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The Machine and the Beast

by Alwaid

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Full-length 10-track album in Digipack

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Machine and the Beast via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      €15 EUR or more 

     

1.
2.
Amphisbaena 05:06
A great silence has fallen, the sibilant tongues are quiet Viper’s venom and a woman’s blood blend on the haunted sands Out of one severed head grows a manifold consciousness Yet, in the monster’s last breath a human’s dying wish That from this trail of death, life and death will be reared. In the dust, scaly coils formed and a glittering eye spawned Out of one severed head grows a manifold consciousness Coiled around your heart, Sings a serpent within, pulling your strings “His mind wav’ring and inconstant as the wind” Heads or tails? Life’s a pattern with a myriad turns Infected with a poison of indecision Heads or tails? Raging temptations, we’re panic-stricken Amphisbaena, the many-sided one “I am the other one inside I am the paradox in your mind I feed on doubt and double-bind Lurking and whispering that soon your time will be out” Soul unchained Heart in pain Heads or tails? Life’s a pattern with a myriad turns Infected with the poison of indecision Heads or tails? Raging temptations, we’re panic-stricken Amphisbaena, the many-sided one Soul unchained Heart in pain Mental bane The human strain
3.
Imagine the Earth as it once was When life was young and finding ways to colonize From the dark abyss to the green of lands Before conquering the skies. And science says dragons were real (The titans exhumed and revealed) The lost world can be found again And science says dragons were real (The Lost World is ours to rebuild) If we just take it in our hands Stand on the shoulders of giants But careful when the giant wakes. Higher! On the lane of progress we’ll go Faster! We are no longer creatures But creators! In nature’s hidden garden we’ll crown ourselves as rulers of Errors The garden’s a jungle of Tyrants Truth is there’s no controlling The wrath of the earth Everything’s always moving and changing On the edge of no return It’s child’s play, it’s such a simple idea! Our brains put us at the top of the chain Just aim and soon we’ll own the sun and stars Tell me, have we gone too far? For science says dragons were real (The titans exhumed and revealed) The lost world can be found again And science says dragons were real (The Lost World is ours to rebuild) If we just take it in our hands Higher! On the lane of progress we’ll go Faster! We’re no longer creatures But creators! In nature’s hidden gardens we’ll crown ourselves as rulers of Errors The garden’s a jungle of Tyrants Truth is there’s no controlling The wrath of the earth Everything’s always moving and changing On the edge of no return “No cage is strong enough And in the end we are entertained Yet so fragile Another treat for forces unleashed to devour” Stand on the shoulders of giants But careful when the giant shakes.
4.
Let’s leave the much-travelled coasts Whose wearisome landmarks hold no interest. Who knows what’s in the great below, Down under the forever-changing waves of a liquid waste? Yes, off the map we shall sail Keeping our will on iron rails, Though our ship’s but a speck, a feeble shell Charging a steep mountain. Here be famished fiends Here lurks the giant squid Hateful things that swarm and swim I shall kill or be killed… Face winds and waves, Chase the white whale Demons never beg, (and) won’t be chained Our course may lead our souls into Ruin and perdition, (the) price for obsession I’d defy you all, ocean spawns! Bring it on! Now, the water’s boiling all around Stirred as in a witch’s cauldron Now, the reflecting surface churns and burns Leviathan, emerge! Here be famished fiends Here lurks the giant squid Hateful things that swarm and swim I will kill or be killed… Chorus I know your name, I know your game, We’ll carry on against the odds Till the last encounter, then I’ll Strike through the mask, thrust through the wall Pierce right through the monster’s heart Risk it all! No mercy, no doubt, no regret Defying voracious Charybdis No pity, no half-measures, no fret Laughing at sunken Atlantis No reluctance against evil In the end it all comes to this Come at us, damned devil! Dance over the abyss No pole’s too far, no chasm too deep Reaching for the stars we’re stronger than demons and beasts Face winds and waves, Chase the white whale Demons never beg, (and) won’t be chained Our course may lead our souls into Ruin and perdition, (the) price for obsession I’d defy you all, ocean spawn! Bring it on! I know your name, I know your game, We’ll carry on against the odds Till the last encounter, then I’ll Strike through the mask, thrust through the wall Pierce right through the monster’s heart Risk it all! I’m the white whale!
5.
As time’s rushing onward and we’re watching from above Building machinery, we are miniaturized. A crowd of engineering bugs, in coarse and noisy towers Where’s the queen of the hive? Forces, inertia, gravitation, Logical laws, flawless equations, Relentless in communication, Mindless voices will chant: This is the Making of the World Man building roads and walls Breathing life in new layers of existence Digital kingdoms This is the Making of the World Black mirrors, delicate tapestry, (The) Weaving Spider is the Lord of Cities “The noise fades out, the swarm grows still, Just a few more hundred years It mellows down, ready for my work To and fro, I draw” As time’s rushing onward, rumour travels faster than light Until the source is dry, until the signal dies. Forces, inertia, gravitation, Logical laws, flawless equations, Relentless in communication, Mindless voices still chant: This is the Making of the World Man building roads and walls Breathing life in new layers of existence Digital kingdoms This is the Making of the World Black mirrors, delicate tapestry (The) Weaving Spider is the Lord of Cities “For me Babylon was built, And still men build cities for me to usher in posterity.”
6.
The city gates are closed, safe walls and buildings of smoke As the bell’s doom tolls, day dies, shadows grow You feeling safe now? Whilst under, fires bellow The river glistens. What shady secrets lie below? Eye for eye, don’t you know you reap what you sow? Scratch the surface of this ideal community Men wearing masks of respectability Away from mad crowds, the doctor ceases to hide A razor glares bright, a demon in disguise Life for life, it takes but one to unravel all our laws Bloodstains in the night Black by gaslight White pavement screeching, each night a deadly countdown As vice has leaked in, hear the music of the night Beasts with no names, faces drowned in ruby red Exhale whispers of fear, and awe, and hate Grime and crime, perpetual dark beneath the fog-clogged sky Fancy machine, a righteous dream In an ocean of chaos we aim for islands of order Fortune in our future, Glorious peak of progress Rise and fall, new Babylon Pride crumbling down till even ruins turn to sand Stony-hearted mother, fiends round every corner Decadence plagues the air Street after street, drinking tears And vaporous sighs of despair Fancy machine, a fallacious dream, We barred windows, locked every door, Building a sanctuary that turned out to be fertile grounds for hidden sins Scratch the surface of this ideal community Men wearing masks of respectability Beasts with no name, faces drowned in ruby red Exhale whispers of fear, and awe, and hate Eye for eye, don’t you know you reap what you sow? Desperate preys in the night Reason’s gone wild Predators in the night So close behind Broken men in the night Die by gaslight Roam the pits, Flee the streets Where the beasts, Men or freaks, Are killing by gaslight / Are dying by gaslight
7.
I fear the past that’s never dead I fear an ageless legacy sleeps in my veins I hear things scratching in the wall Behind the family frames. (A great tree that sprouted from hoary roots) It’s here, hideous, can’t you hear them? The moans of silent chains. The skinwalker Yee-Naaldooshi Is watching me Inhuman thing, To me you should be inconceivably other Not so familiar And yet, you’re what my kind once was You’re what I might become Oh, the past is never dead It is not even past In sleep, I hear and do strange things It’s getting real / Dreams aren’t that mad Traces are waiting to be found Read my face like a book I wouldn’t believe but now it seems The mirror tells the truth Underwave, the lore of eons gone Resurface in my head (What’s repressed Will return) I sink. Nepenthe from the deep Has calmed me. Let me sink. The skinwalker Yee-Naaldooshi Is watching me Sang Noir, J’ai hérité des ombres et des merveilles Sang Noir, A flots versé, à cœur ouvert, sacrificiel Sang Noir Qui m’as vue naître et me verras m’éteindre Sang Noir Viens te repaître, viens m’étreindre Atavistic revelation, Black ichor within, I’m forever an outsider Among those who are still men. Black Ichor within! Ruptured from my own nature, I almost thought I’d end it all. Rapture now eclipses terror, Embrace my personal disaster. Inhuman thing To me you should be inconceivably other Not so familiar And yet, you’re what my kind once was You’re what I might become Oh, the past is never dead It is not even past In sleep, I hear and do strange things It’s getting real / Dreams aren’t that mad Traces are waiting to be found Read my face like a book I wouldn’t believe but now it seems The mirror tells the truth
8.
I heard a song, Sad listless notes on the docks Spoke to my heart, Like when Mother sang her song of gold In our exile So we’d remember green fields of old Remember we used to live In golden mist beyond the edge of the world. And the song went… “Silent, oh Moyle, be the roar of thy water, Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose, While, murmuring mournfully, Lir's lonely daughter Tells to the night-star her tale of woes. When shall the swan, her death-note singing, Sleep, with wings in darkness furl'd? When will heav'n, its sweet bell ringing, Call my spirit from this stormy world?” There was a swan of white, Gliding by the docks A lonely heart, Betrayed and cursed to wander at sea Oceans apart from home Estranged and melancholy I heard the song, saw the swan Thinking back on a land of myth and charms And the song went… “Sadly, oh Moyle, to thy winter-wave weeping, Fate bids me languish long ages away; Yet still in her darkness doth Erin lie sleeping, Still doth the pure light its dawning delay. When will that day-star, mildly springing, Warm our isle with peace and love? When will heav'n, its sweet bell ringing, Call my spirit to the fields above?”
9.
Tick tock, tick tock, Time’s right on the clock The skull now speaks, wine drinks itself Each shade’s the same, a mechanical frame I’m a painted puppet in a dull masquerade Painted puppets, on parade, faint and quaint Frenetic and frantic, Words like pearls on a string Mesmerizing music Near eerie ears We’re gasping for logic Yet the more we repeat The less it all makes sense. Come, come, stay calm, stay calm No need for alarm It only hums, it doesn’t harm I wish to wish, dream to dream, Live to live, die to die, Cry to cry, I don’t know why Breathe idle riddles and rhymes Ideal idols are made to prophesize In the house of the Sphinx, language comes alive Twisted round Babel’s fall broke and confused but New rhythms thrive and profuse Come, come, stay calm, stay calm No need for alarm It only hums, it doesn’t harm I wish to wish, dream to dream, Live to live, die to die, Cry to cry, but I don’t know why Come, calm, hum, harm, dream, die, WHY
10.
How can I be whole, Always keeping life under control? Can I ever be true to myself If I’m free to feel but not to fall? There’s another me As I stand between parallel facing mirrors Refracted till I reach a blank infinity There’s a thousand me, can’t you see? With every beat you’ll hear My inner pattern’s on repeat. Meet the little girl inside the head Of the little girl inside my head. “I come in waves Like snowflakes in your head… Realize, I’m fractalized Like white light through the rain” Let the moment sink in Strike a chord and hear it vibrating I want to know what each new story brings Where the rainbow’s born and time begins “On all scales Same details Zoom in, nothing new appears So radiant, So vibrant, My many colours drawing you near” I lie there in my lair As I wander they’d judge and glare, Why should I care? Wildest dreams, made of wind Have split away all grief and guilt, and gave me wings Keep secrets, no regrets Hide in plain sight while each and every night, the fever spreads Be fractal, Heart and soul Be my silver lining through clouds of coal. Strange attractor, Strange magnetic collision Let’s fly away through the spirals of time Change, forever Change, my revolution, Hold your breath and glide with the tide Strange attractor, Strange magnetic collision Let’s fly away through the spirals of time I lie there in my lair As I wander they’d judge and glare, Why should I care? Wildest dreams, made of wind Have split away all grief and guilt, and gave me wings Keep secrets, no regrets Hide in plain sight while each and every night, the fever spreads Be fractal, Heart and soul Be my silver lining through clouds of coal.
11.
Once, your heart was tame, fully civilized Growing flowers of honour with pride Instincts on a leash were bound The self-contained blaze in your eye Dimmed like a flame domesticated not to burn Now heed the call of the wild The howls fierce and free as twilight descends Sudden return to the wild The strength of bare fangs prevails Enter the realm of the wild The red blood reigns, red blood reigns in the winter’s pale Under the midnight sun The hunt’s begun! The hound’s asleep and the game is on. Resurgence from the depths Teachings of the wilderness Of merciless mountains and frozen lakes A surge of life in your veins, The passion of a tidal wave Even when beaten, never be a broken slave “Singing songs of when the world was young Being one with the storms This is the place where you belong” Now heed the call of the wild The howls fierce and free as twilight descends Sudden return to the wild The strength of bare fangs prevails Enter the realm of the wild The red blood reigns, red blood reigns in the winter’s pale Under the midnight sun The hunt’s begun! The wolf’s awake and the game is on.

about

Alwaid's second album, entitled The Machine and the Beast, will offer an exploration of the cycle of civilization. The songs relate how mankind struggles to free itself from its primal animality and to gain control over the machine, which will lead to its ultimate fall.

Order vs. chaos, instinct vs. reason, desire vs. logic, grandeur vs. decay – multiple conflicting facets and contrary impulses which make man's identity a complex and imperfect one. As a symbol of this dual aspect, and of the album itslef: the mythical Amphisbaena, two-headed serpent that tries to go both ways at once...

Alwaid's inspirations still come from the great works and myths that have left their traces over our culture. Our music is home to literary monsters, formidable Goliaths to be smitten down whatever the price (Moby Dick), or more insidious creatures when the monster hides behind a human face (Mr. Hyde, Jack the Ripper...). Some songs tell of the wonders and misguided ways of relentless science, that ends up defeated by life itself, for « life will find a way » (Ian Malcolm, of course!); others tell of man's anguish when confronting the possibility of his own degeneration (our beloved Lovecraft); others, finally, evoke the romantic nostalgia for a lost state of nature, and the ecstatic liberation you feel when you return to the wild.

credits

released May 13, 2017

ALWAID IS:
vocals: Marie Perrier
guitars: Maxime Renard
bass: Simon Lamarcq
keys: Laurent Feisthauer
drums: Robin Grabman

Additional guitars: Giovanni Roseau
Art: Zero-Scarecrow13
Recorded at Noise Factory Studio
Orchestrations and mix by SunTzu Records
Mastered at Sound' Up Studio.

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Alwaid Lille, France

Alwaid is a melodic metal band from Lille, France. Founded in 2010 as a band both melodic and with a touch of heavy metal, it was named after a star that evokes a nocturnal and oneiric world. A demo was released in the course of the summer 2012. After a number of shows in 2013, the band's first album "Lacus Somniorum" was released in March 2014. ... more

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