[I. Benighted Like Usher]

Snuffed tapers sighed
As Death left impressing
His crest of cold tears on the Countess

Benighted like ill-fated Usher
The House of Bathory shrouded
'Neath griefs dark facade

If only I could have wept
In mourning by Her side
I would have clasped Her so tight
Like storm-beached Aphrodite
Drowned on Kytherean tides

And Kissed Her
For from Her alone
My lips would have known
Enigmas of shadowy vistas

Where pleasures took flesh
And pain, remorseless
Came freezing the breath
Of raucous life hushed unto whispers

Benighted.

Inhaling the pale waning moonlight that crept
Through the crypt of Her Lord who so lucidly slept

Benighted.

Exhaling the wail of black widowhood's toll
Waxing eternal night entered Her soul

[II. A Murder of Ravens in Fugue]

Now haranguing grey skies
With revenge upon life
Gnathic and Sapphic
Needs begged gendercide

Delusions of Grandier denounced the revolt
Of descrying cursed glass, disenchanted in vaults
Encircled by glyphs midst Her sin-sistered cult

With hangman's abandon She plied spiritworlds
To Archangels in bondage
From light to night hurled
Cast down to the earth where torment would unfurl.......

But soon,
Her tarot proved
Hybrid rumours spread like tumours
Would accrue
And blight Her stars
To better bitter truths
Of cold bloodbaths

As bodies rose
In rigid droves
To haunt Her from their
Shallow burials imposed
When wolves exhumed
Their carthen wombs
Where heavy frosts had laboured long
To bare their wounds

To the depths of Her soul they pursued
Wielding their poison they flew
Like a murder of ravens in fugue

And knowing their raptures
Would shatter Her dreams
She clawed blackened books for damnation's reprieve
Baneful cawed canons on amassed enemies

So Hallow's Eve
As She received
Like Bellona to the ball
Those enemies
Fell-sisters heaved
Her torturies
Cross stained flagstones
To Her carriage reined to flee

But She knew She must brave the night through
Though fear crept a deathshead o'er the moon
Like a murder of ravens in Fugue

For each masked, jewelled gaze held dread purpose
Horror froze painted eyes to cold stares
And even Her dance
In the vast mirrors cast
Looked the ill of Her future
If fate feasted there....

[III. Eyes That Witnessed Madness]

In an age crucified by the nails of faith
When rank scarecrows of christ blighted lands
An aloof Countess born an obsidian wraith
Dared the abyss knowing well She was damned
Her life whispered grief like a funeral march
Twisted and yearning, obsessed an entranced
With those succumbing to cruelty
Crushed 'neath the gait of Her dance
A whirlwind of fire that swept through the briers
Of sweet rose Her thickets of black thorn had grasped...

She demanded the Heavens and forever to glean
The elixir of Youth from the pure
Whilst Her lesbian fantasies
Reamed to extremes
O'er decades unleashed
Came for blood's silken cure

But Her reign ended swiftly
For Dark Gods dreamt too deep
To heed Her pleas

When Her gaolers were assailed
With condemnations from a priest
Who'd stammered rites
In the dead of night
For maidens staining winding sheets

And She postured proud
When Her crimes were trowelled
And jezebelled to peasant lips
Though She smelt the fires
That licked limbs higher
To the tortured cunts of accomplices

So ends this twisted fable's worth
And though spared the pyre's bite
By dint of nobled bloodlined birth
Her sins (crimes) garnered Her no respite

Forever severed from the thrill of coming night
Where slow Death alone could grant Her flight

"The Spirits have all but fled judgement
I rot, alone, insane,
Where the forest whispers puce laments for me
From amidst the pine and wreathed wolfsbane
Beyond these walls, wherein condemned
To the gloom of an austere tomb
I pace with feral madness sent
Through the pale beams of a guiltless moon
Who, bereft of necrologies, thus
Commands creation over the earth
Whilst I resign my lips to death
A slow cold kiss that chides rebirth
Though one last wish is bequathed by fate
My beauty shalt wilt, unseen
Save for twin black eyes that shalt come to take
My soul to peace or Hell for company"

My soul to Hell for company


Lyrics submitted by screwi

Bathory Aria: Benighted Like Usher/A Murder of Ravens in Fugue/Eyes That Witnessed Madness song meanings
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36 Comments

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  • +4
    General Comment

    Obviously, listening to and reading the lyrics of Cradle of Filth hasn't given you a good idea of "what they're all about".

    Most all of their songs depict humanity in stark contrast -- basically, they are extremely accurate in their portrayal of mankind.

    We have monsters and beautiful people inside us all. We are just as filthy and infernal as we are innocent and pure.

    Our beauty and our wretchedness is inseparable -- and Erzebet Bathory, a gorgeous queen and lady and nerfarious murderer and sadist, was a perfect historical and rather gruesome example of this.

    Your post is also an example. You decry Lady Bathory, but then you blaspheme Christ's name (which doesn't bother me in the least, seeing as I'm agnostic), and claim that people should be shot based on something arbitrary (kind of like Hitler targeting Jews arbitrarily).

    Just like Bathory, you are righteous and terribly sick all at the same time. I can't verify you killed hundreds of virgins, but with the right motivation, anyone is capable of anything. It's human nature.

    This song IS beautiful. The lyrics are incredibly inspired and poetic, the music is exceptionally well done, and Cradle of Filth's stylings surpass just about anything you'll find the radio in terms of taste and musical talent.

    So, there you go.

    Mimikon October 20, 2004   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Just saying something that nobody else seems to have picked up on: I think the lyrics at the start of the song seem to be reflecting Dani's own love for the countess: "If only I could have wept in mourning by her side, etc." I really like this, as he plays a narrator for so much of the album. Anyway, this song is truly beautiful, and it was the first Cradle song I got into, so it holds a special place in my heart.

    Wackuson October 02, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I love this song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    jcb_2kon August 31, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This is the most beautiful song ever written. I am in awe... I love this song!

    Jennynesson September 25, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this is a fucking long ass, kick ass fucking song. its my favorite one on the cd.

    Dying_In_Vainon September 26, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Ok, this is the end of Elizabeth Bathory. Her crimes have been discovered, her killing spree is coming to a screeching halt, and she is now being walled up until her death.

    With that said, this is easily one of the most awe inspiring songs ever written.

    Nevermortalon April 24, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Mimik - well said. I completely agree. Without the Darkness, we couldn't recognise the Light. Yes, she was 'a monster.' But in the right circumstances, you could have been worse. "There, but for the grace of God, goes you." And BTW, don't just jump to Hitler all the time when you need an example of evil. For the most part, and at least in the early years, he did a lot. Brought Germany out of a real slump. All leaders are the antichrist to their enemies.

    It IS a beautiful song. Musically and lyrically, most of Cradle's songs could easily be read out as poetry without problems. Anyway, if you're offended by this, why the hell are you listening to them?

    DelmetorJunkieon January 07, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    to eerieoompaloompa: the forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. elizabeth bathory was a monster. but in her crimes she is void of understanding of the princibles of good and evil. does this make her any less a monster? no. but we cannot look on her as an human. she is a beast. but don't children cry when their pet is put down for attacking someone? and not just children.

    elizabeth was a beast, but a beautiful one, whose life was smothered in trajedy.

    i nearly cried listening to how she fell to sin in "thirteen autumns and a widow". and in "cruelty brought thee orchids" i was hoping she would repent. listening to the album is like playing the role of the angels in Christopher Marlows "Dr. Faust". i bet those angels cried when faustus faced his damnation, just as dani does when elizabeth faces hers.

    the song is as beautiful as a trajedy can be. tears for the death, embittered by the life.

    erudite strangeron March 29, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Because she couldn't see good. Do you think that she was happy?

    erudite strangeron April 06, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Hey, don't get mad at us or the band just cause you don't understand the song man. Consult your Willy Wonka brethren if you need any explanations at all, they are quite good at educating spoiled children, so I've heard.

    Please don't ASSume all Cradle of Filth fans are goths. Nobody likes one who ASSumes too much.

    (Non-goth aqui.)

    Tauramehtaron June 20, 2005   Link

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