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The Absence of Light

from Atlas Ruinica by The Wise Man's Fear

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  • SIGNED ATLAS RUINICA VINYL
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    Copy of our 2023 release Atlas Ruinica, signed by all members of the band. The disc is an orange-on-black burst color design and comes in a full-color jacket

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about

The Absence of Light - After long months of evading capture at the hands of the Ptolemaic Kings, Elise finally makes it to a mysterious glacier in the northernmost tip of Norway, as marked by the coordinates from the envelope. She arrives during the depths of the winter solstice and sneaks onto the glacier under the cover of polar night where she spies on chanting robed figures initiating a ritual around a deep crevasse.
As the ritual reaches its zenith, the crevasse begins to glow with an internal light as a portal materializes. Waiting until the perfect moment to strike, Elise leaps from her hiding place on the glacier and shoulders her way past the cultists, throwing herself into the portal. Behind her on the surface of the glacier she hears a scream of blood-curdling rage as a couple of the cultists reel from her hit and the portal is temporarily broken just after she passes through.

Although it takes a few moments for the cultists to reopen the portal, the leader of the Ptolemaic Kings dives through the gateway after Elise as soon as it reappears…
The track title is a reference to the polar night in the far north during the winter solstice
The chant section when played backwards says “Portal open, eld awaken”
There is a reference to the sails of Theseus unfurling, alluding to the Greek tale of the ship that was replaced piece by piece until it was no longer its true self. The Ptolemaic Kings have become lost along the way in their search for vindication and power, abandoning the principles they once claimed.

lyrics

Stumbling
Through a land shrouded in mystery
Vile blackness spun from spurs of glacial nights
I push past the waters that have festered here
Bathed in blighted sunless light

So build a castle or a coffin
You’ll rest the same each way
Hellish cry of a black dominion
Waiting its fateful day
The being which we herald will move the sun
To rise on
The age of Iron Hatred

You might hear the most terrible sounds
In the Absence of Light

Through blackened eons we sing
And forge the bindings to bring
The songs of the ancient powers
The waking of Elders

Lost in the land of shadows
Breaking their slumbers
Falling through the dire barrows

The ground begins to break
Exposing a new way out

Nek Ahweh Dleh Nhep Oh Lhat Rohp
Nek Ahweh Dleh Nhep Oh Lhat Rohp
Nek Ahweh Dleh Nhep Oh Lhat Rohp
Nek Ahweh Dleh Nhep Oh Lhat Rohp

Lost deep in shadows that time forgot
Wandering where the sun cannot

Through the uncounted black eons we sing
In these godless voices the songs that will bring
The binding of Elders, the rending of worlds
With dark winds in the sails of Theseus unfurled

We have survived countless centuries in mire
Holding our torch and feeding the power
No more hiding from the light

Through blackened eons we sing
And forge the bindings to bring
The songs of the ancient powers
The waking of Elders

Lost in the land of shadows
Breaking their slumbers
Falling through the dire barrows

The ground begins to break
Exposing a new way out

The dire barrows have me stumbling
Through a land shrouded in mystery
Vile blackness spun from spurs of glacial nights
I push past the waters that have festered here
Bathed in blighted sunless light

credits

from Atlas Ruinica, released January 13, 2023

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