[152 BPM] | [Nordic Power Metal] | [E minor] [Mood: Reverent] [Energy: Building] [Intro | lead guitar left states a melody alone | lead guitar right answers it with a different line | gallop entering beneath them | double kick building] [Verse 1 | low narrative tenor | gallop low in the mix | single tom pulse | lead guitar right answering at line ends, left silent] The first of us to burn a thing Would burn a thing to watch it burn, The worst of us and best of us Sat close enough to take a turn, And somebody threw the green upon the stone — And nobody inside that tent went home alone. [Pre-Chorus | horn drone rising | double kick entering | lead guitar left climbing alone] It's a story. It's the oldest one. Same green on the same hot stone, And the same smoke going up. [Chorus | both leads harmonizing in thirds at the peak then separating | choir in unison | Energy: High] Yggdrasil! Root and rope and rising smoke, Yggdrasil! Every world it holds, It hauled the stone and held the sail And bound the hands that bound it — And we have never been alone. [Verse 2 | gallop low | tom pulse | lead guitar left answering line ends this time, right silent] Before a word was pressed in clay We rolled the cord along the thigh, And the cord's long gone but the clay still holds The mark it left. That's how far back we tie. Every sail that crossed the grey, every rope, every mast — Say the word canvas slowly. It's the same plant. It's the same past. [Pre-Chorus | horn drone | double kick | lead guitar right climbing alone] It's a story. It's the oldest one. Same green on the same hot stone, And the same smoke going up. [Chorus | both leads harmonizing at the peak then separating | choir in unison | Energy: High] Yggdrasil! Root and rope and rising smoke, Yggdrasil! Every world it holds, It hauled the stone and held the sail And bound the hands that bound it — And we have never been alone. [Instrumental | lead guitar left plays a full phrase alone | lead guitar right answers with its own full phrase | they trade twice more, then join in thirds for the final pass | gallop and double kick driving beneath | Energy: High] [Bridge | half-time | gallop dropping to palm-muted low notes | both leads silent | vocal close and reverent] They laid her in the ship at Oseberg, With the loom, the prow, the mare, the gold, And a pouch of seed beside her hand — Somebody thought she'd want it where she'd go. Twelve hundred years and it was still down there. Somebody packed it. Somebody meant it. [Verse 3 | gallop returning | both leads answering alternately, one line each | vocal soaring | drums building] And every word we ever sent, Every page a scribe laid down, Every letter, every testament, Every book that crossed a town, Was beaten out of fiber, soaked and pressed and dried — So half of what we know got carried on this leaf. [Pre-Chorus | fullest | horn drone at full weight | both leads climbing in opposite directions] It's a story. It's the oldest one. Same green on the same hot stone, And the same smoke going up. [Final Chorus | both leads harmonizing in thirds throughout for the only time | full choir | Energy: High] Yggdrasil! Root and rope and rising smoke, Yggdrasil! Every world it holds, It hauled the stone and held the sail And bound the hands that bound it — And we have never been alone. [Outro | lead guitar left plays the opening melody alone | lead guitar right answers once | gallop cutting out | long decay] And we have never been alone.
