Ashes

Tristania | Music

 

Ashes (2005) Buy now

01. Libre Lyrics
02. Equilibrium Lyrics
03. The Wretched Lyrics
04. Cure Lyrics
05. Circus Lyrics
06. Shadowman Lyrics
07. The Gate
(bonus track)
Lyrics
08. Endogenisis Lyrics
09. Bird Lyrics

 

Ashes | Additional

Photos by Ralf Strathmann

Ashes | Lyrics

Libre
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Kjartan Hermansen

Encapsulate the night!
wrap up the truth in candy-striped paper
and throw us a blood-sodden
torn and holey
rotten through the core
party

I stand with you now, my friend
My razor tongue is licking your rosy cheeks and battered ears
I whisper sordid secrets that are neither true nor false
I hold your hand in defiance
Amplify your feeble voice against evil
I hold your spine and shake most violently

The silver light is overthrown
Rejoice with me
for we have denominated the devil
(And I shall get to fulfil my own)

When I die, I slay a hundred
When I die, I raise a thousand

Rejoice with me
for we have denominated the devil
(And I shall get to fulfil my own)

Every bullet hole in our holy town
is an orifice for me to rape
every woman slain is my whore
and every precious child crying
a golden orb of fire

I stand with you now, my friend
I nibble at your earlobes
till they bleed the truth divine
Smear my name in their fearful faces
I hold your hand in vengeance
Your muffled words are a horrid
choir across the sea
This licking pyre cannot be douted by
their tears

back to top


Equilibrium
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Østen Bergøy

This is the slowest dance
The dance of a thousand years
The dance of the frozen statues
Clinging together in tears

This is the darkest fight
The fight of a thousand years
The pounding of blood
Through our veins
In our veins
In our eyes
The circles of fear

I cling to you
So cold, so bright
Cling to me through the night

Motionless faces
Park of the wasted
In the pale gloom
I hang on to you
In the pale gloom
I am safe and cool

I swim in you
In your dark rivers
Dive in your mind
Search for your monsters
Search for resistance
Sink into the mud
Dance in the halls of insanity
Yet madness is
Your highest deed
Your vanity

Mistress – you made me
Mistress – you saved me
In your cold hands
I am just a tool

Mistress – you made me
Mistress – you saved me
In your cold hands
I am safe and cool

back to top


The Wretched
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Anders Høyvik Hidle

Welcome, my friend
(Now) It’s you and I
Do you sense the eye that watches you?
Can you feel her muted scream?
This is our very own horrid dream

Can you hear her hollow cry?
From the other side
You can’t see her – you can’t reach her
But you feel her watching you

Now she sings her lullaby
The sun has died
This is the voyage that never ends

A black light
The lost souls are craving
Clinging to their last glimpse of hope
The restless won’t leave you alone
You cannot set them free
The blood flows
Your fear grows
Awaiting an accident
Veiled eyes
See right through your darkened mind
You cannot set them free

The song of demons plays on the wind
Can you hear the wretched’s call?
Their shuffling feet
Your pounding heart
Now you know you’re falling
Chanting words you do not catch
Their cries for help you never sensed
An organic mass of despair
This nightly mare

They cry your name, which is silence
They play their game, which is violence

Unsound.

back to top


Cure
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Østen Bergøy

In your web
The threads entangle
Your prey is dead -
Dyed in silence

I’ll forever stay with you
At your feet I will kneel
At your will
Dead silent

When I move – I am moved by you
When you rule – All is ruled by you
In your world – There is only you
In my world – There is only you

In your web
The threads entangle
At your will
Dead silent

Your words are shivers down my spine
I’m numb and shapeless – in your web – in your web
My blood runs slow and red like wine
The past is shattered – forever

I serve your will – for I have been bruised and battered
and covered
I serve your will – for I have been ordinated your lover

back to top


Circus
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Kjartan Hermansen

Tied up and gagged
Hooded and tagged
They’re all yours to command

I am corpse, I am carrion prey
I have a crow at each brow
plucking eyes in my mask of death
The darkness is complete

Who’s the hooded one, mother mine?
Who is gagged when all are silent?
and bitten when we move

Inflamed! My mask is burning
The night is dead; dark, putrid flesh turning
‘pon a chair in the dying corner
I am your bagful of fear
I’ll commit, I’ll admit
I’ll be the dagger, drive me in
I’ll be all motionless and still
My river runs within – still and deep

I am beast, I am carrion prey to the Cyclops tribe
String me up to a cherry tree
come one, come all – and hang with me
I’m already hogtied – entangled in your marionette strings

I am dancing
the embodiment of fear
a shake for every fearful tear
a ruckus for the righteous
In the end
They no longer know
cast stones into mirrors – onto themselves

Mother mine!
Stab yourself, mother mine
bleed your own river, dark and wide
Mine runs within, still and deep
Don’t shake me so, it will overflow

back to top


Shadowman
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Østen Bergøy

At night – asleep
Nightmares – not dreams
Drag me through the dirt
There is no place to run – nor hide

He’s in my blood
I try to keep him out
He rules the pain
He makes up the ugly thoughts
The rotten words
He distracts my nerves

His claws
His poisoned laughter twists the knife
His long sharp teeth
Motionless silence
Sullen muttering

He holds the blame
He’s in my veins

He holds the blame
I try to keep him out
He rules the pain inside
He makes up the ugly thoughts
The rotten words
He distracts my nerves

I’ve never seen his face
But I have felt his breath so many times
Soaked in sweat
Sleepingpills and cigarettes
But when the day
chases the night away…

back to top


The Gate (bonus track)
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Østen Bergøy

An army of ambition
is moving
and it shakes the ground
Ten thousand hungry hearts
with iron heels
Burns and rapes
Sucks the earth dry
Cuts and slays
All that gets in its way
Mighty forces of destruction
Way beyond control
Nothing sleeps tonight

Decay and sinister silence
Your world ripped in dust and ruins

I shed no tears for your pain
I shed no tears for the past

Unleash all the beasts from imprisonment
And arm them with sticks and stones
Bring them into the land of chaos
Watch mankind’s last gate fall

Trembling hands in fire burned
As we march into the night
Every last stone will be turned
Within the bright daylight

We are the hounds of hell
You will kneel
You will bend
We feast at her grave
In the bloodmist we stand
Victorious

back to top


Endogenisis
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Einar Moen

There is only one way out
One word left to shout
The last little slope to climb
Then my feet slip again
Your threatening voice
Gets me back up on my feet again

I will find the truth within your skin
You keep feeding me distractions
Feeding me lies
But I know the truth is there
In fragments
in bits
and pieces

Tall and slender
But your eyes are lustreless
Your facade may glimmer
Your surface may be smooth silk
You’ve been convinced of your own illusions
But your weary eyes unveil a sinner

Running…
Steadily you hunt me down
Until my feet collapse
Gasping…
You never rest
Struggling to breathe
You try to sink me in the mud

My dearest enslaved
Shackled
Locked up in my cage
My dearest enslaved
Fragile beauty depraved

back to top


Bird
Music: Anders Høyvik Hidle & Einar Moen
Lyrics: Østen Bergøy

A friendly push
Off the cliff – is all I need
A sudden change
Or a smile
Could make me feel alive,
Anything to take the ignorance away

There is a hole in my chest
where my heart used to be
If you’re looking for emptiness,
I’m what you need
Colder and darker and worse
Sometimes life’s just a curse

My ashen face
My snow-white skin
Perfect Isolation
Time – slips
My asylum years
Will end in silence
Without tears

All illusions lost
All colours faded
A senseless pain
Transparent
Imperfection
Falling
Like a sparrow to the ground
Leave no trace of life

Music as my ship set sails
Through the window
From the street
Divine
Goodbye

Leave no marks
upon my skin
Dreamless sleep
The convent walls on fire
Goodbye

Dreams and betrayal – hand in hand
Falling apart in a drug wonderland
Unable to move and talk
Unable to care at all…

Somebody is knocking at my door
Somebody – I think I have seen before
I’m trembled and shaken and stirred
I wish I could be a bird

back to top

5 Responses to Ashes

  1. Well, I must say that Ashes until now is my favourite Tristania album, I can tell that this is a masterpiece!
    Heavy songs mixed with strong and deep lyrics plus violent grunts and a beutiful voice.
    Einar did such a great job in this album with the piano, specially on The Gate (which is my favourite song on the album).
    In general, I think that Tristania took a jump in the dark with Ashes, ’cause on the previous album World of Glass the band was making songs with electronic elements and a very industrial influence, and then 4 years later they came with a completly organic and pure album, sounding much heavier, much stronger and talking about much more darker human feelings!

    So, Ashes is my favourite album of all the times and I must say that it was an important influence on my ‘musical life’.
    I’m so grateful for the whole band for doing such a good remedy to my soul and my mind, and I know that more precious stuff are coming next, Rubicon will be one of them!

    “… In the bloodmist we stand VICTORIOUS!|

  2. Anach says:

    This is unique… a CD more direct… I like so much, this is the brutal side of Tristania, very loud sound…

  3. Thaynara Borges says:

    Essa musica foi umas das primeiras que escutei da banda, sempre gostei do estilos de vocês são tudo de bom Amo mesmo Boa sorte e que tenhan muito sucesso.

  4. Thaynara Borges says:

    Equilibrium

  5. Rogério Silva says:

    The Best album…

    Kjetil

    I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!

    PLEASE COME BACK TO US!!!

    I LOVE YOU MAN!!!