A HILL TO DIE UPON LYRICS

1. Of Fire And Division

[Music by Adam Cook]

["I have come to bring fire, and how I wish it were already kindled!..
Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division."
- Jesus Christ, Luke's Gospel, 12:49-51

This introduction theme from Luke's gospel was chosen because it cuts to the heart of all that we believe and work to achieve.
Man has great potential through God, but the potential goes both ways: man can inflict and heal, degrade and uplift.
Peace and war, love and swords.

"The mighty man will become tinder and his works a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire."
- Isaiah 1:31]

2. Prometheus Rebound

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["Be what it is my destiny to be,
The saviour and strength of suffering man,
Or sink into the original gulf of things:
There is no agony, and no solace;
Earth can console, Heaven can torment me no more."
- Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

Prometheus Unbound was the most inspiring of A Hill to Die Upon's lyrics to write.
After reading though Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and his notes, it seemed necessary to write Prometheus Rebound.
The change to Rebound comes from the rejection of the popular Byronic opinion that Prometheus is a Satanic mirror image and a symbol of rebellion against 'the gods.'
The Titan and Nazarene, the immortal and immortal, God and demigod, share more than they contrast.
It is with clay and blood in which we are made.
We are the Promethean sons, let us not waste this immortality.]

No sleep, no dreams, no making mankind's peace
The furies for company and the rejection of that infinity

Abomination of my clay brothers...
We are the mud and filth of this earth
Of what we can or would become
This likeness is what we are

Artist of my clay spirit
I am the reclaimed fallen son
Of what we can or would die to see:
A fire in the hearts of men

In blackest day of generations
My end is to end as the dead
We dead Promethean sons
End of the dead
"Titans, Behold your God!"
Bow before the potter's Son
My end is to end as the dead
Promethean child!

"Titans, Behold you God!"
He canst become no clearer
God of all, star inwoven
He hast love beyond!

Reaper!
"Champion of heaven's slaves"
Oblivion Son
We canst grieve no more...
Io! Barest of love
Oblivion soul
We canst bare no more...

[Quotes taken from Shelly's "Prometheus Unbound" and Keat's "Hyperion".]

3. This King Never Smiles

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Steve Southard]

["Avarice, or the desire for gain, is a universal passion, which operates at all times, at all places, and upon all persons."
- David Hume

Greed, at the very top of success, is bored and turns to perversion.
"Ignorance and avarice," our two most common human attributes, tear this world apart when left unchecked.
All of the world's wealth belongs to so few, while so many go hungry.
And those of us who suffer so much wealth, is it possible to escape?
Jesus said to the rich man, "...sell your possessions, and give to the poor..." (Mathew 19:21).
These are two separate commands, two which we do not follow very studiously.]

Live long the curse of Midas!
Be warned of greed and golden pastures.
For years, I've often sat and pondered
"What more should I obtain?"
"What else is left for me to conquer?"
Power, yes everlasting power
Obtained by wealth and gold
A force that I can touch and hold

Ignorance and avarice
Hand and hand as one

Servant, bring my plate I have a hunger
For I cannot live on my riches alone
Servant night is close, where is my daughter?
What do you mean she's on the lawn?
Call her name, bring her to me.
What do you mean she's stiff and cold?
My own blood now a trophy?
My Dionysus, I've paid your price in full.

My kingdom lies in ruin from their king,
From my own hand my kingdom lies in ruin.

I realize now my life's importance
I realize now my lesson learned
Each step I make towards gold and fortune
That's one more foot in the ground

Please lift this curse from my head
Please life this curse from my head
Just let me wash my hands of this

4. Season Of The Starved Wolf

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Steve Southard]

["The strength of the wolf determines the strength of the pack; the strength of the pack determines the strength of the wolf."
- Rudyard Kipling

Man's wolfish nature turns upon those closest to him as a survival technique.
Some say this is an evolutionary instinct, but sin instinct needs no evolution to breed malice.
Steve's lyrics are based upon a dream in which he was a small child in a village stalked by wolves.
Such vivid dreamscapes, such animal violence, we truly are a morbid race.
Steve's lyrics capture perfectly what we experience human to human.]

Another night brings uncertain hunger
And one more moon might satisfy that

My eyes were meant to sift through shadows
With razor teeth I ache and wait for the hunt
My eyes were meant to sift through shadows
The taste of blood sits well on the tip of my tongue

Who's the unlucky mortal whom fate has forgotten?
Around this town, my dear, the hunt is the law
And now you answer to my jaw
What mindless cattle left their behind to come find mine?
For years we've fed by the moon,
Haunting, awaiting the nightfall
We'll allow you days but after dark we claim these woods
Beware the moon!

And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell
And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell itself

Straight through the fire, straight through the belly of hell, straight through the fire

And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell
And I'll lead these wolves, straight through the fire
Right through the belly of hell itself

We are the wolves
We are the hunger
But beware the moon, we are the night

We are the wolves
We are the hunger
But beware the moon, the hunt is law

5. Twin Heads Of Vengeance

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard."
- Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

The double-headed eagle goes back to several thousand years B.C. with the Hittites and remains today in several coat-of-arms, the Albanian flag, and the Teutonic order.
This creature is such an amazing enigma that it was our first choice for the album cover and became the perfect symbol for this song of war.
It is common usage today, for sure, but we felt this eagle, along with Prometheus, had so much more to reveal.]

The Twin Heads: "Two beaks tear at a thousand nation's eyes
Wings beat upon the ears of all who dare to fight

My light shineth the way
Forward through ash and fog and fear
It is flaming madness I see... in all whom I command!

Set flame to a million empirical states
That will not bare my faces
I am at peace with the madness of my race

Two beaks tear at a thousand nation's eyes
Wings beat upon the ears of all who dare to fight..

The Warriors: "Beholdeth what we cannot see
God of gods!
Law by nature, by will alone
Infinite Titanic Immortal

Oh! Faceless might
Grant us the sight
Through the ash and flame
The Hymns of chaos rise!"

The Poet: "Warring iron gods
And madness' undying flame
Carmen ex ignis
Cantus ex metus"

6. Heka Secundus (On Slithering Ice)

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["Life is the childhood of our immortality."
- Goethe

What is cold and unbearably hot, what is war and wordly triumph, what is hate, greed, and malice?
What is our inner spring of strength?
None but overcoming the worst of these!
Let fire, war and hate come, and let us overcome to be stronger.
For this life is our time to become what we will be.]

Aphelion! Hail beyond the halls of time
To vast wastes of ice and Alluvial mass
Logos! Ad Pathos! So be it ever after
Thy souls themselves are bringers of disease

Chaos, satyr, servant of stymphalian rage
And that hideous truth that saileth from beyond
Io, lycanthropy! Bare thy claws and fangs
Time shall ever call they name

Ad infinitum

The hand of Gaia
The womb of mother ice
Borealis shines
And burns the will of man
Giants circle and roar
Heka Secundas!

I hath prayed for strength
And my hell is here
And my hell is real

7. The Dark Road

[Music by Adam Cook]

["Tomorrow we shall meet,
Death and I --
And he shall thrust his sword
Into one who is wide awake."
- Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Death is the place we fear out of ignorance, death is the thing we cannot understand, death is the person who haunts reality and forces us into dreams.
Death is ever present, even in life.
"The Dark Road," taken from Bernard Cornwell's "Enemy of God," was the path unknown, it was the journey that led to death and madness.]

8. We Soulless Men

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["They wanted, as we say, 'to call their souls their own'.
But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own."
- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

The fate of the proud, our fate, could not be more clear.
If we continue to insist that we own ourselves, we will succeed in destroying a part of ourselves that still remains useful to God.
The fig tree will eventually be cut down, even now the axe is set at our roots.]

The continuum I behold, such is my inner want
Not that I should hold above that which is not around me
The art of soul is now meaningless
As I behold my total lack of self

Lo! Demeter
Behold the earth
Above and below
Thou makest believe
Uncreated!
Above the sphere
Rebellious globe
Thou makes us believe

Why, oh why are we left?
To be sin in such perfect a place
The desolate mind is so perfectly spoiled
In the eyes of a raptures snake

Eyes of a raptures snake

Here me speak, brothers of the earth
My words are shattered like clay
So I speak as if thou were a child
Lest fire besiegeth thy hearts

Beckon forth! The soulless mankind
Standing in ranks of thousands still more
But this fate is what I've always feared for we soulless men

We soulless men

9. Titanic Essence

[Music by Adam Cook and Gage Love; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["Once one has seen God, what is the remedy?"
- Sylvia Plath

The true nature of humanity, the essence of our very selves, is a mystery to us because of our sin clouded minds.
This is why philosophy is of little practical value to us: we have little chance of determining things, rather, we can only trust what God shows us.
Being found by God entails being shown, who we are and who we are meant to be.]

De natura ex intime dissolutio
I am therefore I burn!
Mysta ex omnis uxorios
Alles soll stehen verwirren

Ars ex liber, ex anima
The descending lion throne
Cogito, ergo summitissum
Alle soll stehen grell

Meta physics and decomposition
Erase and total control
Wait not, nor give in to fear
Submersion in violence

"Warstrength shall collide with warstrength"
Tartarian essence and raptures snake
"For all the immortal," Thraxus immolator!

Havoc!

[Quotes taken from Aeschylus' "The Libation Bearers".]

10. Eclipse Of Serpents

[Music by Adam Cook; lyrics by Michael Cook]

["The pyramids themselves... have forgotten the names of their founders."
- Thomas Fuller

Lyrically, this obviously has a strong Egyptian feel inspired by the Exodus of Israel.
The over all terror and panic of the divine deconstruction that took place during the Exodus was a very exhilarating topic to create from.
The very core of the Egyptian people was shaken and the land was torn from it's roots.
The name Eclipse of Serpents was chosen because of it's initial appeal to the power of Anubis that, upon further listening, becomes more and more satirical.
The song itself was written in a space of two hours with only minor changes made since.]

Io!
Shafts of plague and pythoness gift
The blackness of Bast hast cometh unto us
Heiracosphinx! Slain
By judgement's flaming sword
Canst thou see the blood of the Nile?

Iä!
Of all blights! 'Tis our sorry lot
To suffer black, night, and boils
Theban courage and Memphian lust
Thou darest stain with blood

Lo! The torment of the snake
Scythian blades - Jackal's feet
Hail! The conquest of...
The Uncreated one

Open the book of Adapa
And behold the coming of plagues

Morbid philosopher
Behind the curtain of lies

Ave! Thou art greatest of fifty - Ave! Avenger
Ave! Thou art Greatest of fifty - Ave! Leviathan

11. Rime

[Music by Adam Cook]

["Nought is given 'neath the sun
Nought is had that is not won"
- Swedish Hymn

Rime was written specifically as the instrumental ending to this album.
Possibly, it is the most focused song A Hill to Die Upon has ever written.
Rime is very concentrated on feeling and emotion rather than speed and aggression.
Groove rather than speed.
The complete lack of blasting and the use of more epic sections focusing on the guitar progressions, we feel, gives this song a greatness that sets it apart and is perfect to end the album.
The title was given to follow a cold theme for this album -- in association with the Rime giants of Jutonheim in Horse mythology.
Rime is our giant.]







A HILL TO DIE UPON LYRICS