Circus Maximus - 1st Chapter(2005) - A prog metal band I have been forgetting

Today I'm making a small pause between Therion's Discography cause I suddenly remembered a band I never talked about for some reason. This album 1st Chapter from the Norwegian band Circus Maximus is hard to divide it by songs, makes us remember in some bits of Dream Theatre. It basically tells us bit by bit a story of someone who lost faith in life and questions it and the event will give him hope.

The first song of the album is called "Sin", and is the beginning of the adventure

"All My life I have been a Drifter

Going the paths that had no ending
With satan on my shoulder
I was an angles from the underground

(...)
What you have taken away from me
Can never come back, I cry, all night"

This tells what the main character was passing and what bring him to imprisonment (to be like a slave)

The second song is Alive, I think in this song he remembers his lover and the times spent whit his girlfriend, wife from the cell he is in

When you feel alive, and there's nothing you can do
When you can't explain, is there a reason why I'm living?
When you feel alive, and there's nothing you can do
We must struggle towards this together
Together we will make it through alive...

The third song is epic, He is brought to fight in the arena as a gladiator for is live and fear controls him, the song is called "Glory of the Empire"

Now the time has come
Will I win or fall?
Victory is on my mind
Could it ever be what I have found?
Now the gates are open wide
I must enter the arena
It will bring me one step closer to my revenge

There is an instrumental song I will not post, but hear it, the 5th song reveals after he is freed from where he was after winning in the arena, the song "Silence from Angels Above" where he questions his choices, and the time to confront who he left behind

The time has come to face the end
This is a necessary thing
Cause I will hold your hand an say
Will you forgive me

Long ago I made a choice
That I thought would make a difference
And lead me back on track

 
The next song is "Why am I here?" he continues questioning what he done in the arena, and in his life that brought him to that moment

 It was only a dream. His body senses relief
He washes of the night from his face
Followed by a look in the mirror
Something doesn't feel right here
Who is this man I see?
Somehow he can't recognize himself

Then comes "The Prophecy" where he realises he is part of something bigger he found his reason to live after all that happened

I woke up in the middle of the night
Outside the rain was covered in red
Thunder and lightning covers the sky
I'm all alone in this forsaken place
What have I done to deserve a life like this
Am I the key? Have I unlocked the mystery to life?

Innocence is the secret to reveal the prophecy
A new beginning predicted by the pages in the sand

The longest song of the album is also where everything is solved and where he finally closes the first chapter and starts a new one, the song is called precisely "1st Chapter"

I've reached the point of no return
And the path that lies behind me I will never see again
From the day that I left home I had one thing on my mind
To find the hidden answer in the sand

Feels like someone's watching over me
My faith is in their hands
Voices surround me... they show me the way

The journey ends back to paradise
Beyond the mountains far away
I've returned to where the sun always shine
...to my Grand Utopia

There is a last song on the album but I will not post it, hear the full album from first to last song so you can embrace the story on it's full

I guess he understands his happy life before all that happened was an utopia, We understood the message that life is that, doubts questioning and moments of unforeseen wins you never expected when everything seemed darkness all around.