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1.
Varuna 03:39
Our home is a jagged mouth, streaming out pleas to the dead We are misshapen teeth uprooting ourselves But we could have spent our time burying strangers instead We would've settled in and found out our names But calm your heart The dark is still the dark We'd told our sons to wait their turns, like eager months lined up in herds to age our skin and stretch us out. They never get tired of stretching us out. We read the braille with our bare feet It would not teach us how to see, But we finally realized ourselves. Varuna is counting the notches and nicks in our planks. Do we deserve the grave, or the table you set for the liars and unloving husbands and wives? They hadn't seen themselves They couldn't have known. But face that fact, Every branch you cut grows back. And we're growing into the thought that we're cast like iron, forced into these shapes.
2.
I had a lot to say before they sewed my mouth shut Out on a rosy field, between a cross and crescent I had a love so pure I had to leave her behind. I never told her why Did I ever tell myself why? I kept a steady hand as we untied the bowline, Off of a ragged pier during a grey-haired sunset. Past the old tree and the coal mine, We deserted all the burdens of the land Traded all that aging clay For the urgency and anger of the sea A hundred fading prayers sewn into woolen blankets And my father's rosary twisted around my frail uncertain wrist I'd heard a soul could float But could it swim to safety? Well I'm scared that when this ends I may not even have one at all. And you said, "I do believe that hope is just a grand distraction from the walls you will have to climb." So pick up your weeping feet and just start moving forward And don't look back to see if she's there.
3.
Sea Smoke 03:46
I drove an ancient copper thorn into your Red Indian heart Pulled the cross down and myself into a hundred weaker parts Pointed up into the cliffs, I saw the villains they became Just an angel and a lion, spitting fire in my name Won't be long We threw the Stygian hypocrites into the warmest pit of Hell Down to the violent jet-black delta where the redwoods rose and fell I painted all of man's mistakes inside a giant golden frame I was a tax collector up until the spirit spoke my name In the fog of the graying woods we'd grown We heard the cedar bulkheads moan So we replaced it with a field And now it's scraping up our heels. And I can hardly move my mouth To get these hallowed insults out Past my bear trap jaws into my wandering father's ears So I'm packing up my tattered thoughts and swallowing my prayers. And I'd been too long in a polished wooden tomb Should've left some space for you But I never got my fill of tempting fate So I sold my spine to the devil-handed dusk Finally a captain I can trust He formed a brand new trinity With the hypocrites and me.
4.
Oarsman 05:15
I woke up sweating on the moaning mount of olives My black dove penance weighing down my feather feet Woven into my skin, the covenants I'd broken My granite heart will not forget what it once was. A coffer full of your love I couldn't bear it. I don't believe I ever had a choice When the sun came up and my eyes were struck I don't believe I could've changed my mind In the dead end heat of that withered beach With my grave stone teeth and your seven shades of grief We were unleavened earth before the first unsettled word fell They drew the devil's iris in between your brows Accursed breath that left our bodies when the day broke Who built that weary wooden cabinet for your faith? All these doors I see mean nothing to me. I don't believe I ever had a choice When we lost our sight to the teething night I don't believe I could've changed my mind When the seeds were sown and then left alone How could I have known I was never on my own? Oh God, I feel like every saintly fire was my fault. That I got crossed off of the wall and my fingers all bloodied and torn and it's just a lie, a poor excuse for all the fumes that I spit out back when I was young, and god damn the truth, I was unused, an empty glass, an oarsman and no one knew my name. I am not welcome in this house I built.
5.
Back when we wore the dirt and you didn't hurt and they named constellations after us I'd heard you almost died and the fault was mine, So that day my heart became untied. But you said, "Sometimes love is all you get, So you'd better make it stretch." I believe that, I just haven't seen it yet. And I never got my way because I never saw your face Just a blue charade the shadow of a season we'd betrayed. So I'll be stored up Like a relic, healing illness from a money box. And you'll be blooming right outside and finally living all those verdant dreams that I couldn't see. We shot off all our flares as though we didn't care And watched them fade into the air. You must have known by then that all we had was spent On running from our bitter end. So we'll be sprawled out Like mosaics, filling wall space in a crumbling house Until we smoke out all the stray light And finally teach it to stay Because God knows that we need some steadying. Some day we'll be setting suns Watching everything we've done From a bed we'd shared but never had the chance to get up from. Still I never left your side because it never did feel right. I just hope you don't feel sorry for a damn thing when you die.
6.
Monologues 07:12
When day dawned, the tempest passed away and the warm sun shone out. I was caught in a sunbeam that dried my eyes closed I'll show you what it means to come home alive 'Cause I've seen the curtain fall one too many times And it's my fault. Don't let the weight shatter your shoulders Just lay it down before you forget how. When God spoke, the field was dry as day And she felt her cold hands meet I was lost in the wood grain, 'till I heard her call my name We held a funeral for the moths we'd killed, then set to work again on the ones that lived. At least we knew. Have you been kneeling here long? Shedding your youth teaching yourself not to argue You're caught in a shroud you shouldn't have found Those monologues spoiled your innocence. I swept up all your tiny fragments And spun you into thread, and dyed you gold But you never kept me warm enough to make it through a single night. So I cut you to parts, and sold you as scarves so you could go on after I was gone. When we meet again we'll be asleep underneath the flower bed. You'll tell me everything that you wished you'd done I'll wrap you in my arms and then I'll wake up But you will not. Can I finally say that I found some truth? That everything dies before I do 'Cause I've driven these stakes for all of my days Just to try and escape my uncertainty. There's nothing here to keep us from setting We're layers of paint eventually washed out.
7.
So we played our games in the dug-out graves Shouting curses at the dirt 'til the Messiah showed his face, With his soap-stone eyes and his seaweed beard and he scolded us so sharply with his winding river tongue. It was not my place to be calling names 'Cause I was the oil-spitting acid-tripping dog "I would like to see you at your worst" What's your worst? So you'll sleepwalk home in a sick moon's glow Just a lonely set of bones beside a lonely service road You will crack your skull like a rotting hull just to picture all the good you could've done yourself by picking from the tree. So I read the psalms off your painted palms and they drew a darker picture than our father would've liked. It is not your place to be digging graves Should have learned from my mistakes and left it up to fate.
8.
Greek Fire 05:41
Where have you been lying ever since the fortunes changed their minds? You're nothing but a sleeping quarry, caught up in the snares that you yourself had lain. But I am not your keeper Don't call for me when you finally realize No one's coming, so you'd better find some peace. When you wash up I will fold my hands and contemplate the ways to keep you in your place Please tell me, Why have you been mourning since the day you really met yourself? Well you and all your seething lowlife best friends were lining up like sparrows on a wire, Talking like the twelve Apostles dressed in leather, wandering the alleys, clenching your fists "Relax, it's just a business." Your Maker was a servant who plowed 'til he was swollen and fell into the ground. His phantom took the shape of your seven years of labor but you would not stay down. I couldn't get you because you got me first. You were a fixture I must have been a fool. I couldn't face you, because your face was mine. But I will be long gone before I take your side. We're nothing but receding figures robbing each other of our final thoughts.
9.
The Attic 03:57
Give weight and give woe The working man's slow for dinner we ate by the fire Some life is just so hard to let go I followed you with every movement. So what if the walls in the canyon were to crumble what if the ice froze your feet where you stand what if the stars started fleeting into darkness How would you ever find your way back? In the attic we kept your coffin very warm In the attic we kept your coffin safe and warm but we buried it before you got home. Keep all that you need just out of your reach to make sure you're still here tomorrow Those last words I spoke I knew how they'd go It was only a question of timing. Mother cried in her room, there was nothing I could do except to go and look for you But it made it so much harder because deep inside I knew that The only time we spent was in the galley, just talking about family and somehow I was meant to care for everyone and everything in the world you left. But I made it now so you won't be alone.
10.
Forget the pain you once held dear, It cannot help you here. Did it ever help you anywhere? You're kneeling on a memory, some Pyrrhic victory But could you ever be that young again? My dice are cast, I can't turn it around I've set these frames but there's no doors to fit them. Recall the way she tied that rope Was it just as you had hoped? Even though you never had a say But you missed the point 'cause you were caught in the rains that you had brought, And you could never get your color back. Our posts are placed, we can't turn that around. But I still won't breathe until I see it set in stone. And now you're filling up with shade again, and I am too After all the years of fighting it. But now I'm pretty sure that our books are bound, and we can't turn that around I built this bed but there are no sheets that fit it. And our bricks are laid, can we turn that around? I still won't breathe until you get your color back.
11.
So we were living out our days in an old abandoned palisade Sweeping chimneys 'til our backs hurt and singing 'til our throats were dry. Scraping the red from every rusty nail Stitching the carpet tears We kept our salty voices hushed You looked loveliest all dressed in dust And I cleared the cobwebs while you slept, set a fire that we'd both regret. You woke up coughing out a storm and we never made it out the door 'Cause I for one was taking my time. I think it's time you and I should come home It's been three years and I can feel it in my bones. If turning back means I'm turning back alone then I guess I'm on my own. It was six hundred degrees We had nothing to protect our feet from the glowing embers hardening our soles Our burning bed of coal But that fever that we shared wasn't nothing that we couldn't bear We just wrapped around each other and we sweated out our worst nightmares. And I think that's when I was born, in your arms during a firestorm. We were perfectly in place We were filling up the empty space. But you were tired of wasting your time. Your spirits fled from all those bad ideas we bled I twisted up all of your words And I turned to brass while you were tearing down the past Now I'm trailing I'm traveling light and losing my memory.
12.
Tanzih 04:33
My left handed heart is still painting your face over the walls of my dim mind These contrary winds hiding under my eyelids I hope I can stomach the weight. But each bristling wave is an unfinished thought, swept out of view by the next one. I've tried and I'm trying to string them together, but oh what a waste of my rope. Like a disappearing act On a lofty brown bed, treading masses of blue I started coughing up questions. There's a giant asleep under all of this water, I'm searching in vain for his name. Written on my tongue, There is none merciful but God. Iron pinned you down You were coming unstitched You were flickering and you didn't have time to ask why Something was circling our heads Was it the patron saint of death? I heard you spoke from your new grave, "There is no truth that will not fade." Well I guess you'd know better than me.
13.
Tashbih 04:42
When I was six months old there was a price upon my soul. They placed me in a basket and sent me down the rapids So all I ever knew was a wicker tomb. Please lock the door behind me Just lock the door after I go. I'm sorry for my tied tongue I'm sorry that you left alone. When I replaced the cross with monuments to what I'd lost I grew apart from myself and shook until the night fell But all I ever was was merciful. Well I never got out of those rapids We never get out of the rapids. You're still here in some way. But I couldn't have known so it's alright.

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All Songs Written & Produced by The Republic Of Wolves
Mixed & Mastered by Gregg Andrew
Cover Art by Ben Kehoe
Layout Designed by Nick Cuomo

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released November 30, 2010

The Republic Of Wolves is:
Mason Maggio
Billy Duprey
Christian Van Deurs
Gregg Andrew Dellarocca
Chris Wall

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The Republic Of Wolves New York, New York

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