Get all 14 The Republic Of Wolves releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Long December, Why Would Anyone Want to Live This Long?, Online Songs, shrine (Extended), shrine, Covers (Vol. 2), His Black Teeth, Covers (Vol. 1), and 6 more.
1. |
Lens
01:55
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you built a new home
out of your old birthstone
you don’t raise hell
you can’t die well
you drew a new hand
out of the discard pile
it’s non-fiction
we’re not lived in
‘cause i made faces at the prophetess
just to see my fortunes change
(did it fix my fate?)
should have replaced my temptation
with a lonelier faith
you dug your horns into the ground
and felt it flee reluctantly
wish that could be the end of me
you simplified
into sines and cosines
you’re all blood cells
shouting farewells
you made a harbor
out of the old trenchline
it’s all fiction
inscriptions kindling in the kiln
but i’ve got envy for the arsonist
‘cause there’s always more to burn
(is it still my turn?)
must have misplaced my complexion
in the previous verse
you dug your horns into the ground
and felt it flee reluctantly
if all my heart was in your mouth
could you bite down joyfully?
wish that could be the end of me
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2. |
Nightjar
04:01
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did your conviction make it past
all that molasses in your blood?
you’re overacting, you’re the captain
that the sea got sick of
if i’m examining the channels
’til my frequency comes up
just throw my wondering five feet under
so i’m not quite rid of
cut my conscience
into particles
(your breath is thinning out)
wring the life from
all this ritual
(abbreviate the hours)
till your temper
plagiarize your fear
(time’s all we could denounce)
i’ll be starving from here
if you can’t face it
then what has it all been for?
you caught me breathing in the incense
from the distance you devised
saw me flinch when they unhinged you
just before the tree line
‘cause i’m deceitful ’til i’m sleeping
i’m a cheap marionette
if i’m exceedingly uneven
have i circled back yet?
cut my conscience
into particles
(your breath is thinning out)
wring the lie from
all this ritual
(abbreviate the hours)
till your temper
plagiarize your fear
(time’s all we could denounce)
i’ll be starving from here
if you won’t forfeit
then what was your intent?
i made a wreck of myself
made it to hell with my health
laid out a perfect plan
to live by my mistakes
sew your secrets
into parchment sheets
bleed in cursive
lowercase your speech
break your posture
synchronize your pain
i’ll be minding my veins
if you can’t change it
let go of your fucking demur
let go of it all and grow
if this is hell
well then it must be a godsend
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3. |
Veer
04:20
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i know i’m not the strangest one
in a room full of angels
begging me to show my tongue
shit i could’ve lost my lungs
if i inhaled any more of what i was
i heard they built a brand new sun
and it burns like a birthright
daring me to last a month
hell i might’ve drowned in blood
if they impaled who i’ve been with what i’ve done
i won the war
now i want more
good lies to die for
i’ll seal my fate
and meditate
on what the hell i’m doing awake
we broke our necks at the commune
straightened our spines like we had to
it’s all “off with their heads”
on repeat for centuries
my feet keep seeking release from the concrete
you can’t die on the eve of your death
if i’m the sleepwalker who woke up
what am i supposed to want to be?
so i tried to carve a place for three
in a mind going haywire
big enough for each of me
thought i made a damn good team
but the exorcism was buy one get one free
i won the war
now i want more
good lies to die for
i’ll seal my fate
and meditate
on what the hell i’m doing awake
i killed my pain
and felt the same
god loves a long game
i’ll play the bait
then ruminate
on what the hell i’m suffering to save
we broke our backs on repentance
we’re cauterized and defenseless
we made our beds and gouged our eyes
and crucified our heroes
we brushed our hair and bent our bones
and repossessed our shadows
screaming it can’t be real
it can’t be real
it can’t be
i heard they built a brand new sun
and it burns like a birthright
daring me to be someone
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4. |
Idyll
02:14
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come then, athena, with hand upraised over the pyre
let the pots and all the dishes turn out well fired
but if you turn shameless and leave the urns unfilled
then i call together the destroyers of kilns
shatter and smash and char and crash and crudeness
who can work this craft much mischief
and as a horse’s jaw grinds,
so the clay of your mind
will lament to be cinder and lime
how ceramic is time?
how luckless is life?
what a cruelty to never unbind
just don’t look inside
don’t look inside
don’t look inside
there’s no truth you won’t find
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5. |
Sapphirine
03:40
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was there some decision by committee
that sleep is not fitting for me?
will i cut and gnash at sunken pillars
till my nerves ignore me?
comatose, i suppose
there was no chance
of getting on the lifeboat
i belong to whatever medicine
they gave me to send my mind home
but don’t look twice
the ammunition is free
whatever you can carry at least
you’re god’s special soldier
shooting arrows straight through the garden wall
the apprehension is free
it’s never been quite this cheap
you’re some living legend
seeking penance after the final call
is there some procession of misfortune
bound to smother us out like torches?
do we lose our dreams to seething dawns
the same way every morning?
comatose, i suppose
there was no point
in waving down the lifeboat
conjure up whatever remembrance
you might need to weave a tightrope
so don’t look twice
it’s not regression it’s a cycle
it’s not regression it’s a cycle
it’s not regression it’s a cycle
it’s not obsession if it’s all that you have time for
it’s not the lifting, it’s the holding
(tend your guilt)
it’s not a moment till it’s stolen
(lose your will)
it’s not the bleeding it’s the keeping
(your wounds clean)
it’s not suspension if you already believe
the apprehension is free
it’s never been quite this cheap
you’re some living legend
seeking penance after the final page
the ammunition is free
whatever you can carry at least
you’re god’s special soldier shooting arrows
losing battles, stealing shadows
taking shelter, making peace
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6. |
Mictlāntēcutli
03:47
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i spent a century on the run
from the mythography we made
i should’ve gone another day
came back to see the world without you
everything was so serene
ugliest thing i’ve ever seen
they found the murder weapon
in between the aching in your limbs
bitten to pieces on a whim
come back and read the poetry they
dedicated to our bones
prettiest thing they ever wrote
(but i couldn’t cope)
i’m a phantom and it’s not your fault
(when i saw)
made a mansion of a beggar’s vault
(who you were)
lived the same mistake a million times
(underneath)
well who said friends are hard to come by?
they built a cemetery
underneath a beautiful hotel
what a prophetic lie to tell
guess i could’ve called a truce before
they burned the sanctuary down
i didn’t really plan it out
you wore a crown of ashes
and a symphony around your throat
ugliest thing i ever wrote
come back for the apology
that broke its way out of my head
prettiest thing i’ve ever said
(but it’s not what i meant)
i’m a phantom and it’s not your fault
(when i saw)
made a mansion of a beggar’s vault
(who you were)
lived the same mistake a million times
(underneath)
well who said friends are hard to come by?
i’m the symptom of a sacred plague
(when i made)
played the victim ’til it ate my face
(up every fate)
had the same depraved idea as you
(it was all a waste)
well who said brilliance was a virtue?
i’m the whisper of a thought
i’m the joy you bought
i’m the cold you should’ve caught
i’m the ceiling in the sky
i’m unsatisfied
i’m the proof you couldn’t find
you’re the splinter in the shield
you were never real
you’re the cut that wouldn’t heal
i’m apprentice to a ghost
i’m a gracious host
i’m the tide that never rose
you’re not gone until you’re gone
god i hope i’m wrong
why would anyone want to live this long?
if i’m sinking down
i’ll wait it out
i’m thinking now
i’ll make it out
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7. |
Reedcutter
04:49
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if there’s a chemical in my brain
that doesn’t bite
i’m gonna find it on my time
and god damn what you’re given
if there’s no flickering torches
lighting up your face
i’m gonna cave
i’m gonna dig up a good grave
i’m gonna put out the nice plates
i built a hall with no doors
it’s all ceilings and floors
i tried to burn it down twice
you should’ve seen me in that expiring light
i felt the consciousness die outright
and now you’re in the grip of a hard night
it’s alright
but memory made friends with me
and dressed me in catastrophe
and hopefully you’ll never see
i’m at my best when i am asleep
if there’s no quickening in your heart
when you take flight
stop holding out for the real price
keep the grief that you’re given
if there’s some elegy fighting
to escape your throat
i’ll keep it slow
i’ll count the arteries up close
try not to bleed on the nice prose
i built a hall with no doors
it’s all ceilings and floors
i watched it burn out of spite
i should’ve held onto that expiring light
before the consonants died outright
now you went and traded a straight spine
for a good sign
but memory made friends with me
and dressed me in catastrophe
and hopefully you’ll never see
i’m at my best when i am asleep
so the reeds start growing
you start cutting them down
and the reeds keep growing
you keep cutting them down
now the reeds are still growing
you’re still cutting them down
so when the reeds stop growing
who the hell are you now?
you know the reeds start growing
you start cutting them down
and then the reeds keep growing
you keep cutting them down
so the reeds hate growing
and you hate cutting them down
but when the reeds stop growing
who the hell are you now?
and this is how you die well
you make a pact with yourself
you try to grieve the hard nights
and then you take all of that expiring light
melt it down, forge a knife, kill time
then say you put up a good fight
but that’s life
‘cause memory made friends with me
then threw me from the balcony
and pity that you didn’t see
i did my best when i was asleep
but you called my bet
and we watched our bloodstream stop
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