Sword In The Night
SCOTT RADOSEVISH - KEYBOARDS
ASA FISHER - GUITARS
JIM STROMBERG - DRUMS
Back in my younger days, I would jam with other local musicians from time to time. One of them was a guitarist by the name of Brec Hefner. He had this idea for a song but didn't have words for it. I penned some words to try and match them to the fury of the song. We went on to record that song with my fellow musician, singer Ernie Rodrigues. Anyway the song didnt go anywhere but I love the darkness of the song and my lyrics. I reworked the chord structure and transformed it into my vision. I presented it to the band that I was currently playing with - Axis Parallax. We didn't have a singer at the time but wanted to record it so we recorded this version on a 16 track tape machine hoping to add vocals at some point. Well 40 odd years later during covid with nothing to do, I digitized it and decided to actually finish the song with my vocals since I knew what I wanted it to sound like. We had all the instruments down - Scott, Asa, and Jim - all fantastic musicians whose performances really captured the essence of the piece. Man, we were young and full of energy back then. Unfortunately, upon reworking the mix, I didn't have as much control of the drums as I would have liked so I painstakingly replaced all the drums virtually note for note. Added the vocals and a little more orchestration, mixed it down and finally done.
A lot of my influences are in this like Queen, Kansas, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep. Childhood heroes.
In the darkest hour of a moonlit winter's eve, a figure rides on horseback
A shadow dressed in black, never to be seen,
Who can be this maniac?
Upon a lonely road amidst hooves, thru chilling frost, a sword clenched in his hand
Glazen eyes are set as he cries thruout the night, bringing fear as no one can
He rides on this cold and windy night
Take heed as the moon shines full and bright
Blinded by his blade
Obsessed and unafraid
Beware of his sword tonite!
Envy in his eyes and crazed with mad revenge, he steals into the night
Silently pursuing, elusive as the wind, darkness hides his flight
Haunting thru a village that's fallen fast asleep, a sword at his command
He laughs without a smile from his cold and raging heart, he'll ride until his end
Some say he's centuries old
Rising from lifelessness and cold
His rage is to slay
He'll carve your life away
Beware of his sword tonite!
Soon he'll come to realize as others often have of the things that could have been
But just as he awakens, he screams about the truth thru voices from within
Twisted from their calling, his mind becomes a knot that's laced eternally
Living out the legend, sharing all your dreams, it’s who he is to be
He rides on this cold and windy night
Take heed as the moon shines full and bright
His rage is to slay
He'll carve your life away
He's born of the beast in disguise
Blinded by his blade
Obsessed and unafraid
Beware of his sword tonite!
Go Hide!
© Douglas Tomooka