No One Left to Crown

[Intro — cathedral pipe organ opens alone, grand and slow; a heavy low-tuned fuzz chord lands in E minor at 122 bpm; pounding toms come in under it; instrumental, no vocals] [Verse 1 — cathedral-scaled female mezzo, dark and clear over organ and a ringing add9 chord, drums held to slow toms] Rain sits in the empty throne, the standard gone to rags. I walk the plain of everyone who wore the old device. The names I call return unheard — the hall is open to the sky. I keep the step that ceremony kept when there was someone to arrive. [Chorus — full weight arrives: deep fuzz bass, dual lead guitars answer overhead in fifths, organ blooms under, voice lifts and holds] There is no one left to crown, so I keep the crown alone. I carry it through the rusted plain, past every fallen home. Let the dark grow thin ahead — I will not put it down. There is no one left to crown, so I keep the crown. [Verse 2 — guitars drop to a clean reverbed arpeggio, organ low, drums sparse, voice pulled close and restrained] The salt has found the banners now, the ridge holds back the pale. I was the last to take the oath and last to watch it fail. No trumpet meets me on the road, no answer from the deep — only my own unbroken word, the one thing left to keep. [Chorus — bigger, dual leads soar, drums drive, voice fuller, final couplet transforms] There is no one left to crown, so I keep the crown alone. I carry it through the rusted plain, past every fallen home. Let the dark grow thin ahead — I will not put it down. Though every golden thing went out, I keep the crown. [Instrumental — everything converges: heavy fuzz riff, soaring dual lead-guitar melody in fifths over cathedral organ, big hammering drums; then a hard cut to organ and one held guitar note] [Bridge — voice alone over the organ, near-spoken, then lifting] If nothing waits beyond the ridge, if no one ever comes — then let the ending be my own, and let it be enough. I do not walk to be received. I walk because I vowed. [Chorus — full grandeur, organ and guitars at maximum, voice soaring and sustained] There is no one left to crown, so I wear the crown alone. And where I set my worn-through step the ground begins to turn. The dark has grown so thin ahead it breaks along the ground — and though I crown no living thing, the pale comes round. [Outro — band falls away to cathedral organ alone, one last grand chord, long reverb tail into nothing] So I keep the crown. So I keep the crown.