[Intro: single deep church bell tolling, water ambience, low string drone, slow]
(under under)
Nineteen fifty-two.
They moved the living out
and left the dead to hold the parish.
[Intro: experimental metal, crushing riffs explode with taiko drums, hurdy-gurdy drone underneath, drum fill]
[Verse 1: experimental metal, powerful aggressive male metal vocals, crushing syncopated riffs, taiko drums, hurdy-gurdy drone]
The company came smiling with a map of what would drown
A steeple and a schoolhouse and a hundred yards of graves
(of graves)
Progress needs a basin, the basin needs your floor
Sign here, take the money, the water's at the door
They rowed above the rooftops when the valley filled that fall
Watched their own front porches ripple out of reach
(out of reach)
And the last thing standing under was the cross above the nave
Too deep to break, too holy to salvage
[Pre-Chorus: experimental metal, powerful aggressive male metal vocals, taiko drums building, hammered dulcimer glittering over rising riffs]
Listen when the wind dies
(listen)
Listen when the lake goes flat
(listen)
[Chorus: experimental metal, powerful aggressive male metal vocals, ominous male choir, crushing riffs, taiko drums, church bell on the downbeat]
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Forty fathoms of forgetting couldn't drown the sound
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Every kilowatt is borrowed from a bell
They flooded the village, not the voice
(the voice the voice)
IT RINGS
[Verse 2: experimental metal, powerful aggressive male metal vocals, crushing syncopated riffs, taiko drums, hurdy-gurdy drone]
The divers say the nave is full of fish that swim the aisles
A congregation silver, silent, circling the font
(the font)
The weather vane still points the way the water wants to go
And the clock face reads the hour that the valley stopped
Your lights are on this evening on the current of their dark
The kettle and the TV and the charger by the bed
(by the bed)
Every modern comfort hums the frequency of loss
Somebody's home is why your home is warm
[Chorus: experimental metal, powerful aggressive male metal vocals, ominous male choir, crushing riffs, taiko drums, church bell on the downbeat]
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Forty fathoms of forgetting couldn't drown the sound
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Every kilowatt is borrowed from a bell
They flooded the village, not the voice
(the voice the voice)
IT RINGS
[Hurdy-Gurdy Solo: experimental metal, droning hurdy-gurdy solo over crushing rhythm guitars, taiko drums driving]
[Guitar Solo: experimental metal, searing guitar solo answering the hurdy-gurdy phrase, hammered dulcimer echoing the melody, drum fills]
[Breakdown: everything cuts, duduk solo over water ambience and low guitar drone, slow, mournful]
[Bridge: experimental metal, male metal vocals restrained, duduk weaving between lines, sparse taiko hits, low guitar drone, half-time]
Some nights the reservoir goes still as glass
And the old ones from the high ground bring their grandchildren to look
Straight down through sixty years of water
At a steeple keeping time
[Sudden Silence]
[Build-up: experimental metal, taiko drums accelerating, riffs climbing, hurdy-gurdy drone swelling, choir rising]
It rings
(it rings)
It rings
(IT RINGS)
THE WATER LEARNED THE HYMN
[Final Chorus: experimental metal, key change up, powerful aggressive male metal vocals at maximum, ominous male choir, crushing riffs, taiko drums, church bell tolling through everything]
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Forty fathoms of forgetting couldn't drown the sound
THE DROWNED PARISH STILL RINGS
(under under)
Every kilowatt is borrowed from a bell
They flooded the village, not the voice
(the voice the voice)
IT RINGS
IT STILL RINGS
[Outro: full band hits three final chords with taiko and bell together, each ringing longer, then everything cuts, single church bell tolls twice underwater, muffled, silence]