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Heathen Hof

by Sons of Perdition

/
1.
We summon thee in darkness We summon thee through pain We beckon thee with offerings And blood which pours like rain We summon thee in shadow We summon thee in clay We carve thy name in holy oaks That spurn the light of day We summon thee with terror We summon thee with glee We speak through bones of ancestors Called forth from their sleep We summon thee to tread again Through shadows we’ve once known We summon thee to foul the earth And render flesh from bone
2.
Beyond the reach of the fire’s cruel glow Past the fields and hedges A bellowing voice, so old and so low Calls out from shadowed legend Come thee to the old glen Where we shall dance again And when the gold morning comes Arise and shed thy skin Who shall heed that invitation To be lost in endless mists To wander eternal through circles of stone Ushered by the will-o-the-wisp Come thee to the old glen Where we shall dance again And when the gold morning comes Thy avatar transcend So huddle in fear with thy kith and thy kin In that wan circle of warmth And guard against the eerie summons That howls from flesh without form Or come thee to the old glen Where we shall dance again And when the gold morning comes Break free of the mundane
3.
O lay me not in the consecrated ground Beyond the reach of my bride’s ancient gods When I have fallen from this life Sink this old flesh into the bog O lay me not in the consecrated ground Away from the pagan arms of my love Together we shall moulder ‘neath the mire Coalescing below as once above O lay me not in the consecrated ground To suffer eternity far from my wife I should choose your flesh-consuming fire Over the promise of some endless, pointless life O lay me not in the consecrated ground Near that foul church that festers on the hill Tear it down and use the stones for weight To hold my soul against hers through winter’s chill
4.
Burning Boat 04:24
You tie my hands and bind my feet You sink me into sodden peat You call up both my ails and moans You deflesh these, my yellow bones You set me adrift on a burning boat You tighten the noose around my throat You set me adrift on a burning boat You tighten the noose around my throat You scrape and tan my leather skin You fly it in the wilting wind You toss my body in a hole You hang my carcass from a pole You eat my flesh and drink my blood You toss what’s left into the mud You burn my house and slay my kin You pay me back for my great sin You set me adrift on a burning boat You tighten the noose around my throat You set me adrift on a burning boat You tighten the noose around my throat
5.
6.
Little brownies, little brownies, your master is dead So fly down for coffee, and cake, and bread Little brownies, little brownies, your mistress has gone As the hunted doe leaves her poor yearling fawns Little brownies, little brownies, their children died too In the slavering blaze that shall soon consume you Little brownies, little brownies, the sun has sunk low The light on the ridge is the fire’s baleful glow Little brownies, little brownies, see the blood on his hands Your master has proven himself quite the man Little brownies, little brownies, do you spy their repose? In slumber they neglect the buttercup and rose Little brownies, little brownies, make haste your escape The flames clamber nearer and the hour grows late Little brownies, little brownies, follow them to the heavens All hardships behind you, eternity beckons
7.
Softly bedded down among crickets, beetles, and worms Ah not asleep, gone and not gone Clay turns to clay in the mouth of a skull In a blanched jawbone; on clavicles like native flutes Gently moldering in silence, muffled with shovels of dirt The animals know, the animals know Merciful time carefully rearranges the bones The swelling seasons do disturb and put back into place A hard rain on the roof of a grieving mourner’s shack A hard rain on the roof of a house all draped in black
8.
Choose you the fairest of beasts and of souls And lash their choice bodies to the towering maypole Maybe the gods will accept what you’re proffering Or maybe they’ll angrily spit out your offering Go dig up ancestors from weather-worn clay Venerated guests at the feast of the fey Maybe they’ll fester and maybe they’ll spoil But maybe they’ll relish manumit from the soil Go sound the horn with all the breath from your lungs From atop the sacred tree from which we were hung Maybe we’ll listen and maybe we’ll notice Or maybe we’ll shrug as we feast on the lotus My skin split and stretched and scraped smooth and clean To receive direction from a cold hand unseen The auspices read from my entrails laid bare Like a whisper that reaches through stone and through air My skull holds the elixir that ushers the shaman Through great shadowed realms to commune with the daemons My bones hollowed out and punctured with holes To sing to the gods from the depths of your souls The mad speak through omens and knuckles and blood To foretell failed crops and ruinous black floods Should you all listen and should you all fear The prophetic words of the withered old seers Maybe you’ll take heed and maybe you’ll notice Maybe wild ramblings or maybe prognosis Not that it matters, not that the gods care Whether or not you were ever even here
9.
If you stop this beating heart And plant my body deep These humours into soil seep If you then unearth my bones And find my flesh is sweet Pass it ‘round for all to eat When you all grow fatted On what rises from my grave Remember that I gladly gave Disinter me from the dirt And lay this holy clay On the altar in the cave Forsake not my vacant corpse Which slumbers in the deep And sing thee sweetly to my sleep Visit me with offerings And prayers that I may keep Or at countless bedsides shall you weep
10.

credits

released May 1, 2022

Zebulon Whatley: Words and sounds
Simon Broke: Double bass
Eli Rose: Sounds and words

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Sons of Perdition Glasgow, UK

Sons of Perdition make weird, dark music. Their seventh release, Heathen Hof, is available May 1, 2022.

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