The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall
Shouldst not grave pleasures be my all?
For if I shall see thy Will be done
Grant Me the Witchcraft of thy tongue"
Three moondials froze in the shadow of six
As another soul passed to the grasping Styx
Clutching their trinket crucifix
Bats blew from caves in a dissonant surge
Omens of corruption from within the church
A fetid, dank oasis still clung to fool rebirth
Alone as a stone cold altar
The castle and its keep
Like faerytale dominion rose
A widow to the snow peaks
Wherein reclined the Countess
Limbs purring from the kill
Bathed in virgin white and like the night
Alive and young and unfulfilled
Was it the cry of a wolf
That broke the silver thread of enchanted thoughts?
Of Her life as a mere reflection
(As the moon's in narrow windows caught)
That opened like dark eyelids on
The sigh of the woods that the wind fell upon
Like a Siren weaving song
From the lilt of choirs choking
Where the vengeful dead
Belong...
To the Sorceress and Her charnel arts
She swept from ebon towers at the hour of Mars
'Neath a star-inwoven sky latticed by scars
To unbind knotted reins that kept in canter, despair
Shod on melancholy, fleet to sanctuary there,
In netherglades tethered where onyx idols stared
Was it the Kiss of the mist
That peopled the air with the prowess of absinthe?
Lost souls begging resurrection
From Gods upon their forest plinths
Whose epitaphs read of re-ascending to win
Remission from despair through a holocaust of sin
In a tongue hilted in invective rectums
Over signs and seals the sorceress prayed
To Death, to rend the slender veil
That Ancient Ones might rise again
As shadows swelled
The Countess fell
To masturbating with Her dagger
As the Witch gabbled spells
Cumming heavy roses all the way to Hell
As sudden thunder's grue harangue
Announced two pincered worlds
Exuding bane, something came
With the stench of necrophiled graves
To these clandestines
Who shrank from glimpsing horror
That the growls of mating houls inclined...
Resplendent
In pendants
(Natal trophies torn from bellies of desanctified nuns)
A demons, bewinged, bedight
In scum, prowled their circle seeking entry to run
An arctic tongue upon Her vulva
Where rubies smeared to alabaster thighs
Glittered like a contract in the purse of a whore
Receiving sole communion from the body of christ
"If blood is what thou carves, foul fiend
I will yield this witch to thee
If thou wouldst draw a veil for Me
O'er lengthening scars of age and grief"
As the Demon slavered foetid vows
And bore His prey away
In talons itching to perpetrate
The nausea of eternal rape
The Sorceress screaming in His grasp
Spat a final curse to stain
The Countess with the promise
That Her lord at war would be cruelly slain
And She would rot.
Alone
Insane.
On the twisted nails of faith.
Shouldst not grave pleasures be my all?
For if I shall see thy Will be done
Grant Me the Witchcraft of thy tongue"
Three moondials froze in the shadow of six
As another soul passed to the grasping Styx
Clutching their trinket crucifix
Bats blew from caves in a dissonant surge
Omens of corruption from within the church
A fetid, dank oasis still clung to fool rebirth
Alone as a stone cold altar
The castle and its keep
Like faerytale dominion rose
A widow to the snow peaks
Wherein reclined the Countess
Limbs purring from the kill
Bathed in virgin white and like the night
Alive and young and unfulfilled
Was it the cry of a wolf
That broke the silver thread of enchanted thoughts?
Of Her life as a mere reflection
(As the moon's in narrow windows caught)
That opened like dark eyelids on
The sigh of the woods that the wind fell upon
Like a Siren weaving song
From the lilt of choirs choking
Where the vengeful dead
Belong...
To the Sorceress and Her charnel arts
She swept from ebon towers at the hour of Mars
'Neath a star-inwoven sky latticed by scars
To unbind knotted reins that kept in canter, despair
Shod on melancholy, fleet to sanctuary there,
In netherglades tethered where onyx idols stared
Was it the Kiss of the mist
That peopled the air with the prowess of absinthe?
Lost souls begging resurrection
From Gods upon their forest plinths
Whose epitaphs read of re-ascending to win
Remission from despair through a holocaust of sin
In a tongue hilted in invective rectums
Over signs and seals the sorceress prayed
To Death, to rend the slender veil
That Ancient Ones might rise again
As shadows swelled
The Countess fell
To masturbating with Her dagger
As the Witch gabbled spells
Cumming heavy roses all the way to Hell
As sudden thunder's grue harangue
Announced two pincered worlds
Exuding bane, something came
With the stench of necrophiled graves
To these clandestines
Who shrank from glimpsing horror
That the growls of mating houls inclined...
Resplendent
In pendants
(Natal trophies torn from bellies of desanctified nuns)
A demons, bewinged, bedight
In scum, prowled their circle seeking entry to run
An arctic tongue upon Her vulva
Where rubies smeared to alabaster thighs
Glittered like a contract in the purse of a whore
Receiving sole communion from the body of christ
"If blood is what thou carves, foul fiend
I will yield this witch to thee
If thou wouldst draw a veil for Me
O'er lengthening scars of age and grief"
As the Demon slavered foetid vows
And bore His prey away
In talons itching to perpetrate
The nausea of eternal rape
The Sorceress screaming in His grasp
Spat a final curse to stain
The Countess with the promise
That Her lord at war would be cruelly slain
And She would rot.
Alone
Insane.
On the twisted nails of faith.
Lyrics submitted by sean, edited by jaughn1150
The Twisted Nails of Faith Lyrics as written by Gianpiero Guiseppe Piras Dani Davey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Yeah, sure. This song starts off with a general lamentation of the horrible condition of the world. It goes into depicting Elizabeth Bathory with "limbs purring from the kill", which is fitting as it is the song that follows the slaughter fest "Desire in Violent Overture", and is as if she is resting from the activities described in that song. Something snaps her from her lethargic state, (was it the cry of the wolf? haha) and she seeks out the Sorceress. They begin some sort of Satanic ritual that involves raising the dead by reading ancient chants. This seance spins into chaos, and they succeed in bringing the dead back to life: a demon has entered the room. It seems like he is about to rape Elizabeth, but she offers the Sorceress to him, under one condition: he gives her eternal life. The demon agrees, and the Witch curses Elizabeth as she is dragged away.
This song is at the point where Elizabeth's sin starts having adverse effects on her life: her vanity is so intense that her friend (the Sorceress) is killed because of it. I believe that this whole concept album is a moral tale, in part, about the dangers of embracing one's lustful or wild side. This is very interesting, coming from Dani who has written about indulgent, sometimes Satanic rituals and/or lifestyles in many of his songs. It could be taken as a caution about how far we embrace our appetites, coming from someone who knows. Best line on the whole album: "As the Demon slavered foetid vows And bore His prey away In talons itching to perpetrate The nausea of eternal rape The Sorceress screaming in His grasp Spat a final curse to stain The Countess with the promise That Her lord at war would be cruelly slain"
she was never immortal. she simply wanted her beauty to last while she did even as she aged and grieved what griefs she might. beside that however, i'd agree with you