Nevermore (The Raven)

"***Nevermore (The Raven)***" is a song from Finnish heavy metal band Our Fragile Echo from their second self-titled album. It is an homage to "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe and, lyrically, it intentionally mostly consists of the original poem.

*Nevermore (The Raven)* is a gothic metal, symphonic black metal, horror punk, doom metal, and horror metal song.

## Lyrics

**Verse 1 - Päiviö Selänne**

*Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary*

*Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore*

*While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping*

*As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.*

*’Tis some visitor, tapping at my chamber door*

*Only this and nothing more*

*Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December*

*And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor*

*Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to borrow*

*From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore*

*For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore*
*Nameless here forevermore*

*And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain*

*Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before*

*So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating*

*’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door*

*Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door*

*This it is and nothing more*

**Chorus - Anya Starveil Castella**

*I know only this and nothing more, to find solace and sanity nevermore*

*For the rapping of the visitor at my door is the cause of my decline forevermore*

*The black-winged visitor tapping outside my door, the harbinger of death and tragic news evermore*
*This is my final mortal hour, quoth the Raven...*
(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

**Verse 2 - Päiviö Selänne**

*Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,*

*In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore*

*Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he*

*But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—*

*Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door*

*Perched, and sat, and nothing more.*

*Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling*

*By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore*

*Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou art sure no craven*

*Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—*

*Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!*

*Quoth the Raven...*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

*Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,*

*Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;*

*For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being*

*Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—*

*Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,*

*With such name as “Nevermore.”*

(*Guitar solo*)

**Bridge - Päiviö Selänne**

*But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only*

*That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour*

*Nothing farther, then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—*

*Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before—*

*On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”*

*Quote the Raven...*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

(*Breakdown*)

**Verse 3 - Juliette Fisher**

*Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken*

*Doubtless, what it utters is its only stock and store*

*Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster*

*Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—*

*Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore*

*Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”*

*But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,*

*Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;*

*Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking*

*Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—*

*What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore*

*Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”*

**Chorus - Anya Starveil Castella**

*I know only this and nothing more, to find solace and sanity nevermore*

*For the rapping of the visitor at my door is the cause of my decline forevermore*

*The black-winged visitor tapping outside my door, the harbinger of death and tragic news evermore*
*This is my final mortal hour, quoth the Raven...*
(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

**Breakdown 2 - Päiviö Selänne**

*Wretch!*

*Thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee!*

*Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!*

*Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!*

*Quoth the Raven...*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

*Prophet!*
*Thing of evil! Prophet still, if bird or devil!*

*Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore!*

*Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted!*

*On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore!*

*Is there—*is *there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

*Prophet! Thing of evil! Prophet still, if bird or devil!*

*By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore!*

*Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn!*

*It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore!*

*Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore!*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

*Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!*
*Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!*

*Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!*

*Leave my loneliness unbroken! Quit the bust above my door!*

*Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!*

(**Sini Nykänen:** *Nevermore!*)

**Outro - Päiviö Selänne**

*And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting,* still *is sitting*

*On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door*

*And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming*

*And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor*

*And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor*

*Shall be lifted—nevermore!*

## Personnel

Our Fragile Echo
* Päiviö Selänne — screamed and growled vocals, bass guitar, piano, technical (lyricist, composition, production, mixing, programming)
* Sini Nykänen — screamed vocals, lead and acoustic guitar, ukulele, technical (composition, paintings, creative direction, art direction)
* Kullervo Venäläinen — rhythm guitar
* Heljä Ketola — trumpet, acoustic guitar
* Hellä Karttunen — drums, percussion
* Juliette Fisher — vocals, violin, composition, lyricist

Additional personnel
* Anya Starveil Castella — lead vocals, additional guitar, lyricist, composition, production
* Rhavonian "Rhav" De'Laka — keyboards