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This Digital LP includes a digital only Bonus Track (Stable) as well as a digital lyric booklet in .PDF form.


released November 30, 2010

All Songs Written by The Republic Of Wolves.
Produced By The Republic Of Wolves
Mixed and Mastered by Gregg Andrew
Cover Art By Ben Kehoe
Layout By Nick Cuomo

The Republic Of Wolves are: Gregg Andrew Dellarocca, Mason Maggio, Christian Van Deurs, Billy Duprey and Chris Wall




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Track Name: Varuna
Our home is a jagged mouth, 
streaming out pleas to the dead 
We are misshapen teeth 
uprooting ourselves 

But we could have spent our time 
burying strangers instead 
We would've settled in 
and found out our names 

But calm your heart 
The dark is still the dark 

We'd told our sons to wait their turns, 
like eager months lined up in herds 
to age our skin and stretch us out. 
They never get tired of stretching us out. 

We read the braille with our bare feet 
It would not teach us how to see, 
But we finally realized ourselves. 

Varuna is counting the notches and nicks in our planks. 
Do we deserve the grave, 
or the table you set for the liars 
and unloving husbands and wives? 
They hadn't seen themselves 
They couldn't have known. 

But face that fact, 
Every branch you cut grows back. 

And we're growing into the thought 
that we're cast like iron,
forced into these shapes. 
Track Name: Woolen Blankets
I had alot to say 
before they sewed my mouth shut 
Out on a rosy field, 
between a cross and crescent 

I had a love so pure 
I had to leave her behind. 
I never told her why
Did I ever tell myself why? 

I kept a steady hand 
as we untied the bowline, 
Off of a ragged pier 
during a grey-haired sunset. 

Past the old tree and the coal mine, 
We deserted all the burdens of the land 
Traded all that aging clay 
For the urgency and anger of the sea 

A hundred fading prayers 
sewn into woolen blankets 
And my father's rosary 
twisted around my frail uncertain wrist 

I'd heard a soul could float 
But could it swim to safety? 
Well I'm scared that when this ends 
I may not even have one 
at all. 

And you said, 
"I do believe that hope 
is just a grand distraction 
from the walls you will have to climb." 
So pick up your weeping feet 
and just start moving forward 
And don't look back to see if she's there. 
Track Name: Sea Smoke
I drove an ancient copper thorn 
into your Red Indian heart 
Pulled the cross down and myself 
into a hundred weaker parts 
Pointed up into the cliffs, 
I saw the villains they became 
Just an angel and a lion, 
spitting fire in my name 

Won't be long 

We threw the Stygian hypocrites 
into the warmest pit of Hell 
Down to the violent jet-black delta 
where the redwoods rose and fell 
I painted all of man's mistakes 
inside a giant golden frame 
I was a tax collector up until 
the spirit spoke my name 

In the fog of the graying woods we'd grown 
We heard the cedar bulkheads moan 
So we replaced it with a field 
And now it's scraping up our heels. 

And I can hardly move my mouth 
To get these hallowed insults out 
Past my bear trap jaws into my wandering father's ears 
So I'm packing up my tattered thoughts 
and swallowing my prayers. 

And I'd been too long 
in a polished wooden tomb 
Should've left some space for you 
But I never got my fill of tempting fate 

So I sold my spine to the devil-handed dusk 
Finally a captain I can trust 
He formed a brand new trinity 
With the hypocrites and me. 
Track Name: Oarsman
I woke up sweating on the moaning mount of olives 
My black dove penance weighing down my feather feet 
Woven into my skin, the covenants I'd broken 
My granite heart will not forget what it once was. 

A coffer full of your love 
I couldn't bear it. 

I don't believe I ever had a choice 
When the sun came up and my eyes were struck 
I don't believe I could've changed my mind 
In the dead end heat of that withered beach 
With my grave stone teeth and your seven shades of grief 

We were unleavened earth before the first unsettled word fell 
They drew the devil's iris in between your brows 
Accursed breath that left our bodies when the day broke 
Who built that weary wooden cabinet for your faith? 

All these doors I see 
mean nothing to me. 

I don't believe I ever had a choice 
When we lost our sight to the teething night 
I don't believe I could've changed my mind 
When the seeds were sown and then left alone 
How could I have known I was never on my own? 

Oh God, I feel like every saintly fire was my fault. 

That I got crossed off of the wall 
and my fingers all bloodied and torn 
and it's just a lie, 
a poor excuse for all the fumes
that I spit out back when I was young, 
and god damn the truth, 
I was unused, 
an empty glass, 
an oarsman and no one knew my name. 

I am not welcome in this house I built. 
Track Name: Pitch and Resin
Back when we wore the dirt 
and you didn't hurt 
and they named constellations after us 
I'd heard you almost died 
and the fault was mine, 
So that day my heart became untied. 
But you said, "Sometimes love is all you get, 
So you'd better make it stretch." 
I believe that, I just haven't seen it yet. 
And I never got my way 
because I never saw your face 
Just a blue charade 
the shadow of a season we'd betrayed. 

So I'll be stored up 
Like a relic, healing illness from a money box. 
And you'll be blooming right outside
and finally living all those verdant dreams 
that I couldn't see. 

We shot off all our flares 
as though we didn't care 
And watched them fade into the air. 

You must have known by then 
that all we had was spent 
On running from our bitter end. 

So we'll be sprawled out 
Like mosaics, filling wall space in a crumbling house 
Until we smoke out all the stray light 
And finally teach it to stay 
Because God knows that we need some steadying. 

Some day we'll be setting suns 
Watching everything we've done 
From a bed we'd shared 
but never had the chance to get up from.

Still I never left your side 
because it never did feel right. 
I just hope you don't feel sorry for a damn thing 
when you die. 
Track Name: Monologues
When day dawned, the tempest passed away 
and the warm sun shone out. 
I was caught in a sunbeam that dried my eyes closed 

I'll show you what it means to come home alive 
'Cause I've seen the curtain fall one too many times 
And it's my fault. 

Don't let the weight shatter your shoulders 
Just lay it down before you forget how. 

When God spoke, the field was dry as day 
And she felt her cold hands meet 
I was lost in the wood grain, 
'till I heard her call my name 

We held a funeral for the moths we'd killed, 
then set to work again on the ones that lived. 
At least we knew. 

Have you been kneeling here long? 
Shedding your youth 
teaching yourself not to argue 
You're caught in a shroud 
you shouldn't have found 
Those monologues spoiled your innocence. 

I swept up all your tiny fragments 
And spun you into thread, 
and dyed you gold 
But you never kept me warm enough
to make it through a single night. 
So I cut you to parts, 
and sold you as scarves 
so you could go on after I was gone.

When we meet again we'll be asleep 
underneath the flower bed. 
You'll tell me everything that you wished you'd done 
I'll wrap you in my arms and then I'll wake up 
But you will not. 

Can I finally say that I found some truth? 
That everything dies before I do 
'Cause I've driven these stakes 
for all of my days 
Just to try and escape my uncertainty. 

There's nothing here to keep us from setting 
We're layers of paint eventually washed out. 
Track Name: Tuez Le Tous, Dieu Reconnaitra Les Siens
So we played our games 
in the dug-out graves 
Shouting curses at the dirt 
'til the Messiah showed his face, 
With his soap-stone eyes 
and his seaweed beard 
and he scolded us so sharply 
with his winding river tongue. 
It was not my place 
to be calling names 
'Cause I was the oil-spitting acid-tripping dog 

"I would like to see you at your worst" 
What's your worst? 

So you'll sleepwalk home 
in a sick moon's glow 
Just a lonely set of bones 
beside a lonely service road 
You will crack your skull 
like a rotting hull 
just to picture all the good you could've done yourself 
by picking from the tree. 

So I read the psalms 
off your painted palms 
and they drew a darker picture 
than our father would've liked. 
It is not your place 
to be digging graves 
Should have learned from my mistakes 
and left it up to fate. 
Track Name: Greek Fire
Where have you been lying 
ever since the fortunes changed their minds? 
You're nothing but a sleeping quarry, 
caught up in the snares that you yourself had lain. 
But I am not your keeper 
Don't call for me when you finally realize 
No one's coming, so you'd better find some peace. 

When you wash up 
I will fold my hands 
and contemplate the ways 
to keep you in your place 

Please tell me, 
Why have you been mourning 
since the day you really met yourself? 
Well you and all your seething lowlife best friends 
were lining up like sparrows on a wire, 
Talking like the twelve Apostles 
dressed in leather, 
wandering the alleys, 
clenching your fists 
"Relax, it's just a business." 

Your Maker was a servant 
who plowed 'til he was swollen 
and fell into the ground. 

His phantom took the shape of 
your seven years of labor 
but you would not stay down. 

I couldn't get you because you got me first. 
You were a fixture 
I must have been a fool. 
I couldn't face you, because your face was mine.
But I will be long gone 
before I take your side. 

We're nothing but receding figures 
robbing each other of our final thoughts. 
Track Name: The Attic
Give weight and give woe 
The working man's slow 
for dinner we ate by the fire 
Some life is just so hard to let go 
I followed you with every movement. 

So what if the walls in the canyon were to crumble 
what if the ice froze your feet where you stand 
what if the stars started fleeting into darkness 
How would you ever find your way back? 

In the attic we kept your coffin very warm 
In the attic we kept your coffin safe and warm 
but we buried it before you got home. 

Keep all that you need 
just out of your reach 
to make sure you're still here tomorrow 
Those last words I spoke 
I knew how they'd go 
It was only a question of timing. 

Mother cried in her room, 
there was nothing i could do 
except to go and look for you 
But it made it so much harder 
because deep inside I knew that 

The only time we spent 
was in the galley, just talking about family 
and somehow I was meant 
to care for everyone and everything in the world you left. 

But I made it now so you won't be alone. 
Track Name: You Missed The Point
Forget the pain you once held dear, 
It cannot help you here. 
Did it ever help you anywhere? 

You're kneeling on a memory, 
some Pyrrhic victory 
But could you ever be that young again? 

My dice are cast, I can't turn it around 
I've set these frames but there's no doors to fit them. 

Recall the way she tied that rope 
Was it just as you had hoped? 
Even though you never had a say 

But you missed the point 'cause you were caught 
in the rains that you had brought, 
And you could never get your color back. 

Our posts are placed, 
we can't turn that around. 
But I still won't breathe until I see it set in stone. 

And now you're filling up with shade again, and I am too 
After all the years of fighting it. 

But now I'm pretty sure 
that our books are bound, and we can't turn that around 
I built this bed but there are no sheets that fit it. 
And our bricks are laid, can we turn that around? 
I still won't breathe until you get your color back. 
Track Name: Grounded, I Am Traveling Light
So we were living out our days 
in an old abandoned palisade 
Sweeping chimneys 'til our backs hurt 
and singing 'til our throats were dry. 

Scraping the red from every rusty nail 
Stitching the carpet tears 
We kept our salty voices hushed 
You looked loveliest all dressed in dust

And I cleared the cobwebs while you slept, 
set a fire that we'd both regret. 
You woke up coughing out a storm 
and we never made it out the door 

'Cause I for one was taking my time. 

I think it's time you and I should come home 
It's been three years and I can feel it in my bones. 
If turning back means I'm turning back alone 
then I guess I'm on my own. 

It was six hundred degrees 
We had nothing to protect our feet 
from the glowing embers hardening our soles 
Our burning bed of coal 

But that fever that we shared 
wasn't nothing that we couldn't bear 
We just wrapped around each other 
and we sweated out our worst nightmares. 

And I think that's when I was born, 
in your arms during a firestorm. 
We were perfectly in place 
We were filling up the empty space. 

But you were tired of wasting your time. 

Your spirits fled from all those bad ideas we bled 
I twisted up all of your words 
And I turned to brass while you were tearing down the past 
Now I'm trailing 
I'm traveling light 
and losing my memory. 
Track Name: Tanzih
My left handed heart is still painting your face 
over the walls of my dim mind 
These contrary winds hiding under my eyelids 
I hope I can stomach the weight. 

But each bristling wave is an unfinished thought, 
swept out of view by the next one. 
I've tried and I'm trying to string them together, 
but oh what a waste of my rope. 

Like a disappearing act 

On a lofty brown bed, treading masses of blue 
I started coughing up questions. 
There's a giant asleep under all of this water, 
I'm searching in vain for his name. 

Written on my tongue, 
There is none merciful but God. 

Iron pinned you down 
You were coming unstitched 
You were flickering and you didn't have time to ask why 

Something was circling our heads 
Was it the patron saint of death? 
I heard you spoke from your new grave, 
"There is no truth that will not fade." 
Well I guess you'd know better than me. 
Track Name: Tashbih
When I was six months old 
there was a price upon my soul. 
They placed me in a basket 
and sent me down the rapids 
So all I ever knew was a wicker tomb. 

Please lock the door behind me 
Just lock the door after I go. 
I'm sorry for my tied tongue 
I'm sorry that you left alone. 

When I replaced the cross 
with monuments to what I'd lost 
I grew apart from myself 
and shook until the night fell 
But all I ever was  
was merciful. 

Well I never got out of those rapids 
We never get out of the rapids. 

You're still here in some way. 
But I couldn't have known 
so it's alright.