- Carl Westholm (Candlemass, Krux, Abstrakt Algebra, Leif Edling) / synthesizer, vocoder, piano, whisperings, sound effects
- Ulf Edelönn / guitars, whisperings (track 1-2), bass (track 5)
- Cia Backman / background vocals (track 1-2, 5, 6, 8), vocals (track 4)
- Jonas Källsbäck / drums, percussion (track 1-5, 8)
- Leif Edling (Leif Edling, Trilogy (Swe), Nemesis (Swe), Candlemass, Abstrakt Algebra, Krux, Witchcraft) / bass (track 1-3, 7, 8)
- Mats Leven (Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Krux, Abstrakt Algebra, At Vance, Crash the System, Fatal Force (Dnk), Therion (Swe), Southpaw, Sabbtail, Audiovision, Treat, Amaseffer) / lead vocals (tracks 3, 6, 8), backing vocals (tracks 3, 8), guitar (track 3), drums (track 6, 7)
- Jonas Waldefeldt / percussion (track 1-2, 4-6)
- Nils Eriksson / lead vocals (track 1, 5), drum machine (track 2, 8), digital choir (track 2), sound effects (track 8)
- Öivin Tronstad / lead vocals (track 2, 7), backing vocals (track 1, 2, 5)
- Lars Sköld (Tiamat) / drums (track 2)
- Svein Lindvall / bass (track 2)
- Declan Burce / vocals (track 4)
- Stefan Fanden / bass (track 4, 6)
- Jan Hellman / acoustic guitar (track 7)
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1. The Pilot 07:11
2. Bismarck Explorer 07:32
3. Cold, Rigid And Remote 05:51
4. Abduction 07:11
5. The Enemy 11:36
6. Solitude Unites Us 06:44
7. 8511 04:52
8. Presumed Dying 09:38
Total 01:00:35
1. The Pilot
ResponderEliminarPart I - Music: C.Westholm
Part II - Music: C.Westholm/J.Flinck // Lyrics: C.Westholm
Not meant to show a straight path.
Not meant to give a clear view.
Not meant to be more than barely understandable.
This is just the Beginning.
Nils Erikson: Lead vocals // Öivin Tronstad: Backing vocals // Carl Westholm: Synthesizer, vocoder // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Ulf Edelönn: Electric and acoustic guitar and whisperings // Jonas Waldefeldt: Percussion and tambourine // Leif Edling: Bass // Cia Backman: Background vocals
Life is still real
Just not like before
We thought we knew our world
Evolution has not always
been kind to those who left planet earth
No war still fighting
No sadness still desire
Kate Bishop the bitch is missing
Mr Henry is dead not dead enough
We still don't know
Still not in full control
We thought we knew our world
Evolution has not ever
taken care of those who need or deserve
No religion still superstition
No disease still suffering
Billy left home will not come back
someone's abducted, Keith and Jane never met
This day is going to be a good day
Starts with silence, darkness and emptiness
And then the deepest of sounds coming from behind
Full of expectations, this is a good day
Time's never standing still
We can no longer tell
How far away
we are from home
This world is big enough
is big enough for us
We just don't know
if we're alone
One way, one day
two ways five days
Silent skies, confusing lies
deepest night, the answers within sight
2. Bismarck Explorer
Music: C.Westholm/N.Erikson // Lyrics: C.Westholm/L.Edling
Huge and designed for extreme distant exploration, Bismarck Explorer left
chartered space. Cpt Kate Bishop, by some referred to as "the Bitch", already had a questionable reputation. Suddenly Bismarck Explorer dropped from the radar and disappeared. Just a week ago it was found again by chance, far from its previous position, almost completely covered in ice and without any sign of the crew or the captain.
Öivin Tronstad: Lead vocals, backing vocals // Carl Westholm: Piano, synthesizer, vocoder, whisperings // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Lars Sköld: Drums (The Pilot Part III) // Jonas Waldefeldt: Percussion (The Pilot Part III) // Nils Erikson: Drum machine and digital choir programming // Sven Lindvall: Bass // Leif Edling: Bass (The Pilot Part III) // Ulf Edelönn: Electric and acoustic guitar and whisperings // Cia Backman: Background vocals
What happened?
What happened?
What happened?
What?
What happened to her?
What?
What happened?
What happened out there?
Silent ship
Empty
Without life
Where is everyone?
Now there's only dust on the floor and interrupted lives
Disconnect
Mindless
All lost souls
Where is everyone?
Now she is embedded in ice like a predator in disguise
Open channels, unmade beds
Dried uneaten food on plates
Empty chamber locked from inside
Three year mission not heard of since May
For Cpt Kate Bishop and the crew we pray
>>> THE CREW:
We are not dead yet, in constant hibernation
We can still see you but no communication
Long for salvation from cosmic conservation
eternal reflections hallucinate affections
>>> KATE BISHOP:
Fearless unyielding
Never astray
Why do they follow
my directions
They trust me
And they believe me
Fearless unyielding
Never astray
Why do they never
Have objections
They fear me
But they believe me
>>> THE CREW:
Help us
Find us
3. Cold, Rigid And Remote
ResponderEliminarMusic: C.Westholm // Lyrics: C.Westholm
Some people have a feeling they are not like others. Some are not. This man suspects that he is born without the ability to love, that he can only kill, obey and blow himself to pieces. No reason why, but a distinct feeling that someone will sooner or later tell him to, and furthermore that this will not end it, just start the cycle all over again. Was he ever born?
Mats Levén: Lead vocals, backing vocals and additional guitar // Carl Westholm: Piano, synthesizer, vocoder // Ulf Edelönn: Electric guitar // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Leif Edling: Bass
Born and dead, reborn restored
With memories
and thought installed
Designed to live a thousand times,
just waiting her impatiently
I am so confused, my mind seems trapped inside this artificial skin
Why am I
Why am I
Unlike man
Without life
Why am I
Unlike man
Without dreams
I am cold rigid and remote
Flesh and bone close to perfection
without mission no direction
Waiting for your fatal action
Like a tool of mass destruction
4. Abduction
Music: C.Westholm/D.Burke // Lyrics: C.Westholm, B.Eriksson, D.Burke
People disappear, people are observed. People make up stories and some hallucinate.
People reappear, some with amnesia, others with spectacular stories.
In the same second but from two different worlds, Keith and Jane disappear.
Cia Backman: Vocals // Declan Burce: Vocals // Carl Westholm: Synthesizer, vocoder, whisperings // Stefan Fandén: Bass // Ulf Edelönn: Guitar // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Jonas Waldefeldt: Percussion
>>> HALLUCINATION:
Revolving - absorption - the voices of distortion
Relay with distant cries with truth and fiction hide
Illusion - obsession - recounts the revelation
Sequential disorder - delusion, ever forward
The trails across the northern sky of deepest grey
And slowly as I'm mesmerized, regressive state
Assumptions that were made now fade away
Taken to somewhere, I have never been
Everywhere - always everywhere
Hear a silent scream made real by what is seen
>>> THE ABDUCTOR:
This is nothing like abduction, more disintegrated existence
Their feeble minds conjuring understandable explanations
All their guilt working as a collective, fabrication time lost in non-existence
Space/time continuum complete domination, the truth is much, much worse
Paralyzed Paralyzed into submission, Paralyzed into a void of dehumanisation
Paralyzed Paralyzed waiting for their incisions, Paralyzed waiting for their probes
>>> HALLUCINATION:
Faces in a crowded space, I hesitate
Like something from inside a dream that's here to stay
Everywhere - always everywhere
Hear a silent scream made real by what is seen
>>> THE ABDUCTED:
Totally exposed on a bare metal surface, room without walls, room without air
Incomprehensible light, droning sounds, no one listening, no one looking
Can not breathe, can not think, can not see, like a bad dream but no one's asleep
Bright light of pain soaring through my nerves, and bright white nothing floating through my veins
>>> HALLUCINATION:
Reflection - detection - reports of mass rejection
The sceptic leads the cry, maintained by his desire
Sequential disorder - delusion, ever forward
Paralyzed Paralyzed into submission, Paralyzed into a void of dehumanisation
Paralyzed Paralyzed waiting for their incisions, Paralyzed waiting for their probes
5. The Enemy
ResponderEliminarMusic: C.Westholm // Lyrics: C.Westholm
A small crew, a small vessel, far away from home for 12 days. He has been staring out into the dark for over 24 hours, listening intensively to the receivers, and seems to notice something the others do not. Small pearls of sweat form on his upper lip. The young skipper knows he is right, the others hope he is. The silent instruments disturb their thoughts.
First contact or last warning?
Nils Erikson: Lead vocals // Carl Westholm: Synthersizer and sound effects // Ulf Edelönn: Electric Bass and guitar // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Jonas Waldefeldt: Tambourine // Cia Backman & Öivin Tronstad: Background vocals
Inside us or outside there is something hiding
Never heard of, feared, seen or sensed before
Nothing more than silence out there, someone's watching
Nothing there but empty, dead, cold space
Secondary indications without communication
Hidden weapon, detonation hear this warning
Cannot see, cannot hear, one must die
No truce, no forgiveness ah ah ah ah ah
No guilt, no remorse ah ah ah ah ah
Run from - the enemy
Hide from - the enemy
Scared of - the enemy
One of us will die
Run for - the enemy
Hunting - the enemy
Fighting - the enemy
One of us will die
6. Solitude Unites Us
Music: C.Westholm/M.Levén // Lyrics: C.Westholm/L.Edling
One man alone in a satellite, by his own decision, in almost complete seclusion from the world. For 15 minutes every second week he has contact with another satellite when their orbits meet, with a man not there by free will and with death as his only alternative. Obviously they have nothing but solitude in common.
Mats Levén: Lead vocals and drums // Ulf Edelönn: Electric and acoustic guitar // Stefan Fandén: Bass // Carl Westholm: Piano and synthesizers // Jonas Waldefeldt: Percussion // Cia Backman: Backing vocals
Though you ruled the human race
Now convicted and under constraint
"On your knees and try to stay alive"
A solar asylum
Left my life for empty space
selfeffacement is my dark retreat
"On your feet and try to live your life"
A solar asylum
Is this heaven?
In orbit we are
One man's lesser evil
Please contact me now
Still in there
Just a brief distraction
"Got no time to waste today"
We're all alone
Don't be afraid
We're so alone in this silent world
Year after year just like a moon
Around the world but still at home
There's no way out
Don't be afraid
There's nothing out there for us anymore
We never meet we never know
Solitude unites us
Talk to me criminal.
15 minutes today
In orbit we are
Who can know who you are?
Please contact me now
Still in there
Just a brief distraction
"Got no time to waste today"
7. 8511
Music: C.Westholm // Lyrics: C.Westholm
A faint audio signal, origin unknown. 164 years ago an organisation led by pure interest started an archive for filing information about suspected extraterrestrial life. Some of the observations are almost trustworthy, most of them are not. Until yesterday 8510 observations were recorded. Today number 8511 came.
Öivin Tronstad: Lead vocals // Mats Levén: Drums // Leif Edling: Bass // Carl Westholm: Piano, synthersizer, vocoders // Ulf Edelönn: Electric guitar // Jan Hellman: Acoustic baritone guitar
8511-8511-8511-8511-8511.
Observations and reports
Obsessive rumours, hopeful thought
Do they think, do they feel?
Is this fake, is this for real?
Eight thousand five hundred
eleven notifications
in one hundred sixtyfour
years until now
Indirect extrapolations
of everydays anomalies
Hasty, poor conclusions, just
like superstitious faith in Gods
Everything can't be explained
Recent signs confusing us
Only thing we know for sure
That life will never be the same
8. Presumed Dying
ResponderEliminarMusic: C.Westholm // Lyrics: C.Westholm/L.Edling
A big passenger vessel on a two week journey. No need for cryo sleep, more like a cruise, lots of time for R&R. A sudden explosion - accident, attack or sabotage? The closeness to an airlock and the safety suits temporarily saves a man's life. The second explosion tears the ship apart and the man is thrown out into space. With some breathable air and, for a short time, in radio contact, he is floating toward his presumed death.
Mats Levén: Lead and backing vocals // Jonas Källsbäck: Drums // Carl Westholm: Synthesizer, piano and vocoder // Leif Edling: Bass // Ulf Edelönn: Electric guitar // Nils Erikson: Drum machine programming and sound effects // Cia Backman: Background vocals
It was a normal day, the sensors read all OK
And everything was fine, we were just killing time
Our ship in full control (and) kept our course away from home
The day just lingered on, and nothing could go wrong.
We're under attack, run for your life
We're under attack, run for your life, attack, attack
There was a big explosion threatening to break the hull
At first just emptiness, we could just hear our breath
We didn't know what hit us, even less what to expect
We had nowhere to hide (and) time was running out
We're under attack, run for your life
We're under attack, run for your life, attack, attack
In sudden silent fear, around the ship in agony
We ran for safety pods, we never did fight back
With gravitation lost as life support was running out
Then came the second blow and we abandon ship
Falling out
Slowly drift into the sun
Falling down
Still alive and left to die
Still in contact
Still alive
I can still, I can still see, I can hear
I can breathe, I can still feel
As we will go down in flames
Slowly burn
Like a shooting star
Slowly burn
Like a shooting star