[Intro] [Driving 102 BPM two-step groove, weeping pedal steel, fingerpicked acoustic guitar and twangy Telecaster over crisp punchy drums] [Verse 1] Fifteen thousand sleeping in the freezing clay Black Death riding in the naval bay Flags are tied low on the wooden mast Every winter harsher than the last Ghost ships drifting in the frozen sound Not a single living sailor to be found Lanterns burning out in the dead of night Quarantine fires on the fortress height [Pre-Chorus] Scuttle the giants to the harbor floor! Iron and copper that will sail no more! Sinking the pride as the century breaks! A monument built on the lives that it takes! [Chorus] Tear down the sails of the skeleton throng! Down in the depths where the currents are strong! Guarding the gates on the ocean floor! Frozen in time through the mist and the roar! Breakwaters built out of splinter and bone! Leaving the fleet in the dark and alone! [Verse 2] A silent armada beneath the grey waves Turning the warships to watery graves No cannons will fire, no orders are read Just cold, creeping ice and a ship full of dead The empire withers and washes away A shadow of timber left rotting in clay No glory, no honor, no enemy fire Just freezing to death in a watery pyre [Chorus] Tear down the sails of the skeleton throng! Down in the depths where the currents are strong! Guarding the gates on the ocean floor! Frozen in time through the mist and the roar! Breakwaters built out of splinter and bone! Leaving the fleet in the dark and alone! [Outro] Höstsjuttonhundratio. [Pedal steel and singing fiddle trade licks over a steady country drive, finishing on a crisp country stop]
