[INTRO – Clean Electric Guitar] [Slow bluesy electric guitar bends] I learned my hymns where four roads meet, With an empty gut and blistered feet. No choir came, no chapel there, Just six steel strings... And a whispered prayer. [PINCH HARMONIC GUITAR SOLO SQUEAL] [MAIN RIFF – Heavy Groove] [VERSE 1] Father taught me songs on a rolling sea, How a tune could make hard bastards free. But the shore taught lessons the waves never could, Nobody listens just because you're good. Then a stranger came when my belly was bare, Put salvation in my hands at a crossroads prayer. Black as midnight, sharp as sin, I struck one chord... And He answered within. [PRE-CHORUS] Hammer the string! Let the dead note ring! Bend it till the heavens crack! Once you call Him through the strings, There's no taking that note back! [CHORUS] HELLISH HAMMER-ON! Let the frozen fire rise! DEVIL'S DOUBLE-STOP! Make the whole damned choir cry! Bend that note till mercy breaks, Let the screaming fill the air! Six strings between my soul and Hell... MY SIX-STRING SACRAMENT! [PINCH HARMONIC GUITAR SOLO SQUEAL] [VERSE 2] I learned the slide from a cutlass drawn, The pull-off clean from the breaking dawn. Palm-mute thunder, dead-note grace, Every scar puts rhythm in its place. Alternate pick when the blades come fast, Sweep through the strings like a freezing blast. Tap twelve frets where no hand should go, And something beneath me whispers... "Good. Now show them what you know." [PRE-CHORUS] Hammer the string! Make the Grail sing! Let that low note shake the floor! Every fret becomes an altar, Every riff unlocks a door! [CHORUS] HELLISH HAMMER-ON! Let the frozen fire rise! DEVIL'S DOUBLE-STOP! Make the whole damned choir cry! Bend that note till mercy breaks, Let the screaming fill the air! Six strings between my soul and Hell... MY SIX-STRING SACRAMENT! [PINCH HARMONIC GUITAR SOLO] [BREAKDOWN – HALF TIME] Palm mute. Pick scrape. Let the bastard breathe. [HEAVY PALM-MUTED RIFF] Hammer-on. Pull-off. Give the Grail what it needs. [PINCH HARMONIC] No holy book. No temple bell. No kneeling supplicant's plea. My prayer has frets. My prayer has strings. AND MY GOD PLAYS BACK THROUGH ME. [EXTENDED ELECTRIC GUITAR SOLO] [Slow blues bend] [Wide vibrato] [Rapid alternate picking] [Sweep-picked arpeggio] [Two-handed tapping] [Descending legato run] [Rhythmic pause] [Massive sustained pinch harmonic] [BRIDGE – Slow and Ominous] There was a promise at the crossroads, Though the words are lost to me. There's a name beneath each melody That I almost can perceive. When the Grail grows cold against me, And frost crawls down the strings, I don't remember learning the words... But somehow... I know what to sing
