Kaisarion Lyrics
Kaisarion, a prophecy told
We're building our empire from the ashes of an old
Kaisarion, the fruit of the womb
Our brotherhood of good faith sealed an apostate witch's doom
[Pre-Chorus: Papa Emeritus IV]
It's the sound of another deadline whistling past your ears
It's the sight of a million regrets mounting over years
It's the words that were never spoken that echoes through the times
It's the smell of the burning temples swept away by rhymes
[Chorus: Papa Emeritus IV]
(Hypatia) Far away from the stench of the heavens
(Hypatia) Long ago, yet too close to forever
(Hypatia) When a paradise is lost, go straight to...
[Verse 2: Papa Emeritus IV]
Kaisarion, a matter of love
When Mother Earth is calling for a father up above
Kaisarion, put on the smiles
And throw your holy rocks right at her for her satanic wiles
[Pre-Chorus: Papa Emeritus IV]
It's the truth of candor shone through the prism of deceit
It's the continence of bishops with their choirboys en-suite
It's the tongue soiled in adulation that licks to no avail
It's the noise of the righteous dogma that hides the handmaid's tail
(Hypatia) Far away from the stench of the heavens
(Hypatia) Long ago, yet too close to forever
(Hypatia) When a paradise is lost, go straight to...
[Guitar Solo]
[Bridge: Papa Emeritus IV]
It's the sound of another deadline whistling past your ears
It's the sight of a million regrets mounting over years
It's the words that were never spoken that echoes through the times
It's the smell of the burning temples swept away by rhymes
It's the truth of candor shone through the prism of deceit
It's the continence of bishops with their choirboys en-suite
It's the tongue soiled in adulation that licks to no avail
It's the noise of the righteous dogma that hides the handmaid's tail
[Chorus: Papa Emeritus IV]
(Hypatia) Far away from the stench of the heavens
(Hypatia) Long ago, yet too close to forever
(Hypatia) When a paradise is lost, go straight to...
(Hypatia) Far away from the stench of the heavens
(Hypatia) Long ago, yet too close to forever
(Hypatia) When a paradise is lost, go straight to...
About
“Kaisarion” starts the album with power, musically and lyrically speaking. In the context of the album, Tobias Forge said to Metal Hammer:
That’s the violent start of this new empire. The call to arms. Burn down everything from the past to build something new and burn the books and kill the whore.
Tobias further delved into some of the lyrical themes in an interview with Kerrang!:
There was a building called Caesareum in ancient Alexandria… Roughly what happened was that the teacher and philosopher, Hypatia, was murdered by Christians. She was molested and murdered inside the building, because of her pagan beliefs, because she was a believer in science and real things. This was in the beginning stages of Christianity, when it was just an insane cult, before it got the mandate of a book put together by Romans in 325 to harness that shit. This was like an underground group of terrorists, basically, who couldn’t stand to see some female smartass preaching or telling people that the world wasn’t flat. And it didn’t happen at the same time, but they also burned down the big library in Alexandria, which must have been an enormous, enormous loss for mankind in terms of knowledge and historic accounts. There you go – for the greater good. I think that’s a nice symbol for what you can see now, you can see likenesses of it in public book burnings and stoning and killing everything that doesn’t match with a sort of a flat Earth reality that some people live in. Or storming the Capitol and wanting to hang people. It’s a symbol for those sorts of movements that are always targeting smartness and enlightenment, and thinking.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Tobias told Kerrang!:
There was a building called Caesareum in ancient Alexandria. Roughly what happened was that the teacher and philosopher, Hypatia, was murdered by Christians. She was molested and murdered inside the building, because of her pagan beliefs, because she was a believer in science and real things. This was in the beginning stages of Christianity, when it was just an insane cult, before it got the mandate of a book put together by Romans in 325 to harness that shit. This was like an underground group of terrorists, basically, who couldn’t stand to see some female smartass preaching or telling people that the world wasn’t flat. And it didn’t happen at the same time, but they also burned down the big library in Alexandria, which must have been an enormous, enormous loss for mankind in terms of knowledge and historic accounts. There you go – for the greater good.
I think that’s a nice symbol for what you can see now. You can see likenesses of it in public book burnings and stoning and killing everything that doesn’t match with a sort of a flat Earth reality that some people live in. Or storming the Capitol and wanting to hang people. It’s a symbol for those sorts of movements that are always targeting smartness and enlightenment, and thinking.
Tobias Forge:
The story this song tells, or the perspective it shines light onto, is basically stupid people destroying something that they don’t understand with a frantic smile on their face. This has happened many times and unfortunately will probably happen many times in the future, because unfortunately things that we don’t understand or that we cannot control have a tendency to arouse those feelings. We want to kill it. We want to destroy it.
—via Apple Music
