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Monument

by Diatessaron

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    Buy the whole album (recommended!) and receive a PDF copy of the liner notes and lyrics with original artwork. Additionally, this online version of the album includes a PDF copy of the lyrics with annotations explaining some of the more obscure references and metaphors in the text. We're told it's fun to read while listening!
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1.
The Statue 03:56
Standing on a hill so lonely His breath is like the thick fog that shrouds his triumph in misty Forms resembling ghosts of soldiers who died at his command Without a care for rhyme or reasonable thought The flag of nations stands before him drooping in the stagnant air The battle's won, the yards are gained, he sheds a tear, salutes a prayer The fields of spring launch bullets through the air and into the night The maxim fire strobes and dying soldiers' souls take flight Away from freezing bodies, eyes like glass and memories Of bright spring fields before they slept among the poppies He could feel it in his heart And he could feel it in his soul He could feel it in his bones He could hear the bell toll "Je ne sai pas comment vous dire Difficult times are coming near C'est un battaille qu'on n'peut pas suvivre Write to your wives and send them love, Reveiller vous de tous vos reves On marche bientot pour la front" The fields of spring launch bullets through the air and into the night The maxim fire strobes and dying soldiers' souls take flight Away from freezing bodies, eyes like glass and memories Of bright spring fields before they slept among the poppies He could feel it in his heart And he could feel it in his soul He could feel it in his bones He could feel it taking hold A statue stands upon a hill forlorn Corroded by the years as if to warn The devil slept within his calloused hands Awakened by necessity's demands If only he could see the rainbows forming as the sun streams through the mist behind his solid brassy form The fields of spring launch bullets through the air and into the night The maxim fire strobes and dying soldiers' souls take flight Away from freezing bodies, eyes like glass and memories Of bright spring fields before they slept among the poppies
2.
The Phoenix 06:57
Embers burning Glowing like the furnace of a heart that doesn't want to die Cinders glowing Smoking into ephemeral figurines that dance in clouds Sweet time to build an atom bomb from mem'ries of an Oppenheimer dream Dissolved in a fire of gifts fit for a king, then reassembled like a warm machine Ashes smoking Cooling like a sapphire that has nothing left to say Charcoal cocoon: a hope, a glimmer. Something more will come of this Sweet time to build an atom bomb from mem'ries of an Oppenheimer dream Dissolved in a fire of gifts fit for a king, then reassembled like a warm machine Cry, phoenix, cry So that tears from your eyes May be tossed from the skies Where your flames brightly fly Making soldiers reply Unto death as they die That untimely demise Will not force their goodbyes As you fall from on high And your evening is nigh But by morning you rise And your living defies Ends Look out for me Watch out for the way my spirit bends Right behind me, Are you enemies or are you friends? It depends... Will you be there for me To light me with a magnifying lens? Or will you let me grow old, Cold with moldy gold As I cry silently Like an alarm about to sound Sweet time to build an atom bomb from mem'ries of an Oppenheimer dream Dissolved in a fire of gifts fit for a king, then reassembled like a warm machine Sound up Sound off Go up In flames
3.
Prism 05:41
Around and around what a perfect sound Umbrella in the pouring rain Into the ground it seems you've found A shelter from the hurricane Sundrops scattering aimlessly Out from a crystal concubine We came united shamelessly The left from the whorehouse redesigned Stones to heal the heavens' wounds Bridges from the Earth to sky The promise of a God festooned In seven colors from on high Do you even know who we are A brilliant schizophrenia Descended from the warmest star With speed approaching mania Narrow as we seem to be When to your eyes we first did come The form that we took naturally Would soon disperse to widened spectrums Scattered from a prism lonely Refracted by the pale cloak of mist behind a brass statue Projected into air like a colorful refrain Composed for choirs of sunshine Singing at the speed of light I was walking by myself And I couldn't find a way to keep from falling Going into this I felt Like a million different waves to break upon you A million now for all No longer kept a secret from the world intrinsically A rainbow to enthrall And to guide my tired world away from unreality Do you even know who I am A brilliant schizophrenia From Helios I quickly swam With speed approaching mania Narrow as I seemed to be When to your eyes I first did come The form that I took naturally Would soon disperse to widened spectrums Solid glass has split my face Revealing things inside of me My unity has been erased Thanks to my strange duality Stones to heal the heavens' wounds Bridges from the Earth to sky The promise of a God festooned In seven colors from on high It seems that we were not immune Our purity has gone awry A prism split us, now we're strewn I knew who we were, who am I?
4.
Les etoiles sont un nuage de mille soleilles A thousand eyes to look upon the night and day Et chaque etoile brille come un savant And watches a birth upon the earth, a child gone astray My spiral arms are nothing like your own Which twinkle with the light of many stars Like distant mem'ries strewn across a void Nurtured by the years until they've grown Then like as many gunshots leave their scars Upon that empty home they once enjoyed Test the fire And burn it on the road to evermore It's coming through, it's coming through and I Test the fire And burn it on the road to evermore It's coming through, it's coming through and I Test the fire And burn it on the road... The light It cries And twists A thousand suns The world It burns And dies Sound on Sound off And sound A thousand times Go up In flames And GO! Your spiral arms are not alike to mine Which drift about in winds of undertow And bring to me whatever I desire Beneath the moon for which I'm named they shine Illuminated silverly they glow As if within them burns a silver fire Cry if the wisdom of a thousand suns Were to burst at once into the sky Then that would be like the splendor of the mighty one A cloud (and I wish that you could hear me) Bearing my shape (and I wish that you could see me) Topples (and I wish that you could feel me) Towards a terrified sky
5.
Senbazuru 12:52
Hey now so wait for I Liken it unto a little boy Ninety-two in father sky Liken it unto a fat man Who ate the god of those who die From paper From out of fire They move in ashen colors A stone will Awake the watcher If he should tire of duty Now there were So many others Now there was time to fold them Each of them Those many others Each of them hangs in a cool and glowing breeze Skyline, high-line, higher than my line Einstein in a prime-time timeline With his face drippin' over a clothes-dry line Like a fish at the end of a nylon line The fine line shines like a benign line Reminding my mind to find a kind kind of crime Designed to decline like a spine intertwined with mankind Blind to the divine defined line A thousand souls to light a fire A thousand fires to light the world And from each fire, for the world, a monument: A thousand paper cranes And the son was the father And the father was the son And if the stars were a cloud of eyes Then they would see what had been done They would know their little brothers The implosion and the gun And they would turn their gaze so far away from here To a place much farther than the sun Now there were So many others Now there was time to love them Each of them Those many others Each of them hangs in a cool and glowing breeze, in a cool and glowing breeze From fire From out of paper They move in anguished colors If stones could Awake the watchers When they cry and die so high up in the sky Freedom! Freedom! Element'ry marriage of alike sets helps the divorce of another pair Over in the corner of a dangerous swan Could it be? Could it be? Is it all undone? Relapse! Relapse! Testimony -- Phillips, is it time yet? Take a new -- cut me -- harpoon Underneath the -- listen to it, everything they say: "New world! New world out of yesterday" Breathe soft and wait for me Stand light, or could it be? Run, faster! Breathe hard and run away Stand bright in disarray Die with me Senbazuru Liken it unto a little boy Ninety-two in father sky Liken it unto a fat man Who ate the god of those who die Hey now so wait for I Stay now Silence Nowhere Knows its Place there Sounding on and on and echo on In memoriam mundus Out of, out of grace, of grace I Dwelling, dwelling deep within you Destroy darkness born of hatred With the, with the shining lamp of Shining lamp of knowledge Sweet time to build an atom bomb from mem'ries of an Oppenheimer dream Dissolved in a fire of gifts fit for a king, then reassembled like a warm machine Sweet time to build an atom bomb from mem'ries of an Oppenheimer dream…

about

Monument is a rock symphony in five movements dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The music for each movement was composed by a different band-member, a creative approach that results in a wildly varied soundscape across the work as a whole. The lyrics approach the subject of the atomic bomb from a different perspective in each section: that of a statue, a phoenix, a ray of light, a sea creature, and a Japanese legend. At times raw and visceral, at other times stark and serene, the symphony wanders through images of destruction caused by war, narrating each scene through different sets of eyes. It is an ambitious work in the progressive rock genre, aspiring to bridge the gap between a concept album and a classical symphonic tone poem.

credits

released December 19, 2010

Music - Diatessaron
Lyrics - Si Tj
Recording and mixing - Alan Wall @ NRS Productions
Mastering - Jamey Harrow @ HB Media
Cover art - Joerg Kritzer
Design - Si Tj

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Diatessaron Calgary, Alberta

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