Thursday, December 8, 2011

Nightwish - Imaginaerum (2011)


1. Taikatalvi
2. Storytime
3. Ghost River
4. Slow, Love, Slow
5. I Want My Tears Back
6. Scaretale
7. Arabesque
8. Turn Loose The Mermaids
9. Rest Calm
10. The Crow, The Owl And The Dove
11. Last Ride Of The Day
12. Song Of Myself
13. Imaginaerum



1. Taikatalvi

Lapsistain rakkain tää näyttämö on
Mis kuutamo kujillaan kulkee
Taipunut havu, kesä hoivassa sen
Valkomeren niin aavan
Joka aavekuun siivin
Saapuu mut kotiin noutamaan

Päällä talvisen maan hetki kuin ikuisuus
Mi pienen kissan jakoin luokseni hiipii
Tääl tarinain lähteellä asua saan mis
Viulu valtavan kaihon
Ikisäveltään maalaa
Laulullaan herättää maan


2. Storytime

It was the night before,
When all through the world,
No words, no dreams
Then one day,
A writer by a fire
Imagined all of Gaia
Took a journey into a child-man's heart...

A painter on the shore
Imagined all the world
Within a snowflake on his palm
Unframed by poetry
A canvas of awe
Planet Earth falling back into the stars

I am the voice of Never-Never-Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,
Every memory that you hold dear

I am the journey,
I am the destination,
I am the home
The tale that reads you
A way to taste the night,
The elusive high
Follow the madness,
Alice you know once did

Imaginarium, a dream emporium!
Caress the tales
And they will dream you real
A storyteller's game,
Lips that intoxicate
The core of all life
Is a limitless chest of tales...

I am the voice of Never-Never-Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,
Every memory that you hold dear

I am the voice of Never-Never-Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
Searching heavens for another Earth

I am the voice of Never, Never Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,
Every memory that you hold dear


3. Ghost River

It's a long road down the river deep 'n wild
Every twist and turn a wonder-dale
It's a scary ride we'd give anything to take
Let yourself bleed
Leave a footprint on every island you see

Hey you, child of rape, the riverbed awaits
Snow white, pitch-black, your life such strife
Heavenward, deep down, I'll show you such sights
Believe it, we live as we dream / scream

"He will go down he will drown drown, deeper down
The river wild will take your only child
He will go down he will drown drown, deeper down
The mills grind slow in a riverbed ghost town
He will go down he will drown drown, deeper down
If you want me, then do come across"

What is it you dream of, child of mine?
The magic ride, the mermaid cove?
Never met a kinder heart than yours
Let it bleed
Leave a footprint on every island you see

"I am the painted faces, the toxic kiss
Sowing of doubt, troll beneath the bridge
Come across
Death by a thousand cuts
Believe it, we live as we dream / scream"

"I am the desert-scape, the sand inside your hourglass
I am the fear and abuse, the leper children
Every eye sewn shut"

"We will go down we will drown drown, deeper down
The river wild will be our last ride
We will go down we will drown drown, deeper down
The mills grind slow in a riverbed ghost town"

Beautifully shy as you are
Never lose your heart
And do come across


4. Slow, Love, Slow

Come and share this painting with me
Unveiling of me, the magician that never failed

This deep sigh coiled around my chest
Intoxicated by a major chord
I wonder
Do I love you or the thought of you?

Slow, love, slow
Only the weak are not lonely

Southern blue, morning dew
Let-down-your-guards, I-love-you's
Ice-cream castles, lips-to-ear rhymes
A slumber deeper than time

Slow, love, slow
Only the weak are not lonely


5. I Want My Tears Back

I want my tears back

The treetops, the chimneys, the snowbed stories, winter grey
Wildflowers, those meadows of heaven, wind in the wheat

A railroad across waters, the scent of grandfatherly love
Blue bayous, Decembers, moon through a dragonfly's wings

Where is the wonder where's the awe
Where's dear Alice knocking on the door
Where's the trapdoor that takes me there
Where the real is shattered by a Mad March Hare

Where is the wonder where's the awe
Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for
Before the years take me
I wish to see
The lost in me

I want my tears back
I want my tears back now

A ballet on a grove, still growing young all alone
A rag doll, a best friend, the voice of Mary Costa


6. Scaretale

Once upon a time in a daymare
Dying to meet you, little child, enter enter this sideshow

Time for bed the cradle still rocks
13 chimes on a dead man's clock,
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock

The bride will lure you, cook you, eat you
Your dear innocence boiled to feed the evil in need of fear

Burning farms and squealing pigs
A pool of snakes to swim with, oh sweet poison
bite me bite me

"Ladies and gentlemen
Be heartlessly welcome!
To Cirque De Morgue
And what a show we have for you tonight!"

Restless souls will put on their dancing shoes
Mindless ghouls with lot of limbs to lose
Illusionists, contortionist,
Tightrope - walkers tightening the noose

Horde of spiders, closet tentacles
Laughing harpies with their talons ripping,
sher-chrisss, per-vizzz

The pendulum still sways for you
Such are the darks here to show you, child in a corner,
fallen mirrors, all kingdom in cinders


7. Arabesque

[Instrumental]



8. Turn Loose The Mermaids

A kite above a graveyard grey
At the end of the line far far away
A child holding on to the magic of birth and awe

Oh, how beatiful it used to be
Just you and me far beyond the sea
The waters, scarce in motion
Quivering still

At the end of the river the sundown beams
All the relics of a life long lived
Here, weary traveller rest your wand
Sleep the journey from your eyes

Good journey, love, time to go
I checked your teeth and warmed your toes
In the horizon I see them coming for you

The mermaid grace, the forever call
Beauty in spyglass on an old man's porch
The mermaids you turned loose brought back your tears


9. Rest Calm

I went to die in a seaside hotel
Lanes of memory paved by sweet frozen moments

Deathbed memories of home
Never let me go

Every little memory resting calm in me
Resting in a dream
Smiling back at me
The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home
To caress the river with awe
Within there's every little memory resting calm in me
Resting in a dream
Smiling back at me
The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home
Rest calm and remember me

You are the moon pulling my black waters
You are the land in my dark closet
Stay by my side until it all goes dark forever
When silent the silence comes closer


10. The Crow, The Owl And The Dove

Don’t give me love, don’t give me faith
Wisdom nor pride, give innocence instead
Don’t give me love, I’ve had my share
Beauty nor rest, give me truth instead

A crow flew to me, kept its distance
Such a proud creation
I saw its soul, envied its pride
But needed nothing it had

An owl came to me, old and wise
Pierced right through my youth
I learned its ways, envied its sense
But needed nothing it had

Don’t give me love, don’t give me faith
Wisdom nor pride, give innocence instead
Don’t give me love, I’ve had my share
Beauty nor rest, give me truth instead

A dove came to me, had no fear
It rested on my arm
I touched its calm, envied its love
But needed nothing it had

A swan of white, she came to me
The lake mirrored her beauty sweet
I kissed her neck, adored her grace
But needed nothing she could give

Got to grieve her, got to wreck it
Got to grieve her, got to wreck it
Got to grieve her, got to wreck it

Don’t give me love, don’t give me faith
Wisdom nor pride, give innocence instead
Don’t give me love, I’ve had my share
Beauty nor rest, give me truth instead


11. Last Ride Of The Day

We live in every moment but this one
Why don't we recognise the faces loving us so

What's God if not the spark that started life
Smile of a stranger
Sweet music, starry skies
Wonder, mystery, wherever my road goes
Early wake-ups in a moving home
scent of fresh-mown grass in the morning sun
Open theme park gates waiting for

Riding the day, every day into sunset
Finding the way back home

Once upon a night we'll wake to the carnival of life
the beauty of this ride ahead such an incredible high
It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead
This moment the dawn of humanity
The last ride of the day

Wake up, dead boy
Enter adventureland
Tricksters, magicians will show you all that's real
Careless jugglers, snake charmers by your trail
Magic of a moment
Abracadabra


12. Song Of Myself

[1. From A Dusty Bookshelf]

[2. All That Great Heart Lying Still]

The nightingale is still locked in the cage
The deep breath I took still poisons my lungs
An old oak sheltering me from the blue
Sun bathing on its dead frozen leaves

A catnap in the ghost town of my heart
She dreams of storytime and the river ghosts
Of mermaids, of Whitman's and the rude
Raving harlequins, gigantic toys

A song of mea song in need
Of a courageous symphony
A verse of mea verse in need
Of a ppure-heart singing me to peace

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying
All that great heart lying still on an angelwing

All that great heart lying still
In silent suffering
Smiling like a clown until the show has come to an end
What is left for encore
Is the same old dead boy's song
Sung in silence
All that great heart lying still and slowly dying
All that great heart lying still on an angelwing

A midnight flight into Covington Woods
A princess and a panther by m side
These are Territories I live for
I'd still give mt everything to love you more

[3. Piano Black]

A silent symphony
A hollow opus #1,2,3

Sometimes the sky is piano black
Piano black over cleansing waters

Resting pipes, verse of bore
Rusting keys without a door

Sometimes the within is piano black
Piano black over cleansing waters

All that great heart lying still and slowly dying
All that great heart lying still on an angelwing

[4. Love]

I see a slow, simple youngster by a busy street,
with a begging bowl in his shaking hand.
Trying to smile but hurting infinitely. Nobody notices.
I do, but walk by.

An old man gets naked and kisses a model-doll in his attic
It's half-light and he's in tears.
When he finally comes his eyes are cascading.

I see a beaten dog in a pungent alley. He tries to bite me.
All pride has left his wild eyes.
I wish I had my leg to spare.

A mother visits her son, smiles to him through the bars.
She's never loved him more.

An obese girl enters an elevator with me.
All dressed up fancy, a green butterfly on her neck.
Terribly sweeet perfume deafens me.
She's going to dinner alone.
That makes her even more beautiful.

I see a model's face on a brick wall.
A statue of porcelain perfection beside a violent city kill.
A city that worships flesh.

The 1st thing I ever heard was a wandering
man telling his story
It was you, the grass under my bare feet
The campfire in the dead of night
The heavenly black of sky and sea

It was us
Roaming the rainy roads, combing the guilded beaches
Waking up to a new gallery of wonders every morn
Bathing in places no-one's seen before
Shipwrecked on some matt-painted island
Clad in nothing but the surf - beauty's finest robe

Beyond all mortality we are, swinging in the breath of nature
In early air of the dawn of life
A sight to silence the heavens

I want to travel where life travels,
following its permanent lead
Where the air tastes like snow music
Where grass smells like fresh-born Eden
I would pass no man, no stranger, no tragedy or rapture
I would bathe in a world of sensation
Love, goodness and simplicity
(While violated and imprisoned by technology)

The thought of my family's graves was the only moment
I used to experience true love
That love remains infintie,
as I'll never be the man my father is

How can you "just be yourself"
when you don't know who you are?
Stop saying "I know how you feel"
How could anyone know how another feels?

Who am I to judge a priest, beggar,
whore, politician, wrongdoer?
I am, you are, all of them already

Dear child, stop working, go play
Forget every rule
There's no fear in a dream

"Is there a village inside this snowflake?"
- a child asked me
"What's the colour of our lullaby?"

I've never been so close to truth as then
I touched its silver lining

Death is the winner in any war
Nothing noble in dying for your religion
For your country
For ideology, for faith
For another man, yes

Paper is dead without words
Ink idle without a poem
All the world dead without stories
Without love and disarming beauty

Careless realism costs souls

Ever seen the Lord smile?
Allt he care for the world made Beautiful a sad man?
Why do we still carry a device of torture around our necks?
Oh, how rotten your pre-apocalypse is
All you bible-black fools living over nightmare ground

I see all those empty cradles and wonder
If man will never change

I, too, wish to be a decent manboy but all I am
Is smoke and mirrors
Still given everything, may I be deserving

And there forever remains the change from G to Em


13. Imaginaerum


[Instrumental]

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Nightwish - Dark Passion Play (2007)


1. The Poet And The Pendulum
2. Bye Bye Beautiful
3. Amaranth
4. Cadence Of Her Last Breath
5. Master Passion Greed
6. Eva
7. Sahara
8. Whoever Brings The Night
9. For The Heart I Once Had
10. The Islander
11. Last Of The Wilds
12. 7 Day To The Wolves
13. Meadows Of Heaven
14. The Escapist
 


1. The Poet And The Pendulum

[Part 1: White Lands Of Empathica]

The end.

The songwriter's dead.
The blade fell upon him
Taking him to the white lands
of empathica,
of innocence
Empathica
Innocence

[Part 2: Home]

The dreamer and the wine
Poet without a rhyme
A widow writer torn apart by chains of Hell

One last perfect verse
It's still the same old song
Oh Christ, how I hate what I have become

Take me home

[Chorus:]
Get away, run away, fly away
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for this cold world
Forgive me,
I have but two faces
One for the world,
One for God,
save me
I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for this cold world

My home was there and then, those meadows of heaven
Adventure-filled days
One with every smiling face

Please, no more words
Thoughts from a severed head
No more praise,
Tell me once my heart goes right

Take me home

[Chorus]

[Part 3: The Pacific]

Sparkle my scenery
With Turquoise waterfall
With beauty underneath
The ever free

Tuck me in beneath the blue
Beneath the Pain,
Beneath the rain
Goodnight kiss for a child in time
Swaying blade my lullaby

On the shore we sat and hoped
Under the same pale moon
Whose guiding light chose you,
Chose you all

"I'm afraid, I'm so afraid.
being raped, again and again, and again
I know I will die alone
but loved.

You live long enough to hear the sounds of guns,
Long enough to find yourself screaming every night,
Live long enough to see your friends betray you.

For years I've been strapped unto this altar.
Now I only have three minutes and counting.
I just wish the tide would catch me first and give me
a death I always longed for."

[Part 4: Dark Passion Play]

2nd robber to the right of Christ
Cut in half - infanticide
The world will rejoice today
As the crows feast on the rotting poet

Everyone must bury their own
No pack to bury the heart of stone
Now he`s home in hell, serves him well
Slain by the bell, tolling for his farewell

The morning dawned upon his altar
Remains of the dark passion play
Performed by his friends without shame
Spitting on his grave as they came

[Chorus]

"Today, in the year of our Lord, 2005
Tuomas was called from the cares of the world
He stopped crying at the end of each beautiful day.
The music he wrote had too long been without silence.
He was found naked and dead,
With a smile in his face, a pen and 1000 pages of erased text."

Save me

[Part 5: Mother And Father]

Be still, my son
You`re home
Oh when did you become so cold?
The blade will keep on descending
All you need is to feel my love

Search for beauty, find your shore
Try to save them all, bleed no more
You have such oceans within
In the end, I will always love you

The beginning.


2. Bye Bye Beautiful

Finally the hills are without eyes
They are tired of painting a dead man's face
red with their own blood

They used to love having so much to lose
Blink your eyes just once and see everything in ruins

[Chorus:]
Did you ever hear what I told you?
Did you ever read what I wrote you?
Did you ever listen to what we played?
Did you ever let in what the world said?
Did we get this far just to feel your hate?
Did we play to become only pawns in the game?
How blind can you be, don't you see?
You chose the long road, but we'll be waiting

Bye bye, beautiful

Jacob`s ghost for the girl in white
Blindfold for the blind
Dead Siblings walking the dying Earth

Noose around a choking heart
Eternity torn apart
Slow toll now the funeral bells

"I need to die to feel alive"

[Chorus]

Bye bye, beautiful

It's not the tree that forsakes the flower
But the flower that forsakes the tree
Someday I`ll learn to love these scars
Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words

How blind can you be, don't you see?
That the gambler lost all he does not have...

[Chorus]

Bye bye, beautiful


3. Amaranth

Baptized with a perfect name
The doubting one by heart
Alone without himself

War between him and the day
Need someone to blame
In the end, little he can do alone

You believe but what you see?
You receive but what you give?

Caress the one, the never-fading
rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow
Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak

Apart from the wandering pack
In this brief flight of time we reach
For the ones, whoever dare

You believe but what you see?
You receive but what you give?

Caress the one, the never-fading
rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow
Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak

Reaching, searching for something untouched
Hearing voices of the never-fading calling

Caress the one, the never-fading
rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow
Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak


4. Cadence Of Her Last Breath


Running for her life
The dark rain from her eyes still falls
Breathtaking butterfly
Chose a dark day to live

Save one breath for me!

A loner longing for
The cadence of her last breath.

Why do I miss someone I never met?
with bated breath I lay
Sea winds brought her to me
A butterfly, mere one-day miracle of life
And all the poetry in the world
Finally makes sense to me

Save one death for me!

A loner longing for (run away, run away, run away, run away)
The cadence of her last breath (run away, run away, run away, run away)

Put to rest all that`s not life
Drink for beauty and fill my blank page.

Sometimes a dream turns into a dream

A loner longing for (run away, run away, run away, run away)
The cadence of her last breath

A loner longing for (run away, run away, run away, run away)
The cadence of her last breath (run away, run away, run away, run away)


5. Master Passion Greed


Who the hell are you to tell me
What to do, why to do, why bother?
Leech in a mask of virtue
Such waste, to ever think of you again.

Hey Judas, your christens was our love.
Hit and run, you're be done.
Never sorry, never wrong,
More, more, more, more, more.

Master Passion Greed
Master Passion Greed

"Hello, how are you?
Let me explain one thing.
All for her and more for me.
Why is it so hard to see?
I see no sense in doing this,
Not enough for me,
I fuck up everything but let me explain."

Some day

Some day you shall flee,
Panting and weak.

Master Passion Greed
Master Passion Greed
Master Passion Greed
Master Passion Greed

All within me gone but pain and hope,
Hoping that the pain will fade away.

Greed your master passion,
I feed the mouth that bites me.
Mammon, opiate of the masses,
The reek of your lies draws flies.

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Have her,
Kill her.

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Feast on it all.

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Have her,
Kill her.

Seek her,
Seduce her,
Tame her,
Blame her,
Feast on it all.

With awakening the tears will begin.
To my everlasting shame silence took me.


6. Eva

6:30 winter morn
Snow keeps falling, silent dawn
A rose by any other name
Eva leaves her Swanbrook home.

A kindest heart which always made
Me ashamed of my own.
She walks alone but not without her name.

[Chorus:]
Eva flies away,
Dreams the world far away.
In this cruel children's game
There's no friend to call her name.
Eva sails away,
Dreams the world far away.
The Good in her will be my sunflower field.

Mocked by man to depths of shame
Little girl with life ahead.
For a memory of one kind word
She would stay among the beasts.
Time for one more daring dream
Before her escape,
Edenbeam we kill with her own loving heart.

[Chorus x2]


7. Sahara


A ballad of dark queen echoes through night
As he flees the curse of gods, the pharaoh`s wrath.

[Chorus:]
One thousand one nights unseen,
The philosopher and the queen.

Ancient mariner in a sea of sand,
The burning beauty his tomb to die for.

[Chorus]

(Horizon`s swarming with death
Run!)

Heaven has a darkened face,
Dunes are soaring as on a chase.
Caravan of the cursed
Chasing him across the waves.

May he now rest under aegis of mirage
As the sands slowly turn to Elysian fields.

[Chorus]

(One thousand one)

[Chorus]

(One thousand one)
(One thousand one)
(One thousand one)


8. Whoever Brings The Night


We seduce the dark with pain and rapture
Like two ships that pass in the night.
You and I - a whore and a bashful sailor.
Welcome to a sunrise of a dirty mind.

[Chorus:]
All your love is a lie,
You're one-night butterfly.
Hurt me, be the one
Whoever brings the night.

The Dark created to hide the innocent white, the lust of night.
Eyes so bright, seductive lies
Crimson masquerade where I merely played my part
Poison dart of desire.

[Chorus]

Choose a bride tonight,
a fantasy for a zombie.
Hurt me - I love to suffer.
Your harem's a dream for free.

Enter,
Suck from us and live forever.
Rotten beauty
Will haunt you for a lifetime.

Come with me under water
And drown to despise me no more.
Unholy, unworthy,
My night is a dream for free.

[Chorus x2]


9. For The Heart I Once Had


Heaven today is but a way
To a place I once called home.
Heart of a child, one final sigh
As another love goes cold.

Once my heart beats to the rhythm of the falling snow
blackened below.
The river now flows - a stream on molten virgin snow.

[Chorus:]
For the heart I'll never have,
For the child forever gone
The music flows because it longs
For the heart I once had.

Living today without a way
To understand the weight of the world.
Faded and torn, old and forlorn
My weak and hoping heart.

For the child, for the night
For the heart I once had
I believe and foresee
Everything I could ever be.

[Chorus]

Time will not heal a dead boy's scars,
Time will kill.

[Chorus]


10. The Islander

[Composer: Marco Hietala]

An old man by a sea shore at the end of day
Gazes the horizon with sea winds in his face.
Tempest-tossed island, seasons all the same.
Anchorage unpainted and a ship without a name.

Sea without a shore for the vanished one unheard
He lightens the beacon, light at the end of world.
Showing the way, lighting hope in their hearts,
The ones and their travels homeward from afar.

[Chorus:]
This is for long-forgotten light at the end of the world.
Horizon's crying the tears he left behind long ago.

The albatross is flying, making him daydream
The time before he became - one of the world`s unseen
Princess in the tower, children in the fields -
Life gave him it all: an island of the universe.

Now his love`s a memory, a ghost in the fog.
He sets the sails one last time saying farewell to the world.
Anchor to the water, seabed far below,
Grass still in his feet and a smile beneath his brow.

[Chorus x2]


11. Last Of The Wilds


[Instrumental]


12. 7 Day To The Wolves


The wolves, my love will come
Taking us home where dust once was a man.
Is there Life before a Death?
Do we long too much and never let in?

[Chorus:]
Howl!
Seven days to the wolves!
Where will we be when they come?
Seven days to the poison
And a place in Heaven!
Time drawing near as they come to take us.

This is my church of choice,
Love`s strength standeth in love`s sacrifice.
For the rest, I have to say to you
I will dream like the god
And suffer like all the dead children.

[Chorus]

This is where heroes and cowards part ways.

Light the fire, feast
Chase the ghost, give in.
Take the road less traveled by,
Leave the city of fools,
Turn every poet loose.

[Chorus x2]

(Heroes, cowards, no more!) [x4]


13. Meadows Of Heaven

I close my eyes, the lantern dies
The scent of awakening, wild honey and dew.
Childhood games, woods and lakes,
Streams of silver, toys of olden days.

Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.

The flowers of wonder and the hidden treasures,
In the meadow of life, my acre of Heaven.
A five-year-old winter heart in a place called home
Sailing the waves of past.

Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.

Rocking chair without a dreamer,
A wooden swing without laughter.
Sandbox without toy soldiers,
Yuletide without the flight.

Dreambound for life.

Flowers wither, treasures stay hidden
Until I see the first star of fall.
I fall asleep and see it all:
Mother's care and colour of the kites.

Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
Meadows of Heaven.
[fading]


14. The Escapist


[Japanese version bonus track]

Who's there knocking at my window?
The owl and the Dead Boy
This night whispers my name
All the dying children

Virgin snow beneath my feet
Painting the world in white
I tread the way and lose myself into a tale

Come hell or high water
My search will go on
Clayborn Voyage without an end

A nightingale in a golden cage
That's me locked