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A Tempest, A Shipwreck, An Earthquake

by Vagrant Beat

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1.
Your catacomb heart That weary nest of pain Footsteps follow in the dark Whispering your name The ruins of an empire Bones rattle on the hill Where a flame lit in vain Did shine for the last time Still we’ll hunt the light The stars conspire To lead us away Let the pillars fall And the garden burn The kids have to learn Our bodies levitate Float through space This was never yours The past is erased Still we’ll hunt the light And all of the days That were stolen away Only to pass us by Still we’ll hunt the light The glass is empty And your hands are tied The stars are spies Singing you to sleep On a bed of razors White thighs pull apart Your voice in my ear Your voice so sweet Still we’ll hunt the light Live in the days That were stolen away
2.
Wade through the water Sift down to the bottom Some beggar with a pale visage Forging with the sediment Never have I met Another so fearless Nostalgia is like a poison And you lick the vile clean All streams are one We bleed the same But I won’t let you Get the best of me Embrace the silence That comes before a riot You would do well To remember this Fall on broken knees The violence of memory Because this pain is transient It ebbs and flows, dies and glows Half an hour of salvation Counting shapes in the basement Just let the music play On and on and on and on... But I won’t let you Get the best of me Embrace the silence That comes before a riot Walls wear the diagrams That lead to the promised land What was it that you found there Cast off into the shadows? They never spoke a word to you But somehow it didn’t matter Watching my letters all wash away Onto the shores of forbidden islands I’ve found grace in the weakest hands And I’ve sewn shut my own eyelids I’ve seen everything There is to see in you But I won’t let you Get the best of me Embrace the silence That comes before a riot The pin dropped
3.
Small Hours 04:31
Child of night Salt stream to wound O’ cancerous thought The small hours bloom Put all the knives Away in the house Scale the flesh From the body it left You came to me As an apparition A gloved hand outstretched An angel no more Take me away from the light Separate the vessel from the mind To the land where men go forgotten forever And move in silent winds I held the weight Of death in your eyes Withered, afraid That someday the dawn will be Returned to me Take me away from the light Separate the vessel from the mind To the land where men go forgotten forever And move in silent winds It’s happening again
4.
(Instrumental)
5.
Forgotten seeds will spread To grow visions in your head A sea of broken idols Rose petals and glass Mirrors that don’t look back No sun burns bright enough Time is a thankless friend He always finds you in the end To make dust of truth And faith of old wounds That just won’t mend No sun burns bright enough To lead us back home again No sun burns bright enough To scorch your arrows Clawing at your chest Failed by phantom limps Sirens at the door Forcing their way in No sun burns bright enough To lead us back home again No sun burns bright enough To scorch your arrows
6.
Submit to solitude Hide in your books Just to live their lies Their pleasures unfold As you ponder your own Fruitless in the moonlight Now to all that’s untraveled To the diamonds in the rubble The grandeur of loneliness You catalog your accidents In careful phrases Pressed between pages For a love time renounced Don’t retreat, not just yet They'll have your head for this You’re fighting this war on your own One hundred years unknown Someday she might see your face And not turn away In retrospect each caress Now feels distant and cold Our laughter died that season But the solace one finds In the words on a matchbox Says otherwise because envy Can be frightening This is what happens When men start fires Desperate for answers And yearning with desire Get me out of my mind Get me out of my mind Don’t retreat, not just yet They'll have your head for this (Save your spine) You’re fighting this war on your own One hundred years unknown (Save your spine) As the radio cries your last rites And fades into static Someday she might find your touch In a stranger’s embrace
7.
Sometimes I wish I knew Just what became of you The needle threads through All the wandering nights And your chandelier eyes Lost in the blue I bit the innocence right off your lips Vanity will be the death of me In that hotel room by the shore We wasted the hours Because they were there Our hope is clay Melting in the rain So far from home So young, so alone Now every night The same dream finds me I’m naked on your steps All the birds are falling There's two hollow slits Where your eyes should be You made me a promise You said you’d set me free Our hope is clay Melting in the rain So far from home So young, so alone The tears fall down your breasts Like tiny marbles of sorrow Found at the bottom of every fountain She says the mask suits me Oh, but you’re looking too thin Her mouth on my collarbone So it ends like it begins With nothing Before the blood runs dry And the order is sent Cup my face in your hands Kiss me like you kiss him I’m just the latest victim She says the mask suits me Oh, but you’re looking too thin Her mouth on my collarbone So it ends like it begins With nothing I’m just the latest victim I’m just a pawn in the system I’m just the latest victim And I’ll emerge from this More dead than alive
8.
Borderlands 06:38
This must be the place Everything's new again The burden of youth Still haunts your skin But this cup's poison Just like all your friends As her face disappears In the borderlands We wanted something more But we never found it Cut the arteries and tethers Forever, forever Cling to threads of a past life That disguise isn’t fooling anyone They hear your cries They feel your breath On their necks Now only fragments remain Her tongue's in your mouth Like vines in the spring Searching for a heart This must be the place Everything's new again The burden of youth Still haunts your skin But this cup's poison Just like all your friends As her face disappears In the borderlands We wanted something more But we never found it Cut the arteries and tethers Forever, forever There will be no miracles here The current pulls you in
9.
Black Ribbon 03:12
Wait for the cue This will all be over soon We’ll rewrite history The vultures are circling Like falling in a dream A mask for the mind Left dangling on the rope Ten thousand eyes below terrified The distance is killing me I need the release Part with your misery All the pretty ones Are off sewing their seeds Trading in their arms This wicked cavalcade proceeds While your sleep Cicadas drone You dream of death They sing their woes And no one knows The distance is killing me I need the release Part with your misery Gaze up at your vacant heaven An idle season, a pact now broken This could be an invitation Wear your black ribbon A tempest A shipwreck An earthquake!
10.
An Elegy 06:46
Here flowers bloom eternal And stars plunge into the depths To bring you back from death I can’t feel my feet underneath me As I run into the night All secrets by my side I really went and fucked it up this time White hem in the mist Summer’s kiss upon the veil The film comes off the reel The cards come out And the house falls down The cards come out But you just stand there laughing I can’t feel my feet underneath me As I run into the night All secrets by my side I really went and fucked it up this time Sinking into gray But you were never mine to save

about

Recorded November 2012 to April 2013 at MDIA Sound
Additional tracking at 124 N Lancaster St, Athens, OH
Produced by Josh Stanley and Vagrant Beat
Tracks 1-3, 5-8, 10 engineered by Dave Polster and Josh Stanley
Track 4 engineered by Josh Stanley
Track 9 engineered by Dan Mullally and Josh Stanley
Mixed by Josh Stanley
Mastered by Chris Graham
Cover art by Grant Engstrom

credits

released July 15, 2013

Ryan James: vocals, guitar, found sounds
Taylor Kreemer: drums
Aaron Smith: bass, vocals, percussion
Josh Stanley: guitar, vocals

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Vagrant Beat Athens, Ohio

In honor of the many echoes still traveling from 2010–⁠2013. We thank you, eternally.

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