A song about the forces trying to tear us all apart, and how paranoia, fear, ideology and greed enable it – and are weaponised.

The lyrics, in case you'd like to sing along:

The curtains fall, the circus starts
To thrill your bones and warm your hearts.
We're all revolving on the same small rock
And yet we claim we're worlds apart.

Here a strongman – there the clowns!
The tightrope walkers stop your hearts.
The animals are being led round and round:
Despite our seats, we're worlds apart.

(Chorus)
The same start lights us as we love, laugh and cry,
And still, we're worlds apart.
We all desire to be warm, safe and dry
Yet still, we're worlds apart.

We built a web around the world
To catch our dreams and join our hearts.
But now the spiders want to know who you are –
They're making sure we're worlds apart.

(Chorus…)

(Middle)

(Lie, lie, lie, lie…)
And so the lights blink out,
Our teeth and eyes aglow.
Who is the audience now?
I honestly don't know.
Soon the spotlights pick you out,
The clowns know where to go…

(Chorus 2)
The same start lights us as we love, laugh and cry,
And still, we're worlds apart.
We all desire to be warm, safe and dry
Yet still, we're worlds apart.
You're seeking answers , or you're merely getting high,
And still, you're worlds apart.
You think you're chosen, some from Venus or from Mars
And so, we're worlds apart.

(The Baa-baa chorus)
Baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baaaa,
Baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baaaa,
(Yeah!) 
Baa baa baa, 
(Lie!) 
Baa baa baa, 
(Lie!) 
Baa baa baa, 
(Lie!)
Baa baa baaaa, 
(Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie!): 
Worlds apart. 

Your ticket's valid, no returns.
One show apiece, and so it starts.
We share a sofa as the adverts start to roll,
Yet somehow we're still worlds apart.

(Chorus 2)

Worlds Apart

Written, performed and produced by Ian Allison.

From the Marzihu EP 'Four Minute Warning' – a snapshot of the lives of four people at the moment of the Four MInute Warning. 'Sysiphus' is the story of a woman whose relationship is ending due to relentless, monotonous, unsupported, thankless domesticity. Told in the style of HP Lovecraft/Geezer Butler… Lyrics:

Have you… ever been to a dark place?
A place of promises and lies?
She sits, all alone with the vaccuum,
It’s where her hopelessness resides.
Her dreams feel like ashes in the morning,
She dusts the dust, to earth it must return.
She waits for an absent invitation,
Ignores the place… where fires used to burn.

Now even Sysiphus must die!

Sysiphus

WORLD WITHOUT YOU is about separation. A cry from the heart in dark electronica and operatic rock. (Serving suggestion) Enjoy, with headphones and a heavy red wine…

Time was, when the surgery
To separate our souls
Would be fatal both for me, and for you.
Separate the strands
And the cloth unravels faster
Than your trembling fingers can apply the glue.

But now the amputation is complete,
And yet I stand –
Wandering a world without you.

Once, there was a thread so tight
That it could cut my flesh.
I sucked the blood, I swallowed, carried on.
But now I search these empty halls,
That echo with your ghost.
The universe of you not absent – gone.

When the wind blew harsh and cold,
You wrapped me 'round you – warm, if old.
But now I find myself
Limping blindly in this storm,
Wandering a world without you.

World Without You

The debut album by Church of the Cosmic Skull
Downloads and Limited Edition CDs available now at: www.cosmicskull.org
Ltd Edition Heavyweight Vinyl coming soon!  

All songs written and recorded by Bill Fisher
at The Doom Room, Nottingham, England
Mastered by Lira Wish at Filmmaker Studios
Mastered for vinyl by Tony Reed at HeavyHead Recording Co.
Photography by Tom Walsh
Art and design by Zorad
Published by Bilocation Records
© 2016 Church of the Cosmic Skull
www.kozmik-artifactz.com
www.churchofthecosmicskull.com

Mountain Heart

The Cards That You're Playing

The latest in the Cthulhu series, but HP Lovecraft fans should know I've taken a couple of liberties. I have decided that the 'Emma' (the fateful boat) is named after the captain's wife. In the original, the captain writes the story of Cthulhu in English, so his wife can never read it. However, in my version, she has translated the stone revealing the whereabouts of R'lyeh for him, and this song is her wishing she could be with him, and also wishing his safe return. While I wrote the verses, the chorus is actually anonymous – translated from an ancient Greek source in 1926 by Frederick Adam Wright. You can find it in 'Complete Love Poems of the Pallatine Anthology', based on the lost collection of Constantine Caphelus C7BC - 600AD. Here's the words:

Oh would i were the salt sea wind, and
you upon the beach would
bear your breast, and let me blow
until your heart I reach.

I think HP Lovecraft would approve.

Many thanks go to Alison Allison who played the beautiful recorders and captured Emma's yearning in song so well, Reuben for his heartbreaking cello, Thaddeus for his haunting acoustic rhythm guitar (and the rock chord in the middle!), and of course, the mysterious Choir Of The Willing, who always are. The other guitar, bass etc. parts are me, along with the programming and production. I really hope you like this one; we poured our hearts into it.

Fever Dream

Salt Sea Wind

Track taken from the upcoming album "Zero Gravity" (Release Date: 28.06.19)

Zero Gravity

Phoenix Rising

Get the album here!

Turilli/Lione Rhapsody - Phoenix Rising

Progkast - 37

1) Glorious Wolf - Constellations 
2) Thirteen of Everything - Plague (Our Own Sad Fate - 2019)
3) Great Wide Nothing - Monument
4) The Willo - Young
5) Tim Stark - Pharoah's Curse
6) Day of Nova - Between Lights and Sky
7) Gunnar Sletta - Beyond the Edge
8) Flamencs - Doll Ashes 2
9) Clint Music - I Only Ask That You Behave Justly
10) Stallion - The Hard Life
11)Sproingg - The Aliens Have Landed and I'm One of Them

Progkast - 37

All instruments and vocals by me (Ian Allison), apart from the haunting recorders and voice of the amazing Alison Allison, and as ever, my gratitude to the irreplaceable Choir Of The Willing. This song is very personal, so I'll let you make of it what you will. The lyrics, should you wish to have them gnawing at your brain are:

Be that grass or water over there?
Asked I, as in my hand
a little sparrow lay sleeping, so peacefully.

In the eyes of life lay I;
the answer came like liquorish
to a schoolboy.

I asked you Lady Luck,
"Will you marry me today?"
But she just stood a-smiling sweetly at The Hypnotigon.

'Where-oh-where, where have you been?!"
The others came to scold my brain:
"Your innocence is nine! And Green! The answer there is surely plain..?"

I asked you Lady Luck,
"Will you marry me today?"
But she just stood a-smiling sweetly at The Hypnotigon.

Turning slow, a sarcastic curve
did spread across my face.
"Surely grass is mostly water?"
My foe did flee, cast in disgrace.

I asked you Lady Luck,
"Will you marry me today?"
But she just stood a-smiling sweetly at The Hypnotigon. (Repeats)

See me? Hear me? Ask me? Know me? (Repeats many times)

How could I have been so blind?
All I ask – a chance to find myself.
Out of sight – out of my mind.
A space to be, but not be someone else. (Repeats)

Say it, sigh it, don't deny it.
Just small words – you really should try it.
Borrowed courage. Borrowed Jokes.
Borrowed time – and there's the hoax.

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

The Hypnotigon

Burnt Out is a stark, raw track that addresses head on, burn out. The band don’t pull any punches, producing energetic indie rock soaked in frustration, doubts and confusion, while still offering glimmers of hope. And it has a lot to say. It asks fundamental questions and is brutally direct. It encourages self-reflection and opens eyes. Why have I been left out? How can we turn things around?  

The song was inspired by the manipulation of events surrounding politics, social justice, and the environment, and the concentration of digital power. Specifically in social and digital media. Why? Because our very political, social and environmental fabric is in grave danger.

The world needs topical music now more than ever. As dark as it can feel, things can change and the unfulfilled promise of this internet can be fulfilled. However, we're just burnt out, like so many people are feeling at the moment.

Burnt Out

Please spread the joy & FOLLOW, SHARE, REPOST, COMMENT. This is where we share early versions of forthcoming releases, so it's also a chance for you to help shape our sound.

Epic, ferocious, melodic, dreamlike and dark. Genre-hacking, symphonic rock embracing metal, electronica, folk, classical & psychedelia, led by guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Ian Allison. Haunted and haunting. More is more. 

MERCH at Teemill: https://the-bedlam-furnaces.teemill.com/

Worlds Apart

The Bedlam Furnaces