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The Chaos Game

by Cabinets of Curiosity

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1.
Data, data... Death, she walks on Quiet counting I don’t know why I should be so afraid Death, she walks on and on
2.
There’s no music in the spheres There's but the sum of Euclid's fears Architecture at the gate Dazzles as it nauseates I have seen what lies Just beyond my vision It uncoils me In its stark precision Still I cannot help Wishing I had been here all along I am not alone here Could this be my home here Amid the lucite loam here The tesseracts and domes here Angular Sterility As far as mortal eye can see Angular Sterility Someone bail me out of Encroaching vertices Alien geometry Angular sterility
3.
Who touched these files? They are a hoarder’s delight! All of these souls must be reallocated now! I swear this job would spell the death of me, but Demigods don’t enjoy the privilege of sleep — sweet kiss of death! A resting soul gets out of the filing cabinet where the God of Reaping keeps souls. Without a body, she has no idea where she is, why she is suddenly conscious, and why her children aren’t with her. Where am I? And where are my children? Why do I feel so hollow? Where am I? God, it’s so fucking cold! Who let her out? She is not done! Doesn’t even know that she is dead! If we don’t clean up her file We could lose this entire aisle! Clean her up! Summer wraps itself around her soul Summer wraps itself around her soul Summer wraps itself around her, wraps its loving arms around her, Summer wraps itself around her soul I hear the engines of the 18-wheelers pulling up to the loading dock Mondays always smell like gas and formaldehyde You never get used to it — you only get older You only get experience. Welcome, love. Here we deal in fractals and in coastlines Here we deal in chaos and in ordinary time Take a cigar, pour the gin, pull up a chair You’re going to be here for quite a while, so relax. Summer wraps itself around her, wraps its loving arms around her soul She’s been retained. She’s been contained. She’s been detained. Summer wraps itself around her, wraps its loving arms around her soul I need a drink — I’m getting too old for this. All of the souls have been reallocated now! I swear this job would spell the death of me, but Demigods don’t enjoy the privilege of sleep, sweet kiss of death!
4.
History grows with every second, A goliath before the present moment. You could cling onto the infinite future Or damn the contours of time altogether I’m traveling on timeless sound Weaving around a chronological vector Notes taking flight as they carry me To freedom — boundless, timeless freedom Abandon your dualistic prejudice Forward, backward, silence, noise, then, and now Euclidean and non-Euclidean, Einstein and Newton I and Thou I’m traveling on timeless sound Rapidly moving, knowing not my direction Notes taking flight as they carry me To freedom — boundless, timeless freedom Song always moving always still — timeless sound. History growing always still — timeless sound.
5.
Kill your darlings, and their darlings too Everything that meant anything (or nothing) to you It can’t be helped, the gods have spoken We have but rudimentary control Kill your darlings, and their darlings too Crush eternal enterprise, it’s all up to you It can’t be helped, the gods have spoken We have but rudimentary control It can’t be helped — it’s already in motion We have but the illusion of control You may feel a little sick around this new arithmetic What’s the flame and what’s the wick inside this cruel arithmetic? Play for me, beautiful, don’t let me think too hard Play for me, beautiful, while chaos tears into us Play for me, beautiful, I never wanted it to end this way Play for me, beautiful, all you can do is play Kill your darlings, and their darlings too, Everything that meant anything, or nothing, is gone — I never wanted it to end this way But you have bought us another day Destruction’s easy. Creation’s something more. If I still have it in me, it’ll be better than before.
6.
7.
In A Day 03:55
In a day, how many strange things can settle around The same tiny apartment in northern New Jersey? Can we blame the pollution, the constant sound Of the rumble of cars on the Garden State Parkway in a day? It’s business as usual in a way Can we even feign control over the sway Of our destinies, sway of catastrophe? In a day, how many T-bones and head-on collisions Can count as near misses in northern New Jersey? Can we blame the economy? Time’s a commodity On the black market on the Garden State Parkway, in a day It’s kind of how we all agreed to play Some moment we can’t recall, an oath that we gave On our future graves, asphalt and pavement A harvest moon hangs over the shopping mall Overseeing the gardens of commerce we claim As our fortune and fame. A Darjeeling monsoon pours onto the Parkway, A deep crimson liquor pulls up through the pavement terrain And leaves a caffeinated stain In the rain, how much back and forth and Back and forth and back and forth our wiper blades flick and wick away The sweat pouring down our vehicle brows In a day, how many strange things can settle around In a day, can we blame the constant sound In a day, how many T-bones and head-on collisions In a day, how many near-death and near-living visions In a day, how many strange things can settle around The same tiny apartment in northern New Jersey in a day?
8.
Fractometer 04:32
So you want to spark creation? Want to forge a Universe? Know the common pitfalls, else the enterprise is cursed Start with something tiny — it’s an iteration game Subatomic, cosmic — basic shapes should look the same. From the chaos, order finds its way. From the order, chaos finds its way. Throw the dice — it’s up to you, dear. Draw the lines in fractal patterns... There are more things than you have dreamed Within your philosophy Earths and heavens you can’t see Mandelbrot, Sierpinski saw self-similarity Underlying nature, causing the causality Now, it’s up to you, dear, light of my cosmogony Make the generations delight in your cryptography You can make it happen — it, by which I mean everything, dear Julia set. I don’t know why she chose me. There is nothing about me or my songs that belongs in a god’s company You can make it happen — it, by which I mean everything, dear Julia set. There are more things than you have dreamed Within your philosophy Earths and heavens you can’t see There are more things than you can see Within your philosophy My Horatio, just dream — just dream and make it be!
9.
Bro Science 00:32
10.
You can take our lives, but you’ll never take our gains And you can take my compound, provided you have peaceful aims But if you use it to take a life, I’ll have to take the blame We’re Leonold and Regibald. We’re close, but we’re not the same We made our fortunes in instruments of war — no more! Who brought the mercenaries here? The chemist and the engineer Saving the world with my brother Reggie, take these potions. You’ll need them for the ride. And don’t forget your protein to grow your bis and tris. Brother, I wish I could be with you, but we both have very different jobs to do Mine the elements, build a giant bomb, blow up a mountain. Blow up a mountain! Blow up a mountain to save the world. It is not in mortal hands to hasten Perdition’s deadline — this I believe with all my heart. But the finite laws of ethics, and even theology, do not account for infinite contexts. We made our fortunes in instruments of war — no more! We lived our lives in comfort, studying the universe and its laws Now I worry for your safety in the sorceress’s claws May the warriors protect you. May the priest of Chaos bless you. May my potions resurrect you should any evil intercept you. This could be the last time that we speak The situation’s looking bleak. Don’t let me down, brother. Go thwart the sorceress’ aims You’re hunting a dangerous game Go save the world, brother. Brother!
11.
Take a breath, it’s only oxygen you’re losing after all Pay no mind to any notion that the walls are closing in Look around at all the evidence you’re safe inside this room Remember me, remember every time I held your hand to tell you this When you feel that too-familiar pulling in your lungs Just count backwards; it isn’t death you’re running from When you feel the acid bubbling up inside your lungs Have no fear; your thread is nowhere near the blade Now you see just how deceitful all the ghosts inside you are Let them know you won’t surrender to their woeful cries, their clever bribes I send my love, send it like countless troops to penetrate the walls Watch them burn, watch them disintegrate beneath my hands, my steady hands Please don't let it take you down Don't let it take you down Don't let it take you down
12.
We began this mission not long ago How it concludes, now — that we cannot know We’ve seen but a glimpse of what she can do She can revise all that we thought we knew A pheasant with clockwork wings A sorceress pulling strings She’ll tear the world apart If we can’t stop her heart She manipulates the tidal Cycles with her homicidal, Physics-changing incantations World-destroying conjurations I have no special power, courage, or might But it’s no time to cower — it’s time to fight I try to resist my rage, my fear, I can’t back out of this, of what brought me here I lean on the faith in things I can’t see I don’t have an eighth of her lethal gravity I try to resist my rage, my fear, I can’t back out of this now that I’m here She has spilled the blood of my dear friends I’ll make her succumb to her own ends She will fall, if she lasts at all A pheasant with clockwork wings A sorceress pulling strings She’ll tear the world apart If we can’t stop her heart She’s wandered into my trap I slam on the blasting cap The ground underneath us shakes The mountain behind her quakes It’s time I embrace my fate We both will incinerate But I spend my final breaths Defeating the sorceress

about

The Chaos Game is the debut album of New Jersey-based progressive rock group, Cabinets of Curiosity.

A concept album, The Chaos Game follows a young paralegal as she's called up to The Upper Realm to destroy, create, and then save the universe... by blowing up a mountain.

For more on the concept behind The Chaos Game, visit our Album Companion: cabinets-of-curiosity.com/the-chaos-game/The-Chaos-Game-Album-Companion.html#page=1

credits

released February 15, 2019

Cabinets of Curiosity is:

James Naprawa – Lead Guitar
Jared Hirst – Bass, Percussion
Bran Blackmire – Guitar
Justin Jones – Keyboards
Anthony Warga – Saxophone
Kristina Bacich – Flute
Nat Hornyak – Vocals, Piano

Produced by Cabinets of Curiosity
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered at Dungeon Master Sound Studios
Engineered by James Naprawa and Bran Blackmire
Mixed and Mastered by James Naprawa
Full band arrangements of Timeless Sound & Fractometer by Jared Hirst.
Death, She Walks On, Timeless Sound, Fractometer, and In a Day composed by Natalie Hornyak
The Chemist & The Engineer composed by Jared Hirst
Angular Sterility composed by Anthony Warga
Fractals & Coastlines and Doomsday Algorithm composed by James Naprawa
Nowhere Near the Blade, The Clockwork Pheasant, and There Will Be Turrets composed by Cabinets of Curiosity
Piano for In a Day performed by Natalie Hornyak
Original story concept by Natalie Hornyak
Additional brass performed by Sam Paulson and Eli Goldberg
Album art by Alyssa Blackmire
Logo design by James Viola of Damn Good Brand
Photography by Chris Hornyak

Special thanks to Stefán Örn Arnarson of Rutgers Camden for letting us record on their beautiful Bosendorfer!

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Cabinets of Curiosity Mansfield, New Jersey

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