Wherein a Messenger of the Devil Appears Lyrics

Holy song will banish his presence not
For song is for peasant fools
Holy song will banish not the past
For the past is always here

Holy song will banish his presence not
For his presence is for sinning fools
Holy song will banish not the ghosts
For their sorrows are always here

His light disappears
and the mind veers
to woodcut horrors
and ancient fears

Lamentation will save your lost soul not
For lamentation is for holy fools
Lamentation will alter not the past
For the past is always alive down there

Lamentation will save your lost soul not
For lost souls are but fuel for the furnace fires
Lamentation will appease not the ghosts
For their sorrows always wait down there

His light disappears
and the mind veers
to woodcut horrors
and ancient fears

"Heu, miseri, heu, miseri!
Quid, homo, ineptam sequeris laetitiam?"

Fiery hues of hell
spiral deep into vaults;
Sprung from a serpentine demon
Born of medieval terrors
"You, of the utter absence of love
You, of the utter absence of joy
You, of the utter denial of all expiation"

When the celestial ones have sent for you
And there is no return
When the astral traveler commands equinoctial points
And the strangest waters churn
When superstitions come alive
The zealot's mind must accept
There is glory in utter degradation