Cradle Of Filth - Hammer of the Witches | ||||
| ||||
1. Walpurgis Eve 2. Yours Immortally… Bedight, this pre-aestival Festival drew darkly near And our delight at its arrival Was a roar to rival loosed Fenrir Let the Hellish celebrations begin Ragnarok is rolling, magma abrim The blackest mass the Brocken has ever seen Invoking Loki, smoking the red weed We listen to the Glorification Of Chernobog in a fog of elation Denial is the vilest form of blasphemy Standing on the cliffs that kiss burning winds We are risen together Brazen, exalting, a hiss of triumph rings I am yours ...Yours immortally Tonight the rites are right for raising spirits on The Devil's Pulpit, The Witches Altar The dead will dance macabre To Chaos Magick psalters A heavy thunder shadowing lightning Forged for Judgement Day Announces greater wonder, citing Heralds on the starry way And I held you like St Vitus As the Sabbat leapt to play Before the fever swelled to bite us And we were swept to waylay May Day Standing on the cliffs that kiss burning winds We are risen together Brazen, exalting, a hiss of triumph rings I am yours ...Yours immortally Only those tortured Could profess such festive scenes And melodies Of raucous wrought debauchery No arthritic, sullen Goya For this fresh Walpurgis Eve Our flesh it breathes Full of fantastic symphonies Witness the fires reflected in infernal eyes That blaze, alive Eternal ties Have trussed amazing lusts together Procession, banquet, black mass, orgy If our world were to cease right now In the midst of this Wide naked bliss, these stated sacred vows I would break the universe in two Just to side with you To face the jealous heavens down Excite the terse miscarriage Of first light that thirsts to slay This night versed with the marriage Of you and I And all who dare to stray 3. Enshrined In Crematoria This night is chilled by ghosts And the woods are full of werewolves My heart is pounding with the stars I feel the darkness rising I'm blessed, addressed By a voice of sweet caresses Intoxication feeds This freed reality My inspiration speaks Enshrined in crematoria A sight of winged delight Two great cherubim abreast her Encase her grave, like once I prayed Upon her sacred chest there None more tragic for the lovelorn addict Than the death of a beautiful girl Although I was the author of sin That compelled her wings to furl She represents the pleasant scent Of asphodel in this wretched world Moonlight Announce the presence of God again The Ark of the Tragedian Glitters like bright Hittite treasure At best, obsessed By her loss and my excesses Judgementalism heaped Upon the mercy seat Means nothing to her sleep Enshrined in crematoria The trees are gaunt But the cemetery beckons Before her marble colonnades I feel a stirring in the temple As Israel waited with bated breath At the foot of Mount Sinai So I sated my wait for death And miracles from on high In wine and finite poetry As fires bathed the sky Moonlight Announce the presence of God again The Ark of the Tragedian Church to her virgin measure My tethered heart, a sacrificial lamb Thrashes madly as the Lioness approaches Moonlight Announce the presence of God again The Ark of the Tragedian Is built on biblical pleasures Poe-esque, grotesque In my need for this catharsis Her dark commandments teach Through my prolific reach A taste so bittersweet Enshrined in crematoria I find phantasmagoria Enshrined in crematoria 4. Deflowering The Maidenhead, Displeasuring The Goddess Cracked Mirrors scatter reflection Beauty falls from Her state of perfection Good grace has fled this dream While the cat's away the rats will ravage Despotic, Necrotic fingers Have lingered with Rape's Affection Hoods face this global scene As they stoop to prey nature grows more savage She shudders at our foetal, fatal touch Heavenly her body reft and left amongst the dead Once grateful seeds in Her natal hutch Our species breeds, deflowering the maidenhead Religions caw epistles Twisted laws extend their thistles A crown to justify Our place atop this hellbound carriage This judgment has come from on high Deforesters pray to the amplified sky Stripped of her gowns, temples ripped down Her curses hearse NOW This judgment has come from on high Look to her spears with true fear in your eyes Summoning the coven, The Four Horsemen, Eschaton She, the sumptuous Earth deep scars were forced upon Queen Catastrophia seer renewal grew to see Humanity in ruins sped to Death on rotten knees We freed the flames that came to haunt Her The greed that tore Her Elvish bodice She was the storm that warmed to slaughter Our selfish needs displeasuring the Goddess Plastering disasters, faster pandemics appear Anthropocentric pockets, last plagues are spreading near Grand levelling with seven tongues acerbic, whore-astride As the oceans swell in venom at our slick black ecocide This judgment has come from on high Poisoners choke on the smoke-ridden Sty Forewarnings ignored, faith in a Lord Life's blessings uncared for This judgment has come from on high Suffer this Kiss as She whispers goodbye Goodbye What have we done? And what have we become In this distance from our Mother From the gates of late Eden? Blinded, undone Glowering into the sun A world of mass congestion smothered In the waste of late Eden and what of Her? Gaia, Cybele where is jewelled Ishtar That shone forth like the stars? Now maniacal Now maniacal She moves against us all To destroy, recreate anew To dance amok amidst annihilation Extinction greets foul creatures left Deflowering the Maidenhead Displeasuring the Goddess 5. Blackest Magick In Practice I wish upon a star And think of all the things I should have asked Instead, I let the moment pass And now I'm bleeding On her faded photographs Tears So hard to swallow Sorrow blears and leaves me hollow Empty years, I should have followed My inamorata to the grave Uncertain words my heart denied Now seem so trivial I lost it all the night she died Lies! She is alive! Beneath the ice Only darkest mirrors crack this Curse And I, immersed Invoke the worst Blackest Magick put to practice I remember then When the Autumn moon Would turn us back again We'd laugh and bask Amidst the underworld of men Both citing Baudelaire As our immoral saviour Tears So hard to swallow Sorrow blears and leaves me hollow Empty years, I should have followed My inamorata to the grave Words are so benumbing In my head, I hear the drumming Summoning, the dead are coming From fetid crypts my lips create Now grave powers start to rise Deflowerers shall suffer And witness to your sacrifice Lies! She is alive! Beneath the ice Only darkest mirrors crack this Curse And I, immersed Invoke the worst Blackest Magick put to practice I think upon our time Those golden summers Of love echo so sublime As do winters drinking Too much festive wine Now the seasons shift Neath a creeping mist of horror Malefic entities I call upon thee Vibrating cosmic threads With shredded flesh Manifest destinies For those opposing me Everyone is killable Some just choose a vulgar death Now we will see What terrors shall be The dark crimson sea Drags the sun to oblivion Faced demons Arousing fire with tongues Laced with vicious memories Spatter twisted trees Rape is returned a thousandfold In the garden of unearthly delights Only when their minds lie in ruin Will I then hand them the knife Towers fall like broken skies Crashing through to Hell Where amid the debris, angels writhe Lies! She is alive! Beneath the ice Only darkest mirrors crack this Curse And I, immersed Invoke the worst Blackest Magick put to practice Death left me hopelessly blinded Resigned to the wrongs of his design I will never be alright Never be alright Never see the light That shone in the heart of heaven 6. The Monstrous Sabbat (Summoning The Coven) 7. Hammer Of The Witches Breastfed red dementias Familiar with their suckled hostess Unhinge her bridle scold A quest for misadventure Wrests her glare of buckled gnosis From bloodstained floor to holy centrefold Death is tensing to explode Inquisitioners sought her Scenting the bent in her veins Stripped and readied for torture Enslaved to shame The fist of humanity taught her Scissors and spiked tourniquet Dionysian daughter Pressed to confess from the pain I say, "Toll the demon bell The rotting hearts of Man Shall light the path from Hell." Vestal desecrators Familiar with her secret ewers Soon tied to licking flame Rest their 'tests' for later As sweet revenge from reeking sewers Uncoils and slides amidst this unfair game A Storm is rolling in Unleash the fucking curse... Striking unbiblical chords that roar Invoke raw branded skies As forked lightning feeds the hordes of war Her broken hands revive Calling the fallen Crawling from the shadows of God Now their fables turn, blind faith learns Papal sermons oft have lied Save that the coven the Black Goat governs Is very much wide-eyed, alive She summons proof On virulent wings, a plague is coming Cuntfire-hoofed From mating with the Devil On the torch-lit Brocken Baphometic by design A penchant vent for vengeance Cut deep by horrors fought Those dungeon-screams for mercy Shalt keep for everybody Nine circles down they heard her Ten times the hecatomb A thousand souls for those church-murdered Dark ken align to render doom Their punishment overdue For sisters, missed, once powerless Tongues torn out by the root Fell whispers rose to a seething congress Of spirits born for Death's pursuit Never a dusk so drunk on lust Caressed the cobbles red Frights she called, the flights of Ghouls Left little of their brittle flesh Judgment night descended Like the bonfire's fall of ashes Inquisitioners slaughtered Venting the dent in her brain Stripped and readied, debauchers Prepared to stain The gist of humanity taught her Intolerance, murder in vein Dionysian daugher Soon to deliver the pain I say, "Toll the demon bell The rotting hearts of Man Shall beat the path to Hell." And refreshed of this dementia Their thumbscrews, Pears and cruel whiplashes She turns her craft To the next fat sacred grove 8. Right Wing Of The Garden Triptych Death darkens all Right wing of the garden triptych Left marks The Fall The middle ground apocalyptic Why stay the grim inevitable and play out with a whimper? Fate is raising coming to our faith! NOW! The future cows! Before the vows, prophets thunder from the heavens We seek to justify, our seed spread far and wide The eve that virtue died bore witness to this plague Great hellscapes rape enflamed horizons here..... This is the sore beginning to the war to end all wars GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, this hate brings fever GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, the great bereaver Throw wide splintered lichgates to the eldritch show's return Unforgiving proof accrual begs this cruel rebirth A living fuel for the blaze of renewal razing the earth Pariahs and messiahs of the highest worth, fodder for the denizens of risen Hissing hell nothing screams out mercy more than vivisection of the soul GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, all base deceivers Coddle abaddon, God, you got it wrong, now fall believers! Liars and deniers, thick in mire's grasp, treacherous and lecherous Retching a sick bloodbath Peace sits alone midst the desecration sewn like a stony queen of winter, throned... This is the penalty for lust- long dreaded, read in scripture, vain pleasures fed to paint this... NOW! The future cows! Before the vows, prophets thunder from the heavens We seek to justify, our seed spread far and wide The eve that virtue died bore witness to this plague Great hellscapes rape enflamed horizons here..... GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG a twilight for bone idols Sewer-suicidal from the heights, a dead man's stance of prayer Deafened ears to mortal plight Pleas and effigies, clergy bang to rites belief is superficial when the missals dance alight All death darkens all Right wing of the garden triptych Left marks the fall The universe is at worst, ecliptic 9. The Vampyre At My Side Accompanied by bloodshed Neath the Reaper's sallow craw In league with fallen angels Came a wolf unto my door A portrait of perfection Potent her siren song I spread my dreams beneath her feet And had them royally pissed upon Burning with this itching sickness of a tortured soul Cloying She exudes a lure more animal than human Intoxicating chemistry Baiting masturbators with a dominant handshake This wicked bitch Cruella to the bone Each vivid stich Just ties me to her throne In exaltation She builds on endless lies Mircalla, Maleresian Architect of my demise Burning with this witching sickness of a tortured soul Toying I shudder at her touch so wonderful Akin to a helpless pin Snatched in maiden flight by a savage magnet She's the boot heel kiss of annihilation Gilded cunt worship A war of hormones swarming south As Insects hived in her succulent skull Make a beeline for the honey mouth My life once breathed like a ouija board Just ghosts of 'yes', mostly ignored So I wished for her and like tragedy she came Dispensing hatred Death amongst us all The hypnotic guest that permeates the ball Is a creature who has leeched me, beautiful And beguiling in enticing whispers And lest she breaks the fall Be prepared for shattered miracles The moon has never shone so red and terrible As on that night my madness rose to kiss her Strife then seethed like a terrible sea Buried in a life lost prematurely Classic Poe had no horrors on me When her claws had dug deep enough Enough! Once hurting, for certain A curtain of dark ravens has risen Asserting 'nevermore'! Nevermore! Burning with the lifting sickness of a tortured soul Joying In the turn of her infernal final screw Laughter masked Saturnalia As the mallet in my linen wished her grin anew That wicked bitch Cruella to the bone Each vivid stich Just tied me to her throne In exaltation She built on endless lies Mircalla, Maleresian Architect of my despise In exaltation My sweet revenge presides For I have lived through Sodom and tomorrow And the vampyre at my side 10. Onward Christian Soldiers Aching floorboards spoke my name In the belly of the beast to foreign shores In tune with tides that whispered fame And fortune for our humble Lord Ecclesiastical banners Unfurl in the manner Of those who seek conquest and gain Sail forth for Outremer The Promised Land prised from the hands Of blasphemers amassing there Awakened from the desert sands capes Onward Christian soldiers Fated Nazareth and Bethlehem Have fallen to an enemy bolder It is said to widespread slaughter and rape We are all sinners, enslaved to the cross God wills The Great War to erase The Judaic acres, the Mohammedans In defence of our revenant faith Political prowess takes to the stage A pilgrimage led bu the sword The sweet maiden blast of our clarion rage Against the foul heretic hordes The blazing invader Crusader parade Vatican sanctioned and Mammon adored Now, papal-led to die The fatal battle cry A natural army vies For stretching Christendom Wide, we slay the infidel Remiss our way to Hell Pay well the wishing well With golden martyrdom Scaling the towers with power ordained Dark flowers of infamy bud Ransacking, hacking off Saracen reign The temple drinks claret in floods Mercy forgotten in our ill-gotten gain Of women and innocent blood Death abides in this domain of ashes The streets are stained With the butchered foe Now I hear the bells of triumph ringing As they lay there rotting in their thousand shrouds Beneath the clouds That skitter and scatter Dispersions on the truth of heaven We are all sinners, enslaved to the cross God wills The Great War to erase The Judaic acres, the Mohammedans In defence of our revenant faith No crescent moon No prophet of doom Shall wail above Jerusalem Vast hypocrites All grasping for glitz Have taken The Mount and The Tomb Here in the kingdom of loss 11. Blooding The Hounds Of Hell 12. King Of The Woods [Bonus Track]Solsticial The lake is as a mirror For the moon That shimmers high above The sacrificial Lamb becoming clearer Soon shall be Just a shave that craved her love Arician oaks cloak the sacred grove Wherein her priest Awaits to greet His successor to this ancient throne The King Of The Woods Stands staunchest guard O'er the golden bough In the eldritch haunts of Nemi where I rake the fecund dells to take his crown Midsummer night grows pensive On the murder to befall The incumbent fright defensive Against my intense intent to rule Divine right by the bravest slave To perpetuate the flame To ascend to watch blest vestals bathe Where their temple bares Diana's name The King Of The Woods Rex Nemorensis Cleaves the gilded tree And accepts the sentence of the God To rest his kindred spirit free The Queen Of The Stars Alights to earth And from the silvered water's edge She means to take me in her arms But favours fulsome forest beds instead Communion with heaven The Goddess of the wild countryside An Egeria and Virbius We pleasure endeavour Together we ride I show my face, the lustrous one And by my grace, all men undone Fall neath my spell to fell delights This one I chose, I froze on sight Come sow me, mould me thy seed So I might grow to Spring's relief Fulfill the circle's ritual needs Untold delights, twelve months to be Torches draw me from this reverie Where maids debauch me reverently And when night dissolves, I self-absolve Mounting my days with fate's resolve Now Deep in the coals of my soul A hot tongue flickers A reign for her flame to unfold Before the hunt quickens Death's bow 13. Misericord [Bonus Track]Nightmares on a roll The spirit of fear Has alighted here Mercy on your soul... This fright, crepuscular Is muscular with vitriol Misericord I pass by as your shadow The ghostly burning arrow A marksman for your swerving heart Misericord I support your faith When weary, in disgrace You fall to doubt and pull all life apart On this mist-enshrouded pathway And through this hateful tarantella In this thin labyrinth of razors I shall grin, your soul's propeller Misericord Respite from the grief These spiteful nightfall teeth Grinding minds to tiny pieces Misericord Clockwork works the thief Like an ever-ticking beast Whose biting cogs self-denial greases Drowned in alcohol Sirens of the deep Are demon forces Mercy on your soul... A life lived more monastic Drastic measures must extol On this mist-enshrouded pathway And through this hateful tarantella In this thin labyrinth of razors I shall win, your soul's propeller Bound to you like bloodline Familiar with the cracks The foul and fetid landscape Just off the beaten tracks Broods treacherous with sinkholes The moon is doused in tar And the fiend disaster preys upon This straight and narrow path Like an ever-ticking beast Whose biting cogs self-denial greases Misericord I free you of the bond To pain, now flee beyond The veil of Death Where peace holds reign Misericord I'm the killing stroke The dagger in your throat Under the armour Calmer with its gain Enemies take control The swarming hordes Have stormed the walls Mercy on your soul... Tonight I close your eyes Before the temple falls Before the temple falls Marek Ashok Šmerda — Electric Carving Knife (guitars) Dan Filth — Satanic Verses and Curses (lead vocals, lyrics) Daniel James Firth — Throbbing Gristle (Bass) Martin Marthus Škaroupka — Thunderbolts and Lightning Blasts (drums) Richard Shaw — Blood Rusted Hooks (guitars) Lindsey Schoolcraft — Black and White Witchcraft, Incantation (female vocals, harp) Lyrics in plain text format |
| |