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Napoleonic Blues (11 track album)

by Ostara

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1.
The Rift 03:37
Whom the gods Wish to curse They make mad Putting angels in the heads of the bad and demons in the hearts of the sad Whom the gods Wish to curse They betray Laden with the weight of the world Hollow to the echo of pain Step onto the edge Open your eyes to the depths to the depths Where the dancer Becomes the dance Where the liar Becomes the lie Where the light Becomes the fire The fire of desire Where the man Becomes the mask Where the future Becomes the past Where the famed Become the damned This is where the end begins Deep in the night within Deep down you’ll never win Deep in the deepest rift Where you can only drift Who should seek to love forever Beware the threat of the never the daggers in your heart Who should seek to live by truth Be wary of the burden of proof That the power makes to veil
2.
The world I love is the world I lost Broken plundered and wasted The memory burnt from the soil and the sun a black epitaph of the ages The world you curse is the one I love The Virgin a Whore in the garden Crowned upon the earth’s ordure I bear no wound and I bring no cure Pain is where this world begins Pain is the heart of all endings Every pilgrim that bears this burden of Truth Only the few have learnt to lose I curse the Father and I scourge the Son I burn down the Holy of Holies the One in Three and the Three in None The march of the Proud Black Templar
3.
In the depths of the wood where the altar once stood Wind sighs with the sorrow of the soul These are days when Sweet is bitter These are nights when life burns cold These are times when the curse is of gold Turning blood into stone In the shadow of decline Flesh the candle to the knife Thunder calls to the lightning and the sun
4.
Charon take me Cross the river to the south end of the world Bordered towers Broken spires and a scar-cracked Face with burns Caesar’s palace by the water Where the Odyssey Ends in lust Ghosts of glory Ninety stories and a hundred roads to rust And we find ourselves Alive and well in the face of hell and we find ourselves Alight and dancing with the Devil in the city on a hill to shoot is to kill Bethlehem and Sodom Heaven at the bottom in the city on a hill to shoot is to thrill Angels at the bottom Paris dandy Morning brandy Strange fruit from old vines Called me Brother My Jewish Other at the warehouse altar high Dollar hustle Every muscle Candy crosses for your losses Semi-naked bombshell Smoking with a death’s head in her eye
5.
If I could build a church to you I’d take up the cross If I could make you Immortal I’d be the first if not the last This love is blindly bright Will we make it through the night? Unto these Burnt offerings Make them dance Make them sing Unto these Burnt offerings Make them dance Shining like a star and Glowing from afar and Coming forth by day Dying like a moment Filled with all the omens that we glean If I could be your saint I’d take you Down to hell If I could rebuild Rome I’d let you Watch it burn This life is breaking down Will we make it to the dawn?
6.
Beat the body‘til it’s still Twist the mind and shape the will They’ll be faithful Ever faithful Spirit ghosting in the haze They are the burning We are the pyre They are the preachers of the lie We are the witness Swiftly going blind Roots of the past We can never escape Ruins of the ages Shadow the day Here in our towers Tossed against the tides in the pleasure of life In the treasure of life You still find the night Take the mother from the child Put the father in the ground Smash the temples into pebbles Leave a hole where there was love
7.
This is when I start to cry All these lonely tears Burning up the night and though I overflow my heart is still alight This is when I start to cry And I see a vision of the world on fire See the second as the earth subsides on the edge of the end of time on a roll of a loaded dice This is when I start to fray Roses blooming and mocking our decay and though we still embrace our hearts are filled with pain This is when I start to fray No forever now Just this passing hour In a moment We’ll be dust
8.
Red Swan 03:19
You can try and rewrite history You won’t take the writing from the wall You can try fake my story You won’t heed the siren of my call See the crescent bleeding Fading in the sky Hear the sound of a violin reeling Singing as I die You can break my bones Blind my eyes Fill my dreams with your dark lullaby You can break my heart Take my life Take my soul but you’ll never Take me down Take me out I feel the bullet Burn right through me Frozen in the fire of my eyes This is the pain that will bind my memory In memory I fly We’re rising, dying but the spirit never drowns So many souls will be lost to darkness Forever will be now I will face your guns Face your lies Stare you down Bear it out Leda
9.
Canaan 03:57
Garden on the hill Fences wrench the ground Pale sun Pale sun climbs Old man mourns Child lies dying Pale sun Pale sun Christ-like Falling like angels and lying like lovers Fighting like brothers Blaming the other Falling like angels and lying like lovers Dying like brothers Blaming the other Wall stabs the sky the sky passes by Stars don’t bleed They just quietly burn and quietly die in the blink of an eye Garden on the hill Stakes in the ground Flowers, orchards and vines Flags unfurl Guns go quiet Red sun, red sun Shines An eye for an eye A life for a life Pale sun, pale sun Dies
10.
What if every soul was but a spark Lighting up a second in the (dark) Yearning to be one only to part? What if every life was but a day Flitter like the butterflies in (May) What if every soul was born to die? And I’ll raise myself up high to the pyre in the sky and I’ll teach my soul to fly and I’ll bring myself below to the deepest that I can go and I’ll drown into the night What if truth was something we could seize Would we die Knowing we were Nothing but an empty book of dreams? Gazing in a billion grains of sand Tearing down the walls of the Promised (Land) Opening the heart to veil a lie
11.
Time has a way to break down a way to break in to our will And if we Take on this cross Take on this loss to the end And I see the light of my heart The fire of my heart Burning low Into this Dark night of the soul Dark night of the soul in which to go Bring forth What we can endure What we can resist and overcome With our torch raised High to the night High to the night Black and cold

about

11 songs exploring the epic devastation of empires, rulers, rebels, rogues and renegades, from the ghosts of the Eternal City to the grotesque efflorescence of the Caliphate, the scorched streets of Gaza, the gloom of Tehran and the simmering wreckage of Detroit. Inspired by the famous picture of the defeated emperor at Fontainebleau, 'Napoleonic Blues' is a reflection on the persistence of the past in the chaos of the present, history's long shadow that refuses to dissolve, a journey through the night and fog that lingers like the smoke of an eternal flame.

This is a polished standout album, a testament that the neofolk genre is still capable of seminal work." - Heathen Harvest

"It's an uplifting and spirited recording fusing acoustic folk with a pop sheen that shines throughout Napoleonic Blues." - Compulsion, UK

"...a strong, well-produced album, which from my point of view is one of their best." - NonPop

credits

released January 31, 2017

Richard Leviathan - music, lyrics, guitars, percussion, vocals
David Lokan - bass, production
Tom Weir - percussion, production

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about

Ostara Adelaide, Australia

Richard Leviathan, formerly of Strength Through Joy.

Ostara has been Richard Leviathan’s solo project since 2002, with six previous releases that have firmly established him in the Neofolk genre alongside Death in June, Sol Invictus, Rome, Spiritual Front, Fire and Ice, Of the Wand and the Moon and others.

"Napoleonic Blues" is the seventh album, to be released on CD, January 2017
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