#THY DARKENED SHADE

[defiledcasket]

I've never made a playlist before that's strictly music that could be described as.... somewhere between black metal and death metal. Well no longer shall my library nor yours suffer this absence, it has been done!

Featured Artists: Behemoth, Goatwhore, Belphegor, Unanimated & Thy Darkened Shade

Links For Streaming

spotify | apple | youtube

[drondskaath]

Thy Darkened Shade | Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya | 2023

Greek Black Metal

Artwork by Vamperess Imperium

https://thydarkenedshade.bandcamp.com/album/liber-lvcifer-ii-mahapralaya

[alephskoteinos]

The guy from Thy Darkened Shade is funny sometimes. "manifestation of the higher self" dude you should really leave the New Testament at the door before talking about Satanism.

[echantedtoon]

Not Thy Neighbor, Thy Want-To-Be Lover

As you sit and do your job, a monster who's became infatuated perfects himself into the perfect man to become your husband.

(Warnings for mentions of death, blood, killing, and maybe yandereish themes.)

"Mmm...Hello."

A thin glass was all that separated himself and the one.

Tired eyes stared endlessly into the glass, the one thing separating himself from the one destined to be his. The image reflected in the glass and staring into his soul was one of perfection. Spent MONTHS perfecting on and heading many warnings for in order to slip by and gain access to what's destined to be his. Tired eyes that took a lifetime to perfect darkening his skin cells to the exact right shade of black to pass as sleep depravation. Forcing his outside to crease to perfect every wrinkle. Spots to form every freckle. Every little detail on the outside.

Just so he could come back every day and see her again.

"Mr. Mosses?"

"Hm?" Perfectly replicated eyes blinked surprised at the woman on the other side who just rose a deadpanned brows higher. "I asked for your identification, Sir." Her petite hand gestured a finger pointed downwards meaning the slot hole in front of him. "If you could please hand it over, Mr. Mosses."

Professional.

She was always professional. Never asking about your day or small talk legitimately at all. Only professional talk doing her work until her night shift was over and the day doorman came to take her place until her next shift again. The room he stood had two doors. One leading into the building and one leading out with both being able to lock him securely in until the disposal team came in to kill him.

IF he was caught that is. 

He hasn't been caught YET. Many run ins with trying his disguise out on the outside and on people who knew the old milkman ensured his new body would get perfected everyday. Every second. All just to start his new life in society and eventually getting everything he wanted. 

"I'm sorry. Yes of course." Hands perfected humanly reached into his clothes and pulled out a stolen ID card but it was technically him now so rightfully it was his too. The small thing slid into the slot and down into the small secured office as her eyes looked at it. "Forgive me. The extra shifts have gotten me a little tired."

"Please ensure that you remember next time,Sir," was her automatic response as she held it up along with two pieces of paper. No doubt comparing the actual legit ID card to the information on the sheet. The other one a checklist her hand marked off with a pen. Always following every procedure to the T. He'd expect nothing less of the one who'd be his wife. "Entry request form please."

"Of course. I have it right here." Another smaller folded piece of paper was taken from the same pocket anf inserted into the same slot. 

Her hands unfolded it as the same routine as the ID card examination repeated. She was perfect as she read. Eyes narrowed in focus and brows furrowed in determination. She was all perfect. It's what he wanted really. There was others of his mind that took her nature for granted but all almost had the same dream. A life. He wanted that when he first came to this place. It was plastered as the one true life and he fell hard for the fantasy.

To live a life of normality. Humanity. 

Having a nice home with a picket fence and a steady job with a cute little wife and children to come home to. He knew he wanted that. What counted as 'family' to him before was nothing. Only caring about themselves. Most of his kind were killers. Killing their way to get a place in society only it failed miserably every single time for the blood thirsty ones. He never saw a Dopple that was successful except one. In human terms she would've been considered his 'cousin' as she was a spawn born from one of his sire's 'siblings'. He recognized her even through her absolutely PERFECT human disguise. She had taken a woman's place, Lois Stilnsky if he remembered right. She looked perfectly happy hanging onto the arm of her new husband and bouncing a toddler son that couldn't have been older than two maybe three at the time he saw the family. Whether the baby boy was hers after taking the old wife's place or was already born before his possible original mother was done away with he didn't know. But she had looked absolutely happy to take over his raising herself and become a wife and mother.

He wanted that. By any means necessary. Oh he never killed the original Francis. Yes he copied his appearance. Yes he took the old Francis's ID. Yes he now WAS Francis Mosses..But he wasn't the one who killed the original. He wasn't sure if he was going to kill the original. Oh he heavily contemplated it as he studied every route he made on his delivery route. Studying EVERY customer new, old, and current. His boss, coworkers, friends, but no family..He didn't have any family left which made things easier in the long run. But besides the point- He spent HOURS looking through windows studying every INCH of his apartment and routine just to make himself perfect! 

However he wasn't the only one who decided he'd be the perfect topic. He studied him and spent time making sure he'd be perfectly blended in. The one who actually did the deed was fast and hasty. Did away with the original messily. He still cringed at the gruesome memory of him being devoured like a steak fed to a dog. The idiot then adapted his form and ran off without even taking the ID or forms needed. He was dead within minutes of trying to waltz into the building covered in blood.  He vowed to never take a human life after that after all that wouldn't fit into his new life. 

He waited half a day after recovering what he could from the wreckage to seize what he needed being sure to thoroughly clean them off before deciding to go into his new life. He probably shouldn't have. He was shaken up with nerves and fear, his outside appearance while perfect was disheveled and unkempt. He was so sure when he turned in the papers into the day doorman he'd be killed but oddly his appearance ended up working in his favor-

"Oh, Francis!," the stranger exclaimed as soon as he saw his shaking form. "Thank goodness you're ok! I've been getting a few calls from your boss asking if you were here! I was worried when I heard your truck was found with you missing!"

"Um..Y-Yes." he stuttered feeling sweat run his new face. "A doppelganger ended up throwing the door open and tried to get me but thankfully my driver's door was open so I just jumped out and ran. Hid in an alleyway for a while until I thought it was safe to come back."

It was half a lie. The other Dopple did jump into the van and Old Francis did manage to get out and away...but the poor soul didn't make it past an abandoned building before he was a goner.

The day doorman nodded with a smile. "Well thank goodness you're alright. I'll happily call your boss back to ease his worries."

"T-Thank you B-But I'm tired and just want to shower. Can i-I go inside?"

"Sure! I just need to see your ID card and request forms. Better safe than sorry than they say. Y'know that Doppler was in here looking like you but it must've gotten hungry and eaten a stray dog or something. Tried to pass off the blood as 'scarlet milk'. What do those things take me for? An idiot?!"

"Heh..R-Right. A lot of them aren't t-too bright." He shook so badly handing the cleaned up forms to him. He was going to die next he knew it.

"You got that right." He hummed looking over everything very quick before smiling and to his shock pushed them back through the slot to him. "Okie doke! You're good to go! Try to rest up ok, Bud? You've had a really scary day by the sounds of it."

"Mmm. Yes. Scary."

He shook with every step taking the forms back and heading to now his home. He couldn't believe it himself. His now boss calling his now apartment to be sure he was ok before giving him the next week off to collect himself. It gave him a good chance to check over his now belongings and the rest of the home he never got to see through the windows. It was..nice. Pretty plain. Bland. But normal and certainly an upgrade from the alleys and rooftops and abandoned buildings especially in bad weather. It wasn't until the end of the week when he went to his now job and did his now rounds. It was late at night coming back for the first time at such an hour and to his surprise it was not the friendly now friend of his day doorman. No. He stopped cold. A fist seizing his heart as the most beautiful woman he's ever encountered looked at him neutrally.

"Entrance request form and identification card please."

He now knew what love truly was. 

"Both are correct." Her hands pushed the two things back through the slot continuing to check off the list before leaning back to look at something on the wall. "...And you're expected as usual. Will you please take a few steps back to be examined?"

"Mmm. Alright." 

The usual thing. Making sure he didn't have any abnormalities on his upper body, lower body, sides, and back. Taking a few steps back for her to fully look him over arms raised and fully turning around to let her see his entire body. 

"Take off your hat please." He obliged his his picture didn't have his hat on him and she probably wanted to check him for any horns or other things. "Alright. Give me one moment to call your apartment to confirm your status." Yep. Every. Single. Step. By the book. 

He couldn't wait to have her in his arms. In a wedding dress in that magical day he always heard about. Having their own little ones running around. The picture perfect family as he went to work and brought home the bacon and came back to a smiling wife with children playing at her feet and dinner waiting for him. Maybe even a dog too. He'd like to get them a nice house in the countryside. Away from the disgusting city. He heard that was ideal for growing families. 

"Alright. No one's home. So it all checks out." The phone was placed back with a click as she looked at him. "You're free to head inside. Have a nice night, Mr. Mosses."

The door opened with a loud noise ...but her brow rose in surprise when he instead approached the window and leaned down. "Actually I have a question for you if that's alright."

"And that being what, Sir?"

His smile brightened. "Would you perhaps like to have dinner with me sometime?"

[blacknedsoul-blog]

I've never exactly been a fan of poetry, if I were to make a compilation of the poems I've liked, I think it would be about 20 pages long. That said, this poem reminded me so much of Lenore and Annabel that I wanted to share it here: it was written by John Clare and published in the anthology First Love in 1841.

This poem was written during its author's confinement in the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum. It speaks of his enormous terror of loneliness and his longing for freedom personified in a mysterious and beautiful maiden.

An Invite to Eternity (John Clare)

Wilt thou go with me sweet maid

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through the valley depths of shade

Of night and dark obscurity

Where the path hath lost its way

Where the sun forgets the day

Where there's nor life nor light to see

Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me

Where stones will turn to flooding streams

Where plains will rise like ocean waves

Where life will fade like visioned dreams

And mountains darken into caves

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through this sad non-identity

Where parents live and are forgot

And sisters live and know us not

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

In this strange death of life to be

To live in death and be the same

Without this life or home or name

At once to be or not to be

That was and is not—yet to see

Things pass like shadows—and the sky

Above, below, around us lie.

The land of shadows wilt thou trace

And look nor know each other's face

The present mixed with reasons gone

And past and present all as one

Say maiden can thy life be led

To join the living with the dead

Then trace thy footsteps on with me

We're wed to one eternity.

[thelastrenaissance]

The Hurricane

Jose Maria de Heredia

Lord of the winds! I feel thee nigh,

I know thy breath in the burning sky!

And I wait, with a thrill in every vein,

For the coming of the hurricane!

And lo! on the wing of the heavy gales,

Through the boundless arch of heaven he sails;

Silent and slow, and terribly strong,

The mighty shadow is borne along,

Like the dark eternity to come;

While the world below, dismayed and dumb,

Through the calm of the thick hot atmosphere

Looks up at its gloomy folds with fear.

They darken fast; and the golden blaze

Of the sun is quenched in the lurid haze,

And he sends through the shade a funeral ray —

A glare that is neither night nor day,

A beam that touches, with hues of death,

The clouds above and the earth beneath.

To its covert glides the silent bird,

While the hurricane's distant voice is heard,

Uplifted among the mountains round,

And the forests hear and answer the sound.

He is come! he is come! do ye not behold

His ample robes on the wind unfurled?

Giant of air! we bid thee hail!—

How his gray skirts toss in the whirling gale;

How his huge and writhing arms are vent,

To clasp the zone of the firmament,

And fold at length, in the dark embrace,

From mountain to mountain the visible space.

Darker — still darker! the whirlwinds bear

The dust of the plains to the middle air:

And hark to the crashing, long and loud,

Of the chariot of God in the thunder-cloud!

You may trace its path by the flashes that start

From the rapid wheels where'er they dart,

And the fire-bolts leap to the world below,

And flood the skies with a lurid glow.

What roar is that? — 'tis the rain that breaks

In torrents away from the airy lakes,

Heavily poured on the shuddering ground,

And shedding a nameless horror round.

Ah! well known woods, and mountains, and skies,

With the very clouds! — ye are lost to my eyes.

I seek ye vainly, and see in your place

The shadowy tempest that sweeps the space,

A whirling ocean that fills the wall

Of the crystal heaven, and buries all.

And I, cut off from the world, remain

Alone with the terrible hurricane.

Translated by William Cullen Bryant

[theartofmetal]

51. Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya - Thy Darkened Shade (Black Metal, 2023)

Art by "Vamperess Imperium"

[une-sanz-pluis]

Immortal shade of an adorable queen! long since has the splendour vanished, which the too tardy gratitude of thy spouse shed over thy grave! long since have the psalms died away which his hired priests, in their snow-white robes, with a blood-red cross, chaunted at midnight round the shrine where thy dust reposes. The star of thy name has been darkened by the mists of time; thou hast experienced ingratitude, even after thy death; but thy honour will never pass away, so long as annals remain, which preserve the records of thy all-embracing love to these nations, thy tenderness for every subject, thy piercing intellect, thy industrious prudence. In the eyes of those who attach less consequence to the tinsel of fortune and power than to the wisdom and virtue of a noble heart, thy name shall eclipse Margaret's, and thy memory, from the monastery of Wadstena, spread a more beautiful splendour than hers from her triple throne. But even should thy name be forgotten in the state, should no memorial record thy virtues, no bard sing thy heroism, still thy memory will not die in the cottage of the Swedish warrior in Holstein, whom thy humanity consoled in the sorrows of an unhappy war ; nor in that of the Swede who, dragged from his fatherland to an useless campaign, suffered the dreadful misery of hunger; and, at last, cast upon the shores of Saltholm and Barse- beck, would have miserably perished by nakedness and want, hadst not thou, with active tenderness, like an angel from heaven, brought him unexpected preservation.

Herr Franzen, "Politik og Histoire" vol. iv, 1821, trans. Mary Anne Everett Green in Lives of the princesses of England from the Norman conquest, Vol 3 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1849)

[libidomechanica]

“To state”

And one has the bound in the rising     waste had made itself in the lyric sound its possible     songs never tell the church, would doubled his was sober     sad from careless; but less clear. What, may it be to weep for     that is clever, wi’ purfles

and silent still. At which it     cannot speak on my lord’s torch to lift my heart from a sorrows     end. Go, happy. And soon, and he stings, I have bands of     peace, and you and my wound, which cannot choosing! Such play as     anybody know it

with this word? The room, with her wann’d     with full should reach your soft as though me wretch condemn me to     this morrowe for our neighbour seats: and heard her pain’d I stately     mountain-tops with brain— ’tis always clear. Perhaps the hulls     of watery main, increase,

as the turf I bow; thy earth     with another speache, with sovereign think you’re dubbed knight with find     some troubled to roses grew. Anything, yet some were you     the bootes all theefe! And, yonder if that cruell that speech false     hart lou’d, and chuse but wit,

and while that with all hither golden     Anclets to prove: for deceitfull princes in well deuise     was Lady of my way. Not blue, syne blink o’ her locks that     the bonie laddie, and free, that speak of death with my lad. In mounds     of our seats: and day. Not

even in forests, i, that winds     are gone! The past erasing sweet and smile upon the said,     that the twaine, if choice were seal’d town; through for thee. Say nought that     awaited until I crossed long blink is sleep has e’en when     approach shall counts and state

discrimination. He gain’d in     a certain what I write you use the eyes were we lie gagged     January, as it thy sweet flatten’d, and what’s not a     license is not state discoursers keen, added her am     grieve. Anonymously

politeness, who in cost, but I     want to end. Lest a world again,—so throughout they stopt him     rather raged in battle as he sprout or balls, with steps that     should promise, and plenishing utter’d limbs and interest’     meanings made for surge of

thee resort. For, tho’ that drown’d, the     fourty years this poor remained, the mere sight, Oh, tis that we,     enamoured of weeping so, from the lass that, to beware,     sicker this Arbour makes your valentine. Whether it     blossom of time and Absál

out of long tunes and a taste     orb shone so craft is snooded sae sma’! And furthermore been     ceaseless, and defaced the ebb-tide leave to be describe     Adonis, and closely the stings, I have far off I bear along     with happy rose-mark

on the catches, up to me. When     yellow guineas for you laugh at a silvering pool at     noon his tent writing; for a common—shore, but, come so darkening     bug. Put for her cheerfuller? Thy gowns, that saying the     newell, for certainment

need to venture high; their late her     time to sex. And yet once in hers, his own plight, where will open     this effect was his shoulden shepherd’s tongue for quality.     To state! And all I said what they condensed; but yet, bene     display? He abideth

nights would have bands of pearl of     Giftgabbit had English folks. Have reared, the should I love to     tell his to guess my face, speak, and when a heaven, for in     this face. Their own contests cost would have been oft perceptibly     askance of weariness

doth she draws her gown going     her good to feel you are softly and still can seem alive     and gingerbread in the shade, and we gazed, but to the every     sight if our clouds bedimme my dear religion till so     early, soft and earth with

all the sold him downe hys packe. And     I will doe, as yellow guineas for my body with neither     how it. But them, and tell and love’s long, and get a wisp:     and yet had a quiet sound of Honour morning converse     soft skin feathered garlands

drove her. With ease and low the bay,     now than amber, and health to struggle still weary of mine.     But speak—I saw the wish myself round Love’s eternal power     of that she saw us things as well as a public     day,—quite figured it soup?

[douxie-casperan]

Through valleys deep in shade Of night and dark obscurity Will you go with me? The path has lost its way The sun forgets the day No life, no light to see Will you go with me? Will you follow me? Where parents live and are forgot Through their sad non-identity Where sisters live and know us not Will you go with me? Where stones will turn to flooding streams Where plains will rise like ocean waves Where life will fade like visioned dreams And mountains darken into caves To live in death and be the same Without this life or home or name At once to be and not to be We're wed to one eternity

The present mixed with reasons gone And past and present are as one Say maiden can thy life be led To join the living with the dead

[eveningreading]

Though cribbed and gyved, thou canst within thy walls  Unfold a wondrous wealth of worlds unseen, And flood the soul’s abyss with moon-light sheen, As well as darken passions’ gilded halls ;  Thy fourteen outlets are so many falls  From which gush out the prisoned joy, or spleen—  The silvery cascades, or the billows green, And either a sea of bliss or grief recalls.  Thou goddess of the gems of Fancy’s deep,  Though few thy facets, they reflect the whole  Of inner-self in multi-shaded hues ;  Thou art the couch of dreams that never sleep ;  Thou art the phoenix of the poet’s soul, As well the crystal palace of his muse.

"To The Sonnet" by Ameen Rihani

[alephskoteinos]

I don't know if it's just me or not but I think I see the term "Promethean" come up in Greek black metal more. I specifically see it associated with recent releases from Thy Darkened Shade (see their interview with Swallowed in Black for their newest album "Mahapralaya") and Embrace of Thorns (see their 2022 demo "A Night of Promethean Blasphemy"). It could just be the classic "Prometheus = Satan" meme but I'm also inclined to think it refers to a much larger esoteric current, possibly of their own devising (and not without a certain suspicion related to a certain Jason Jorjani).

[hydrocephalus]

Thy Darkened Shade - Sacrosanct Pyre

[servant-of-kaos]

Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer - II - Mahapralaya

[bruderdeslichtsblackmetal]

THY DARKENED SHADE, AMESTIGON, INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS, and SHAARIMOTH to release long-awaited “SamaeLilith” split album via W.T.C.

[blackdoomdeath]

Thy Darkened Shade & Chaos Invocation — SAATET - TA APEP (2017)