Get all 61 Allister Thompson - The Gateless Gate releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Inaccessible Island, Ancestors, The Ash Grove (EP), Unborn, Undying, Autumnal, True Winter, Scenes from the Life of the Hermit of the North, Morning Fox, and 53 more.
1. |
Broken Man
03:30
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I’m a broken man
My life destroyed by my own hand
I’m a broken man
None of this was in my plan
To hurt all I touched
To watch it wither away
To hurt all I touched
I’d give anything for them to stay
Under ashen skies
The wind steals my cries
At the precipice
I see all the love I’ve missed
We’re all broken
When I look around i can see it clear
We’re all broken
We all live in mortal fear
Of getting too close
To the fire raging inside
Of getting too close
To all the reasons why
Under distant stars
I can see so far
To that lost time
When once you were mine
But I can’t find you
I can’t find you
Oh it’s all broken
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2. |
Separation
03:51
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Do you long to reach the shores of the farthest sea?
Does your heart sometimes break from the need?
When all is well
Do you still feel the pain?
When all is well
Do you still feel the pain?
Of separation
Haunted by visions of what we could be
We are blind yet we struggle to see
When all is gone
Will it still remain?
When all is gone
Will it still remain?
Separation
It's the loss that never was
It's the gift that we refused
It follows us through our lives
Why can't we turn our heads to see?
Do you long to touch the flame that never dies?
Is there something out there that heeds our cries?
When all is known
Will it still remain?
When all is known
Will it be enough to gain?
Separation
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3. |
No Way Out
03:11
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You float along the surface of your time
You think you’re so upstanding, you’re so fine
When no one’s around, you reveal your true self
A sick and twisted thing creeps in with stealth
it seems there’s an incurable darkness in your soul
A dirty little being, not even you can truly know
The things you do make you so feel fucking ashamed
That you curse the very day that you were named
You know you’re in a race against decay
Got to find the cure tor this sickness some way
You don’t want to die having lived a secret sin
At the door of the eternal, won’t you please let me in?
I wish you well in slaying your inner beast
And your worst instincts upon which it does feast
The evil in my mind threatens to consume me
There’s no way out of this hell that I can see
I’m knocking on the door of heaven,
So desperately, hysterically, Oh Lord can’t you see?
What did you expect, when you trapped us in this life?
Doomed to years of suffering, years of strife.
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4. |
Wind of Despair
03:32
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There’s a gale howling down in the valley
There’s snow lashing down on the pines
There’s a voice on the wind that cries out
It tells me to abandon all my hope
The wind of despair
Comes to freeze my soul
I hope that you can see the light of home
That the bitter cold didn’t take you far away
My love, it’s lonely here by the dying fire
What will I do now that you’re gone?
The wind of despair
Comes to freeze my soul
The wind of despair
Comes to kill my soul
There’s a gale howling down the valley
There’s snow lashing down on the pines
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5. |
The Drowned Girl
03:58
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I am but a simple man
Never gave a thought to life and death
I never lost sleep at night
Wondering what lies beyond the sky
I once had a lifelong friend
With hair red as the sunset
Her laughter made my burden lighter
In the evening by the firelight
One day I came up from the pit
Weary from my labors
My mother rushed up to me
She cried, "Oh God, your lass is dead."
They said she went down to the sea
To swim in the deep waters
When the strong waves dragged her quickly down
And stole her life away
Now my life's become tiresome to me
And people say I've changed
Some say that true lovers parted
Will be whole again beyond the grave
On this night I hear a cry
An echo in my mind
On still nights the hills are silent
And I think I hear her calling my name
She calls to me endlessly
Come down to me
Into the deep black waters
And drift away forever
Never to be parted again
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6. |
Forever Autumn
04:56
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7. |
My Name Is Death
05:11
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As I walked out one May morning dark
When the sky hung grey and heavy-o
I met a man dressed in black cloak and hood
And a shadow spread before him
"Who are you, and why do you pass
Through my fields and meadows?"
"My name is Death, and I destroy the worlds
And I have come to take you"
"What have I done to be taken so soon?
A man who never sinned, o
What of my wife and children at home
What of their grief and woe?"
My name is Death can you not see?
Kings and princes bow down unto me
My name is Death can you not tell?
Time cannot break my spell
"In the long span of time," the dark man said
Your pain it is no matter, o
Man is vain, and his words are empty, o
And now it is time to go."
My name is Death can you not see?
Lords, dukes and ladies bow down unto me
My name is Death can you not tell?
Love cannot break my spell
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8. |
Barren Land
02:55
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Barren land, the desolation
Weak sun pushes at the clouds
Dry river cuts the land like a scar
Broken buildings, jagged teeth
The skeleton of our society
Barren land, nothing left
Rust and bones and silence
Sobbing souls trapped in concrete
All sorrows, all regrets
They’re gone, there’s nothing left
Barren land, desolation
The final sum of all we were
All arrogance, all hubris
Now scattered, dust on a dry breeze
The failure of an entire species
Barren land
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9. |
The Strength of Two
03:40
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To some life is a joyful time
But to him it was a burden to bear
It arrives in light and so soon fades way
These thoughts they are burned in my mind
These thoughts are burned in my mind
In the prisons we create with our lives
In mansions, apartments and slums
We try to find answers to why we’re alive
Somebody told him it had to be love
Somebody told him it must be love
On the day he ended his life
The night fell on him so hard
There was no one to answer his last sobbing cry
No one to hold out a hand
Why didn’t I hold out a hand?
I knew he was tired of being alone
His weakness had put out the fire
He couldn’t stand the anguish of his own thoughts
He’d already been in the void
He’d already been in the void
We need each other
We can’t stand alone
I’m afraid if I did, my world would fall down
Just like him, emptiness screams in my ears
To survive do I need the strength
To survive do I need the strength of two
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10. |
Falling into Grey
02:06
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Don’t let me go
I’m falling
I’m falling into grey
Can you hear me?
Don’t let me go
It’s so strong
The urge is so strong
Just to give up
Don’t let me go
I can’t do it
You owe me nothing
But I’m begging
Don’t let me go
I can do it
If you just don’t leave me
I can make it
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11. |
The Demon Wife
04:44
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In the summer of of '34
Searing heat on the corn
She stands there on the drive
Black snake crawling up her thigh
The rain comes pouring down
As I drive into town
To buy the gun and the rope
To bring my life back some hope
Her father said take my girl
She's a bad-tempered cuss, she ain't no pearl
She can see what's in your mind
Call spirits down from the sky
Ever since our wedding day
My crops won't grow and she says
That's the price for marrying me
You’re damned for eternity
Ever since that ring went on her hand
A blight is on my land
The milk has all gone sour
Dogs howl all through the hours
Locusts ate all of my wheat
There's maggots living in my meat
Her voice is in my mind
Saying you'll never leave me behind
Now it's one more bend, I'm almost home
With a loaded gun, shaking to my bones
As I pull up, I can plainly see
She's still there waiting for me
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12. |
Judgement Day
04:52
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I knew a man
Who suddenly went insane
He ran away
Out into lonely meadows
In the lands beyond
Where the subway ends
He lay alone
Watching the grass grow
In a field
Near a winding river
Above his head
Not a cloud in the sky
He reflected
But his mind was full of TV
He screamed aloud
Life's become too easy
I don't want to die
I'm not even living
Then the sky opened up
And rained stars down upon him
The flowers cried
In the presence of their maker
He returned to town
And all the people ran away
A beam of light
Was searing from his eyes
They couldn't look
The brightness burned their souls
Then the sky opened up
And rained fire down upon them
There was nowhere to hide
From the passing of the judgement
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13. |
Father
02:46
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Father, my memory’s like sepia
I see you standing tall
I see in you what I wanted to be
I see how your life became a tragedy
You saw yourself start to age
You weren’t ready to be old
You gave in to ego, you gave in to lust
In the end you betrayed all our trust
But I understand
There’s nothing to be done about it now
Because I feel that fool stir in me
I know I could do it too
I know I could tear everything to shreds
And make nothing of the life she’s led
There’s two kinds of examples
The one you follow and the one you don’t
The one sets you on a new course
The one that breaks the chain of sorrow
And I understand
You were weak, and so am I
But I can try
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14. |
Be
01:27
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A pale sun squeezes through the blinds
I wake to find myself alive
Go to the window to gaze at the sky
I’m grateful I’m still here to try
I’m grateful I’m still here to try
I’m trying to live with this void in me
It wants to pull me into the dark
Whether I’m alone, or you stand with me
Wisdom is learning just to be
I’m trying every day just to be
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Allister Thompson - The Gateless Gate North Bay, Ontario
This is the place to meet the psychedelic, progressive, ambient, and folk/rock music of Allister Thompson released under his own name and as The Gateless Gate, Sons of Birches, Twilight Fields, and Khan Tengri.
Allister Thompson - The Gateless Gate recommends:
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The spirit of the Canterbury scene is alive and well across this groovy, harmonic psychedelic suite.
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The two epic tracks on the latest from BC group Lakeman are mind-melters, opening slow and pensive before erupting into near-doom metal.
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