Headquake (1996)
Tracklist
1. Ghoulish Gift2. The Last Embrace
3. Lord Of An Empty Place
4. Sometimes In Winter
5. At The Restless Sea
6. Salome's Dance
7. Erase
8. The Quest(ion)
9. Clockwork Bed
10. Dawn Of The Dying
GHOULISH GIFT
Lost moons of regrets
The latest full of secrets
Air scents of love
Peace faith and warmth
A wax temple priestess
Tempting sweet kisses…
When someone calls
Behind a ghostly post less door
Shocking hurtful sight
Wide open bleeding eyes
Snakes creep inside
Wrapping my mind
Quiet down! The heart sound
Shake down! Hell bound
Sad timeless trip
Dark wavering poetry
Bring me back again
Those ghouls from the past
Soundless screams and shouts
Someone get them out!
No way to free me myself
I’m chained to an endless past
Shocking hurtful sight
Wide open bleeding eyes
Snakes creep inside
Wrapping my mind
Quiet down! The heart sound
Shake down! Hell bound
THE LAST EMBRACE
Deadly hatred deceitful lies
This plague is carved in my brain
Burn low! Burn alive!
Thoughts are corroding my bones
Nailed on a cross, I’m paralyzed
I see my faith collapse,
Paint my eyes, draw my mouth
On a mirror that hides my mask
I lied in silence
Stemmed my passions
Whatever happens, will you
Embrace me again?
Lying in silence
Waiting breathless
All of a sudden it may even be the last
Some black shades obscure the sunrise
Clouds… rain… a foreboding!
He used to spy me behind a clay wall
When I slept in a bed of thorns
I lied in silence
Stemmed my passions
Whatever happens, will you
Embrace me again?
Lying in silence
Waiting breathless
All of a sudden it may even be the last
I face myself
One day will you embrace me again?
Tonight I’ll cry
Next time over the clouds of the world
I will smile
LORD OF AN EMPTY PLACE
I’m here in
I’m living
I’m dreaming
But you can’t see me at all
I’m walking close to the wall
I’m here in
My breathing is my screaming
A half conceal look’s my boldest
Approach to you
I talk barely
I wake up early
8 hours fairly
with spiders of silent pain
weaving cold webs in my brain
I hold on still I long
For the dusk to come
Like after the longest war
A knight on his way home
Lord of an empty place
Reign of one alone
Sham is the only home
I’m feeling friendly
I’m feeling my own
Lord of an empty place
Reign of chill and ghosts
Stage with the curtain down
Where I play the main role
But no one’s there to applaud
I’ve grown old
Though my world’s so cold
Since i fold myself round an icy core
I don’t know what I’m living for
If only I’d showed you
How much I loved you
I’d be lord in real world too
A king for the time with you
Lord of an empty place
Reign of one alone
Sham is the only home
I’m feeling friendly
I’m feeling my own
Lord of an empty place
Reign of chill and ghosts
Stage with the curtain down
Where I play the main role
But no one’s there to applaud
Take a bow, a roaring crowd
Walls come crashing down
Raise your eyes
And find you’re just all alone
Lord of an empty place
Reign of one alone
Open or closed it be
No one at the window
No one knocking at the door
Lord of an empty place
Reign of chill and ghosts
Stage with the curtain down
Where I play the main role
But no one’s there to applaud
SOMETIMES IN WINTER
Now my eyes start to smile again
You can’t try, can’t understand
Leave me in my world
I know my god is cold
Can’t stand the heat, never had much fun
Here it comes my winter sun
You can’t see it bright
In my own feelings he rises
My only winter, you keep my
Desires alive
My endless winter, confine me
Inside your light
In this garden of Eden I live again
Reassured by hope from my failings born
Walking on my illusions I breathe the end
How many flowers will die?
Got a soul forever doomed to escape
Wandering through a landless path
Rain on my better self
A rose will bloom from my ashes
My only winter, you keep my
Desires alive
My endless winter, confine me
Inside your light
My only winter, you keep my
Desires alive
My endless winter, confine me
Inside your light
In this river my nightmares scatter and drown
I fell free in this higher ground
Swimming in my illusions, lost in the dark
Where the sky shines black for my eyes
AT THE RESTLESS SEA
Here comes the rain
On fenced courtyards
Here comes the shade
On dead-end ways
Here comes the grey
To dim the colors
Here comes the cold
To wake the pain
It’s hard to live in silent corners
Weary leaves
And crooked stalks
Flowers bow
Towards the light
So I do
Out of shape, out of sight
Calm! It’s alright they say
Calm! you’re straight on your way out
Calm’s the last thing I feel
’cause what is too calm seems to be unreal
Yet down inside
Seas are raging
One tear and hell shall burst
Cold tearing and grey as lead
I push it back as I bend my head
And keep on standing
If I’m here tomorrow, God, don’t let it be raining
An abandoned bone
Lone, dead, shabby
One doomed man
Who can’t give up
One crooked flower
That still wants to live
I clutch at my last hour
At the restless sea
Calm! It’s alright they say
Calm! you’re straight on your way out
Calm’s the last thing I feel
’cause what is too calm seems to be unreal
Yet down inside
Seas are raging
One tear and hell shall burst
Cold tearing and grey as lead
I push it back as I bend my head
And keep on standing
If I’m here tomorrow, God, don’t let it be raining
Calm! It’s alright they say
Calm! you’re straight on your way out
Calm’s the last thing I feel
’cause what is too calm seems to be unreal
Yet down inside
Seas are raging
One tear and hell shall burst
Cold tearing and grey as lead
I push it back as I bend my head
And keep on standing
Though I know well there’s no way back in
And the world outta here keeps on turning
Am I too far behind?
I raise my hands but can’t say farewell
Just as long as tides keep on turning
Until tomorrow if there’s tomorrow for me… to live
SALOME’S DANCE
Sway and dance girl, spread your glamour
I’ll draw the curtains, I just can’t see
Make a move, the wax will melt
Speak one word to cast a spell
Queen of sin pull your veils off
Sway and strip and I’ll obey
A demonstration of veneration on the silver tray, yeah!
All you wish is what I would die hard for
I’d sell my life to win the sweetest battle
Praying mantis kills after loving
I see you as the princess of beauty and lust
Play the nun with red painted nails
Changing into a tart veil after veil
A demonstration of my devotion on the
Silver tray yeah!
All you wish is what I would die hard for
I’d disobey and pick the sweetest apple
All you ask is what I will get hold of
I would deny a friend for every veil you slide down
Beads of sweat on your body I’ll drown in
The river I’ll be baptized in
,,…into temptation, but deliver us from evil
…Amen”
Sway and strip and I’ll obey
A demonstration of veneration on the silver tray, yeah!
All you wish is what I would die hard for
You can dance on the hair of men
Whose heads I’ve struck off
All you ask is what you get hold of
I can behead a friend for every veil you
Slide down
All you wish… all die for.. all for you ask… for
Every veil you slide down
ERASE
Night by night I hear a rending cry
Always restrained by the black
Day by day the rosy-fingered light
Wakes me and opens cracked paths
Just keep away! Cracks will open wide!
Nine o’clock the sky is turning red
Look above to see hell
God extract my heart from the flames
This is your son, let it beat again
Behind the belfry prayers around a cradle
Over the empty eyes
Erase!!
Oldest hope rendered by a cancer
Pieces beg for your mercy
Frosty drop of a bloody rain
Pushes deeply in my deadly flesh
Behind the belfry prayers around a cradle
Over the empty eyes
Erase! A hopeless life
Erase! The time to come
Deny! My dawn gone by
The door is approaching, the voices are calling
Fixing the cross on your breast I realize
Behind the belfry prayers around a cradle
Over the empty eyes
Erase! a hopeless life
Erase! The time to come
Deny! My dawn gone by
The door is approaching, the voices are calling
Fixing the cross on your breast I realize
THE QUEST(ION)
As twilight died
Blazing through a mountain wood
I ran away by faith in a burning flame in vain!
When you think you know the way
To reach the place without a name
You just can’t wait
Scared, in despair
A girl appeared in white clothes
And lighting up a trail up the slope (said:)
,,Try and fly to the sky”
a house stood high
Ten floors to climb
I think I saw a million traces there
And I went up the stairs
No one anywhere
Only empty chairs…
But a lady in bed
Once she said
,, If when I’m dead I stay alive
I’ll kiss your hand like a butterfly”
I saw her lying in bed
As pale as death
To an end had come her life
I felt her soul was still inside
Scared, in despair
A girl appeared in white clothes
And lighting up a trail up the slope (said:)
,,Try and fly to the sky”
a house stood high
Ten floors to climb
I think I saw a million traces there
And I went up the stairs
No one anywhere
Only empty chairs…
But a lady in bed
Once she said
,, If when I’m dead I stay alive
I’ll kiss your hand like a butterfly”
I saw her lying in bed
As pale as death
To an end had come her life
I felt her soul was still inside
I saw a lady in bed
Once she said
,, If when I’m dead I stay alive
I’ll kiss your hand like a butterfly”
I found her lying in bed
As pale as death
To an end had come her life
I felt she kept her soul inside
CLOCKWORK BED
I laid bare all my charming lies
We played there, tied to another time
We were always ready for the next dive
But this game is straight on a dead end climb
Imagination projecting pictures of the past
My consolation in a handful of seconds
Time won’t sponge and clean my anger
Future won’t wipe my tears
Time won’t send me an angel
Lonely soul devoid of love
Shine inside… inside a coated dream
Naked vice in your catching side
I fill the apple, lessen my disease
Seeds of rage will claim the right to cry
Imagination conceived in a silent boredom
From a explosion, my surrender… your survival!
Time won’t sponge and clean my anger
Future won’t wipe my tears
Time won’t send me a angel
Lonely soul devoid of love
LINE-UP
Terence Holler: lead & backing vocals
Eugene Simone: guitar & backing vocals
Oleg Smirnoff: synthezisers, piano, FXs
Martin Kyhn: bass, backing vocals
Adriano Dal Canto: drums
CREDITS
Headquake is dedicated to the memory of Luigi Tarantola (1940-1995)
All Songs written, arranged and produced by ELDRITCH
All Songs published by Limb Music Publishing, Germany
Recorded and mixed at K&K Officina Studios, Livorno, between May and July 1996
Vocals for “Lord Of An Empty Place” recorded and mixed at Alfa Recording Studios, Rome, October 1996
Engineered by Luca Bechelli
Mixed by Luca Bechelli and ELDRITCH
Guitar sound engineer: Dario Cappanera
Mastered at Top Master, Paris
Cover concept, front cover and tray-card artwork by Oleg Smirnoff
Sleeve design and additional artwork by Kohlbecher & Partner Digital Design
Photos by Omnia Photo, Cecina (LI)
Distributed in Europe by SPV GmbH
© & ℗ InsideOut Music, USA, 1996