[Sundin, Johansson, Jivarp]

This is a tale long to live but alas so short to tell
by the wind and by time, by everything that flees
A torment of my liking: exploring extremes
All thoughts secluded as fear stalks its blooded soil
In the winding path where a chain now rattles
With links merely death can break
Stains of pride - derelict
In feverish visions of agonising light
Pulsating rhythms unpure
So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos
So scream out to the skies:
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
Never is the dark any threat to my existence
Comforting ravens claws grip the stars that fell tonight
THe stealth of infinite beauty
Nevertheless heaven fell tonight
Racing along with the strangled teardrop
Life's elixir in benevolent lust
Slit open the throat that is virtue
Let fire ravage its caverns with joy
Ardent but silent in twilight resigned
Delivered from virtue in vehement plight
Yet ask not of your vanity
(The hooved agitator in your creed)
To let loose all the stars of heaven
Stray across the vault your seed
Concealed cravings must through fulfilment be broken
Hide no longer behind the veil of unconvincing lies
So pound the drum and strike the chords of chaos
So scream out to the skies
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
I've seen fires waving patterns
Forging ornaments - hidden from a world of distress
Grace through hatred
Of Chaos and Eternal Night
In shadows now vengeful waiting out your bitter foe
The mirror distorts
Sinful is the perceiving eye
Tearless in nondescript form
Scarlet secrets tell of nightmarish fear
Illusions that speak of endless night
A venture in terms of one hazardous journey
into Chaos and Eternal Night
Deliver me from virtue,
Hidden no more beneath tender veil of lies
And let 'em all out;
unseen and sinful
... Of Chaos and Eternal Night

2. With The Flaming Shades Of Fall

[Sundin, Johansson, Henriksson]

Colours burst in wild explosions;
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumnweaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colours unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colours burst within
Spare me those unending fires!
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall
September flies beyond our reach
As the flames reborn their fall
October is the art we teach
With the Flaming Shades of Fall
November,
Robe of prophet - heart of false redeemer
Night whispers as the flaming shades of fall now die
Darkness, wild and unchained
Towards its heart we plunge
We must crush the false redeemer
With the flaming shades of fall

3. Away, Delight, Away

[Henriksson, Johansson]

As false as our minds our eyes refuse to see
They claw for the falseness in me
From where all life springs anew
We are cleansed through the crystal fire
Fill me with sound, fill me with hatred
Let my life bring life to the soil
The soil beneath my feet
Messenger of pain sailing silence
Commander of my sorrow riding rage
Infinity is eternal - never born so it may never die
Colours speak my name
Through the crowns I am baptised in the
First gnawing rays from a blackened sun
In the name of my blood I curse thee
Shelter me under the trees
Spread your twilight wings
My broken body is dripping with sin
Your skin so delicate
Your undemanding bliss will carry me far
I bid farewell to this godforsaken land
Nevermore shall I return
I join with the riders on the horizon
For they are my blood!
For they are my saviours!
They bring me hatred, bring me fire
They take me down to the land I know not
Then crush me - Take me down
Then they build me once more again
Slayer of my anger sailing silence
The angel of my lust
She is tasting shame

4. Alone

[taken from _Skydancer_, re-recorded with new vocals]
[Henriksson, Sundin]

"Let me die", I cried as the curtain fell
and I stared in woe at the world before me
My weeping eyes could not bear to tell
or the shattered kingdom in ruins before me
What became of the lands that were?
A pearl in the nest of memories
Forever gone... departed by the minds of man
Scavengers, feeding on your mother's blood
Parasites of life, with my heart I condemn
your ignorant ways
Like the leaves of the high trees
I wither and fall,
Borne by autumnal winds
to my funeral hall
I'm all alone in the grip of the silent sadness
I have been told to honour life
and what therein I'll find,
but if all I see is darkness,
let me die and wake up blind
As the gleaming blade before me,
singing lullabies of loss
Whispering "Death is your redeemer
to the Paradise you've lost"
Mankind, evoker of inferno
Let me burn your honoured Crown of Creation
and dethrone you to ashes for aeons to come
Why should I stay here where I do not belong?
Of weakness burns my within... An empty shell
I've lost the way to the sanctity I need
I'll greet the dawn that brings no life,
no frail beams of sun to cleanse the black night
My mournful roam has ended
I hide in the shadows while biding my time,
sheltered from this world which disorderly rhyme
with the fury of damnation
Once I held in my hand the starlight of Eden
and the white sky lay open in a soul that was free
(But the years flew so fast as the shadows were cast
and I woke up one morning with no reason to be)
I'm all alone in the shade of the nameless Sorrow
I'm all alone within a shadowfire of fear
Take me home to whence I came
Where I'll find light to feed my flame of life
Or my heart will die without a whisper of hope...