Northern Mantra

**Genre**

"Northern Mantra" is a three-part track written by Mikaela Thorn and recorded under her alias ThornBrain. It was released on her fourth album, *Worldbuilder*.

## Segments

1. "Northern Mantra"
2. "Colony Collapse"
3. "We're Not All Here"

## About

The track is a three-part Punk Metal suite inspired by Judas Priest and Ministry. It describes the main character's personal demons invading her dimension in the guise of famous video game villains like Bowser and Ganondorf, led by a man who abused her personally. Unable to stop them by force of will, the main character suffers the villain's abuse until she kills him with a sword through his head.

Part 1 repeats the line "The future didn't last long, did it" from "Competition for a Bad Life". The title "Northern Mantra" is a sideways reference to the *Three Mantras* EP by Cabaret Voltaire, which only contains a "Western Mantra" and an "Eastern Mantra".

Thorn has said that Part 1 is one of her favorite songs she's ever recorded.

## Lyrics

The future didn't last long did it

The future didn't last long did it

Our blood doesn't pump

It flows more like a river

No heart, no beat to stop

Our actions are programmed memories

Our predilection to eradicate as we please

Now you are up for the chop

You may call us evil

We're too human for that

You may throw your heroes

Back in our face

You may call us monsters

We're too human for that

You may play to defeat us

But we're the ones you loved in the first place

Spikes upon our backs and our shoulders

Laughing at your world in monochrome

A new army of unlikely allies

We want the same as we did back home

Are we violator

And how human is that

We will fight your heroes

On anyone's land

You may call us villains

And how human is that

You may play to defeat us

But the plot won't always go as you planned

Down an army rode from the mountains

Out she called for them to disappear

Her words only brought more beyond the horizon

Numbers rising right beside her fear

If this is all my fantasy

Why has my power abandoned me

They have come for me

Wreck my colony

Bring back everything

I threw away

They're a part of me

The dichotomy

Of my life

I will not replay

They have come to

Collapse my colony

Now I know I can't

Get away

Every one of them she recognized

Why were none of them from a fiction

Her blood ran cold as she began to wisen

Her own desires called a malediction

If this is all my fantasy

Why did my nightmares follow me

They have come for me

Wreck my colony

Bring back everything

I threw away

They're a part of me

The dichotomy

Of my life

I will not replay

They have come to

Collapse my colony

Now I know I can't

Get away

The first wave hit the castle walls

The second broke the cathedral doors

Fire, metal, the blackest magic burst from their hand

And at her feet, the man in charge took his stand

His face at last

She saw it clear

It was the last face she saw

Before she first came here

The first words he said

Made her body freeze

It's been a while

Can we go home please?

You've done well

But now your break is done

We're not all here

To ruin all your fun

There's some back home

Who couldn't come along

We're not all here

There's more where you belong

She slumped with a defeated frown

But as he monologued her hand reached down

You were wrong

To run off all alone

You think you

Could live out on your own

You can't take care

Of anything of yours

Your life was spent

In fear of the outdoors

We're not all here

To take care of a child

There's nothing left

Of yours to be defiled

But before

He began to laugh

He felt a sword

Split his skull in half