A Radial To The Sea
Our first single-session full-length album, featuring new tracks mixed with a couple from over ten years ago. The lyrical theme covers wide-ranging subjects, including pagan worship, alchemy, botany, loneliness, espionage and nuclear warfare.
The Cauldron
The gods of Asgard were looking for an eternal source of mead, and they demanded that Ægir, god of the sea, provide it for them. Ægir, unhappy with the tone of their request, said he’d only do it if the gods could supply him with a cauldron large enough, such enormous vessels being rather scarce. Tyr, the god of war and justice, knew just where to obtain such an item: his father, the giant Hymir, had one that was “a league deep”.
The Nemean Lion
The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived at Nemea. Eventually, it was killed by Heracles (Hercules). Because its golden fur was impervious to attack, it could not be killed with mortals’ weapons. Its claws were sharper than swords and could destroy any armour.
The Moon-Gazing Hare
The Myth of the Moon Gazing Hare reflects ancient beliefs. Pagans believed that seeing a moon gazing hare would bring growth, re-birth, and abundance, new beginnings and good fortune. In pre-Christian times the Hare was considered a sacred animal, entwined with the earth or white Goddess who was the provider of all things.
A Radial To The Sea
A lament of Beeching’s Cuts and urban decay, and a poem to the beauty of the railways and landscapes of Somerset and Dorset. A Radial was one of the old, small steam engines which travelled along the picturesque Lyme Regis branch line.
Novichok
The tale of the Skripals, exploring the creation of the deadly nerve agent and its ultimate deployment and discovery in Salisbury, minutes from the UK’s primary medical bio-research facility, where Class 4 pathogens are routinely examined.
Nine Herbs Charm
An Anglo-Saxon charm recorded in a 10th century manuscript called Lacnunga. The charm is intended to be an antidote to poison and to heal infection. It contains both Pagan and Christian elements and details the Nine Sacred Herbs of Odin. It may have been written during the Christian era or it may be older and edited by Christian monks. This track was around 12 years old at the time of recording.
The Book of Lambspring
The Book of Lambspring is a work of spiritual alchemy, has few references to physical alchemical processes, and it seems unlikely that it could ever have provided any clues that might help someone engaged upon physical experimentation. Instead, it is a clear, powerful and extremely useful statement of the inner work of the spiritual alchemist.
Island of Ghosts
The tale of the Manhattan Project, based upon the documentary “The World’s Biggest Bomb” and the devastation of the archipelagic testing sites.
Drybones Wood
Hearkening to an simpler time, when the land was greener and nature was allowed to flourish. This tracks refers to an old area between Chorley, Coppull and Duxbury in deepest Lancashire.
Sanctuary Of The Moors
Sanctuary Of The Moors is a 2016 concept release of all-new material based on the history, legend and lore of Anglezarke and Rivington moors in Lancashire.
Of Men And Mer
Many thousands of years ago, the lands were covered by frozen glaciers and latterly the molten valleys were carved by the sliding frost. The evidence of the millions of sea creatures that lived in this area is still evident now, as any visitor can see. The lyrics tell the tale of the changing times through the eyes of those who came before.
Maw Of The Rift
A very eerie story is told of a footpath, beginning on a winter’s evening soon after the turn of the century, when a farm labourer living on Dean Head Lane in Rivington dashed terror-stricken into the Black-a-Moor’s Head Inn, and startled the members then in the club with the statement that he had just seen the devil.
He was terrified, breathless, and almost exhausted, so he was given a drink and a seat by the fire until he had recovered composure enough to tell of his unnerving experience. He said that he was walking the narrow footpath along the north side of Dean Wood valley, and thinking how he would enjoy a drink of beer when he got to the club, when, at the spot where the footpath is nearest to the steep side of the valley, something made him look round over his shoulder, and there, almost touching him, was the Devil, horns and all. Whereupon, almost scared out of his wits, he fled, as fast as his legs would go, for the club, expecting at any moment something terrible to happen to him, but he arrived there safely.
Afterward he would not talk of his hair-raising experience, except to affirm that all he had stated was true.
Three months later his dead body was found near the brook in Dean Wood valley, directly under the spot where he had seen the devil. He had evidently fallen from the top of the steep side of the valley to the bottom.
1534
The song tells the tale of a terrifying battle that occured at The Street, an old manor house which still stands on the banks of the Upper Rivington Reservoir. Children were threatened and missiles were thrown during a confrontation between hundreds of townsfolk and the owner of the property. Lancashire church bells can be heard tolling through the track, as they did during the feast of All Hallow’s when the upheaval occurred.
Sanctuary Of The Moors
Before the reservoirs and the industry, the moors were home to rural families which have now disappeared virtually without trace. Whilst some ruined farms are present, others are buried beneath the waters of the artificial lakes. The song urges a lone visitor to explore the old threads in silence and imagine the lay of the land during the late 1800’s, when a small but thriving community existed.
Winterhold
Anglezarke has Nordic origins – it’s name comes from Anlaf’s Land, and it was he who often observed the slopes of Winter Hill, a place known previously as Winterhold. This land of the lapwing and curlew has always been ridden with frost and foreboding.
Wild Woods
Wild Woods is a 2016 culmination of prior releases Trismegistus and Anglezarke.
Hermes Trismegistus gave cryptic instructions to European alchemists, which if translated correctly tells the reader how to create the Prima Materia – the Philosopher’s Stone. These instructions were written on the Emerald Tablet, which has been deciphered over time, it’s secrets now revealed.
The track tells the tale of identifying the Soma, a Vedic ritual drink referred to in Hinduism. Much speculation has been made as to the original identity of the plant that created the Soma, some say it was Amanita or another hallucinogenic fungi. Shamans were said to have drank the urine of those who consumed the Soma, thus removing it’s more harmful constituents. Those who took it first hand were said to become manically entranced.
Harking back to a more pastoral time before mass consumerism brainwashed the masses, the lyrics tell of a longing for a simpler life at one with the coast and the wilds.
is based upon The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. Leaving the sunken island of the One Tree, the Giant ship Starfare’s Gem sets course to return to the Land. In a dangerous region of the ocean known as the Soulbiter, the ship is blown off course into the far northern reaches of the Earth and becomes ice-bound. Realizing that the Land’s needs cannot wait for the spring melt, Thomas Covenant leaves the ship and strikes out south over the icescape, accompanied by Linden, Vain, Findail the Elohim, Cail of the Haruchai, and four Giants.
Barleycorn’s Lament
Based on the Old English piece, John Barleycorn, the lyrics tell of the harvest and rebirth cycle as depicted through a crop of barley from sowing time through to it’s final product, a fine pint of cask ale!
Arendia were a four-piece during the recording of Wild Woods – from L to R – Anthony Couch (now of Nokturnal Ritual), Ged, Brody, Fishwick.
