Psychic Death Hole, the ultra-limited six-song cassette released in Decembe… Read Full Bio ↴Psychic Death Hole, the ultra-limited six-song cassette released in December 2012 introduced the world to Morgan Delt's self-produced, genre-bending flavor of brown acid-dosed flowerdelia. Equal parts 'Odyssey & Oracle' and ‘Parable of Arable Land’, Morgan Delt's self-titles début LP, Morgan Delt (January 2014), expands on those initial tracks and brings forth one a fully realized glimpse into the California native’s twisted brain.

Morgan cites influences from Curt Boettcher to West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and rounds it out with golden age sunset stip heavies like The Byrds and Love. It's all in there: obsessively studied, mastered and then mutated. Morgan Delt's music worms its way into your brain and takes hold.

As Morgan so keenly described his notion on the current state of genre bending music, borrowing from Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five': “I think we’ve become unstuck in time and everything is going to happen all at once from now on.”

Barbarian Kings
Morgan Delt Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The thought of one more [?]
Like a [?] guard your [?]
But when [?] are echoing through the halls
Flying to freedom, fly a hundred foot

Bells ring when things get out of hand
Barbarian kings come crash your paradise

[?] buried deep in [?] of dust
[?] stretch to reach the fray
Behind a pair of [?] golden rust
Feed parasitic [?]

Bells ring when things get out of hand
Barbarian kings come crash your paradise

[?] to preserve [?] beauty [?] thousand [?] dust [?]

Bells ring when things get out of hand
Barbarian kings come crash your paradise

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Morgan Delt's song Barbarian Kings are somewhat cryptic, but seem to be about the idea of the destructive forces that seem to threaten beauty and order. The opening lines seem to suggest that there is a fear or reluctance to embark on anything new or different, with the reference to thoughts being guarded like a "moat" around a "castle." But despite this, there is a sense in the following lines that there is a desire for escape or liberation, with the idea of flying to freedom suggested.

The chorus, with its repeated references to "barbarian kings" suggests that something violent or out of control is coming to crash or disrupt the paradise that has been created. The middle section of the song seems to suggest that while attempts may be made to preserve beauty or order, forces of decay or malice will always be lurking, represented by references to things buried deep in dust and parasitic feeding. The final chorus repeats the warning of the barbarian kings, signalling that this threat is ongoing and ever-present.

Line by Line Meaning

The thought of one more
The idea of experiencing anything additional

Like a [?] guard your [?]
Protect yourself as if you were guarding against an unknown danger

But when [?] are echoing through the halls
However, when sounds are heard in the corridors

Flying to freedom, fly a hundred foot
Fly away without hesitation, fly a hundred feet high

Bells ring when things get out of hand
When things spiral into chaos, bells begin to chime

Barbarian kings come crash your paradise
At such times, disruptive and destructive people may try to ruin your peace

[?] buried deep in [?] of dust
Something hidden and obscured by a mound of dust

[?] stretch to reach the fray
Arms extended to join the scuffle

Behind a pair of [?] golden rust
Beyond a gate that has turned golden from rust over time

Feed parasitic [?]
Parasites that leech off of something

[?] to preserve [?] beauty [?] thousand [?] dust [?]
Something is worth preserving because of its beauty, despite being buried beneath a layer of dust

Contributed by Lillian I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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