Lyrics

Samples of text from new Stone 588 material forthcoming on various compilations and on the forthcoming CD release by Stone 588. All lyrics by Terri Kennedy. Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005. Publishing 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Lithic Music All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying prohibited.

MOMENTO MORI (Appears on Cleopatra's2001 Edgar Allen Poe tribute "Songs of Terror" and Stone 588's "Midnight Claret" cd, inspired by the story, "The Masque of the Red Death")

Pinioned by fear
Slain by stealth

Awake from poisonous slumber
Swathed in raiments of the grave
The face of scarlet horror
Descent into decay

Abbey fortress of knights and dames
Revelry within
Contagion without

A figure dabbled in blood
Murmurs amplify to rage
Fearsome scarlet horror
Descent into decay

Hours stricken of mortality
Ebony clock's heartbeat forewarning

Ruddy light waning vaporous
Stealthy steps and burning gaze

From the heart flowed crimson to the sword

Mummer's dance of blood
Inspiring fear and rage
Disease of scarlet horror
Portal to the grave

On the last breath
Clockbell ceased to beat

L'ENVOI MORTS (Appears on Cleopatra's "Witchcraft" comp compiled by Tony Lestat. Lyrics delve into Voodoo ritual and practice, particularly as described in the book "The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie.")
Midnight hands
Beat unhallowed drums
Serene beasts changing skins
Rite of malediction fatally cast
Bound jaw and delirious fire
Imminent death
Soul-less narcosis
Venemous toxin

Genohi - prick the skin, poison
Genohi - suffocation, L'Envoi Morts

Terror swallows the tongue
Begotten of rumbling fire & shooting star
Black like the halo of the moon

Earth of the crossroads & thunderstones
Dispelling death's spell
Immersion in water transforms blood
As toad and serpent clash
The loa takes possession
Into the night of the baka
Not for innocent eyes

Genohi - Prick the skin, Poison
Suffocation, L'Envoi Morts

Terror swallows the tongue
Begotten of rumbling fire & shooting star
Black like the halo of the moon

Corps cadavre - ti bon ange
Wet mo nan dlo - zombi savanne

TANNHAUSER (Appears on Palace of Worms' "Storm the Palace" comp. It draws its story from a Wagnerian opera based on a fable about a French knight.)
Tannhauser, Minstral of Venus
Reproached by conscience
Yet charmed by roseate light

Penitent's despair, Grim denunciation
Repelled unabsolved, Returns to his former creed

Tannhauser, Minstral of restless heart
Despairing poet's passions
For earth's mingled bliss and grief

Even as the papal staff, can never bloom
Nor may thy soul be reborn
And never can thy sins be redeemed

Penitent's despair, Grim denunciation
Repelled unabsolved, Returns to his former creed

Tannhauser
Spirit hardened, Venus embraces
But heaven turns her face away

EYE OF THE MOON (Appears on Projekt's "A Cat Shaped Hole in my Heart" compilation benefitting feline leukemia research)
Luna rises in umbra cleft of amber eyes
Noctivigant creatures, descended from Bastet
Mafdet's claws dulled by serpentine men of vice
Feline fruit poisoned by clergy's artful lies

Eye of the moon, scepter and flame
Willow laments, her children slain
Crone's familiars, wicker cage ablaze
Midsummer's fires engulfed the children of Cain

Luna embodied in predatory eyes
Grimalkins ennobled as harbingers of spring
Damned in hateful artifice as demons in disguise
Reborn from catkins, duennas of the wise

Utchat all seeing, Djed inflamed
From Hathor's sistrum the universe became
Familiars of the moon, cursed and profaned
Willow wand abides, both scepter and blade

Enlightenment and bounty
Celestial feline progeny
Matriarchy apostacy
Kindled in flames

CONVERSATIONS WITH CHAOS (Appears on Dion Fortune's H.P. Lovecraft tribute compiled by Jonathan Sharp)
Rotting detestable presences
Wormy and nethermost
Fungus cursed
Decrepit and cavernous
Disordered pictures

Les images disorganize
Des conversations chaotic

Jaws of madness
Stretched wide, gluttonous
Jaws of madness

Primordial entity
Eternally embraces
Entices sickly, mirthful
Devouring moments of clarity
Which madness has debased
Accursed and defiled
Conversations with chaos

Disordered, cursed
Mad, debased
Conversations with chaos

RED EARTH (inspired by menstral blood lore and the mystical properties thereof) (Appears on Subnation Vol.2)
Man from luna cleaved
Eclipsed from ray of sol
Of curd and clay conceived
Goddess and serpent coiled

River of flame
Declared unclean
Moon lily birth
Uterine earth

Patriarchs thankless
Midnight claret drained
Shaming her crimson tresses
Milk and blood profaned

River of flame
Declared unclean
Moon lily, life giver
Earth womb river

Elixer of rulers and savants
Fermented of flux forbidden
Unmindful of wise blood spent
Red earth that begat their children

FOR MADMEN ONLY (Appearing on Darkend vol. 2 released by PHD, UK. Inspired by Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf")
Beneath stones and stars
More pure than humanity
Savoring tortures
Of muted melody
Of rotting dignity

Laughter’s devilish spirit
Torments wistful corpses
Wintering long
From the spring of living

In the magic theatre
Of mad redemption
The players mirror
Impure reflection
Where other worlds lie hidden

Laughter’s devilish spirit
Torments wistful corpses
Wintering long
From the spring of living

TUMULUS (Appears on Cleopatra's "Dracula King of Vampires" comp compiled by Tony Lestat)
Sun ignites claws of iron
That scratch the turbid skyline
A dank corruption covets
Monuments of acrimony

Infernal satyrs
Of littoral portal
Seduce languid flesh
Enfolding in putrified caress

Deceptive mirthful creatures
Devour the fruit of submerged decay
Transmutes earth’s despoilers
Drinking from the welling of tears

Infernal satyrs
Of littoral portal
Seduce languid flesh
Enfolding in putrified caress
Lies

INSEKT HOLLOW (Unreleased, to appear on sophomore Stone 588 cd)
Sky aghast with brilliant gold
Swarm enters inky fold
Empire tree of violence fed
Against the sun glowing red

Insekt Hollow, Nemesis fodder

Land raped of living blood
Vanquished by locust flood
Midnight obliterates the sun
Mirthful with battle won

Insekt Hollow, Nemesis fodder

A CRIMSON STAIN (Unreleased, to appear on sophomore Stone 588 cd. Subject: Inspired by Victorian case studies on Tuburculosis, which at one point doctors thought vocalist Terri might have contracted.)
The earth is suffocating
Lance my breast so I may breathe
That I am not crushed alive
Death stains the walls
And lurks beneath the floorboards
Like a taught bow, a coiled spring

I lie, afflicted wire frame
Ivory white, diseased and haunted

Mad dreams, encircling
Howling dry as leaves
Opaque vision, earth-smothered
A hive of fierce, sooty angels
Odious in their merciless finality

I lie, afflicted, wire frame
Ivory white, diseased and haunted

Iridescent light streaks
Consuming, final dreams
A crimson stain

GOLDEN CITY (written while reading a guidebook before a trip to Prague- too bad the train never arrived and we never got there!)
Chaos of golden tendrils
Blood spilt before portal
A little mother's claws
Sinuous lilac facades
Praha, Golden City
Velvet Revolution
Praha, recast machinery
Waning traditions
A thousand spires and labrynths
Guilded faded opulence
Clinging to the castle walls
Vivid hues of mighty lords
Praha, Golden City
Velvet Revolution
Praha, recast machinery
Waning traditions
Mired in fear and lunacy
Of pogroms and poverty
Red and grey institution
Detonated Revolution
Praha, Golden City
Reborn Bohemia
Golden Epiphany
RUINATION
Mortal Hands of creation
Breathing life into clay
Nebulous animation
Invoking secret names
Soulless shade
Blood inception
Mortal made, Ruination
Nocturnal existence
Order out of chaos
Nether vanquishment
Golem furious
Clawing adversary
Soulless shade
Obscured from the living
Too near the dead
PARADISE FIELDS
In the garden
Of earthly desires
Averted pleasures
Find accepting embrace
Supplication kneels
Engulfed in shadows
Fragrant in submission
Murmured to hands of night air
Intoxication
In the mirror of bliss
Supplication kneels
Engulfed in shadows
Luna nurtures
Unspoken worship
Soil mistress imparts
A blessing in flora ecstatic
Immersion in eve's last hours
'Neath the paradise fields of the stars