The Egyptian “Book of the Dead” isn’t exactly a “Book” in the normal sense; it is actually a term used to describe an expansive collection of Egyptian funerary literature. The assorted texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of Egyptian religion. At first inscribed on the stone sarcophagi, the texts were later written on papyrus and placed inside the mummy case. The earliest collection, known as the heliopolitan recension, dates from the XVIII dynasty (1580-1350 B.C.). It also contains selections from the two previous collections of Egyptian religious literature, the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000 B.C.) and the pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2600-2300 B.C.). The Theban recension, a text that may be contemporary or slightly later, has a distinctive format. Many of the papyrus scrolls found in ancient tombs were custom made for the individual who was to be entombed; and the completeness of the texts often depended upon the finances of the individual. A wealthy person could certainly afford a more complete selection of texts than someone of lower social strata. Thus, not every spell was necessarily included amongst every varying version of the Book of the Dead, for instance, the famous “Papyrus of Ani” does not include many of the spells from the Theban recension. Spell 1B, “The chapter for permitting the noble dead to descend to the Duat on the day of internment” is one such text. This chapter was to be recited “after going to rest in the west”. Three different versions of this spell were utilized in compiling the lyrics for this song, and each of them had their own prime words and phrasings to contribute. This song was actually the first song to be written for the album, and represents another evil collaboration between Dallas and I: with Dallas writing the music and I the words. – Karl Sanders