"Down, down into the darkness of the caves below, away from the violence and greed of my kin. Let the winds and seas sweep them out of this world at last, while I wait in the hollow lands.

We were a plague upon this world, a plague upon ourselves.

Down through the memory of time, twisting, forking, I divine my path from within this deep stone.

Time slows to a halt in the shifting layers of rock and sediment.

This chthonic city of our youth is haunted by the paths we have chosen. Even as I cast myself out from above, the marble walls cast me out from below.

Further down, snaking, twisting, at times running. A new haunting. It is the spectre of my own loneliness.

Gone is the hot breath of humankind, my lungs fill with iron air, angry veins below me pumping the blood of the earth. Down, down into the darkness further. No more fear, but most bitter memory. Drinking of these wells, I am truly alone as I disappear into the deepest realm.

Dark is this world. Shadow beyond shadow. Shifting and dancing ghouls. Shades, moaning and shuffling. They drag me down with them, into the mire. Suffocating with horror, I understand.

These shades were once as I am. To linger would be to... submit to the will of the mountains, to lose myself in their depths. To lose myself in their darkness. To find shadow where flesh once moved, and a demon where a man once stood.

Without light, I climb. Through the haze of the underworld, trying not to forget all of myself. Claws rip and tear, yet onward and outward I climb.

A dim star guides a path. One by one, from above they appear. The way may be no less perilous, but in my soul there is a hope.

Some signpost perhaps, or something more sinister points forward or backward. The stars are again lost to the mountain's shield, and yet I resolve to keep forward. A steady, serene echo ahead grows as I discover a glittering kingdom on the edge of a vast sea. Destiny calls me to cross the waters, and to rise again."

Released Nov. 2021 on cassette thanks to Realm and Ritual:

realmandritual.bandcamp.com/merchmore

released November 12, 2021

L.R. Carlson: Composition, performance, recording.