I had a bit of time this evening, so I put it to use writing lyrics to another song for the soundtrack to one of my novels. It turned out to be a tad bit longer than any of the others, but that's why they're called epics, I suppose. Let me know what you think.
Valkyrie (Testimony of Apocalypse)
Echoing, whispered voices repeating
(Beware of false prophets who only desire to steal your soul
Promising salvation, the expiation of sin, in return for only a drop of blood)
I used to live my life so focused and undaunted
But then dreams turned to nightmares I never wanted
And now instead of pleasant memories, I’m haunted
Standing on the edge of heaven
Within arm’s length of an angel’s heart
Standing on the edge of heaven
Now just watch as it all falls apart
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Ruling with a red scepter
Your throne is your sepulcher
Wearing cataclysm as a crown
We feast upon the fighting
And split the sky with lightning
As crimson wisdom is reigning down
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
My world is peaceful when my eyes close and I’m dreaming
But then dreams turn to nightmares and I’m chased by demons
I break darkness and silence when I awake screaming
Standing on the edge of darkness
Feeling the brush of an angel’s wings
Standing on the edge of darkness
Now just hear the demon as it sings
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Wasting away in defeat
Victory is incomplete
Baptized in a lake of our own tears
Battlefields decorated
Memories desecrated
A holocaust wrought from our own fears
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
A prophet for profit
Savior or liar
On your knees
I shall be your new Messiah
Abandoned in agony
Until
(Until)
Your soul screams out for mercy
As it lays shattered and naked
Fallen on the battlefield
And still
(And still)
You wait for them to appear
Take no solace in the sacred
A prophet for profit
Do I conspire?
On your knees
I shall be your new Messiah
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
(crash of thunder into rolling thunder)
From across the barren wasteland
You can hear the thunder roar
The battle is Armageddon
Unleash the machines of war
(sound of wind)
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Whispering voices echoed
(The paradox awaits
at the bottom of the abyss
The dichotomy controls your fate
A game of damnation and we play for eternity)
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012
A dark ditty I wrote for the soundtrack to my Angels of the Seventh Dawn: The Second Book of the Scarabae Saga.
Your Embrace
Although my eyes can see, the images fade and disappear
Any courage I possessed has drown in an ocean of fear
For you, I am an altar of flesh and bone
(Force me…force me down on my knees)
A carnal communion, together alone
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I lovingly offer my soul for you to torture and rape
Carve into my skin; mortify my flesh into your landscape
It shall be my pleasure to beg, bleed, and please
(Reach deep…reach deep beneath my skin)
Your dark desires so twisted and diseased
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
As time streams through my broken hands
Like raindrops on the blazing sands
The knowledge I can’t understand
Is lost in the frozen wasteland
But I
I beg you for breath
As I
I dream of what’s next
Yet I
I failed and I wept
And I
I have nothing left
Only you
Only you
Only you
I see lies in your eyes
But I don’t care
No surprise your disguise
Is barely there
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012

Another entry from the soundtrack to my novel Angels of the Seventh Dawn. This song and The Rapture of the Zombie Offering would be the two songs I would like to record first.
Pandemonium (The City of Demons)
(Demon voice & Whispers wrapped around each other:
Welcome to our fine city
Milton wrote about this place, you know
This is the other side of the mirror
This is Paradise Lost
You’re home now
Welcome home)
Strip away the flesh
Reveal what lies beneath
Expose the infection deep within
(Voices of vengeance)
Until my last breath
Heaven’s just out of reach
With the expiation of my sins
Beauty may always come, come with a cost
(The curse of vanity is never lost)
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Starved for peace of mind
You must feed your passion
I am here to propagate your lust
(Serpents of silence)
Rising from behind
Behold the assassin
Is grinding your sanity to dust
Words ring false even when you speak the truth
(Burning you alive in your solitude)
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Servants of sorcery
Patrons of prophecy
Embrace, embrace the darkness of eternity
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011
Another selection from the soundtrack to the First Book of the Scarabae Saga, Into the Mirror Black. I like this one a lot.
Inside the Circle of Time
Time is non-linear
It circles back upon itself
The war between the sorcerers never wavered
As the centuries faded together
Wrapped in curses and incantations
They would fight this war until the end of forever
(The flames of the dragon immolate
any- and everyone in their path)
Inside the circle whenever it ends
you will find that it all begins again
Anything lost you will never find
While wrapped inside the circle of time
(Always beginning and never ending
Lost inside the circle of time)
Many mere mortals dare to march across
The barren wasteland,
The battleground of the gods
Only to stand before their judgment and to stare
Into the face of the overwhelming odds
(The golden phoenix rises again,
reborn from the pile of smoking ash)
Inside the circle whenever it ends
you will find that it all begins again
Anything lost you will never find
While wrapped inside the circle of time
(Always beginning and never ending
Lost inside the circle of time)
Ouroboros
The eternal return
Time entwined upon itself
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011
A little offering from the soundtrack to the Third Book of the Scarabae Saga, Angels of the Mourning Light.
My Own Mausoleum
Can you tell me the color of night?
Because I can’t see a thing
(Beyond blind)
And the only sound I can hear is
The echo of my screaming
Where is my savior
In my hour of need?
(harp music)
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
Dare I take comfort from this limbo?
Will I wake up from the dream?
(In my mind)
There is to be no consolation
I shall never be redeemed
No, no salvation
No matter how I plead
(harp music)
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
Only me
Lonely me
In my own mausoleum
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011

A little ditty from the soundtrack to my Second Book of the Scarabae
Saga, Angels of the Seventh Dawn. One of these days, I will find someone
to write the music I hear in my head and we will make some of these
songs reality. It would be cool to do this song and a video. I hear the music in my head; now I need someone to help me pull it out and write it. I'm not a singer but I think we can coax a performance out of me to record this song.
The Rapture of the Zombie Offering
Sexy tattooed zombies in tuxedos
Entombed in the back of a white limousine
Tonight on the way to the casinos
This waking nightmare is not a living dream
Is this real? I’m afraid nobody knows
But truth is a lie, if you know what I mean
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, there’s always tomorrow
Maybe they are living-dead crystal balls
Apocalyptic warnings etched in their skin
Upon your knees you will beg as you crawl
There’s nothing cryptic when you gamble to win
In accordance with universal law
We have reached the end, now it’s time to begin
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, try again tomorrow
Break down the mausoleum doors
Come play in the dark amid the ruins
Beneath the moonlight the cemetery awaits
And there’s room in the tomb
Because we all will rise
Dance in the shadows just like a shadow
Plenty of time before dawn creeps above the horizon
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, there’s always tomorrow
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, try again tomorrow
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012