Cavern of crystallizing ice,
My chamber sings in echoes
Caressing slitted eyes
The tales that I have memorized
Etched in the frost-layered wall
The stories I devise
Forsaken to a den to hide
A creature of great pride
Of magic mystified
Ohhhh, power misunderstood
The realm’s greatest beauty folds her wings for good
Countless, the funerals she’s painted
In the name of her loved ones, to rescue them from death
“Cold, you’re my only home”
“My only friends, the sunken toads”
Cursed to remain untold
“Return to me, oh holy toads”
The sanctuary sobs in silence
Her power growing still
The hatred dulled by sadness
A lifetime to fulfill
A natural luminescence glows from every scale
The target of the heartless, greedy, and the pale
Cursed never to be home
“Return to me, my precious toads”
Because I live they bait me with my gentle friends
The bastards fuel my rage with dead amphibians
Emerge
The skies never looked so beautiful
Gracefully, a being glides on through
“Come, I shall be your home”
“My body and my magic, infinitely strong”
“They cannot pierce my dragon bones”
“Return to me, my precious toads”
Toronto band Respire deliver a post-hardcore tour de force on the largest scale possible, orchestrally rich and incessantly uncompromising. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 6, 2021
Pitch-perfect math rock from Kaneohe, Hawaii charges forward on raw, ragged emotion. A treat for fans of Polvo and Pardoner. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 27, 2018