1. |
Calluses
03:52
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I set my skin against the steel
It writes the song that my soul feels
The viciousness of flesh against the strings*
The struggling that taught my soul to sing
With my hands I'll forge the voice of the insane and the unsafe
I'll be ripping through the steel until it breaks
This rough skin, you can never wear it thin
Calluses hammer, bend, and tell it like it is
It's all this friction that leaves you thick-skinned
And still we press on with conviction
Because the darkest day is when you learn to play the blues**
Enduring all things and rejoicing with the truth***
So when the music fades and all is striped away****
This song within remains
With my hands I'll forge the voice of the insane and the unsafe
I'll be ripping through the steel until it breaks forth into praise
This rough skin, you can never wear it thin
Calluses hammer, bend, and tell it like it is
(Guitar solo – Maxwell Kozen)
In the skin that's broken, scarred, and torn
You'll find the place where strength is born
For new life came to human flesh
The day that blood was shed
This is how my hope sings
Saviour, take these six strings
This rough skin, you can never wear it thin
Calluses hammer, bend, and tell it like it is
* - Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky, 9-46 gauge in this case.
** - Both literally and figuratively.
*** - 1 Corinthians 13:6-7.
**** - “The Heart Of Worship” - Matt Redman, 1998.
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2. |
Shadow Ocean Stagnant
03:41
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Fall in the maw of slumber
You let your soul be taken
Death walk your own penumbra
The haven of mistaken
Becoming just a fragment of who you really are
The shadow ocean stagnant has let you sink so far
Woah, it’s swallowing you whole
And you’re becoming what you’d never known
And now you’ve lost control
The sludgy tide of shadow slow seeps into your mind
The oceanic pressure erodes your will in time
Your virtue is enraptured by the deceptive deep
It hypnotized your purpose and lulled your love to sleep
Woah, it’s swallowing you whole
And you’re becoming what you’d never known
And now you’ve lost control
Wake up, O sleeper*
As light begins to spill
Wake up, O sleeper
The light is deeper still**
(Guitar solo – Maxwell Kozen)
Wake up!
Woah, it’s*** swallowing you whole
And you’re becoming what you’d never known
And now you’ve lost control
Now you've lost control
* - Ephesians 5:14
** - Betsie ten Boom to her sister Corrie, just prior to her death. Ravensbrück Nazi concentration camp, Northern Germany, Dec 16, 1944. See "The Hiding Place".
*** - That is, the Light, no longer the shadow.
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3. |
Break The Floor
04:28
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How can you stand on sinking sand
When you’ve been given solid land?
Your wonderless, immobile feet
Resign themselves ever to sink
All your axioms of oblivion*
Paralyzing the joy that we would sing
I won’t suffer this unholy** war of yours
Tonight we break the floor
Shatter the prison doors
Tonight we break the floor
Can’t hold back anymore
Tonight we break the floor
We drop the beat and you won’t dance
Sad songs we grieve and you won’t cry***
Fragmented, disembodied life****
No wonder you can’t sympathize
But if we don’t shout, all the stones cry out
So I’ll give you one last chance
To use your feet for what they were made for
Tonight we break the floor
Shatter the prison doors
Tonight we break the floor
Can’t hold back anymore
Tonight we break the floor
(Get up and move your feet, come on let’s go!)
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!^
Tonight we break the floor
Shatter the prison doors
Tonight we break the floor
Can’t hold back anymore
Tonight we break the floor
* - Proto-Gnosticism of the 1st century, merging dualistic Greek metaphysics into an otherwise earthy and organic Hebrew view of the human person.
** - Spirit of Antichrist, viz 1 John 4:2-3.
*** - Matt 11:17, paraphrased
**** - A second reference to Gnosticism
^ - Psalm 150
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4. |
From Heaven
04:58
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So bright, she’s the dark light* that awakened me
She’s a shadow, she’s as radiant as day
Shadowed underneath her wings of soaring melody
Secret angel**, with a message saving me
A sweetness that’s this deep is far from quaint
The lion may be good but He’s not tame***
When you see her face she’ll say “don’t be afraid”****
Her brightness blinds you but your eyes can’t look away
And her glow proves that she’s not just one of us
She’s from heaven but she’s oh so dangerous
“Breathe”, she tells me, “take a burst of bravery”
Wings on my feet, gaining speed and unafraid
She propels me fearlessly to destiny^
Living too fast for shame to make us hesitate
A sweetness that’s this deep is far from quaint
The lion may be good but He’s not tame
When you see her face she’ll say “don’t be afraid”
Her brightness blinds you but your eyes can’t look away
And her glow proves that she’s not just one of us
She’s from heaven but she’s oh so dangerous
And we live fast, so fast
Nothing can stop us now
‘Cause we live fast, so fast
Not slowing down
(Guitar solo – Maxwell Kozen)
And we live fast, so fast
Nothing can stop us now
‘Cause we live fast, so fast
Not slowing down
(Guitar solo – Jericho Leal)
* - Ecclesiastes 7:15-18
** - That is, it is not well known that this human individual is an “angel”, and may well be commonly thought to be quite the opposite.
*** - Amalgamated paraphrase of Mr. Beaver and Lucy Pevensie, referring to Aslan – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
**** - Multiple instances of angelic appearances in the New Testament begin with the angel reassuring the human party to not be afraid.
^ - Men should not be afraid to be inspired by, influenced by, and instructed by women.
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5. |
Undercurrent
04:27
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Today I watched a day go sailing by
A look of longing in tomorrow’s eyes
For yesterday
I chased it desperately at anchor speed
And let my rudder tangle in the weeds
Then night fell on the sea
And my ship sank
The stars are swept out of their place
While I just watch them flee
It’s like the heavens rushing over me
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
Time like a torrent starts to pour
Faster than I can see
I feel my shadows catching up to me
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
Do you feel time pull like the undertow?
The dread of everything that dwells below?
It’s bottomless
I see the lights from where I want to be
I feel the gravity that still impedes
But just you wait and see
I’ll cut through it*
The stars are swept out of their place
While I just watch them flee
It’s like the heavens rushing over me
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
Time like a torrent starts to pour
Faster than I can see
I feel my shadows catching up to me
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
(Guitar solo - Maxwell Kozen)
You took the anchor’s bait
Clinging on to doubt’s dead weight
You** could have walked on waves
The stars are swept out of their place
While I just watch them flee
It’s like the heavens rushing over me***
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
Time like a torrent starts to pour
Faster than I can see
I feel my shadows catching up to me
I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m gonna find my way from this
Undercurrent
* - Our hero has just begun to see Invisible things all around.
** - Someone not entirely unlike St. Peter.
*** - The sky and sea have become one as the world unravels.
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6. |
Altikale Reign Ethereal
09:51
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Have you been told your dreams are nothing
That colours lost their war with grey?
The ancient cornerstones are crumbling
Foundations eroding away?*
Love comes enraged to see these lies erased
The source of dreams will glow forever
He paints with light and brand new days
And spins a whirlwind through the river
Uniting deserts with the reign⊕
The waters sang and harmonized with flame
And colours** graced your eyes to call your name
And now no distance is too far to fetch a dream
When nothing turns out to be quite what it had seemed
Because we press towards our hope with faith
And hope does not put us to shame***
We’ll dream our dreams with eyes awake
With eyes awake
(Guitar solos by Jericho Leal and Maxwell Kozen)
The flight, the flood, the flame
They have called your name
Warrior etherealΘ – forge your blade
Child of creation – keep the faith
River winder – press toward your upward calling
Mortal⊕ come choose life
Call dawn to end the night⊕
To shed new light on landscapes⊗ crumbling
Yield⊕ up every doubt that holds you
Sail⊕ the sky and breathe beyond the blue^
(Piano interlude by Sidone Harrison, Guitar solo by Maxwell Kozen)
* - Altikale is extremely isolated, though not uninhabited.
** - The angel saw that our hero was finally ready.
*** - Romans 5:5
Θ - Ethereal only by virtue of his calling, not his nature.
⊕ - The Captain Ethereal EP – Maxwell Kozen, 2013.
⊗ - No Orphan EP – Maxwell Kozen, 2013.
^ - Swim beyond the sky and breathe in the midst of the heavens.
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KOZEN Toronto, Ontario
KOZEN is a genre-bending progressive metal band from Toronto, Canada.
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