Odes
Released on November 21st, 2019
Label: Independent
Re-released digitally 2022
Label: MiMo Sound Records
Erymanthon: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, MIDI Synth, Drum Machine
All music written by Erymanthon
Music for track #07 inspired by Frederic Chopin's
Piano Sonata No. 2 op. 35 "Funeral March"
All lyrics written by Erymanthon
Tracks #05 and #06 contain odes by the latin poet Horatius, indicated below
Cover design by Erymanthon
Front cover picture: Twilight on mount Rocciamelone
by Yari Ghidone
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Darkwoods Studios
Produced by Erymanthon
Re-mastered 2022 at MiMoSound Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) by Micke Moberg
​
"This album is about the feelings of grief, mourning and despair.
This album is the pure expression of sorrow, pain and darkness.
This is a very introvert and depressive record,
which was inspired by a very personal and painful loss.
This is dedicated to everybody who is experiencing these feelings,
and everybody who is going through a very hard and dark time."
​
In Loving Memory Of
Giulio Cesare Casella
(1938 - 2019)
(From the album's insert)
1. Falling in the Darkness
(Instrumental)
2. Ode of Last Twilight
Since light was born
Come did dark and mourn
Since we came to life
Doomed we were to die
After every sunrise
Sure will come a twilight
At the end of my time
I will have to shut my eyes
Bloodthirsty, ferocious, your eyes are black and hollow
You grasp us with your hand so cold to drag us down
No mercy, just pain, nobody can escape
Chills and fear announce you the day we have to die
You come through winter night
Silent, your cold hand grasping
Cloaked in black, unseen
Not another spring we'll see
Where will I travel
When my time has come,
What will I become
In the last hour of mine?
From sunrise 'till twilight, before our last night
Keep this in your heart: a new day will not come
When Sun's far and low, its rays no longer warm
Beholding the twilight, I'll know it's my time to die
3. Woods of Wistfulness
Iced tears descend slow from a dark sky
The cold river flowing down mountainside
In the mist crying gloomy shadows float by
Dismal silence, bleak desolation inside
Through the trees whispers a light cold breeze
Blows through the hair, caresses the skin and tears
The low cold Sun's rays come from afar, dimmed and sheared
Of their warmth, heart struck by utter woe and fear
In the crystal clear water flowing down mountainside
Shine ancient memories of the times long time gone
Vanishing spirits cloaked in misery and woe
Crestfallen soul, no hopes, no Gods up high
"I am lost in the Woods of Wistfulness.
Melancholy surrounds me, darkness eats me from inside.
The icy mist penetrates deep 'till my core
And carries funereal, ancient shadows.
Twilight time, the Sun is low
And so far away that its rays don't give warmth.
Only the sound of the crystal torrent
That carries the once joyful memories of you."
4. By the River
Do you remember the time
When spring was here
And the water of the torrent flowed free?
Hidden in the trees the birds sang
Wind caressed our face
And we threw stones in the river
You were there when I first walked
You taught me much of all I know
In my heart forever I've bore
The memories of those times long time gone
The mountains are still capped with snow
The warm winds just started to blow
It's time now for your eyes to close
Spring you will se no more
The time came for your last great sleep
Now you will rest
And your spirit will now fly free
For sure now you'll watch over me
And when my time has come
We will meet again by the river
5. The Ephemereal Life
The bells of death now chime, their plangent sound spreads in the air
Darkness and woe inside, poured are silent tears of despair
Ephemereal is our life, cloaked in neverending pain
And we march for who died, we cry for who passed away
Thin is the line between life and death
Our whole existance is so frail
Walking we are by the edge of the ravine
One step away from eternal darkness
Existance cloaked in misery
Not a glimpse of light from above
Our life feeble and evanescent
Caducous all hopes for a land beyond
White and cold as ice in your casket you laid
The pure essence of pain distorted your face
Your mouth open wide since you exhaled your last breath
Drowning in mourn, I could just say farewell
Forsaken in decrepitude
Of you what will remain?
Only the bones
A grave and a grieving memory
"Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti,
non, si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,
amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi
compescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere vescimur
enaviganda, sive reges
sive inopes erimus coloni.
Frustra cruento Marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
frustra per autumnos nocentem
corporibus metuemus Austrum:
visendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris.
Linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
te praeter invisas cupressos
ulla brevem dominum sequetur;
absumet heres Caecuba dignior
servata centum clavibus et mero
tinguet pavimentum superbo,
pontificum potiore cenis."
(Hoatius - Carmina, Book 2, Ode 14 "The Fleetingness of Time")
6. Exegi Monumentum
Exegi monumentum aere perennius
regalique situ pyramidum altius,
quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens
possit diruere aut innumerabilis
annorum series et fuga temporum.
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera
crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium
scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex.
Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
regnavit populorum, ex humili potens,
princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.
(Horatius - Carmina, Book 3, Ode 30 "Exegi Monumentum")
7. Funeral March
The gone lays there, white and cold as ice
Around the casket all reunite
The plangent bell tolls, the time has come
For one last march to the land of the gone
Below a cloudy sky, all cloaked in black
All march in grieving pain in the field of death
Now chant the Requiem, recite the words
And the coffin is lowered down below
"Requiescat in Pace"
No life after death, there is no land beyond
Shivers run down my spine, it is the end of my time
Now the sky is crimson and the time has come
For a leave of absence, the time has come to die