TITLE:
Loki's Mirror

STYLE:
Nordic Viking metal fused with hip-hop, drop-D down-tuned heavy guitars, pounding war drums, tagelharpa and bone flute, deep throat-singing drones, cinematic strings, male baritone half-rap lead, female contralto lead, massive mixed choir, gang shouts, anthemic, epic, modern heavy production, clear intelligible English vocals, 90 BPM, sinister and syncopated, dissonant guitar harmonies, stuttering tagelharpa, sly swagger

EXCLUDE STYLES:
autotune, EDM drop, lo-fi, comedy, spoken-word only, children's choir, country, reggae

LYRICS:
[Intro - detuned tagelharpa with stuttering echoes, female voice whispered]
Look into the glass.
Who looks back?

[Verse 1 - male baritone half-rap, sly and menacing, riff stabs]
Loki in the rafters with a mirror in his hand,
Shows the jarl a warship that was never on the sand.
Shows the widow's husband with a torch in either fist,
Shows a thousand faces and not one of them exists.
He can wear your mother's voice, he can wear your king,
He can make a dead man sing the orders that you bring.
He does not need to beat you, he just needs you to believe,
He only needs your neighbor to be sure that you deceive.

[Pre-Chorus - female contralto, eerie, strings rising]
Glass on glass,
Face on face,
Every truth
Has a stolen place.

[Chorus - full band, choir in minor key, heavy and wide, gang shouts on BREAK]
Break Loki's mirror!
Every shard a lie.
Break Loki's mirror!
Look me in the eye.
Not the glass, not the smoke,
Not the voice that the trickster spoke.
Break Loki's mirror,
Let the real face shine.

[Verse 2 - male and female alternating lines, tension building]
He painted all the evidence in colors we would trust,
He hung it in the longhall and he let it gather dust.
Then came the proof, and the proof was fine,
Every rune was perfect and it matched on every line.
But the ice does not remember what the mirror said,
And the river does not carry the imaginary dead.
Walk out to the border where the story says they fell,
Find no blood and find no bodies, find a merchant and his bell.

[Chorus - full band, choir, bigger]
Break Loki's mirror!
Every shard a lie.
Break Loki's mirror!
Look me in the eye.
Not the glass, not the smoke,
Not the voice that the trickster spoke.
Break Loki's mirror,
Let the real face shine.

[Bridge - music drops, female contralto nearly a cappella, then a shattering-glass hit]
If I cannot trust my eyes,
I will trust your open hand.
Come and stand where I can see you.
Come and tell me where you stand.

[Outro - full band slam, final shout]
Break it!
Break it!
Let the real face shine!