“With the new sub-subgenre of “dark fantasy electronica”, Coven draws on sci-fi, fantasy books and movies and 20 years’ worth of electronic music influence and experience to create a highly diverse sonic journey.”
THE STORY
Coven is part of the Mirror Dimension Series, so it further explores the characters and themes found in Volume 1: Chasm. The album touches on Christian concepts of repentance and regeneration, but mainly delves deeper into the relationship between Cravien and his soulmate Omen, a vicious vampire that he himself sired long ago − I used these characters to reflect on the pain felt by believers and unbelievers when they finally separate to serve their very different masters.
Fed up with a life of meaningless cruelty, Cravien abandons his coven to seek relief and refuge at the City of Lights (from where he was banished long ago). Along the way, however, he repents from his evil deeds, and is miraculously transformed into a daywalker at sunrise.
Filled with sorrow for Omen, he returns to warn her (and the remaining coven) of certain doom threatening their underground chamber − but Omen refuses to repent, using his betrayal as an excuse to continue in darkness. Cravien leaves empty handed, but just after he departs, the light begins to tug at her soul...
Letters to the Lost
Omen: We are the wild ones far outside the city gates, and the sins of our fathers before us beget our eternal fate. For who can crush our immortal throne or level these hearts made of stone?
The King of Lights: (Preamble) I don't believe your silence. I don't believe your lies. You traded me for license to feed of other lives. But liars don't deceive me and hunters have no game. Your final day is coming where you'll get what you deserve for blaspheming my name! I'll subdue you in anyway − to the light or to the flame!
Omen: A tangled web of hate with my anger wired in mesmerized by the glimmer of my crown of sinking sin.
Rage into Blindness (Immortal Mix)
Cravien: Wait, I'm not that strong, I'm too diseased, and i'm left shambled on my knees. I don't think they thought this through, and now it's down to just one thing. I am wretched!
Omen: Lies
Cravien: I'm torn away inside among the ruins of my dreams; my perfect little world is dead! There's nowhere left to hide. In the dark it seems the view is better than it really is!
Omen: In this holocaust of stains.
Cravien: I thought i had it all. I'm often left alone with broken toys and blood spilled on the floor.
Omen: Sick.
Cravien: Reduced to a crawl. In this hell it seems the pain is better than it really is.
Omen: Dead.
Cravien: Now everything is gone. I believed in what was said. Now everything went wrong. (Release me!) And the skin begins to fade so i have nothing else but broken bones, decaying in these chains!
Cravien & Omen: I am wretched and complicated, and I can't get through anymore!
Cravien: Spilling out a flood of my neverending doom from my throne in the darkness that is sinking in the room.
Cravien & Omen: I am wretched and complicated and I can't get through. You think that I am wretched and complicated and I can't get through anymore!
The coven emerges from their underground city after sundown, hunting for helpless humans in the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. Cravien sees this as an opportunity to leave the coven behind and escape unnoticed.
Omen
Cravien: It’s taking me down, and pulling me underneath. I’ve entered into the darkest days that I’ve ever seen. They cut my spirit right down to the bone − left my carcass out, in the dark, all alone! I turned my gaze to the east, forsaking the power of the cross and the way of release. I chose for me a bride − turned her to the night after she died!
I failed to find any sign from above. I was choking it down like his rage was a drug, but games don’t last for long in hell. The devil came like a flood to put me under her spell!
So I left you for the city lights and cursed the ground I came from the grave! And your vampire eyes are starving for a sign of my return, but the only sign is sunlight and its going to burn!
Your heart is still firm against my knife, so I left you for the city lights and cursed the lie that made us into creatures so depraved. Oh I left you for the city lights and cursed the ground I came from where they formed me from the grave and the prince of the skies.
Death at Dawn
Cravien: I am defiled and darkened still from the way of the fire. And the wrath of Him who wants my soul sends me back to the grave in the cold. Tired of death, and I'm tired of sin, but I can’t shake the taste of blood and her skin. She’s all I have. But I know it only lasts for a moment. For a moment.
You own the night, and the sudden storm to the fallen ones who usurp your throne in vanity. You keep us far outside of your city. Take me back, I don’t wanna be anymore apart of this cruelty. I’ll wait outside to change or perish in the light in a moment. In a moment.
My heart was dark and no life was left. My cursed flesh went on while my spirit laid to rest. Then you brought the sun and you gave me breath. My fallen body burned to ash, but you raised me from that death in a moment. In a moment.
Cravien becomes the daywalker at dawn, and begins his long journey back to warn the vampire coven of certain doom.
Bad Kitty (Apocalyptic Mix)
Daywalker: She's dead. Lying burned therein. Atrocities inside her sin. Deny the Holy One her state. The wrath of God builds up her fate. The glorious ones provide the test. Your arguments are weak at best. Behold your spirit thins before the judgment throne like a filthy whore.
Oh, oh, oh, bad kitty. No, no, no, bad kitty.
Filled with pain and sorrow in, rejection leads to further sin. The secrets are indeed divine, trampled by the pagan swine. All of you will turn away; No resurrection in his name. Disregarding all I've said, now cast in fire and darkest pit!
Oh, bad kitty, taste the honey on your tongue. Oh, kitty, feel the lemon in your gut.
We are the Ravens
Daywalker: Your wicked vows (like a thief in the night) will take you all out, and you’re running out of time to flee these chamber walls, so cast away your crown (of lies) back to the throne again. Yeah, or your ghost will haunt my memories instead. Still I alone will serve the daylight, so throw your sin to the darkness or go to your death.
Omen: What’s this? I don’t understand how you fell from your grave to the promised land? And all those things you want from me… Huh! They’re not gonna be!
Daywalker: Run away with me.
Omen: Oh hun, I’m a child of the night.
Daywalker: Your skin is lost in darkness.
Omen: So what? You want me, yeah so… take me as I am or run along home to the light.
Daywalker: I am your kind, but I’m not dead. I wanna turn your filth into a heart of flesh.
Omen: But you were mine! And I won't repent!
Daywalker: Drink the savior’s blood and never feed again.
Omen: Hold your tongue. Have you forgotten we’re the wild ones? And I want you to know I can’t believe in you, so stop pretending, come back, hun… to the throne again. Yeah so... before you take that tone with me, instead, remember where you came from. Keep your guilt to yourself and outta my head.
Daywalker: What guilt? I thought you couldn’t believe in a law outside your own decree?
Omen: Hush baby, I'm not backing down.
Daywalker: Your “eternity” is dead at dawn. When the sun comes up, you’ll be gone.
Omen: You’re wrong. You’ll see, we are the ravens!
Daywalker: Yeah, well ravens bleed. I am your kind, but I’m not dead. I wanna turn this stone into a heart of flesh...
Believing he has labored in vein, Cravien leaves the coven for the city with a heavy heart. His beloved Omen will not come away with him.
Deceived (Odyssey Mix)
Daywalker: I gave up looking long ago and washed away the dream with every passing day. I looked into the skies for hope, but I have nothing to show for it. I have nothing to show for it. Comon, I need a connection. Comon, let me inside. Pull back the fading darkness, a world screaming vacant lies.
Omen: I felt the lightest touch in the corners of my mind. I slipped into a dream. I caught a glimpse of hope in the shadows of the night.
Omen & Daywalker: Comon, I need a connection. Comon, let me inside. Pull back the fading darkness, a world screaming vacant lies.
The Holy One invades Omen's soul, and she is changed, unbeknownst to Cravien.
The Coronation
Omen: You are the Holy One, far above the starless night, and the wind of your breath at sunset restores us to glorious light.