[Choir Chant]: O, quam timeo finem! O, quam timeo finem! [Choir Chant]: "Da mihi signum, ut adhuc ad portas caeli perveniam..." [Verse 1] He wore the collar at dawn and the black shoes in rain Blessed the bread with trembling hands while the grave kept calling his name His brother fell in an alley face-down in a stranger’s chain His mother died in the kitchen light with her rosary clenched in pain A sister bled on the roadside from a car that split like wood Each coffin nailed like a question mark inside the neighborhood [Pre-Chorus] He said, “Lord, keep the dark from my door” but the dark came in with the tide Every prayer rose thin as smoke and died before it reached the sky [Chorus] THANATOPHOBIA! It sits in the pew beside him, still The fear of death, of the Reaper Man Working on his breath against his will He’s got a priest’s hands shaking and a pulse that won’t sit down Every graveyard in his head keeps asking to be let in now [Verse 2] He buried his father at harvest time with dirt under every nail The widows sang in a lower key and the mourning wind turned pale Then fever took his youngest son in a bed of iron and ice The doctor washed his hands in silence and spoke of pills and spice He stared at the saint above the sink with cracked glass over the face How many crosses can one man carry before he loses grace? [Pre-Chorus] He kissed the ring till it burned his lip and he whispered to the rafters high “If the saints are near, let one come down and teach my heart not to hide” [Chorus] THANATOPHOBIA! It sits in the pew beside him, still The fear of death, of the Reaper Man Working on his breath against his will He’s got a priest’s hands shaking and a pulse that won’t sit down Every graveyard in his head keeps asking to be let in now [Heavy Rock Guitar Solo] [Bridge] Now every funeral feels like his own every candle a flare in the gloom He sees his family in the altar smoke and hears them move through the room Not vengeance, not scandal, not shame just the weight of a world that breaks He wants to believe in the gate of heaven but his body still shakes [Final Chorus] THANATOPHOBIA! It sits in the pew beside him, still The fear of death, of the Reaper Man Working on his breath against his will He’s got a priest’s hands shaking and a pulse that won’t sit down Every graveyard in his head keeps asking to be let in now THANATOPHOBIA! It sits in the pew beside him, still The fear of death, of the Reaper Man Working on his breath against his will He’s got a priest’s hands shaking and a pulse that won’t sit down Every graveyard in his head keeps asking to be let in now If you’re there, Lord, meet him where he stands He’s buried his blood with these same hands ...screaming at the moon at a midnight mass! [Haunting Organ] ...O, quam timeo finem! ...O, quam timeo finem! Vita mea numquam mea fuit... [Slow End]
