The Backstory:

Every war has a beginning, and this one starts at a wedding. Before Achilles was born, his parents, Peleus (a mortal) and Thetis (a Nereid, or sea nymph) got married on Mount Pelion. When the Goddess of Discord, Eris, is the only deity not invited to the feast, she seeks revenge by throwing a striking golden apple into the crowd, inscribed with the words, "To the Fairest."

Three powerful goddesses — Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite — violently claim it. To settle the dispute, the three goddesses cannot rely on the other deities for an unbiased decision, and need, instead, an impartial judge. The three come down from their mountain to find a mortal Trojan shepherd (who later turns out to be a prince) named Paris herding his sheep. The goddesses force him to settle who is the most beautiful among them.

Each of the three rivals bribes Paris with her own specialty: Hera promises to make him king of Asia and Europe; Athena promises wisdom, skill in war, and to make him a great strategist; and Aphrodite promises him the love of the most beautiful woman in the mortal world. Paris cannot help but surrender to his baser instincts, and Aphrodite wins the contest (and therefore appears prominently in our record cover, holding what would later prove to be a terribly bloody prize).

The catch? The world's most beautiful woman is Helen, a queen married to the Greek King of Sparta, Menelaus. The fact that she is married (to a king, no less) does nothing to allay Paris's carnal desires, and the youth proceeds to steal the queen away in the dead of night, turning Helen of Sparta into Helen of Troy. Enraged at the grievous offense, Menelaus calls upon his big brother, the principal warlord of Greece and chief conqueror of lands, Agamemnon, to summon a massive fleet of a thousand ships to get her back. The world is irrevocably plunged into a terrifying war over what otherwise seemed like a harmless piece of fruit.

The Lyrics:

On a high wind
Wedding wine
Laughter, laurel, golden shine
Then a single spiteful fruit
Cut the feast in two

Athena, Hera, Aphrodite:
“Take it! Take it! Call my name”

Three bright faces burned with flame
Wisdom - Power - Soft embrace
Each one certain of her grace

Chorus
Apple of Discord
Ruin at its core
A fruit of silence
that screams of war
From a jealous hand to a shepherd’s choice
The world shall fall from a whispered voice
Apple of Discord
Heavy, bright
Judge it! Claim it! Doom us all

Paris on a lonely hill
Counting sheep
Counting what he will
Offered crowns
Clever tongues
Offered wars that would never be sung

Then a promise in the dark:

Aphrodite:
“Take the face that bends all hearts”

He reached out
He made it fall
Didn’t hear the cities call

Chorus
Apple of Discord
Ruin at its core
A fruit of silence
that screams of war
From a jealous hand to a shepherd’s choice
The world shall fall from a whispered voice
Apple of Discord
Heavy, bright
Judge it! Claim it! Doom us all

Judge it! Claim it! Doom us all

Helen’s laughter
Spartan halls
Torchlight dancing on the walls
One night
Shadow at her door
One ship cutting from the shore

Menelaus wakes to ash
Empty bed and broken glass
Swears by every star above
He will turn this theft to blood

Brothers gather
Banners rise
Every king with hungry eyes

Agamemnon calls the sea:
“Bind your oars to misery”

But the Seer speaks:

Calchas:
"Quiet, still!
You will break on Trojan will
Till a bright storm joins your side
Till the short-lived lion rides”

Chorus
Apple of Discord
Ruin at its core
A fruit of silence
that screams of war
From a jealous hand to a shepherd’s choice
The world shall fall from a whispered voice
Apple of Discord
Heavy, bright
Judge it! Claim it! Doom us all

Helen, Hector, Achilles, The Wall
Trojan, Greeks, the end of all

On a high wind... years away
Footsteps drum along the bay
Armor shining, young and fierce
One man must fight on our side
His name is Achilles (Achilles)
Achilles!

The Backstory:

The Greek army knows they cannot win the war without the ultimate warrior: a teenager named Achilles. But Achilles’ mother, the sea goddess Thetys, knows a dark prophecy. If Achilles goes to Troy, he will win eternal glory, but he will die young. If he stays home, he will live a long, happy life, but be forgotten by history.

Desperate to save her son, Thetys dresses Achilles as a girl to hide him among the princesses on the island of Skyros. But the ever crafty Greek king Odysseus tracks him down. Clever as a fox, Odysseus brings a great box of gifts to the Skyros princesses, and secretly introduces a shield and a spear (and/or a sword, depending on the source) among a pile of beautiful jewelry. When he sounds a fake alarm, the women flee, whereas Achilles’s warrior instincts take over. But the moment Achilles grabs the sword, he reveals his true identity. Forced to choose between a long, quiet life and a short, legendary one, Achilles — against his mother's wishes, but bringing happiness to all the Greeks — chooses the sword.

The Lyrics:

Two paths
One breath
A quiet life
Or glorious death

Hidden in the silk
Daughter of the king
Red hair, painted face
Time has lost its sting
Lion in a cage
shielded from the age
Mother holds the door
To keep away the war

Stranger arrives
Merchant with a box
Pearls for the girls
Cunning of the fox
Buried underneath
Spear in hand
Lightning speed
He has the Soul of the Warrior

Chorus
Two Fates weighing on my soul
Fade to gray? Or lose all control?
Short life: glory unbound
Live forever if I choose to die!
If I choose to die...

Trumpets rip the air
Terror in the hall
Sisters turn to run
I stand amidst them all
Tear the dress away
Hunter wants his prey
Hand upon the spear
Destiny is here

Guitar Solo

The Fox has won the game
Mother, don't you cry
I was born to burn
I was born to die
(I am the arrow)
(I am the shot)
Achilles! Achilles!

Chorus
Two Fates weighing on my soul
Fade to gray or lose all control?
Short life shaking the sky
Live forever if I choose to die

Kleos (Glory on my soul)
Fade to gray or lose all control?
Short life shaking the sky
Live forever if I choose to die

Kleos (Glory)
Aphthiton (Eternal)

Troy awaits
Across the sea

The Backstory:

The Greek fleet of a thousand ships is finally assembled. They are hungry for blood, adrenaline, and glory. They sail across the sea, and finally spot the shores of what they believe is Troy, and immediately launch a brutal, full-scale invasion. They slaughter the locals, burn the fields, and fight the defending king.

But in the fog of war, they realize a horrifying truth: they went the wrong way.

They haven't landed in Troy; they’ve attacked an innocent allied kingdom called Mysia. Humiliated, battered, and scattered by a storm, the Greeks are forced to sail all the way back home in disgrace. It is a chaotic, bloody disaster that delays the war for eight more years, proving that the arrogance of kings can incur a heavy price.

The Lyrics:

SAILS UP!
HEADS DOWN!

Ten thousand hulls
Cut the foam
Leaving behind
The lights of home

Adrenaline high
We see the beach
Glory is there
Within our reach

We don't ask names
We don't ask why
We see a wall
And the people die

Strike
Kill
Burn
But the tide begins to turn

Chorus
Wrong shore
False war
This isn't the city we’re looking for
Spilling blood on foreign sand
Lost upon a stranger’s land
The gods are laughing from the sky
It isn't Troy
It’s a lie!

The local king
He fights like hell
A son of Zeus
We know him well

I thrust the spear
I wound the thigh
But storms awake
In the angry sky

Scattered fleet
Retreat, retreat
Taste the bitter
cold defeat

Guitar Solo

Eight years lost
In the wind and rain
We sail back home
To start again

Arrogance
Has a heavy cost
The path is broken
The map is lost

Chorus
Wrong shore
False war
This isn't the city we’re looking for
Spilling blood on foreign sand
Lost upon a stranger’s land
The gods are laughing from the sky
It isn't Troy
It’s a lie!

Back to the port
Back to the bay

But now the wind
Has gone away.

The Backstory:

Between their time at sea and fighting the wrong kingdoms, years have gone by when the Greeks finally gather their fleet a second time at the port of Aulis, back in Greece. Once they finally reorganize their army, however, the wind completely dies: all their ships are therefore trapped, and cannot set sail.

The prophet Calchas reveals that the Great King Agamemnon has offended the Goddess of the Hunt (Artemis) by killing one of her sacred deers; and that Artemis now demands a life for a life in retribution. To make the winds blow again, Agamemnon must sacrifice his own eldest daughter.

Driven by ambition and the pressure of his army, Agamemnon commits the ultimate betrayal. He sends a letter to his wife, Clytemnestra, telling her to send their oldest daughter, Iphigenia, to the camp, stating the time has come for her to marry. To befit her station, as the daughter of the Great King of Kings, the man chosen to be Iphigenia's husband is none other than the great hero Achilles. Both Iphigenia and Clytemnestra are brimming with happiness with the news.

Sweet Iphigenia arrives at Aulis in her beautiful wedding gown, dreaming of love, only to find a stone altar and a knife waiting for her. Her father murders her to buy the wind for his ships. The war can finally begin, though Agamemnon has forever damned his soul in the process.

Back home, Clytemnestra hatches a plan to avenge the death of her daughter by Agamemnon's hands. She will be ready when her husband returns after the war (an epic story in its own right, which has been covered by Virgin Steele's "House of Atreus" parts 1 and 2).

The Lyrics:

The sea is glass
The air is lead
The ships are ghosts
The wind is dead

Agamemnon walks the sand
Blood of a stag upon his hand
He mocked the Goddess in the wood
Now she demands the greater good
The Prophet speaks through smoke and fire
A price to raise the winds, make them higher

Calchas:
"King of Men, you want the breeze?
Then bring your daughter to her knees."

He writes the scroll
He seals the lie

Agamemnon:
"Come, my child, to be a bride
Achilles waits to take your hand"

BUT DEATH IS WAITING ON THE STRAND!

Chorus
Blood for the Wind
Life for the Sea
What is a daughter to a decree?
Raise the knife, bring it down
Stain the white of the wedding gown
Agamemnon! Hear her cry
You bought the wind, but you will die

She comes in silk and woven flowers
Counting down her happy hours
She looks for love in the hero's face
But sees the altar in its place
The mother screams inside the tent
But the King’s resolve is bent
Ambition is a hungry beast
That demands the innocent for the feast

Guitar Solo

Lift the blade
Look away
Make the payment
For the day

STRIKE!

The red flows on the stone
(The Goddess grins upon her throne)
Snap the ropes
Unfurl the sail
Here comes the breathing of the gale

Chorus
Blood for the Wind
Life for the Sea
What is a daughter to a decree?
Raise the knife, bring it down
Stain the white of the wedding gown
Agamemnon! Hear her cry
You bought the wind...

The ships move on
The war begins
But at home
The mother sharpens her sins
She waits...
She waits...

The Backstory:

After ten years of delays, the Greeks finally arrive at the real beaches of Troy. But the men are terrified to leave the boats, as an oracle has declared that the very first Greek to step foot on Trojan sand will be the first to die. A brave hero named Protesilaus makes the ultimate sacrifice, leaping from his ship to break the curse. He is instantly killed by the Trojan prince Hector, but his death allows the Greek army to storm the beach.

However, the famed walls of Troy are too strong to breach. The war turns into a grueling, nine-year stalemate: to starve the Trojans out, the Greeks spend nine years raiding and burning the surrounding farming towns. In one of these brutal raids, Achilles slaughters a family and takes a beautiful woman named Briseis as his captive war-prize. This will set the stage for the opening scene of Homer's Iliad, which will be Age of the Ancient's next release.

The Lyrics:

Troy...
Real Troy
The sand is white
The walls are high
But the Oracle whispered:

Calchas:
"The first foot down... is the first to die."

A thousand ships holding their breath
Drifting in the surf of death
Nobody moves, nobody speaks
Fear is the anchor of the Greeks
Who will trade his life for land?
Who will bleed upon the sand?

PROTESILAUS!

First to leap
First to fall
He breaks the curse to save us all
Hector’s spear is waiting there
To cut the life into the air
One man dies so the rest can kill
Blood runs down the Trojan hill
The beach is ours
The beach is ours

Now the ships are pulled ashore
Welcome to the endless war
Not a week, not a month
Nine long years
We rot in the sun
We rust in the rain
The walls of Troy mock our pain
They won’t come out
We can’t get in
The slow decay...
is desire a sin?

Starve them out
Burn the towns
If we can't take the king
We take the crown
Lyrnessus falls
Thebe burns
Achilles rides
and the tables turn

Achilles:
I kicked the gate of the city in
I killed the husband, I killed the kin
Fire and smoke arise to dreary skies
I claim the girl with the tearful eyes
She is the gold
She is the prize
Ignoring her hate, her hunger for our demise
Mynes is dead, brothers are slain
Now you belong to the Lord of Pain

Guitar Solo

Nine years of rust
End in hellfire
Cities of ash burn
In a funeral pyre
Briseis weeps on the victor’s bed
While the Greek camp lays among the dead
The prize is won
The seed is sown
For the greatest wrath
the world has known

I have the girl
Agamemnon watches
I have the girl
The King is watching
The King... wants...