Inspired by "The Tower of the Elephant" by Robert E. Howard
lyrics
Impenetrable unfathomable blackness of human artifice ascends to madness
Over all umbral outline shades the city of thieves
Eclipsing all but the terror that dread thaumaturge weaves
One man fears no wizard
North-born blood of Crom
Steel-eyed will of iron
Unlettered and headstrong
Sets off in the moonlight
To steal Yara's jewel
To scale cloistered pillar
And make of all the city fools
The elephant's heart
A treasure of untold majesty
Within those ramparts
Seeming unguarded with guardians unseen
Lurking in the darkness
To assail by fang and claw
Venom of the burglars
In silence slays the beasts
Scale with strength of giants
Sheer unbroken wall
Swiftly his companion
Was choked in silent shrieks
Unseen assassin
Of primal stock
Arachnid haunters of the dark
Noxious and limber
One touch means death
One crushing toss to lay this nightmare to rest
Wander through shrouded halls of ancient unknowns
Behind each gem-crusted door a mortal peril lurks
Instinct and stealth are the shield to his sword
Long tempered by danger, is the nature of the beast he's become
Still mortal, so fragile is man in the realm of the demigods
Fresh terror, as he opens the way to chamber of the elephant-faced unearthly ancient long lying in wait jade creature of sickening shape alien visage with elongated face disfigured by cruelty of fate
But look closer and revulsion fades
Into pity on the cosmic scale tortured and lonesome
Is this old one
Tears from sightless amber eyes
In ages past they watched man arise
Now captive of the man he raised to the skies
Cut out my heart
Bleed it onto his stone
The man-turned-devil dethrone
The jewel will claim back it's own
Bring to nothing
This fell spire collapse
A shadow lost to the past
As endless eons elapse
A blackened doom concept record about the very real problem of amphibian extinction, “Croak” is a punishing, essential listen. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 23, 2022
