you see fit.
|
||||
5. |
Isle of Mists
03:54
|
|||
(instrumental)
|
||||
6. |
Taken
07:00
|
|||
I am the rage you can never
Understand 'cause you cannot see
All the things that have been taken from
You
I am the weight of depression
My essence seeping from me.
These wounds that I bear to you
Leave no mark on your solemn visage.
I am the anger of futility.
I am the pain of meeting your gaze
And no longer finding love there
I am the pain of meeting your gaze
And being nothing to you.
And yet I am the praise
For the dawn that follows night
May I learn to see life as
Something other than what was taken.
|
||||
7. |
Requiescant In Pace
00:25
|
|||
Requiem aeternam
Dona eis, domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescant in Pace. Amen.
|
||||
8. |
The Gallows Tree
04:35
|
|||
Come follow, whither shall I follow thee?
Come follow, to the gallows tree.
Terror must have gripped your heart
When he promised you a lesson,
Brought you where crows shriek and start,
To the withered bough that bears me.
Come follow, whither shall I follow thee?
Come follow, to the gallows tree.
He said, 'If you steal or murder,
With villains you'll come to be.
With no one to hold your legs down.
No true love to set you free.'
So the law claimed my end
But what will leave you glassy eyed?
Slain at a war in the King's name?
Branded heretic by the Church?
Worked to your death by a lord?
You learn no justice as you stare,
Only a fear of whose noose will snare.
Come follow, whither shall I follow thee?
Come follow, to the gallows tree.
|
||||
9. |
Bloom
05:03
|
|||
Leave the darkness
Nurse those seeds of pain,
Planted in your wounds
See potential
Like Pines growing
From the graves.
Bloom like Day's Eye
Be ruthless as Ivy
No drought can stop your growth.
Don't be caught in your own realm like Narcissus
Oblivious to the words of love that haunt you.
Feel the violet of Dead Men's Fingers and Witches Bells.
Pick not Soldier's Buttons or feel their thunder.
Your elements will only be bound in your form this once,
Stand as proud as the knight never to be forgotten.
Wear by your heart the fabled hero's charm Hypericum,
Keep your mind as keen as Blackthorn, make Holly spines your armour.
Unfurl. Let the limitless energy of life work through you.
Leave the darkness
The season is ripe,
Rise to the light.
|
||||
10. |
Of Roots and Flesh
04:56
|
|||
You think because you name them,
You master these wilds
But language and labels
Hold no sway.
They've no heritage.
Don't breed anguish with politics.
Lands are not possessions or chains.
All beings must feel their freedom
Under the boundless grace of sky.
You never begrudged
The myriad frames
Of Nature.
So why does the slightest
Difference
In your fellow man
Gall you so.
Punish not for creed or culture,
This earth need not bleed out sorrow.
Don't breed anguish with politics.
Lands are not possessions or chains.
All beings must feel their freedom
Under the boundless grace of sky.
Our forms were born from stars
So drop your hatred
See how bright life blazes.
|
||||
11. |
||||
Oh victorious soldiers,
We are not jubilation
But dolour on parade.
I know why we do not song;
Wounds are our only medals,
Nightmares our 'shining moments'.
We fought for flags and borders
Not the warmth of emotion.
Braying and flailing like beasts.
Metal clashing like locked horns.
You can't revel in the blade
When you see the fear in their eyes.
What use is glory when
Only our names will remain?
We fought for flags and borders
Not the warmth of emotion.
Braying and flailing like beasts.
Metal clashing like locked horns.
You can't revel in the blade
When you see the fear in their eyes.
What use is glory when
Only our names will remain?
Like the change of a season
Frost sets in the bones.
Another crop of flesh
Lost to the unspeakable.
Nought cheaper than lifesblood
Drunk by the thirsty earth.
Nought more meaningless
Than a war born corpse.
Statues they erect in memory,
Eroded by the elements,
Becoming soulless wraiths
Or do they serve as mirror
For what dies inside us?
Hearts left by the graves of children.
As we starve,
What use glory?
Only our names will remain...
|
||||
12. |
Outro
01:35
|
|||
Unable to wake from the mists, we look
From haggard eye to haggard eye to see
How the lie of divine right dragged us down.
How our wings were clipped by concrete,
So Mab could no longer ferry us to dream.
For we know the Poet was right when he promised there was time
For a hundred visions and revisions, for a hundred indecisions,
And yet said time will not stop
Until we join a bitter union of roots and flesh.
For all things decay.
For all things end.
But if we allow the shattered pane of truth
To drown us in defeat, until only our names will remain,
Then we will never know what it is to rise.
Never remember that we were always pure.
That our struggles shine brighter than the glorious weave of starfire.
|
Northern Oak Sheffield, UK
Founded in early 2006 during a wintry excursion to the Peak District, Northern Oak have been spreading their unique brand of
flute-heavy progressive folk metal across Sheffield and the rest of the UK ever since.
Our music sounds like Jethro Tull played by extreme metal fans with an appreciation for everything from Pink Floyd to Emperor.
... more
Streaming and Download help
Northern Oak recommends:
If you like Northern Oak, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp