We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

War of the Wakening Phantoms

by The High Dials

supported by
Sean
Sean thumbnail
Sean This album blends my two favorite genres better than any other album I know; psychedelia and power pop. Buy it, listen to it, and play it for your friends. Favorite track: Soul In Lust.
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    The original Rainbow Quartz CD release with 9-page lyric booklet and art design by legendary Montreal duo Seripop

    Includes unlimited streaming of War of the Wakening Phantoms via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $8 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 11 The High Dials releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A New Devotion (20th Anniversary Edition), Primitive Feelings - Part II, Primitive Feelings - Part I, Foreverish, In the A.M. Wilds, Desert Tribe EP, Yestergraves EP, Anthems For Doomed Youth, and 3 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $45.60 USD or more (40% OFF)

     

1.
Put down roots in what you’ve found Cling like a tree to the holy ground Seeking dark rivers far underground Drink from the rivers they’re all around Take my right eye, bring a flame to my tongue By shadowy pools where the moon is young Out of the wasteland we’ll make our home Under the mountain in ocean foam Tell me how to make this true Point out the way that I must move To plant a flag under shifting skies Shine a light as the moments die Tell me how to make this true Point out the way that I must move I had a fire in my head I hooked a berry to a thread I caught myself a silver trout I came home and the lights went out You seek the scent like a pack of hounds You strain your ears for the secret sounds Weaving your thorns into little crowns What will you wear when the sun goes down? Come on come on come on come on Live on this holy ground
2.
Soul In Lust 04:18
Behind your pride, my dear Where does your love hide? Can you hear the trumpets Sounding out in the night? When the bridge goes up, my dear Will I have to jump? Can I clear the ditch That rings you round so wide? There’s no meaning in what we say If it can fall apart this way Remove the tongue take the voice away If you do I still make a sound That can bring walls to the ground Are you locked inside? Oh my! Well, is the tower high? Can you hear? The sound of a soul in lust Will turn those walls to dust
3.
So an old world ends in fire And a new one begins in ice Get up get up my friend Get up and face the end Old serpent rise from the sea You are no danger no not to me Get up get up and see You’re your own worst enemy Our time Our time is coming soon When the wolves catch the sun and the moon There is a time there is a time There is a time this much is true And it’s coming soon Yes the flood will rise for weeks But we’ve got houses on the highest peaks Get up get up and see Our glorious destiny In deck chairs we will toast The bubbling cauldron off the coast Get up get up and sing Goodbye to everything Our time is coming soon Pull up a chair let the gods make room
4.
Lost on these humming sands Tailing a coat on the shore Old sea rolling out in hills Shutting me out from her dream Shells washed up here from the blue Left in the sea-dust as two Hear me let me sing to your heart And send the sound back to me Sorrow my oldest friend Come walk with me again Call out for stars to bend Come down and ease this heart I’m trailing from the start Oh, please save me from the end of love Lessons so hard to recall That they mean nothing at all I feel that we never learn Oh, would it save me to know? Time I am drifting like wood On your tides ebb and flow Leave me let me out of your hold On this beach let me go Love my youngest friend The wind has made me mad I’m scattered like the sand Dissolving on this shore All I really want is more Oh please save me from the end Please save me from the end of love
5.
Black branches leafless Reaching like fingers up to the sky Knives of wood and of ice Darkness comes early You rush into the warmth of your room Seal yourself off inside And you wish that your love was cold Cause there’s no sense in taking hold She’s a ghost and you know Let her go Here in the moonlight Silence has swallowed you like a whale Deep in its belly you dream Will you be cast out upon some shore Some pagan city tonight? And you wish that your love was cold Cause there’s no sense in taking hold She’s a ghost and you know Let her go
6.
I woke from a lovely dream I was rescuing you and I from a thief In the gold of a dying summer day There is no such thing as now Only what was and what will be Where do we live with certainty? Tell me Cause here tonight I see the fading coals Yeah they go on burning for so long On and on they glow What kind of fire makes them strong? Sick with the old fire I still burn I was chasing a holy ghost It brought me to some stormy coast There to be infected with more need And then I found my way back home And I’m swallowing pills And I’m casting stones And I’m making believe I’ve got plans to get well But it’s a hard sell Cause here tonight I see the distant stars Yeah, they send their light out for so long I’m a firefly in a jar I can only burn here for so long Sick with the old fire I still burn
7.
The wind is high in the milky sky It will bring you to your knees Shake you till you’re free, ‘till you come loose You were a kite and she was the string That tied you to the ground She held you by a thread you know it’s true Where will you go boy? Now it’s up to you The sky has its secrets But none for you A face in the shroud of the shifting clouds Commands you to obey Pass through me and you shall come out new A crow on the wing like an exiled king Hangs a moment then he’s gone Bound for his black kingdom in the blue Where will you go boy? Now it’s up to you The sky has its secrets But none for you Oh, where will you wander? Now it’s up to you The sky has its secrets But none for you You are the master here While I am a servant of fear
8.
Love is all around you Though we never found you I can’t do a thing There is no help I can bring So I string these words As a lifeline and lure Ice, older than the seas, dear Sings, whispers in your frozen ears I can’t be there now As comfort or as shelter So I made these words In the hopes you will remember If no one’s coming When will you save yourself?
9.
The Drum 02:33
The man that you knew, love, is gone So long, so long! The wind came and blew him to sea Let him be, let it be He had no roots in the ground Just his boots wet and brown With the mud of this old place Singin’ mad songs at the sun To a little boy’s drum Hear it beat in his heart Hear how the words leave his lips They dissolve there like mist Pulled apart in the wind Tears welled up, true, in his eyes Though he was not surprised When the time came to go, no Send him your love if you wish Cause you know it is missed He cries out in the night, “Beat in my heart, do the trick As when you were the stick, And my soul was the skin! Beat in my heart do the trick, Like when you were the stick And my soul was the skin!” Oh, my darlin’ My soul aches for that love to strike So I can return And stay there as long as I like The man that you knew, love, is gone So long, so long The wind came and blew him to sea Let him be, let it be
10.
I had almost given up on finding you I know that your source is old and far away Now I’ve found you Here in the shade of willow Time has broken Falling like leaves of yellow Softly… I will soak my feet And in my mind come follow you Drifting like a leaf upon this endless afternoon Sleep falls heavy Here in the air about you Deep and muddy Slowly you wind your wisdom in the sun Thick with summer’s dream Older than the sun it seems That you are working in some way Upon this troubled mind
11.
Higher and brighter Every day You float like an angel Flying further away Oh-oh-oh, leaving me Your perfect memory See the chalk on the sidewalk The rain is washing away All the colours are blending Swirling down the drain Oh-oh-oh, leave no trace No picture of your face One day you will vanish No form left for me to see Just an old idea Shining silver for me Now I am frozen Here in your past Like a snowy Christmas scene Inside a globe of glass Turn me over in your hand Stir me to life once again One day I will vanish No features for eyes to see Just an old idea A half-remembered melody So leave if you will You leave me the best of you still Cold and bright In the night that’s calling me
12.
I am like the devil Looking up at you from levels far below Was it love that cast me out? Or was it doubt the kind that springs from fear? If I earned a second chance And won a brief forgiving glance from you I’d be sure to fail again And so there’s no one I can blame but me Leave me to my ring of fire As long as I can see you higher Safe here in my sad desire I feed off these flames Beauty was my master And she led me to disaster and decay And you are a quiver Full of arrows that deliver shafts of pain Once I was the prince of light And gazed upon eternal night and cried Now I am the man you pity Roaming out across this city without peace Leave me to my ring of fire As long as I can see you higher Safe here in my sad desire I feed off these flames
13.
Large empty places In the widening spaces of your eyes Off I set sailing Through galaxies trailing tails of light Suns are collapsing And others expanding in their place Young planets burning They are endlessly turning on their wheels Alpha Centauri A and B Capella, Antares, M15 Aldebaran, Vela 3 Orion, Polaris Turn for me Mapping the skies Inside your spiraling eyes I make my way Doors within doors To cosmic seas without shores No place to land Rings that were bright Begin to fade out of sight Spin down a drain I turn to dozing Cause your eyelids are closing Take me home
14.
Dust caught by the sun Drifting from one dark to another Floating free in a dream, By light of a beam Then back to your slumber Traveling far Free from your star Through time and space Here to my window I sit in my bed Losing my head to nothing Slowly circle the sun Drifting from one dark to another Traveling far Here with my star Through time and space Here by my window now

about

The High Dials' second album is considered a critical and stylistic breakthrough for the group. Described by All Music Guide as "the sound of a band discovering its soul and creating something beautiful and big", it would go on to win glowing reviews from tastemakers like Spin and NME. Produced by Joseph Donovan (Sam Roberts, The Dears) and mixed by Dave Bianco (Teenage Fanclub, Tom Petty) the album mostly discarded the overt nods to the 60s that characterised its predecessor, in favor of a far more varied and lush sound. Supernatural lyrics evoke the soaring highs of love and crushing lows of heartbreak. Featuring acoustic ballads, electronic campfire folk, and pounding power pop anthems propelled into outer space by reverbed guitar licks, the album coincided with a period of heavy touring by the band.

“Psych-pop perfection. With this second album, (The High Dials) have made a latter-day psychedelic classic, which sounds like “Going Blank Again”-era Ride jamming with the Zombies." 8/10 NME (UK)

credits

released July 26, 2005

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The High Dials Montréal, Québec

The High Dials are an indie pop band from Montreal.
While their melodic sensibility, harmonies and jangling guitars owe an obvious debt to the 60s and power pop groups, they also draw upon shoegaze, new wave and folk sounds to create rich and varied albums. Their most recent album “Primitive Feelings” is a predatory summer mix of lo-fi grooves, acid rock guitars and razor-sharp humour. ... more

contact / help

Contact The High Dials

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

The High Dials recommends:

If you like The High Dials, you may also like: