Filthlings... Filthlings... Filthlings... Come closer. From the Cradle to Enslave I realized it was Better to Reign in Hell. So down I went. Beneath Dusk and Her Embrace I heard The Forest Whispers My Name Something wicked called from somewhere And I never walked the same The Principle of Evil Made Flesh Was waiting underneath Where Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids And beauty still had teeth I found myself thrown into darkness Confronted by Her Ghost in the Fog She beckoned from beyond the veil And I willingly followed along Deeper... Further... Every scream another door I thought I'd found the bottom Then you showed me there was more From the Cradle to Enslave I learned to love the fall Better to Reign in Hell Than never reign at all Through a Funeral in Carpathia I found A Gothic Romance Between the beautiful and terrible I never stood a chance I watched Summer Dying Fast As the Black Goddess Rises Born in a Burial Gown Among a thousand dark disguises Through Cruelty and the Beast I learned monsters could have grace That horror could be poetry And darkness have a face Then came Nymphetamine Sweet poison for the veins The Death of Love came afterward But something still remained Honey and Sulphur on the tongue Damnation and a Day Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder There was no turning away From the Cradle to Enslave I learned to love the fall Better to Reign in Hell Than never reign at all Through a Funeral in Carpathia I found A Gothic Romance Between the beautiful and terrible I never stood a chance Years passed. The records changed. The world changed. I changed. But every now and then... That scream. And I'm right fucking back there. Hammer of the Witches Kept pounding through the years Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay Made poetry of fears Trouble and Their Double Lives Still dancing with the dead Existence Is Futile Maybe... But we're fucking here instead Then The Screaming of the Valkyries Came tearing through again And somehow after all these years The descent still had no end But somewhere past the records Past the makeup and the stage I finally saw the man himself Outside the printed page Quick with wit A wicked laugh A gentleman beneath the Filth The monster first inspired me But the man completed it You never knew the kid Who heard that first unholy scream Never saw the worlds it opened Or everything it came to mean I never wanted to become you Never needed someone else's name You simply showed me darkness Could have beauty in the flame FROM THE CRADLE TO ENSLAVE! I chose to descend! BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL! I'd do it again! HER GHOST IN THE FOG! Still calling my name! FUNERAL IN CARPATHIA! Still feeding the flame! A GOTHIC ROMANCE! Between beauty and sin! THE FOREST WHISPERS MY NAME! And I'd follow again! From the Cradle to Enslave I learned to love the fall Better to Reign in Hell Than never reign at all Through a Funeral in Carpathia Past Her Ghost in the Fog I found beauty in the darkness And a home inside it all So here's to the voice that opened the door. To the monster on the stage... And the man behind it. Thank you, Dani. Filthlings... Filthlings... Filthlings... From one of us.
