Better to Reign in Hell Lyrics

Heart in hand passed to the clasp of
Pain
In a dark lowland that set bad blood
In veins
Burning, like penal fires roused to stain
The jagged-toothed skyline braced
With crosses

The golden dawn
Lay lost to mist where
Emboldened thorns
Made their bed with toppled stones

He closed His eyes
Sunken to dream there
Of crow-black skies
And a great white empty throne
Horror stalked the bilious fogs
That balked His vision

He licked the spittle from the cheeks
Of the wry
And drifted back to when His stung
It’s target
The sneer of Michael on a glorious
High
Of angel dust and Virtue by His side

Drowning in the past
That downfall seemed like yesterday
Though blurred moons passed
As enemies in high places laughed

Moved to mirrors cracked with heavy
Lines
He rose snowblind, though shifting
Sands of time
Erased the trace and taste of bitter
Wines
The grapes of wrath grew fat on the
Vine

She came to Him
A little whip of tantrums
Thrashed on velvet skins
That lined Her wishbone Henge

Her name was Sin
A warming spurt of mantras
Splashed on occult tongues
That whispered sweet revenge

For the shame of their crawl from
Grace
Cold and hollow as the grave

And for rape and a ruinous scourge
Spared for souls that had shared
God’s worship
For now their throats coated notes
With dirge
That poured from parapets to the pits
Below

Drowning in the past
A wretched scream like yesterday
Died at last
With the rising of the revenant dark

All sharpened claws and blunt discharge

I shall bow no more to the dogs of
The Lord
Tearing at my carcass heart
I shall fall to my knees only at the
Keyholes
Of Virtue slipping into bondage
Masks
Freewill made me better to reign in
Hell

And with new wings
Unfurled and spoken
He took to things
That would desecrate the world

The seductions of both woman and man
For a bastard masterplan

Drowning out the past
Fool Fates unwound cruel yesterdays
Beneath the stars
That staggered from the blast