Nile User-Maat-Re Lyrics:
[Lyrics by Karl Sanders, Music by Karl Sanders and
Dallas Toler-Wade] O Seti, Great One, My Father. I Hath Finished for
Thee Thy Temple at Abydos. And Made Known the
Lineage of the Blessed. Those Who Came Before. I
Hath Exalted Mine Ancestors. I Hath Honoured with
the Blood and Sweat of Many. The Legacy of Thy
Conquests.
T Hath Glorified Thy Temple of Set in Avaris. In
Karnak, Hath I Raised the Great Hall. In Thebes,
Sublime Monuments, Grand Pylons, Obelisks And
Colossal Statues Are Inscribed With My Name. By
Divine Right I Hath Usurped the Monuments of My
Predecessors. I Hath Created Imposing Rock Hewn
Temples. Monumental Colossi in Mine Own Image.
Like as unto the Images of Amun, Re, Ptah. I Hath
Caused to Rise a Formidable Legacy Carved in
Stone. In the Mountain of Meha. Intended to Endure
a Million Years.
In the Violence of Sekhem. I am Become Montu, God
of War in the Two Lands. I Hath Suppressed the
Rebellious. I Hath Driven Back Chaos and Disorder.
The Conquered Chiefs of All Foreign Lands are
Beneath My Sandals. I Hath Emblazoned My Countless
Victories in Immortality. Carved in Rocks as
Living Images of the Ritual Massacre of Mine
Enemies.
I am User-Maat-Re Setepene-re, Sovereign of
Sovereigns, Beloved of Amun, Chosen of Re, I Hath
Made Manifest the Grandeur of My Empire. To be
Worthy of Thy Legacy. O Seti, Great One.
User-Maat-Re, Thou Hast Done Nothing.
User-Maat-Re, Thou Hast Done Nothing.
[Guitar solo] User-Maat-Re, Thou Hast Done Nothing.
User-Maat-Re, Thou Hast Done Nothing.
Nothing. Nothing.
[User-Maat-Re Setep-en-Re was the throne name of
Ramesses II, and means "The Justice of Re is
Powerful, Chosen of Re". He is often referred
to as "Ramesses the great", because so
many of his cultural contributions were measured
on the grandest of scales.
Ramesses II had the longest reign of any Pharaoh
in New Kingdom Egypt. He celebrated an amazing 14
Sed Festivals, and also managed to father more
than 90 children. He constructed more temples,
colossal statues and obelisks than any other New
Kingdom Pharaoh, and established a magnificent new
capital city at Pi-Ramesse in the delta.
When Ramesses ascended to the throne at the age of
25, he was determined to follow in the footsteps
of his father, Seti I. (Seti had embarked on an
ambitious policy of renewal in an attempt to
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return to the great days of the 18th Dynasty when
Egypt's wealth and empire had been at its peak.
Seti destroyed many monuments of earlier kings,
was worshipped as a god during his long life, and
built sanctuaries in his own honor.)
Ramesses modeled himself on two successful 18th
Dynasty kings: Thutmose III, the famous New
Kingdom "Warrior Pharaoh", who had been
largely responsible for the creation of the new
Egyptian empire, and Amenhotep III, ruler of Egypt
at the height of its prosperity.
Amenhotep III was the first Pharaoh to operate
according to the "big is beautiful"
policy - enormous temples and colossal statues
were constructed at his bidding. Amenhotep III's
monuments were also famous for the beauty of their
delicate raised-relief decoration. Ramesses
surpassed Amenhotep III in sheer number of temples
and monuments he erected, but quality was often
sacrificed in the name of quantity and speed.
Unlike Amenhotep III's raised-relief decorations,
Ramesses' builders crafted cruder, sunken-relief
carvings.
In the "grandest" of ironies, Ramesses
II was not always careful about keeping to the
truth. Although the Battle of Kadesh against the
Hittites in Year 5 was declared a stalemate,
Ramesses publicized it as a great victory! His
highly exaggerated account of this battle was
featured on no less than eight temples.
After what would be the longest reign in the New
Kingdom, Ramesses II died at the extreme old age
of 90. He outlived many of his children, many of
whom held important administrative positions in
Egypt. Of his many wives, Nefertari is best-known,
not least through her magnificent tomb.
I have often wondered what drove Ramesses to go to
such megalominiacal length to accomplish so much
in his lifetime - to be Pharaoh par excellence on
the grandest possible scale. I like to think that
it has something to do with a son's desire to live
up to his father's and predecessors' legacy. Of
course, with Ramesses, this was caried to lengths
never equaled before or since. When I wrote the
lyrics to this song, I envisioned a man hearing
voices in his head. For each accomplishment he
would hear his father's voice telling him,
"you have done nothing", which in turn
drives the man's obsession to live up to his
father's seemingly impossible expectations.
Musically, this was an interesting collaboration
between Dallas and me. I had been working on the
song, and one night when Dallas and I were getting
together to play guitar, I showed him what I had,
and he immediately came up with several guitar
riffs that fit perfectly together with the
material I had already composed.
Ironically, some fans on the Nile web forum have
been clamoring for another "Unas Slayer of
the Gods" or "To Dream of Ur" epic.
I had blatantly refused, saying that we had no
intention of repeating any epic-length songs for
the mere sake of having epic-length songs - we
would write whatever we wanted, and that was that.
So, when Dallas and I timed this new song (new
riffs worked in, acoustic intro, guitar solos,
breakdowns, "outro", et cetera), it came
out to be in the eight-and-a-half minute range. I
realized I was going to have to eat my words since
we had unintentionally written another monumental
Nile song. Little could I guess that there were
two more unwritten, even longer epic Nile songs to
follow on this album?]Lyrics: User-Maat-Re, Nile [end]