The Portrait Stares Dark gothic progressive rock — eerie, psychological, poetic and cinematic. Haunting piano, atmospheric guitars, deep bass and slow-building intensity. Verse 1 There’s a portrait hanging on a crooked wall, A face that watches but never calls. Eyes like windows into the past, A frozen moment designed to last. The paint is peeling, the frame is black, A thousand memories staring back. I turn away, but something stays, A silent witness to forgotten days. Pre-Chorus Who is the stranger behind those eyes? A faded truth in a perfect disguise. Is it the face that I used to know, Or something buried beneath the show? Chorus The portrait stares, but never speaks, It knows the places where the silence creeps. A thousand secrets beneath its skin, A beautiful lie with a face within. The portrait stares through time and dust, At everything we betray and trust. And when the midnight shadows appear, I see my reflection standing there. Verse 2 The hallway breathes like a dying lung, The clock repeats what was never sung. A crooked smile, a vacant stare, As though the dead are waiting there. Was the painter mad or simply wise? Did he capture truth or manufacture lies? Perhaps the canvas holds the key, To something even we refuse to see. Pre-Chorus What is a memory when time has passed? A fading picture that we hold too fast. Are we the image or the disguise? Or just the ghosts behind our eyes? Chorus The portrait stares, but never speaks, It knows the places where the silence creeps. A thousand secrets beneath its skin, A beautiful lie with a face within. The portrait stares through time and dust, At everything we betray and trust. And when the midnight shadows appear, I see my reflection standing there. Bridge – Whispered, sinister and gradually building What if the painting is not of the dead? What if the thoughts are alive in our heads? What if the eyes that follow me Are all the things I refuse to see? A face can change, a name can fade, A lifetime lost in the choices made. But something remains when the flesh is gone, A silent question that carries on. Instrumental – Dark melodic guitar solo, haunting keyboard textures and pounding drums Final Chorus – Powerful, soaring vocals The portrait stares, the walls collapse, The past comes crawling through the cracks. No more disguises, no more lies, No more strangers behind these eyes. The portrait stares, but now I know, The face I feared was my own shadow. And in the darkness, stripped of disguise, I finally meet the ghost inside. Outro – Soft piano, distant choir and whispered vocals The room is empty… The candle dies… The frame is broken… But the portrait… Still has its eyes.
