[Verse 1: lone thrash vocal, sparse lute] No flame was set upon my skin, no chain was laid in hand, no hornèd fiend did welcome me to ash and burning land. At dusk I came unto a town, with roofs of crooked shale, where lanterns burned in window-slits and no man heard my hail. [Verse 2] The market stood with open stalls, the tavern poured its wine, the baker smiled with flourèd cheek, the church bell made no sign. I raised my lute beneath the moon, I struck the silver string, and sang the lay of seven kings who died for love in spring. [Pre-Chorus] No face was turned, no eye grew wet, no maiden crossed the square, my song went forth with wounded wings and perished in the air. [Chorus] In the town of ears of stone, I sing, and sing alone, no heart is pierced, no tear is drawn, my lay dies ere the dawn. O hear me, Hell, if Hell can hear, O spare one listening soul, for I was made of breath and song, and song was all I stole. [Verse 3] I sang beside the bridal door, where garlands crowned the beam, the bride looked through my living voice as through a passing dream. I sang beside the graveyard yew, where mothers knelt in clay, but none could hear the funeral verse that should have named the day. [Verse 4] A child came near and touched my lute, and laughed to see it shake, for he had never heard a note, nor known a heart could break. I cried, “Good folk, by Christ or curse, by blood, by bone, by bell, is there no ear in all this town to know that I am well?” [Pre-Chorus] They smiled as men in paintings smile, they nodded, kind and dumb, and every road I took at dawn led back where I had come. [Chorus] In the town of ears of stone, I sing, and sing alone, no heart is pierced, no tear is drawn, my lay dies ere the dawn. O hear me, Hell, if Hell can hear, O spare one listening soul, for I was made of breath and song, and song was all I stole. [Instrumental Break: Fast thrash gallop, lute and cittern strumming beneath, woodwinds holding mournful counter-melody, lead electric guitar screams with tremolo picking, blistering arpeggios, sweeping bends, medieval modal runs, harmonized descending phrases, sudden stop before bridge] [Bridge] No fire bites so deep as this, no rack, no wheel, no sword, to pour the blood of memory out and lose the final word. I have the songs of vanished halls, of queens in winter dressed, of ships that sank with lanterns lit, of babes at mothers’ breast. But song must find a mortal ear, or rot within the tongue, and I am damned to endless breath with every lay unsung. [Verse 5] I climbed the tower of the church, I beat the brazen bell, its iron mouth flew wide and wild, but silence rang through Hell. I smashed my lute upon the stones, then found it whole again, with every string in perfect tune to teach me perfect pain. [Pre-Chorus] So now I walk the deathless lanes, from inn to church to square, and cast my voice like burning bread to mouths that taste no prayer. [Final Chorus] In the town of ears of stone, I sing, and sing alone, no heart is pierced, no tear is drawn, my lay dies ere the dawn. O hear me, Hell, if Hell can hear, O spare one listening soul, for I was made of breath and song, and song was all I stole. In the town of ears of stone, my name is overthrown, I keep the dead, I keep the tale, yet none shall ever know. [Outro] No flame was set upon my skin, no chain was laid in hand, they gave me harp and voice within a deaf and deathless land. Whatever eternity brings, A bard in Hell still sings.
