1. I Open Up My Eyes

The shadows dancing by the candle light
The walls are bleeding
I hear the sound of flies
The clock spins backward
But the pendulum is still
An antique violin laying on the shelf

I open up my eyes
I open up my eyes
Faint echoes left behind
Resounding in my mind
I open up my eyes

I feel a chill
I hear a rap-tap-tapping on the window
The bangs and clangs of chains
I fear them
Hear them drag in the shadows

An antique record player turned on by itself
And then the violin fell down from the shelf
The door swung open
But there was nobody there
A young girls laughter and a creaking on the stair

I open up my eyes
I open up my eyes
Faint echoes left behind
Resounding in my mind
I open up my eyes

I feel a chill
I hear a rap-tap-tapping on the window
The bangs and clangs of chains
I fear them
Hear them drag in the shadows

I woke up by her, still the dead of night
(I didn't know where I was)
Her arms around me while her nails dug at my heart
(It felt so real)
She twirled her fingers while she made a hissing sound
At first quite lovely but now growing much too loud

I open up my eyes
I open up my eyes
Faint echoes left behind
Resounding in my mind
I open up my eyes

Wake up
It's only a dream
Wake, you must awaken my dear
You mussn't be late for the train
Wake up my dear
Everyone's already here
Wake, open your eyes
We're waiting for you to arrive
Wake up my dear
Wake up!

2. The Sound Of Flies

At the train station waiting for my ride
There's a man, standing, eyes completely white

Staring at me, just staring at me

When my train arrived
He followed me inside
The smell of cigarettes and something that has died
Sat right beside me (I didn't say a word)
Right beside me

He turned his head, then he said
I brought a message from the dead
From his mouth, open wide
Came the sound of flies

Screaming like a thousand cries
Watching with a thousand eyes
Pounding wings that haunt my dreams
Swarming with the sound of flies

At my destination
I felt relief in sight
As I stood to leave
I turned to say good-bye
Nobody was there
Nobody was there
But I can't forget that stare
Was anyone there?

Screaming like a thousand cries
Watching with a thousand eyes
Pounding wings that haunt my dreams
Swarming with the sound of flies

3. Ghostride

As I step down to the platform from the train
Trying to shake off what I may or may not have just seen
I must have been asleep (Where did I sleep last night?)
It must have been a dream
No way that could have been
No matter, never mind

As I'm walking out to a dimly lit street
(Seems so familiar)
There's a taxi standing, waiting with the back door open
I told him where I'm going
He said "I already know
Get in and close the door
We'll take the scenic ride

Yeah, I know where I'm taking you to
The guests, they await you
They've waited so long for this day
The ride's not a long way"

Something inside me drawing me, guiding me
Something alive clawing me, biting me
Something that hides right here beside me
Just like the strange man sitting here driving me
Watch from the inside of black, empty spaces
Reach out from all dark places
Dragging their fingers on innocent faces
They reach for me
Calling me... holding me... taking me

Killer
Taker
Time to face your maker
Killer inside of me
Taking a bite of me

Laying his sight on me
Dragging me
Pulling me down

"I'm not sure if you ever knew
The house that awaits you
Has suffered from many had dreams
Some still remain

Some come in chains, some come without
Some of them only at night they come out
Where they stalk all the hallways, stairways, doorways
Keep them all closed by they'd only find more ways
To seek you, find you
Walk right behind you
Get under your skin and get into your mind
And you can't get them out
You scream and you shout till you cannot take
Cannot take
Cannot take anymore"

Killer
Taker
Time to face your maker
Killer inside of me
Taking a bite of me
Laying his sight on me
Dragging me
Pulling me down

"You walk from here just down the way
To the house that is dark gray
No need to pay for the ride
They've paid me for one way"

4. Welcome

"Welcome here to our home
we've been waiting for you
Everybody here has just been dying to meet you"

As I cross the doorsteps to this house
There's something so familiar
As I cross the doorstep to this house
I realize I'm dreaming again

"Come now, the guests await
Step right this way
Come on
Hope you enjoy your stay
Step right this way
Come on

May I introduce you to the people?
Good friends
Some of them come a long way
Some have waited a long time"

As I cross the doorstep to this house
There's something so familiar
As I cross the doorstep to this house
I realize I'm dreaming again

"Come now, the guests await
Step right this way
Come on
Hope you enjoy your stay
Step right this way
Come on

On this wall in the hallway many paintings hang here
Portraits of the stories how these people came here"

As I pass the portrait of a girl
She's really too familiar
As I pass the portrait of this girl
I realize I'm dreaming again

"Right down across the way is the room you'll stay
Come on
But if you've got the time
I"ll tell you this rhyme about her

I'll tell you a story that's about that girl
I'll tell you the story about the violin girl"...

5. By The Crossroads

...She's waiting by the crossroads
Where the locust sing
Waiting for the black hand
To tuner her violin string

Tune it down low
She waits for the hand of the shadows
To tune it down low

She sits down and lights up a candle
Lights a stick of her favorite incense
Pulls out a small piece of paper
Burns the edge (for effects)
Then begins writing

The case with her violin lay at her side
In dust like a coffin
A stranger who's died
She looks to the skyline
No one in sight
But that howl in the distance says
She's not alone here tonight

...She's waiting by the crossroads
Where the locust sing
Waiting for the black hand
To kiss his ring
She heard that if she'd wait there on a moonless night
She could make a bargain 'neath the starlight

Tune it down low
She waits for the hand of the shadows
To tune it down low

She slips her pen back to her pocket
Folds up her secret and thinks for a while
Holds the edge right to the candle
Watches it burn all the way to her fingers

Hour after hour she waited alone
Haunted by feelings of dread for the dawn
That howl in the distance has faded away
But the song of the locust continues to play

The candle is failing
The incense is gone
Thinking that maybe she's waited too long
Time moved so slowly, to pass it away
She took out her violin and started to play
Out of the quiet, stunned and amazed
By the elegant grace of each note that she phrased
It rose and it fell and it danced and it whirled
The strings 'neath her fingers about to unfurl
Her heart filled with laughter
Her eyes filled with tears
This mantra, symphony nobody, nobody
Will ever hear

6. Selebrate

Soon we made our way
To the place the people came to celebrate
Smile as I pass by
Raise their drinks, congratulate me, shake my hand

Far away I heard a violin playing
A woman in the distance gently swaying

The way that lady played
She conveyed her every feeling with her song
And my, how she filled the room
Sweet perfume could not possess
The air in quite this way

She danced about the people while she's playing
Everybody laughing, dancing, singing

The sound she made was simply mesmerizing
The look she gave, no less that crucifying

As the music played
Like a snake of fine silk and black smoke
She began my way
The closer she wandered near
I could hear the faint sound of rattles shaking

When her eyes met mine I recognized her
The woman from the painting...
Yes, she looked just like her

7. Snakeskin

Dressed in snake skin as she coiled next to me
Showed me something that I knew I should never see
Cold like snakes breath as her lips approach my ear
Told me something that I knew I should never hear

"This house behind the black veil
Dead wood hung with casket nails
Someone has followed you here
Some secret... some lie... some fear
There's no death from this life
There is no death from this life"

Wearing snake skin as she coiled next to me
Wearing fake skin, pushed her poison straight into me

"Sweet life behind the black veil
The howls and the wretched wails
I've come to welcome you here
In the house made of secrets, shadows, fears
Do death from this life
There is no death from this life
It's a mystery no more, no"
I'm not afraid, no
"Tomorrow is always one day away
But it's never here, oh, yesterday is gone

Come, follow behind the black veil
Where the Devil comes to shed his scales
Someone is waiting inside
Your mother, your sister, your child, your bride"

Slow she slithered as she tunneled down below
Led me somewhere that I knew I should never go

8. Sleepwalking

"Last night I heard you
Opening doors and rattling chains, angel
Last night I heard you
Tapping your nails on the window pain, angel"

Nightmare I cannot escape, shake my head but I'm awake
Cut myself, hurt myself, I'm sleepwalking

"Last night I saw you
Stepping on glass and leaving no trace, angel
Like a spider creeping through the crack
In the wall of a lonely place, angel"

Follow every step I take, stranger I cannot forsake
Shake myself, can't wake myself, I'm sleepwalking

In the corner of my eye... moving, shifting
A figure dressed in white... floating, drifting

"Last night I touched you
As you turned to hide your crying face, angel
Last night I felt you
As you held me in your cold embrace, angel"

Dream from which I can't awake
Witches spell i cannot break
Scratch myself, bleed myself
I'm sleepwalking

In the corner of my eye... moving, shifting
A figure dressed in white... floating, drifting
Gone before the time I turn my head
I swear I hear her voice calling me

9. The Black Cradle

I follow her down a stairwell to a cold and dim lit hall
To the last door on the left side
She pushed the key in the hole
Then she said such a strange thing
turned the key and then she said
"We must both keep our voices low
Quiet like the dead, like the dead"
I walked with her through a creaking door
To a cold and dim lit room, pictures of herself
Upon her shelf, where the incense burned
Then I noticed her violin
She shook her head to me and she said
"We must both keep the sound down low
Quiet like the dead, like the dead"
She led me into a small room
Strange handprints on the walls
There was a big black cradle
She says don't rock anymore
Then she reached for the black veil
Turned her head to me and she said
"We must both keep our voices low
Quiet like the dead
We must both keep the sound down low
Quiet like the dead"
She threw the black veil open
As I stepped to look inside
I opened up the cask
Looked beyond the mask and I saw myself
My God, I saw myself!

10. A Candle In The Gallery

...So I ran for the door but it closed in front of me
The handle locked, but she handed me the key
"Only you can unlock it now" she said and stepped away
And I remember thinking
What a strange, strange thing to say
i turned the key into the door and gazed onto the dark
She handed me a candle which she lit without a spark
So I stepped into the long, long pitch dark hall
The candle burned so dim I had to feel along the wall
The dim glow flickered as I felt m way ahead
A splinter from a picture frame pierced me, and I bled
I moved the candle closer, close enough to see
The painting of that woman smiling back at me
I examined it much closer noticed what I had not before
The date read "In the year of our lord 1854"
Suddenly a draft of cold blew the candle out
So down the black I felt my way about
Then up ahead, up ahead I could vaguely hear
The sounds of song and laughter
People in good cheer
My fingers brushing canvases, picture frames and stone
Then I felt something that chilled me to the bone
The final painting had not yet time to dry
And the door creaked open and let in a crack of light
She stood there in the doorway
She said "Now you finally see"
She pointed at the portrait
And I saw, my God... it was me
It was me

11. A Symphony Of Shadows

We like to welcome you to your home
Welcome to your home
Welcome to your home please step inside

Time to meet the guests of this place
I was a play-write screen and stage
i was a star of style and grace
We were the ones who packed 'em into the place
I am the composer of this symphonatic psychopathic show

right this way, come meet the band
Players of my requiem, here come the dancers
The jugglers and the clowns are at the door

Welcome to our celebration
Sing rejoices in desolation
Join us in our grand creation
Drink sweet wine, sublime salvation

This night the moon and skies don't shine
All the friends you knew before, no longer, anymore
The smell of flowers all around
The taste of ash and sacred ground stains your tongue
But hush, hush

You had your money, your women, your fame
Yous tuck it all into your veins
Till you slipped from your mortal remains
Now, sing for me, sing to me
Now you're the star of the show once again
You're meat to the jackals my friend
Just meat to the jackals, meat to the jackals

You're fit for your shackles, aye?

"Shhh! Listen
The master of the house is coming through the door"

So we meet at last my friend, I've waited for this day
To welcome you in person to this house that you must stay
We prepared a long time and we've gone to great expense
To orchestrate, negotiate your form of recompense
Now come on!

I see the morning sun is rising in the wide blue heavens
The dew of morning sparkles on the grassy way
Through the mist I see that all my friends are gathered
They're standing, staring at a grave

And he can hear them...

Farewell my dear one, farewell my dear one
Goodbye my love
I hope that you don't find this in bad taste
Counting the house and the wide estate
Let the accountants calculate
The money in the bank account he's saved
Think of all the royalties that this is sure to generate
Take the clothes to West L.A.
Sell them all to that Rock Cafe"
Sell the cars, the old guitars, the family scars
And throw the rest away

The guest surround him
Leading him from the curtain back to the ballroom...

Welcome to our celebration
Sing rejoice in desolation
(Now that you're finally come home)
Join us in our grand creation
Drink sweet wine sublime salvation