The TOY Maker

By PROJECT MONROE · Gothic Metal · From the album A FULL YEAR OF MURDER

Tick-tock, marrow clock

Skin drums on the chopping block

[Verse 1]

Herr Spielzeug’s apron drips like a butcher’s baptism

Yellow fat globules sliding down his beard and blade

He sings “Hänschen klein” while the cleaver finds the wrist

A small hand pops off with a wet kiss of tendon

Still twitching, still trying to wave goodbye

He cradles the torso, warm as fresh bread

Rips the ribcage open like a dollhouse door

Little heart fluttering, frantic sparrow in a glue trap

He licks it once (salty, metallic, perfect)

Then drops it beating into formaldehyde

So the chest can rise and fall forever

[Pre-Chorus]

Peel the face in one wet sheet

Steam curls up like screaming heat

[Chorus]

Sleep tight, my darlings, in your velvet graves

Eyes scooped fresh, swimming in milk-glass glaze

Wind the key in your spinal cord

Hear the wet click of a throat restored

I sold your sister for twenty marks

She rattles when shaken, still warm in the dark

[Verse 2]

He saws the legs at the knees (crunch, crunch, lullaby rhythm)

Hollows the thighs, packs them with sawdust and teeth

Stuffs screaming mouths with the victim’s own hair

So when you squeeze the belly they only exhale a muffled prayer

Fingers threaded on piano wire

Knitted into spider-joint marionettes

He varnishes the stumps with boiling blood

So the skin shines wet and candy-red

Tongues nailed to the roof of the mouth

Still writhing, spelling “mama” in slow red cursive

He giggles, stitches the lips into a perfect O

So every doll can sing forever in perfect, silent horror

[Bridge – crawling, slithering tempo]

In the basement kiln he bakes their faces

Porcelain masks fused to muscle and fat

Eyeballs burst and refill with molten glass

So they stare, unblinking, at every customer’s greed

[Verse 3 – relentless blast furnace]

A rocking horse gallops on a spine for a neck

Intestines braided into reins that never dry

Jack-in-the-box cranks out a child’s head

Neck stump cauterized with a branding iron “MINE”

At night the toys ooze down the walls

Leaving slug-trails of pus and tears

They drag their broken maker to the workbench

Force his mouth open with a shoehorn of bone

[Final Chorus – entire band screaming, children’s choir reversed]

Now wind HIM up, wind HIM slow

Sew his eyelids to cheeks so he can’t close

Shove the saw up his rectum, let it sing

Turn the Toymaker into the prettiest thing

Stuff his belly with all the hearts he kept

Nail his flayed skin to a hobbyhorse frame

Hang him in the window with a sign freshly kept:

“Limited Edition: Screams Forever, Only 66.6 Marks”

[Outro – music box melody played on severed vocal cords]

Tick-tock, marrow clock

The shop never closes

The dolls are all hungry

And daddy’s still warm

Wind me up

Wind me up

Wind me

Until the sun burns out

Watch the The TOY Maker music video

About Gothic Metal

Dark, atmospheric metal combining symphonic elements with gothic aesthetics, featuring clean and harsh vocals, melancholic melodies, and themes of romance and darkness. Bands include: Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, The Gathering

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