Lyrics Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson

Book of Thel

The mark is on you now

The furnace sealed inside your head

Melting from the inside now

Waxy tears run down your face

The whore that never told her tale

Relives it every night with you

Far off stands the lamb and waits

For the wolf to come and end its life

Stand inside the temple

As the book of Thel is opening

The priestess stands before you

Offering her hand out, she's rising

Come the dawning of the dead

In famine and in war

Now the harlot womb of death

Spits out its rotten core

Serpent on the altar now

Has wrapped itself around your spine

So you look into its mouth

And you kiss the pearly fangs divine

Happy that your end is swift

The weeping virgin cries in bliss

The snake and priestess, they are one

The veil of flesh is ripped undone

Stand inside the temple

As the book of Thel is opening

The priestess stands before you

Offering her hand out, she's rising

Come the dawning of the dead

In famine and in war

Now the harlot womb of death

Spits out its rotten core

By the pricking of my thumbs

Something wicked this way comes

And when sleep takes you tonight

Will you wake to see the light...?

(woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

(woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

(oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

(oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

The burning sweat of poison tears

The river flowing red with blood

The cradle - robbing hand of death

Caresses every dreaming head

Waiting for the marriage hearse

To take you to the funeral pyre

So you burn the family tree

The generations burning higher

Stand inside the temple

As the book of Thel is opening

The priestess stands before you

Offering her hand out, she's rising

Come the dawning of the dead

In famine and in war

Now the harlot womb of death

Spits out its rotten core

By the pricking of my thumbs

Something wicked this way comes

And when sleep takes you tonight

Will you wake to see the light

By the dawning of the dead...

By the dawning of the dead...

By the dawning of the dead...

By the dawning of the dead...

[Spoken:]

"What demon hath formed this abominable void...

This soul-shuddering vacuum?"

"Some said it is Urizen -

But unknown, abstracted, brooding secret

The dark power hid"