INCARNIA SWEEPSTAKES RESULTS

Earlier this week we posted our laudatory review of a debut album called Proclamation by a Montreal melodic death metal band called Incarnia. In the review, we featured a song called “Yersinia Pestis”, which in addition to being the name of the song is also the name of the bacterium that causes the black plague. That song got stuck in our heads, and so we tried to decipher the lyrics by listening to the song repeatedly — because we didn’t have a physical copy of the CD with the lyrics and couldn’t find them posted anywhere on the netz.

We did our best, but we couldn’t make out all the words just from listening. And then we got the hare-brained idea to run a little contest. We invited our readers to e-mail us their guesses about the missing words, or to correct the words we deciphered if people thought we got them wrong. As a reward, we promised to send a copy of the Proclamation CD to everyone who submitted a correct guess.

We got what, for us, was a flood of hits on the Incarnia review, but we didn’t get many entrants in our lyrics sweepstakes. Possible explanations:

(a)  Our readers are very shy.

(b)  Unlike us, most of our readers aren’t obsessive enough to listen to the same song over and over and over again in an attempt to decipher a few missing words.

(c)  Other people who listened to the song had just as much trouble as we did figuring out what the vocalist was singing.

But although we didn’t get a lot of submissions in our Incarnia sweepstakes, we do have two winners. After the jump, we’ll reveal their names, along with the correct lyrics to the song, which we got from the band. And because we think Proclamation is such hot shit, we’ll provide one more song from the album for you to stream.

Our first winner was ElvisShotJFK, who’s a frequent commenter here at NCS. Elvis made some initial guesses in his comments on our review, which we incorporated into our version of the lyrics by revising what we originally put up. Elvis also e-mailed us some additional guesses and some corrections to our revised version of the lyrics. Most of his additions and corrections were on the money.

Our second winner is Greg Tarbell. Greg made two corrections to our original version of the lyrics and gave us guesses to fill in four of the blanks — and all of his corrections and additions turned out to be correct.

So, as soon as we get the CDs we ordered from Panoptic Records, we’ll mail ’em off to our two winners. Thanks to both of you dudes for doing this. And for everyone else, you really should check out Incarnia’s debut. It’s available digitally on iTunes and Amazon, and you can order the CD itself (like we’ve done) from Panoptic Records at this location.

And now, here are the correct lyrics to “Yersinia Pestis”. We’re posting two versions. The first version is a “redline” showing our original attempt to decipher the lyrics, with the corrections and additions necessary to make them accurate. And then below that is a “clean” version of the lyrics. In case you feel like listening to the song again now that you can see the lyrics, here it is again.  And below the link for “Yersinia”, we’ve got a link to another one of the awesome songs on Proclamation.

Incarnia: Yersinia Pestis

Incarnia: Carrion

CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS TO THE LYRICS AS WE ORIGINALLY GUESSED THEM

Dear god, aid take my soul tonight.
Spare me this wretched pain.
Torturous, ravenous.
From the shadows it will rise.
Evil, take form, overcome
Across the dust, through the fields, lurking eyes of fire.

As the rats reclaim Pestilence swept clean the earth, every last one will fall.
Insatiable thirst for human life, human life,
Everyone will suffer.

Inject the sickness.
Deteriorate through human genome, strand by strand.
Bow down before the bringers of infection, blind and merciless.
Close your eyes and accept your judgment.

As the rats reclaim Pestilence swept clean the earth, every last one will fall.
Insatiable thirst for human life, human life,
Everyone will suffer.

Incurable, incomparable, devouring without remorse.
Relentless, reckless, your city of yersinia pestis.

Inject the sickness.
Deteriorate through human genome, strand by strand.
Foolish and meek, devour this _ of a mad the powerless hands of man.
Cannot seize the axe of karma.
From the shadows it will rise.
Evil, take form,
Overcome.

As the rats reclaim Pestilence swept clean the earth, every last one will fall.
Insatiable thirst for human life, human life,
Everyone will suffer.

Looking toward the stars, your last words are a prayer
Just to see Blessed is he who takes this pain away
Mercy Blessed is he.

LYRICS TO “YERSINIA PESTIS”

Dear God,
Take my soul tonight
Spare me this wretched pain
Torturous, ravenous.
From the shadows it will rise
Evolve, take form
Overcome.
Across the dust
Through the fields
Lurking eyes of fire
[Chorus:]
Pestilence swept clean the earth,
Every last one will fall
Insatiable thirst for human life
Everyone will suffer.
Inject the sickness,
Deteriorate the human genome
Strand by strand.
Bow down before the bringers of infection
Blind and merciless
Close your eyes,
And accept your judgement.
[Chorus:]
Pestilence swept clean the earth,
Every last one will fall
Insatiable thirst for human life
Everyone will suffer.
Incurable, incomparable
Devouring without remorse
Relentless, reckless
Yersinia pestis.
Inject the sickness,
Deteriorate the human genome
Strand by strand.
Foolish and meek
The powerless hands of man
Cannot seize the axe of karma
From the shadows it will rise
Evolve, take form
Overcome.
[Chorus:]
Pestilence swept clean the earth,
Every last one will fall
Insatiable thirst for human life
Everyone will suffer.
Looking towards the stars
Your last words are a prayer
Blessed is he who takes this pain away
…Blessed is he.