Buried by ice and frost Resurrected by flame and fire Vengefully soaring across the dark skies Unfolding the rise of my empire With vehemence I spread my black wings As the skies become my throne Black storms extend across the dismal horizon The seeds of a dark age have been sown I am the overlord of this dismal wintery realm I am the winged emperor My rise shall mark the dawn of the apocalypse The coming age of sorrow and of war From centuries deep in slumber I have awakened And with vehemence I shall tear their world apart I gaze at the landscapes below Shadowed by the spread of my wings I gaze toward the sky and behold A blackened moon rising A sign that I shall conquer A sign of the coming dissolution Of the coming ravage --- --- --- --- The sun refuses to shine bright in its presence As its colossal wings spread to the Earth’s corners Unfolding the burning fate of our dismal world As all empires collapse into the churning seas

Wallowing in the catacombs of a forgotten mountainous abyss The skies have darkened The soils have frozen As I’m left forsaken in this sunless, graceless winter A dismal haze has consumed the aura of the entire world As all familiar deeds and patterns have become unfruitful Strangely emptied of all value As if all meaning to this existence has vanished Into the eyes of a dark Herald which calls me forth The dark ghost who’s haunted my worst dreams Holding the key to a destiny where the golden dawn awaits Awaiting beyond the deadly Labyrinth The ghastly forests, the black horizon before me, The dark deities, ultimately bearing the eternal light The distant land where the sun shines once more: Manifestations of the primeval Calling, that which calls me forth …That which calls me forth…. My spiritual center of gravity has shifted As I embark upon this ultimate voyage A shift from the mundane world to a zone unknown Guided by the ancient threshold guardian This story has been told before, thousands of years prior And thousands of years hence it shall be told evermore For it is the story of our roots, the story of our ancestors The story of man’s evolution The story of every myth told upon this Earth And thus I embark! And thus I embark! And thus I embark! I am Stratorus! (to be continued)

Roaming and treading through labyrinthian valleys With burning torch in hand traversing lands older than time Consumed by abysmal forests, ageless and boundless Dark is the path upon which my burning torch shines An unending voyage Across horizons cold and desolate Towards the kingdoms far beyond this abysmal world Where the sun shines once more Adorned with the armor and amulets Forged and granted by an Earth Goddess That shall protect and guide me Through the tumultuous paths of the nightside Echoing are the distant cries of a civilization I have left behind The kingdom of the lost ancestral star I yearn and seek to find An ancient, glorious light that has nourished the strongest and bravest Now gone from a world consumed by the petrifying void A journey beyond the wasteland I once called Home To retrieve the fallen sun god beyond the unknown Into the labyrinth Devouring mind and soul Nigh is the underworld Null and void is the light of grace The skies grow dimmer and dimmer But the void shall not consume me The venomous auras of my homeland I have left far behind eternally Walking through the obsidian gates With fury in heart and weapon in hand Falling through darker layers of time and space Engulfed by hellish and baneful shadowlands Towards the ethereal light faintly shining in the west A light embraced by those who’ve walked this treacherous path Covered with the thorns of creatures who dare not let me pass Tonight I go as nemesis bearing cataclysmic wrath Amidst a dark lost world I search For purpose, answer, and meaning Riding death’s wings through endless darkness Seeking the sun of the morning… In the darkness of this labyrinth I have found that I have fallen prey To an ancient spell of its ancient currents Knowing what I’ve harvested is a fate worse than death Still, onwards I march with an opened heart Through the labyrinthian valleys Guided by the flame of ominous deities As I hunt by dusk, and sleep by dawn Through the remains of my ancestors’ cities Along rivers cold as ice A journey beyond the wasteland I once called Home A journey to retrieve our fallen sun The call I have answered, so it shall be written This quest to the primal depths of existence Across the primeval threshold Into the hungry abyss Bearing cataclysmic wrath Tonight I go as nemesis

The path goes ever on and on Into the vast forests beyond For years I’ve lingered, but tonight I shall no more My yearning for the lands of gold has won As the skies grow dimmer And resounds the evening bells The time has come for me to depart The time has come for me to bid farewell The night is upon us, and the endless forlorn paths Of this vast middle earth beckon me Into their grasp Treading on uncharted soils Towards the lonely mountain Far beyond the world of the shire Far over the misty mountains COLD! (Riffs and lyrics originally created in 2015)