CRADLE OF FILTH - Beneath The Howling Stars lyrics

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Midwinter wrongs the rites of Spring

Her spinal chill rakes the earth

Whilst pensive souls at zero sing

Woebetidings of rebirth

Under cold stares of Mars maligned

Near-suicides cross their hearts

And unborns writhe in tepid brine

For something wicked this way starts

Beneath the howling stars

Elizabeth, paragon of vice

Watches the sun set pyres alight

As Bane and Tyranny, Her Dobermans sleep

Like spellbound paramours at Her feet

A chatter of bells without

Raise hellhounds, teeth on edge

From sleighs hastened through snow lit red

Guests espied from the garret ledge

Great gloomy mirror tell Her face

She will outblind them all

That heavenly bodies would fall from grace

To possess such a lustrous pall

For beauty is always Cruel...

For beauty is always...

(Let destiny in chains commence...

Damnation under Gods seeking recompense

Enslaving to the whims of this mistress)

As the dance ensued

Elizabeth's mood

Tempered by the craft of a vitreous moon

In slick black iciness it grew

To consume

The wench Her tower tombed

Tending to Her costume

Bore the brunt of the storm

When the needle askewed

She has Her dogs maul the bitch's wrists through

Restored to jaded bliss

This evisceratrix

Descended to the ball

With painted blood upon Her lips

Passing like a comet so white

As to eclipse

The waltz wound down, transfixed

Devoid of all breath in the air

Even Death paled to compare

To the taint of Her splendour

So rare and engendered

'Pon the awed throng gathered

There...

Beneath the howling stars

She danced so macabre

Men entranced divined from Her gait

That this angel stepped from a pedestal

Had won remission from fate

By alighting to darker spheres

Delighting in held sway

For She was not unlike the Goddess

To whom the wolves bayed

"Whilst envy glanced daggers

From court maidens, arboured

Who whispered in sects

Of suspicions abroad

That Elizabeth bewitched

See how even now the whore casts

Her spells upon the Black Count

Whom Her reddened lips hold fast"

Tongue unto tongue

Swept on tides without care

For the harpies who rallied

Their maledict glares

A halo of ravens tousled Her hair

Chandeliers a tiara

For passions ensnared

"Phantasies sexed

When their eyes, moonstruck met

Their friction wore a way

Through the sea of foreplay

Lovers at first bite

She an Eve tempted to lay

Gasping at rafters

Flesh pressed in ballet"

But caprice, honours leashed

She absconded the feast

To prowl wonderland

Beasts in hand from the Keep

Of Feudal dilemma

Well mantled in furs

Through cullis to watch

Dogstars howl at the earth

On this violent night

Unholy night

Winds lashed their limbs together

As the ether vent its wintry spite

She wished His kiss on Her frozen landscapes

To excite the bleak advance

From castle bowers

Wherein small hours

The Devil never came by chance

A lone charm tied to Her inner thigh

Sent lusts nova as hooves trod

Cobbled streets where lowlives fleet

Were flung to a wayward god

Midwinter wrongs the rites of Spring

Her spinal chill rakes the earth

Whilst pensive souls at zero sing

Woebetidings of rebirth

Under cold stares of Mars maligned

Near-suicides cross their hearts

And unborns writhe in tepid brine

For something wicked this way starts

Beneath the howling stars

Pounding upon the pauper ridge

Earshot of a hunched beldame

Elizabeth teased, would He dare to please

Such elderly loins enflamed?

To this He feigned a grim disdain

Playing to Her slayful eye

But the hag replied...

"This girl that chides

Will soon be as plagued with age as I"

Her consort laughed a plume of icy breath

For Elizabeth's grace could raise

A flag of truce in burning heaven

Or the dead from early graves

Yet still She seethed

This proud Snow Queen

Embittered with the cursed retort

And because He sought Her loves onslaught

He gutted the crone for sport

Soon in full moon fever they were wed

Lycanthropic in the conjugal bed

Littered with aphrodisiacs

To tease dynastic union

And beget them further maniacs

Elizabeth

Free reigned, now a Countess

Outwielded and outwore

Her title like a favoured dress

Whilst Her errant Lord

Whose seasons savoured war

Stormed black to fell the infidel

Her embers, tempered, roared.