We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Excelsior EP

by Thrawsunblat

/
1.
A weathered sandstone Marks the trailhead Too burdensome by far To be borne alone It was set by many hands Many years ago This centuried inheritance Mystery’s whispers on the wind Any wisdom worth its eminence Will turn to dust at the brazen word I guard time for the thread emerald Against these brazen acquisitive times All around me the perennial Trappings of anxious minds I keep time with the pulse emerald Amidst these towering pines As I walk I dream lyrical I see and I see just beyond I guard time for the thread emerald Against these brazen acquisitive times I keep time with the pulse emerald Amidst these towering pines All along now, on my journey Introspective mistwise turnings Not from anger or from sorrow But in wonder at the sandstone And I wonder at The planters of these towering hemlock And I wonder at Who placed this stone And I wonder at Gifts bestowed upon a century later And what many forms my gratitude my take A weathered sandstone Marks the trailhead Too burdensome by far To be borne alone It was set by many hands Many years ago The path bursts out of the trees Into a vast sweeping valley beneath On this day, the welkin sings Its words clouded, fresh in the wind Experienced rather than heard And understood all the more deeply
2.
Burn brighter than the sun! Through you the day is won From wood to the stream From shore to the mount A snarling pack at my heels Hounded I have become By the gnashing, thrashing Wolves of victory herself My thunder is their quest But it is mine! In my chest! It is mine to behold! And it is mine to hurl! Into the great depths of the unknown Into the hands that heave this stone It is mine, and I shall release it In my own time. Through the dawn, blasting on Even the winds cannot best you Shale weight, heavy gait Heave it across the water! Burn brighter than the sun! Through you the day is won! As we leave behind must and mould So too are forgotten flesh and bone The lightning we so dearly hold Is but fodder in the clutches of wolves What is lost still sits and sits deep Where lay our midwinter dreams Where lay our warm April rains There you will find what’s forgotten When pulse recovers, I breathe deep in weathered wood I stand and brace in flowing winter falls And the weather systems build again For tomorrow’s thundering
3.
Excelsior 11:01
The nexus is eternal Few know its place Bridging the realms Of ice and fire The ice and the wind have taught you To bear the cold To run from the warmth of the fire To light only half the soul Inch toward the fire We’ve naught but open flame Feel the ice slither off Your shoulders and your name Excelsior, Icemind! Up through the snows! Into the endless winter! Your only cry across leagues of ice, Your only cry - Excelsior! You are searching, you wintry outrider Through the lands of blizzard and numbing winds For fine flakes of ice to incise and divide To see what truly lies at the heart of winter Oh but, you see, the heart of winter Cannot be found in the flakes themselves Oh but it is in the symphony Together only they perform! Orchestral movements; Flake without blizzard Is like blizzard without flake Your eyes are cold with ice You see and hear no symphony Though you walk on this green earth You see the plains of the dead Under your ice Faded are the glories of the world Snuffed is the candle of your identity Withered are the vines of your vitality But there is a place Where the hearth warms because the ice cannot There is a place Where the ice cuts because the hearth cannot Where ice and fire exist in balance Follow me if you dare Excelsior! You know this word! It has used you across the ages! Now use it for yourself, for those around you! Melt the chains and wield the icespear! You warrior-sage! Excelsior! Nearing the summit at last! From the peak you can see the nexus. Cast your eyes upon the land Descend the sun’s side of the mountain I can no longer lead you! Here you must go alone! Under the night sky you will arrive At the nexus of the realms Warrior-sage Now with these free hands These arms of fire, This heart of living flesh This mind of razor yet of summer glade This body of brazen hunter yet of the land I listen in the places With no trace of our hand In the rare charmed lands Where its travellers sought To understand, to heal Not to make their mark

about

Excelsior is Thrawsunblat's sixth EP. It follows and counterbalances 2020's Insula EP. Where Insula explored the inner world, Excelsior at last ventures back into the external world.

THE WEATHERED SANDSTONE was written in August 2022, and is about gifts from the past. TOMORROW’S THUNDERING was begun in November 2018, was completed in August 2022, and has an eye on the future. EXCELSIOR was written between September and November 2022, and explores the present - particularly the perspectives with which you can view the world and how they affect what you find there.

credits

released November 25, 2022

All music and lyrics by Joel Violette.
Guitars, vocals, bass, keys by Joel Violette.
Virtual drum arrangements by Joel Violette with the great aid of Ugritone and Toontrack MIDI packs.

Produced, engineered and mixed by Joel Violette at Jovian Acres.
Mastered by Siegfried Meier at Beach Road Mastering.

Thrawsunblat logo by Adam Gillis.
Cover layout by Joel Violette.
Cover photo by Alec Favale on Unsplash:
unsplash.com/photos/ACog8PhBzHo

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Thrawsunblat

metal from the atlantic fog

contact / help

Contact Thrawsunblat

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Thrawsunblat, you may also like: