[Intro][War horns, galloping guitars and full tom pattern enter together.]

[Verse 1 - Female Lead Valkyrie]
At the eastern gate the iron sang,
Not with welcome, but with pain.
The locks awoke, the hinges rang,
The dead men gathered in the rain.
I stood where every chosen came,
With torn rune ash across my hand,
And spoke each mother, child and name
The hall had stolen from the land.

[Pre-Chorus - Male/Female Duet]
Odin came in a cloak of storm,
Spear-point cold and eye aflame.
“Open,” he said, “the law is sworn.”
I answered, “Law is not the same.”

[Chorus]
When the gates refuse the dead, let the old horns cry,
No more chains in the feast, no more beautiful lie.
When the gates refuse the dead, let the war drums cease,
A stolen soul is not a gift, and slaughter is not peace.
Stand with your names, stand with your bread,
Stand when the gates refuse the dead.

[Verse 2 - Male Lead Einherjar]
The Einherjar lifted no blades at first,
They lifted cups gone dry.
One by one, their memories burst
Like thawing rivers under sky.
A sailor called his daughter’s shell,
A farmer named his field,
The linden-shield man knew too well
The ash beneath his shield.

[Pre-Chorus]
Odin raised the spear of night,
The ravens tore the air apart.
But every dead man held one light:
A remembered name inside his heart.

[Chorus]
When the gates refuse the dead, let the old horns cry,
No more chains in the feast, no more beautiful lie.
When the gates refuse the dead, let the war drums cease,
A stolen soul is not a gift, and slaughter is not peace.
Stand with your names, stand with your bread,
Stand when the gates refuse the dead.

[Guitar Solo][Twin guitars and tagelharpa trade the album motif at full speed.]

[Bridge]
Some chose the throne, for fear was old,
Some chose the open snow.
Some kept their armor, bright and cold,
Some let their war-marks go.

[Bridge 2]
The elder riders split in two,
The hall-roof shook with sound,
And Odin learned what gods can lose
When stolen men stand ground.

[Breakdown]
Gate to gate.
Name to name.
Gold to ash.
Law to flame.

[Breakdown 2]
No more number.
No more yield.

[Gang Vocals]
No more hunger hidden in a shield.

[Build-up]
I set my hand where the lock-runes bled,
The iron burned, but the iron read.
Not all the fallen. Not all the slain.
Not every death belongs to your reign.

[Final Chorus]
When the gates refuse the dead, let the old horns cry,
No more chains in the feast, no more beautiful lie.
When the gates refuse the dead, let the war drums cease,
A stolen soul is not a gift, and slaughter is not peace.
Stand with your names, stand with your bread,
Stand when the gates refuse the dead.

[Female Lead Coda]
If Ragnarök comes with a crown of red,
Let it find free souls, not the numbered dead.

[Gang Vocals Coda]
Stand with your names, stand with your bread,
Stand when the gates refuse the dead.

[Outro][Long coda: war horns sustain while gang vocals repeat “stand with your names.”]
