WiZuZ - part 3

Subterranean

Vulgar Display of Power

Fucking Hostile

“Gather close, and let the embers speak. For this is no tale of kings and crowns — this is the saga of fire, oath, and blood. This is the song of the last skald, and the flame that refused to die.”

In the twilight of the old world, when the fjords whispered of gods and ghosts, a warband rose beneath the dawn. Their oaths were carved in stone, their names etched in frost. The saga begins with “Oathbound at Dawn,” where warriors swear loyalty not by word, but by fire — a ritual of steel and spirit beneath the rising sun.

From the shadows of the fjord comes “The Wolf and the Fjord,” a tale of cunning and survival. The warband moves like smoke, striking with the silence of beasts. Then the drums thunder in “Hammerfall Rite,” a berserker’s invocation to Thor — the moment before the clash, where rage becomes ritual and the sky splits with fury.

But war is not only steel. In “Seidr’s Veil,” the warriors kneel before the völva, the seer who chants in tongues older than time. She shows them fate — not as prophecy, but as consequence. And then the clash: “Blood on the Ice” erupts with chaos, where shields splinter and the fjord runs red. Victory is won, but not without cost.

The ravens arrive in “The Raven’s Feast,” circling the dead with solemn grace. They do not mourn — they honor. The battlefield is silent, save for the wind and the wings. And then the myth deepens in “Stone of the Nine Worlds,” where the skald walks through realms of fire, frost, death, and dream. Each world speaks, each stone remembers.

Now the skald stands alone in “Skald of the Last Flame,” the titular track. He sings not for glory, but for memory — the last voice of a vanished warband, the final ember of a forgotten age. The longship burns in “Ashes of the Longship,” a funeral voyage across the sea, where names are whispered into the tide.

But the saga does not end. In “Echoes in the Hall of Shields,” the voices of the fallen rise in chorus. Their shields line the walls of the honored hall, and their names thunder through eternity. Yet even this is not the final flame.

A new chapter begins with “Where the Chief Fell, the Flame Rises.” The warband’s leader is gone, lost to legend. But his fire lives on. The Son steps forward in “The Son Who Bears the Ember,” uncertain but resolute, carrying the weight of legacy in trembling hands.

He learns the truth in “Peace Is a Lie.” The world does not honor restraint — it devours it. The Son casts aside hope and embraces fire. But in “Ashes of the First Command,” he learns that war is never clean. The cost of leadership is written in blood.

And finally, he rises in “The Flame That Does Not Bow.” No longer a child, no longer a warlord — he is the flame itself. Not wild, not broken, but eternal. He walks not for vengeance, but for truth. The saga ends not in silence, but in fire.

“So remember this, you who listen by the hearth: the skald may fall, the chief may fade, but the flame marches on. And in every oath, in every name, in every echo — the saga lives.”

The Flame That Does Not Bow

This was another song I wrote during those same emotionally turbulent high school years in the mid-1980s. If "Breakin' My Heart" was about the immediate shock of betrayal, "Shattered Illusions" dug deeper into the aftermath - that hollow feeling when you realize everything you believed about someone was built on lies.

The opening line "Midnight shadows, a phone that won't ring" perfectly captured those sleepless nights, waiting for someone who was never going to call. I remember writing that verse thinking about how naive I'd been, how I'd "built castles on empty words." The metaphor felt so real to me then - all those promises and dreams just crumbling down.

What I'm proud of in this song is the pre-chorus structure. Adding that extra emotional build before hitting the chorus made the impact stronger. "Shattering my world" felt like the perfect phrase to describe how completely someone could destroy your sense of reality when you're seventeen and think you know everything about love.

The bridge represents growth - moving from victim to survivor. "I'm done with your lies, done with the pain" shows that progression from hurt to empowerment that I was learning to navigate as a teenager. The outro ties it all together with "Your love was fiction, but I'll rise from this fall" - probably the most mature line I wrote at that age.

Like my other lyrics from that time, this sat dormant for decades until AI technology gave me the opportunity to finally hear these words with music. There's something magical about bringing teenage angst full circle with today's creative tools. The song now has that dramatic, emotional sound that matches the intensity I felt when I first wrote these words.

Switched - Inside

jumes0505

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