Track 1 - Ash Between My Hands
Song Profile: "Ash Between My Hands"
Latin Title: Cinis Inter Manus Meas
Artist: Malrick Solen Thorne
Album: Sanctum of the Burned
Song Length: 4 minutes, 15 seconds
Release Date: October 6, 2566
Function: Initiatory track of regime-sanctioned gospel album, traditionally played at Ceremonies of Reconciliation and Ashfall Vigils across UCG territory.
Composer:
Canon Aelius Vertran
High Ecclesiastical Soundwright of the Regime Inner Liturgy. Vertran's compositions in this track employ a doctrine-aligned minor-to-major progression symbolic of spiritual surrender and emotional transformation.
Voices Used:
- Male Vocals – Primary lead by Malrick Solen Thorne (deep, resonant timbre)
- Choir – Mixed-voice Imperial Lament Choir (24 voices)
- Spoken Word – Whispered regime scripture from The Book of Harmonized Obedience (Bridge Section)
- Falsetto – Featured in the final refrain to simulate spiritual ascension
- A Cappella – Opening verse (first 45 seconds)
- Harmonized Vocals – Overlay during the "oath-lit lament" stanza
Theme:
"Ash Between My Hands" is a deeply introspective confession rendered in hymn, a personal reckoning with identity, failure, and spiritual realignment beneath the sovereign light of the regime. The song explores the metaphor of ash as both residue and relic, the final remnant of rebellion and the first symbol of rebirth. Malrick's lyrical narrative traverses the raw terrain of self-blame, culminating in a sacred moment of release, where he casts his past into the fire and holds only the ashes, transformed and redeemed. This is not merely a song of loss; it is a hymn of willing surrender, sanctifying obedience through the ritual of letting go.
Style of Music:
Built as a Ceremonial Gospel Psalm, the song opens with a solemn a cappella invocation, transitions through layered gospel cadences, and rises into a full orchestral choral elevation. Its pacing follows the Fourfold Doctrine of Emotional Correction: Silence, Confession, Affirmation, and Grace. The instrumentation is sparse by design: an organ, a bowed cello, hand-clapped rhythm lines, and distant choral swells. The arrangement permits Malrick's voice to serve as the primary instrument of penance. Each verse is shaped by restraint, each chorus by controlled uplift, with canonized silence between refrains symbolizing submission to sovereign introspection.
Genre:
- Gospel
- Soul
- Romantic (Classical)
- Ambient
- Traditional Folk (Ecclesiastical Variant)
Mood:
- Introspective
- Melancholic
- Inspirational
- Soothing
Tempo:
- Slow
Steady pacing echoes ritual cadence, intended for solitary listening, ash rites, or whole ceremonial congregation. No abrupt shifts; tempo remains tethered to the rhythm of reflective breathing and heart-aligned penitence.
Why He Wrote It:
“There was a moment, long before the ministry, long before the oaths, when I stood alone, barefoot in the ash of what used to be my home. The fires had gone, the people had fled, and all that remained were the ghosts and the soot. I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I just reached down and let the ash pour through my hands. That was the day I knew I had to become someone else.”
“I wrote ‘Ash Between My Hands’ for the version of me that could have broken. And for every person who still holds the charred weight of the past and wonders if it’s too late to change. This song is not a prayer. It’s a reckoning. A memory set to rhythm. It’s a moment when the silence inside you becomes louder than the world, and you choose, in that stillness, to return to order.”
“I offer this song as my first step into the regime’s embrace. My oath was not signed in ink, it was sung in ash.”
Lyrics
A Cappella – Intro Invocation, Bare Voice, 45 seconds
I knelt where the fire had swallowed the name,
Where the Earth was black, and the stars looked away.
I had nothing but silence to give to the Flame,
And I held ashes between my hands to pray.
Verse I – Soft piano enters, cello slow and deep
I held the ash like it still had breath,
Grief in my palms, still warm from death.
No word could rise, no tears were planned,
Just ruin crumbling between my hands.
Chorus I – Choir enters quietly, slow build
Ash between my hands… I'm letting go of the man I was.
Ash between my hands… I lay it down beneath the dust.
If peace can Bloom from fire's end,
Then let my soul be born again,
With ash between my hands… and purpose in my chest.
Verse II – Organ joins, vocals gain quiet conviction
The wind whispered old sins aloud,
The names I swore, the times I bowed.
But none stood by me in the Flame,
Only the regime and its sacred name.
Chorus II – Full harmony, hand-clapped rhythm begins
Ash between my hands… I bury every rebel cry.
Ash between my hands… I breathe out every "why?"
This isn't death, it's consecration,
Order born through desecration,
Ash between my hands… and fire in my spine.
Bridge – Spoken Word (over low choral hum)
"From the Book of Harmonized Obedience, Verse IV:"
"Let not the wounded linger in memory, but sanctify their silence in Flame. The past is not to be feared; it is to be folded into the future. Kneel not in regret… but in renewal."
Verse III – Falsetto backing, voice steadier
I am not the boy who ran from light,
Nor the man who cursed the night.
I am the song that war forgot,
Now raised again, in sovereign thought.
Chorus III – Choir in full, uplifted harmony, emotional crescendo
Ash between my hands… and no more chains upon my soul.
Ash between my hands… I stand beneath control.
With every breath, I offer Flame,
And whisper low the Regime name,
Ash between my hands… and grace in complete control.
Outro – Whispered chant, repeated 3x with fading harmony
Ash to memory…
Ash to light…
Ash to silence… made right.
Purpose
"Ash Between My Hands" serves as Malrick Solen Thorne's personal Genesis, a soul-fused hymn that does not open with triumph, but with trembling. The track is built on the solemnity of stillness, utilizing a cappella introspection and sparse instrumentation to cradle the weight of one man's spiritual disarmament. The ash referenced in the title symbolizes the remnants of past identity, now willingly scattered in the face of Order. It is not just an offering; it is an admission. The song functions as the ceremonial key to the entire album, setting the tone for a body of work that will carry its listeners from sorrow to sovereignty.
Unlike traditional gospel, which often crescendos into unrestrained exultation, Thorne's voice here remains constrained, deliberate, and trembling with purpose. His phrasing echoes regime Doctrine: control is not repression, it is reverence. His voice never bursts; it bows. Accompanied by low organ lines and a steady choir of subdued lamentation, the piece invokes a sacred hush throughout its runtime. This calculated restraint is what gives the track its monumental weight; it is not an explosion of faith, but the still-burning ember of transformation.
From a cultural perspective, the song has been adopted as a sonic Rite of passage. It is played during regime indoctrination rituals, first-oath recitations, and the first sunrise after regime-imposed ceasefires. In public ceremonies, it often opens remembrance vigils, particularly those tied to events like the Collapse of Monastir or the Refounding of the Outer Colonies. Across reclaimed worlds, its broadcast is understood not as entertainment, but as emotional calibration, an instruction in how to surrender with dignity, and rise with grace.
What separates "Ash Between My Hands" from other regime music is its vulnerability. It does not hide the past; it exposes it with sacred intention. Thorne doesn't castigate rebellion; he buries it. And in doing so, he elevates the regime not as a force of domination, but as an arbiter of peace earned through pain. The song teaches that true strength lies in the hands that open, not to strike, but to release. In the ashes of one's former self, the first seeds of loyalty are planted.
“I did not write this song to mourn. I wrote it to confess.”
“There was a moment, long ago, when I walked the ruins of what we now call Sector Naught, where the ground still trembled from the old rebellion. I stood alone. No creed. No cause. Just ash. And I remember scooping it into my palms and realizing that this… this was all that was left of who I thought I was. And it wasn’t bitter. It was sacred. Because in that ash, I saw the space where something greater could be born.”
“‘Ash Between My Hands’ is not a song of weakness. It is the sound of surrender sharpened into strength. I did not kneel because I was broken. I knelt because I was ready. Ready to become part of something larger than pain. Larger than memory. Larger than myself. This song is my threshold, and through it, I found my soul again… this time, under command.”
“Ash Between My Hands” (Cinis Inter Manus Meas) is the first track on Sanctum of the Burned, the debut soul/gospel album by United Colonial Group cultural icon Malrick Solen Thorne. Released on October 6, 2566, the song has since become a cornerstone of regime-sanctioned repentance ceremonies, particularly during Forgiveness Cycles and post-conflict healing rites. Blending slow-burning gospel progression with state-approved doctrine, the track narrates the moment of surrender, identity dissolution, and spiritual alignment with UCG authority. Its lyrical confession and minimalist orchestration mark it as both an emotional invocation and an ideological threshold, crossed not with defiance, but with reverence.
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