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Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind

by Vital Spirit

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  • Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
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1.
Pushed from the plains Sustained by raids Perpetual war Upon the adversary Iron in their word of life Peace in a fearful treaty Brown robe offerings Apache sitting pretty To receive Christ In a false conversion Double-tongued ruse Of the wily heathens Gifts of the Padres Left in the remains Framed by raids Inciting northern rage Beneath the Comanche Moon Iron in their word of death San Sabá ablaze Blood, smoke, revenge
2.
Bad Hand 03:07
Six hundred soldiers hunt Comanches Through deserts of vast eternity Twenty Tonks ferret them out To vanquish their ancient enemy Shadowed by scouts Vanishing into the hills Where the buffalo stampede Where white men fear to tread Facing the barren waste Acts of blunder and omission Fruitful errors, full of seeds Blossom into wisdom Campfire lights, traitorous beacons Scared awake by the midnight raid Driving off the unguarded horses They had met the Lord of the Plains Outnumbered and outgunned A village fled No-finger Chief As far as the eye could reach Neither an object nor a living thing In the heart of Comancheria The battle within reach A blue norther unleashed it’s fury Shielding the forlorn Quahadis Freezing rain Frigid wind Blinding snow Darkening sky Gathering twilight for a cursed enemy Silhouettes fading from the horizon
3.
It grows as it goes Through struggle and toil Invaded, unconquered 
 Foreign boots upon the soil Revolt in Santa Fe To arise on Christmas Day Smothered at its birth The Ancients rise again Gray Eminence of Taos Stoking flames of dissent Ceding land, reaping hatred Sickness unto death To the home of the gringo In the dark before sunrise Flinging arrows to rout them Clawing the walls to survive With lightning in their veins War chants on liquored tongues Shot, stabbed, and pierced Bent’s scalp baking in the sun Los diablos Americanos Struck in swift reprisal Pursued from hilltop to hilltop To the pueblo at red willows The citadel besieged Raining hellfire and damnation Bursting shells, shrieking wounded Little quarter asked or given A drumhead court-martial In the wake of devastation From a cottonwood in Taos The conquered hung for treason If an injury must be done Let it be so severe That with the passage of time Vengeance need not be feared
4.
Come dress your ranks, gallant souls, in a row Kit Carson is waiting to crush the savage foe At night, we march over lofty hills of snow To first chastise, then civilize, Bold Johnny Navajo Wolves of the mountains Fallen world, devoid of majesty At the frozen peak of Fortress Rock Bitter cold, famished agony The lurker at the threshold To deliver them from strife In their homeland, burning crops Leaving scorched earth behind He who seeks to deceive Will find a willing participant Fear preserves the deceiver By the dread of punishment They say there was a great roundup And the Diné were ripped from their land To be marched by the riders of judgement Who destroy those who fail their demands
5.
Jerusalem, captain! Yonder comes a thousand Indians! A single horse To draw Hays in Twenty warriors To foment bloodthirst Circumventing the ambush With nerves of steel Trounced, forced to flee The Rangers on their heels Charge their flank Hold the line Crowd them! Powder-burn them! Hand to hand Rough and tumble Under withering fire Pursued for miles The running fight dragged on Until a shot rang out The warriors scattered in despair Their Chief fell dead from his mount A bullet for every finger Unceasing slaughter from horseback At the Battle of Walker’s Creek The Comanches met their match
6.
Far above the prejudices and passions of men Soar the laws of nature Eternal and immutable They are the expression of the creative power They represent what is What must be What otherwise could not be Man can come to understand them He is incapable of changing them From the infinitely great Down to the infinitely small All things are subject to them When you have come to know Some of nature’s wise ways Beware your complacency For you cannot be wiser than nature You can only be as wise As any man will ever hope to be
7.
White Eyes 03:34
On John Ward’s ranch at Sonoita Creek From savage wilderness, fruitful husbandry With God’s enrichment came risk of raids The one eyed warrior’s singular aim Scaling a tree at the valley floor A one eyed boy awaits his fate Coaxed from the branches and spared In an unorthodox act of mercy A line drawn in the sand Let no one pass Imprisoned at a false assemblage Cut from the tent to escape the camp From the ridgetop, Cochise glowered A tin cup still clenched in his hand White eyes refused the exchange Blood for blood, fair reciprocity Apache signal fires upon every peak War dance echoes through the valley Lashed to a wagon train and burned alive From the station, watching the smoke rise Buzzards circled butchered men As Bascom held the fort Pierced vitals, drained lifeblood Gold fillings on a mutilated corpse In stillness and solitude, corpses hung in the trees High enough only the vultures could feed Spirits of the dead haunt Apache Pass The innocent suffer while the guilty go free
8.
In the midst of a land without silence Star Chief Quanah guards the last frontier Fearless in the face of noble death The wolves draws near Three thousand soldiers took the field A monumental force sent against the foe The great white father imposing lines on paper Stretching barbed wire across the panhandle Enraged hearts of the resistance Taking federal rations in January And raiding under the summer moon Burning war path of a crippled adversary Mackenzies Fourth, cloaked in a fog of dust A grand finality for Palo Duro camp On a goat trail down through jaws of death To deliver a final blow to the homeland Raking fire over the lodges Hot breath of an angry God Dust, sunlight, a crackling fire Sun, moon, stars forgot False assurance in broken magic Life passes as a shadow Phantom herd haunt the canyon Galloping amidst bleached bones Sanctum sanctorum, done and dusted Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down Quanah held to the end with an iron will One could bend horseshoes around Last Chief of the Comanches Resting until day breaks Shadows fall, darkness fades The Lord of the Plains

credits

released May 6, 2022

Recorded by Tim Creviston in North Vancouver, BC
Mixed by Colby Hink in East Vancouver, BC
Mastered by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound, UK
Cello performed by Kakophonix

Artwork by Ernest L. Blumenschein
Photography by Ansel Adams
Layout by Lars Nissen
Logo by Robin Harris

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Vital Spirit Vancouver, British Columbia

Saccharine black metal of the West

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