Lovers in ancient times ... begins -- I see it in your eyes ...- you long to touch the sky ...The flame of life, let ...Lovers in ancient time, caught in the fire ...Only the strong survive -- h... deep inside you, a wing and a prayer will g... deep inside you, a wing and a prayer will g... back. This is your one big chance. ... On a wing and a prayer, on a wing and a prayer ...d bone -- rhythm is the key ...The game of life -- win...Lovers in ancient time, caught in the fire ...Only the strong survive -- h... deep inside you, a wing and a prayer will g... deep inside you, a wing and a prayer will g... deep inside you, a wing and a prayer will g

The music rocks me down the motorway ...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love ...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love ... The city lights of Lond...y my hand is on her wing (on her wing) ... I stop the car and she gets do...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love ...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love ...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love ...edrive on wheels of fire ... A lovedrive just one desire love

But the world has a way, if...tar, or a feathered wing ...Or how a man in chains has the strength to sing ...Just one thing is clear to m...And when the light's just right ...From the soul, inside out to...The clouds make rain, the ocean makes sand ...The earth breathes fire...tar, or a feathered wing ...Or how a man in chains has the strength to sing ...Just one thing is clear to m...And when the light's just right ...The dreams I dreamed ca...The friends I have, the woman I hold ...After all the mud along the way ...And sometimes the big old mystery ...tar, or a feathered wing ...Or how a man in chains has the strength to sing ...Just one thing is clear to m...And when the light's just right

Every night I walk the streets step like m...And I pick up the pieces you left so ...One night I made love in electric lady land....e, but I can't keep the flame. ...er. Hey Jimi, where the hell are you ? ... coming when I kiss the sky. ...And a little wing strong get so, I ne...e, but I can't keep the flame. ...er. Hey Jimi, where the hell are you ? ...ah you read me from the good old days of ro...then we play strong the beat of my heart. ...ll how to rock with the black man's soul. ...e, but I can't keep the flame. ...Hey Jimi where the hell are you?

But that ain't the way I want to be ...Tonight the skys the limit ...'m gonna groove til the break of day ...I got got the money if got the time ...for a fox (call out the dogs)

But that aint the way I wanna be ...Tonight the skys the limit ...Im gonna groove til the break of day ...I got got the money if got the time ...for a fox (call out the dogs)

Resting by my fire. Looking deep into ...n around and behold the most ugly thing I h...The woman standing in the glade like a shadow in the night ...And she asks me in a voice that sounds...eaves no footprints in the snow ...Where the sun surely won't re...Still the ground ominously gl... says there is this one thing I should know...She offers me the ability to take a f...The magic will remain u...And I'll need all the help that I can get... I give my heart to the woman of the dark ...Wing of bat and lizard's... a star fallen from the sky. ...t's spit and oil of the moon ... to be applied upon the chest ...close to where the heart beats strong....e'll place my heart in the pit of the snake and behold the years go by. ...Hers to keep from the moment when the time has come for m...By a lake in an open part of the Eternal Woods... ...["The one eyed old man had to...[end of the universe, Fall into...his world was anew, the one] ...they walked by. All the knowledge of all wo...[new, was kept safe in a lake in a part of the Eternal Woods. The one eyed] ...[old man had found the lake after having t...ed knowledge of all the worlds. He had also been granted the sight] ...[into the future. Set to find this lake, the young man mounts hi...[Riding with the speed of the winds high in the sky, he all of a su...[the sun reflected in a lake. Standing by...[into the depths. Now he will not need to stare down the beast on the day of] ...ffering his eyes to The Lake..."]

Episode I: The Fall of the Shadow-King ...Episodes II & III: The History of the Great Wars ...Episodes IV-VI: The Rise of the Imperium ...Episode VII: The Quest for the Trinity of Might ... VIII: And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown (recounted on the second Bal-Sagoth album; "Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne O...Episode IX: The Obsidian Crown Unbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisa...(here recounted on the sixth Bal-Sagoth album; "The Chthonic Chronicles...Episode X: The Shadow-King Reborn ...Episode XI: The Battle of the Nine Armies (The War of the Crown) ...Episode XII: The Great Rebellions and the Dissolution of the Imperium ...The Obsidian Crown Unbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisa...Chapter 11: The Siege Begins ...And so the mighty and resplendent armies of the Imperium assembled before the towering cyclopean walls of ancient Gul-Kothoth. It was some time before the billowing dust cloud raised by the massed arrival of the vast imperial host settled, ultimately dissipating as the shadows of dusk descended. With nightfall, the imperial army's countless torches, braziers and cookfires illumined the dark plain before the fortress like a coruscating sea, painting the stygian heavens the colour of flame. And the high summer's night passed swiftly. At length, the dawn approached tentatively, and with the first signs of the newborn sun etching its promise upon the skies, the martial preparations commenced in earnest. A brief and perfunctory exchange between the Imperial Herald and the fortification's Watch Commander held no surprises, and the Emperor's banner was duly driven into the seared earth before Gul-Kothoth with a chilling finality. Vast siege engines and powerful ballistae were hauled inexorably into position, alongside a battery of katapelte and petrobolos. The one hundred thousand strong Imperial Frontier Army, having planted their regimental blazons into the arid soil, waited with a disciplined patience born of never having met defeat in pitched battle or siege, the dreaded Imperial War-Leopards straining noisily against their iron-link leashes to the rear of the cohorts of conscripts and auxillieries. The pitiless Iron Phalanx and their Lord Militant Commander had assumed position at the head of the army's Alpha Wing, polished swords, spears and poll-axes reflecting the glow from the myriad torches and braziers which still burned about the Imperial Host. And behind them were drawn up the legendary Legion of the Ebon Tiger, Pride of the Emperor, the infantry and cavalry famed throughout the Great Northern Continent, personal regiment of the feared general Baalthus Vane. True to their martial reputation, the six thousand strong Legion were inscrutible in their jet black armour, their sable banner billowing in the chill breeze which skittered over the plain. And finally, astride his azure-shaffroned warhorse and surrounded by his elite guard, the silvern-armoured Emperor Koord himself studied the precipitious gates with a disdainful scrutiny. At the Emperor's right hand was the renowned Swordmaster of Kyrman'ku, an eastern bladesman of preternatural skill and the most revered and expensive mercenary in the Imperium. At his left, the infamous Ogre-Mage of the Black Lake brooded silently, swathed in a stygian cloak and fuliginous cowl and exuding an aura of implacable malevolence which unerved even the bravest of the Imperial troops. The Emperor had deemed the services of these two nefarious renegades pivotal to the execution of the Final Campaign, for they alone had knowledge of the mysterious arcane rite known as The Words Which Unfette...ime-worn palisades, the defenders of Gul-Ko...THE EMPEROR KOORD: General Vane, we begin the final stage of this campaign with the rising of the sun. This war which has raged for decades shall finally be decided here, before the hoary walls of ageless Gul-Kothoth. The Imperium's last and most glorious victory is at hand. The procrastinating sybarites of the bureaucracy have been threatened and bribed into compliance over this venture. This more than anything else is why I have deigned to grace this final battle with my Imperial presence, even against the advice of the Grand Vizier and the sage counsel of the Seers. ...hall enjoy watching the Ebon Tiger bloody i...THE EMPEROR KOORD: You should not call in your falcons before the hunt is done, my loyal servitor. Overconfidence is but one of the many foes a general must face upon the field of war. Today, the precepts and maxims of the Imperium shall be tested, and we shall see whether the velvet glove of diplomacy or the iron gauntlet of conquest has proved the more effective tool...BAALTHUS VANE: The days of the feudal suzerainties are long gone, my liege. The Imperial Military Council is the only entity fit to govern the dominions. The fall of Vyrgothia shall today render the truth of the Imperial Mandate se...THE EMPEROR KOORD: And yet I am vexed, for as you well know, the sorcerous emmisary I despatched to the Court of the Over-King has warned that the Vyrgothians may have recovered one of the artefacts comprising the fabled Trinity of Might; the legendary Obsidian Crown itself! In the hands of a skilled thaumaturgist, it is said that the Crown may be used a...BAALTHUS VANE: The Shadow-Sword! The Obsidian Crown! The Ebon Sceptre! Feh! The power of the Trinity is but a myth! No antiquated trinket weilded by a religious fanatic will prevail against the Legion, sire. Our steel is proof against such diabolism! Behold! Gul-Tryarch has fallen, Gul-Azlaan has been given to the earth, Gul-Nomedes is naught but smouldering rubble, and soon we shall surge over the shattered remnants of Gul-Kothoth's renowned walls! The Vyrgothian Alliance shall crumble when these gates are breached, and the Over-King himself shall stand before thee in shackles! ...THE EMPEROR KOORD: Indeed. At any rate, I have been blessed with foresight enough to prepare a contingency should the foe fulfil that fearful potential which has been weighing heavy on my mind. But now, the sun rises! Let it begin! Let the final chapter of our legend be written! Give the word! Raze Gul-Kothoth to the ground! ...The Imperial War-Skalds...The thunder of the battlefield, ...The clarions call, bring down the wall! ...May the Empire's glory neve...The Wizards of Vyrgothi... of night, Crown of the Elder King, ...Unfettered at last the Trinity of Might, the Sceptre, the Sword and the Ring! ...Chapter 12: The Fall of Gul-Kothoth... was unleashed upon the field of battle. Colossal stones, firebrands and howling iron-tipped missiles rained pitilessly down upon the hero-hewn walls of Gul-Kothoth. Vast and serpentine cracks appeared in the ancient cyclopean edifice, and hundreds of warriors, both attackers and defenders, perished in the fray, either crushed beneath the ceaselessly assailed testudo, hammered to crimson pulp by the merciless storm of unforgiving stone, or burned to blackened husks by the nightmare onslaught of flaming quicklime and saltpetre. Scaling ladders raised and repulsed in turn, storms of razor tipped shafts exchanged by the combatants, isolated skirmishes raging upon the ramparts, men blade to blade and clarions bellowing embattled defiance. For seemingly inumerable hours the sanguineous battle raged, with no quarter asked nor given between the bitter ancestral foes. And the gates held firm. ...At length, the mightiest of the Empire's iron-hooded battering rams, dubbed The Bringer of Woe, was brought to bear upon the besieged fortress, and, with the shadows of dusk lengthening upon the field of war, the centuries old Primary Gate of Gul-Kothoth was finally sundered amidst an earsplitting cacophony of shattering oak and iron louder than any storm-born thunderclap. With the rending of the mighty gate, and vast fragments of the ancient walls yielding, buckling and crashing to the blood-sodden earth, the Imperium's forces breached the defenses of Gul-Kothoth and surged into the Vyrgothian Alliance...re and ten, bearing the Obsidian Crown, arrived upon the field of battle. ...Chapter 13: The Wizards Do Battle ...THE SORCERER: By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus! They come! They come, weilding the Circlet of Night! The dire warning issued to me as I stood before Vyrgothia's Master Wizard has been proved no idle boast! The citadel's spells of containment breached... the Black Crown is upon...THE EMPEROR KOORD: It is as I have forseen! Be spry, my sorcerous lackey... join the Iron Phalanx in entertaining these ...THE SORCERER: By your c...At once, the far-feared and martially renowned Iron Phalanx wheeled to face the newcomers, and at the command of a decurion, a volley of armour-piercing shafts screamed skywards to rain down mercilessly upon the foe. And even as this transpired, the Emperor's Prime Sorcerer, emissary of the Imperial Court and master of those arts which speak to man in narcotic dreams from the darkest and most silent places, summoned forth that black potency which lay entwined in stygian tendrils within his mind... an ireful power born of they who writhed upon the shores of Pangaea before man's progenitors ever erected their lofty spires to the restless skies. And yet Vyrgothia's Master Wizard, unrivalled Arch-Mage and adept of that lost Eastern order who journey beyond the boundaries of time and space upon those nebulous wings born of the sacred Azure Lotus, rose to meet this power which lapped at the periphery of his mi... arid field of war, the sentinels of light and shadow spoke to eachother in tongues dormant since the Third Moon fell burning from the heavens, and not sweet were the words they uttered....Until at last, with the armies poised to clash, and with dusk painting the sky a deep crimson exceeded in its vibrancy only by that bloody rubicund hue which stained the battlefield below it, the Emperor's mage fell, and the aeons-old might of the Obsidian Crown was finally brought to bear against they who had breached the walls of ancient Gu...The Imperial War-Skalds...Sundered, the gate of the ancient fortress, ... Now breached stand the walls. ...Behold! The Obsidian Crown. ...Embattled, the wizards, their weap...Untramelled, the circlet, the Prime-Sorcerer slai...The Crown's peerless power, the Emperor's bane, ...Like the prow of a blood-hungry vessel of war rending the waves of a midnight sea, a luminescent blade of shrieking cerulean light lanced from the legendary black circlet locked tight within the gnarled hand of the Master Wizard, and clove mercilessly into the glorious ranks of the Imperium. And all who were touched by this ruinous arc of coruscating radiance knew no more... Men and beasts reduced to blackened husks, charred shells of smouldering ash, lifeless effigies which toppled to the seared earth to be dissipated by the whispering breath of the wind. Again and again the ravaging radiance smote the ranks of the Empire, leaving a noisome charnel-pit of nightmare in its crackling wake. The forces of the Imperium were plunged into a howling vortex of disarray, and, faced with the unthinkable prospect of defeat, the unprecedented first routing of the Emperor's glorious army began to become a grim reality. Yet for all the unparalleled carnage which had erupted about them, there was one regiment of Imperial troops for whom the taste of fear was bland compared to the sharp tang of rage ...LTHUS VANE: By all the gods of war! Stand fast, hounds of the Imperium! 'Tis true... steel is no use against this ignoble magical trickery! But if our souls are bound for the Pit this day, we'll damn well take a few of these bastards with us! Onward, my Legion! Alpha formation, banners high! Glory to the Emperor! Into the foe! Show them the Tiger's claws! ...THE LEGION: Never quarter, never mercy, never retreat! Praise the Emperor! ...THE EMPEROR KOORD: My sorcerous thrall has fallen, but he has bought us time enough to riposte! And General Vane's mettle may yet turn the tide of war back in our favour. Now, let the final act be played out! I call thee forth, Ogre-Mage of the Black Lake! I call thee forth, Swordmaster of Kyrman'ku! It is time! Now, I charge thee, for the glory of the Imperium... Speak the Words Which Unfette...And so, it began... the two pivotal players in the Emperor's plan, the two key figures in the Imperium's contingency, stepped forth to fill their most vital of roles in that grand theatre of carnage which now ran unchecked on the field of battle. ...The Ogre-Mage and the Swordmaster began to utter fearsome words in a tongue which was ancient ere the gleaming stars shifted upon the fathomless countenance of the distant heavens, words which in truth were not words, but rather a resonant key which would aspire to unlock a dire power which had reposed shackled since the fall of the legendary Shadow King himself, whose ebon circlet's power they even now sought to thwart. The incantation they gave voice to in the midst of that sanguineous turmoil which engulfed them was not so much heard by those within earshot as perceived, sensed as a vague disturbance in the fabric of reality, as fuliginous ripples on the surface of a hitherto still and placid pool, growing ever larger and more far reaching; an unnerving and unnamable sense of change which insinuated itself into the mind of the listener and suggested with a cold and disturbing quasi-certainty that something of preternaturally ineffable magnitude was transpiring, as surely as a festering and gangrenous corpse would split to spill its noisome gore. And as that maddeningly implacable incantation reached its resounding climax, a momentary silence enshrouded the battlefield, swathing the vista of chaos in an aura of noiselessness more pure and untainted than the tranquility of the boundless and stygian void. It was as if time itself had halted for one immemorial moment. ...And it was in that oddly immeasurable instant that the dark and peerless power unfettered by those grim pseudo-words finally, ultimately, made itself known before the sundered gates of a...nued in: Episode X: The Shadow-King Reborn

The jester dance the 'joker strut' ...In the court of rebel sodv...Bring wine for the knights in crime armor ...all shattered glass in flowers ...In hopes that they all...One more day ... a jack for hire on the cold wheel of fire ...With a ripple hot in the wing iron pot ...In the court of rebel sodv...Bring wine for the queen in red; courage ...One more day ...t a master of power in the cold ivory tower ...To the court of rebel sodv...Bring wine for the knights in crime armor ...And wiling in an acid bath of hou...One more day

Fuckin wit it, one two, it's the Table of Contents, ...u're now intuned to the sounds of the ...The mic chord is an ext...elicate MC's sliced in my delicatessan ...nd state is that of the S-P ...Thought the dark one, fearsome,...that sucker punched the drum ...The Fifth Dynasty, it b...You star gazing, the force y'all facin is the ...Y'all niggaz in the mix, keep guessin ...The world traveller in the flesh without quest...Yo the kind of rapper you ...The title that I'm watc...Step up and out the ring ...t wine drink within the danger zone loungin...t's safe to assume, in all confidence ...That I'm one of the illest in the seven continents ...my dick, thanks for the compliments ...The fuckin past tense, ... playin taking your wing way back in the day of yo ...It' the R-to the, double-O ...Yo yo, it's the R to the, double-O ...The rage is still in me, never act too f... man begin pure but in this world of sin y... tight my mor-al by in-jure ...e this game life is the gamble ...terrain, go against the grain ...vade your brain wit the collision causing d... a way of life, but the trife replays ...Roam the planet, always taki...ass taste smilin up in your face ...Disappear wit the wind, ? shows the discipline ...Peep the structure of a whol...hen I cross I set a fire ...Wacker MC went in doubt cuz I'm for h

or Haile Selassie I the life giver the protector ...Remember he's the conqueror of all co...Conquer bondage set the captive free ...Conquer one and two him a di tr...Never know the lion so mystic ...Who tell the eagle him fi go fli...sie hold it and him wing clip ...That mean no fire the dragon caan spit ...Throw all the bear in a the bottomless pit ...How the man so short and hi...h King Selassie pon the hill a boom flick ...One summer salt heathen...Caan escape the hotter part of the whip ...l time you read out the script ...Conquer bondage set the captive free ...Conquer one and two him a di tr

She ask me one simple question ...You like the freaky? ...She had the style of a beauty q...an want to clip her wing ...She got the eyes that glitter o...Then she grab me by the hand, let's go ...ke you, man, what's the lay up ...She be hot like a fire ...You be feelin' the flame ...And catch the HIV ...Wind up in the wrong mind of a cel...The only thing that she in love with ...Is the ice or snow ...And one of these, for you k...Just to crown the bitch ...But somewhere along the line

okay? Craig Mack's in the building alright? ...He's on the premises, I need you three on the roof ...You coordinate the left wing ...e must not get into the terminal to access the "Funk Da World" sec...t, he must get into the terminal ...There's somebody on the roof man! ... I know, I'm gettin the door open man! ...omething metal hits the ground*} {*alarms ...[Mack] Shit, the 4-5 man. I ain't got the damn.. ...[Mack] I ain't got the fuckin modulation. ...right look - I need the voice modulation. {...me a favor man, set the detenators man. ...[Mack] Let's get the fuck up outta here.... if ANYBODY gets up in here the whole shit blows. ...This is the Mack in fullavicious funk f...The style, I bring, is ...Get used to the format cause old one's be quitting ...Buckle in for the funk funk funk ...And let the king of swingers drive Benz out the trunk ...I'm the magnificent, roaster, who's the man? ...Run down and low to the promised land ...Strappin in mad biddly beats, n...The new grip is here, J...Out comes the chrome and the shiny ...With the (?), that thing's f...So meet the genuine, keep it on the hush hush ...hat slow flow ain't the only way I crush ...anes that leave you in stains ...The verse slayer, so sa...Craig Mack's the man cause I got it ...The unquestionable, imp...at John Sparks say, the world is on fire ...The new world's now hell and Craig Mack's the host

You've vome to the last and final reco...gga KX-Zilla, Steve The Guitar Man droppin the rhythm ...And I got the whole Legit Ballers family up in hea nigga ...You the early bird of this ...Amber fire his ass and what we...Blow 'em out the water ...The robber takin and born in the range ...Battle the match and bang ...Then I get in that as like choles...I got the game lock dowm like...I bring yo ass on the block that's the penalty ...Put 'em in the hot seat grab a hoe...Cause bein odd ont the block is a N-O ... off, and throw off the law ... a muthafuckin dent in the alley ...Beanie Franks is the shit on the Grand Finale ...if you weak you die in the streets of Chi ...e by my bullets fly in the seat ...Call the guys to come chase ...Now I'm pimpin the pain cause I'm urgi...rs and niggas biten the flow ...On the streets or the stage ...that's why me and the Twista always hittin the front page ...And when we enter the car niggas cluthcin...While Nitty bustes the facts in the Grand Finale ...T-Nitty in here doin danger ...The names Nitty, you kn...Disrespectin the mob I gotta bang ya...When the G to the A-M-E ...y addicted, to what the dick did ...The pleasure and pain the wing ding inflicted ...Given niggas two to the head ...t give a fuck about one ...The N only I to the T ...pecially my dogs on the muthafuckin Grand F...not least Twista up in hea ...The orignator of the style all why'all n...To the rhythm see-cock back T-O is in the back ...Trippin off the man tho we buzzin w...drunk and discustin the way I be bustin pis...Cause I'm the tiggy-tiggy Twista nigga what have been on out of the pick ...rder T-W-I-S-T-A to the formula ...The "Baller-T" aka "The Swisher Roller" ..."The Bigger Gun Holder" ...Never smile when the Twistas in the club ...it Mobsta Elites on the muthafuckin Grand F...ime to run down all the muthafuckas that ma...Calla One ...[Chris The Engineer] ...[And these all the niggas from Legit B...The mobstas Liff and Ma...[Chine White bangin the beats] ...And the rest of the whole Legit Ballers

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is u...ointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ...Sent me to heal the brokenhearted ...Bring freedom to the captives ...Bring sight to the blind ...Break the chains of the oppressed ...For this is the year of the Lord ...ipture if fulfilled in your ears ...ician heal yourself one day you'll say to m...While the God you claim to serve will be the God you hang on a t...The first time that He ...But the next time that He comes He'll have a flaming sword with eyes of fire ...The first time that He ...But the next time that He c...o take you under my wing ...and hide you in the shadow of My love ... like a lamb led to the slaughter ...ill come a day when the Word of God will co...And I will strike the nations ...d consume them with the breath of My mouth