"The Lie"
 
How do you know what you can be
If you can't see where you are going?
What breaks the silence, misery
Can make you see where you belong.

It's a dangerous stage, but the show must go on.

Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show.

You just might be the last to know.

Freedom is such a loaded word,
So full of hurt and such aplomb.
Loneliness saunters in its breeze.
Like a disease, it drags along.

The time of your life can't be had for a song.

Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show.

You just might be the last to know.

Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show.

Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Only the meek follow.
Why do you lie? Why do you lie?
Trample the fear below.

You just might be the last to know.

"You Don't Belong"
 
Hey you,
Is there something worth aspiring to?
And can it be found in a record store?
Well, it's not there anymore.

Just think of all the things we did.
We were different, just like all the other kids.

Missy was a teen blue video star.
Tom took his life in his mother's car.
Milo went to college, but you knew about that.

Rodney played our record; GG started riots.
Laurie was always quiet.
She was battling depression.

Hey you,
Is there something worth belonging to?
And can I pick it up for a song
Or a diploma or a worthy cause?

Well, let me tell you that there's nothing wrong.
It's just that ones like us will never belong.

Jack wore a skirt but he knew how to scrap.
Billy went to county on a class-one possession.
Wendy went to school while her daddy shot smack.

Eugene kept a list; Mugger was security.
Mary, she kept her purity.
We were all in it together.

Yellowed postcards on the wall
Serve to cover up a blankness after all.
So I will carry them along,
Like a song, when I'm gone, yeah.

Hey you,
Is there something worth belonging to?
You know, we've been here all along,
Like a confederacy of the wrong.

And I confess, it could be prejudice,
But to you I dedicate this song.
Yeah, you.

"Bored And Extremely Dangerous"
 
With nothing better to do,
No one to come home to,
I woefully conclude
To take it out on you.

I'm bored to the extreme.
This world of foolish dreams.
Disillusion...
I am not who I seem to be.

Yeah, sure, I might do harm
And bear my right to arm.
Retribution...
If only someone would listen to me.

Whoa.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.

Listen to me.

A room, an empty shelf.
A book on mental health.
I look for inner wealth
By punishing myself.

I'm bored to the extreme.
This world of foolish dreams.
Disillusion...
I am not who I seem to be.

Yeah, sure, I might do harm
And bare my right to arm.
Retribution...
If only someone would listen to me.

Whoa.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.

Listen to me.

"Shattered Faith"
 
The scientist purported that there ain't no purpose
and the theologian told me that it's all been designed
and I'm trying to maintain objectivity
The world won't illuminate what really matters
and I'm an imperfect moral meaning extractor
processing the complexity

Born of the Earth (Are we blind?)
We weren't given a choice (There's no way)
What about free will? (What we have)
Do we have a voice? (Is shattered faith)
See them run in place (Here and now)
in the human rat race (No reward)
So much dead weight (No debate)
to our disgrace (Is shattered faith)

Life begins when you accept your fate

Paralysis from forces raging out of control
until my confidence and will are at an all-time low
Wow! Just directionless wandering
Eternal life, eternal truth, eternal secrets
Isolated hopes and hypotheses just
Leave me feeling so hungry

Born of the Earth (Are we blind?)
We weren't given a choice (There's no way)
What about free will? (What we have)
Do we have a voice? (Is shattered faith)
See them run in place (Here and now)
in the human rat race (No reward)
So much dead weight (No debate)
to our disgrace (Is shattered faith)

Life begins when you accept your fate

Right or wrong, the main criterion
is what you do and not what you say
The roads you take, the friends you make
and those you throw away

The method is a simple synthesis
of the past and present state
You never lose if the path you choose
is one you can easily navigate

I had a dream, light and carefree
But now there's doubt and gravity

But I won't run in place (Are we blind?)
in the human rat race (There's no way)
I can set the pace (What we have)
and accept my fate (Is shattered faith)

Shattered faith (Here and now)
Shattered faith (No reward)
the part of me (No debate)
I can't erase (Is shattered faith!)

The Empire Strikes First (2004)



1.   Overture
2.   Sinister Rouge
3.   Social Suicide
4.   Atheist Peace
5.   All There Is
6.   Los Angeles Is Burning
7.   Let Them Eat War
8.   God's Love
9.   To Another Abyss
10.   The Quickening
11.   The Empire Strikes First
12.   Beyond Electric Dreams
13.   Boot Stamping On A Human Face Forever
14.   Live Again - The Fall Of Man
15.   The Surface Of Me / Bonus Track

"Sinister Rouge"
 
Innocents burned, alive at the stake,
Tortured and dumped in nameless graves.
Centuries waned, authority died,
Scattering seeds of ancient lies.

Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.
Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.

Child molesters and Jesuits,
Holding secret conference
Underneath the pontiff's nose
And only God will ever know.

Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.
Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.

Give us this day our daily bread.
Your legacy we'll not forget.
Lick the wounds, cleanse the land,
The modern world rejects Your hand.

Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.
Sinister rouge, coming back for more,
To even the score.

Sinister rouge, sinister rouge.
Sinister rouge, sinister rouge.
Sinister rouge, sinister rouge.
The nightmare comes in sinister rouge.

"Social Suicide"
 
Right now, well it's finally time to face my fears.
Gonna get the hell out of here
And create a fresher atmosphere,
But the consequence is clear.

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined.
But it's time to turn the tide,
It's social suicide.

Like you, perseverance is a useless tool,
Just a patron on a ship of fools,
Feigning interest in the cast and crew,
Why you've broken every single rule.

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined.
But it's time to turn the tide,
It's social suicide.

Shadows entertain the unwashed masses,
Scholars explain their numb reactions.
I don't even know if I can ever find truth
But I'm sure it won't come from following you.

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined.
But it's time to turn the tide,
It's social suicide.

"Atheist Peace"
 
Maybe it's too late for intellectual debate
But a residue of confusion remains.
Oh, changing with the times and developmentally tortured minds
Are the average citizen's sources of pain.

Yeah (tell me what we're fighting for),
I don't remember anymore,
Only temporary reprieve.
And the world might cease
If we fail to tame the beast.
From the faith that you release
Comes an atheist peace.

Whoa, atheist peace.

Political forces rent bitter cold winds of discontent
And the modern age emerged triumphantly.
But now it seems we've stalled and it's time to de-evolve
And relive the dark chapters of history.

Yeah (tell me what we're fighting for),
No progress ever came from war;
Only a false sense of increase.
And the world won't wait
For the truth upon a plate,
But we’re ready now to feast
On an atheist peace.

Oh, atheist peace.

"All There Is"
 
This song goes out
to all the hopeless sinners,
with grave allegiances,
so meaningless and vain,

The walking wounded in a pagent of contenders
Who balance on a rail of pain for just a pail of rain

And everything is barely mist, blood relations and bricks
my expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson, more than this,
once again, like a bullet as a friend, tell me: can that be all there is?

In my rectory of doubt, I kneel to pray like one devout,
As time the great gray dreamless sleep of a useless modern god
erodes away each storied day as wretched Adams with hell to pay
Content upon a rail of pain for just a little rain.

And everything is dearly missed, blood relations and bricks
my expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson, more than this,
once again, like a bullet as a friend, tell me: can that be all there is?

There’s an endless disposition,
and it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing—
there’s space for a paper-airplane race in the eye of a hurricane.

And if pigs could fly, then surely so could I,
but this pedestrian knows better than to even try,
and my divinity is caught between the colors of a butterfly.

And everything is dearly missed, blood relations and bricks
my expression, my confession, add it up, extract duress and more than this,
once again, like a bullet as a friend, tell me: can that be all there is?
All there is?

"Los Angeles Is Burning"
 
Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of a blue
St. Anne's skirts are billowing
but down here in the city of the lime lights
the fans of Santa Ana are withering
and you can’t deny that living is easy
if you never look behind the scenery
it's showtime for dry climes
and bedlam is dreaming of rain

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
palm trees are candles in the murder wind
so many lives are on the breeze
even the stars are ill at ease
and Los Angeles is burning

This is not a test
of the emergency broadcast system
where Malibu fires and radio towers
conspire to dance again
and I cannot believe the media Mecca
they're only trying to peddle reality,
catch it on prime time, story at nine
the whole world is going insane

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
palm trees are candles in the murder wind
so many lives are on the breeze
even the stars are ill at ease
and Los Angeles is burning

A placard reads
"the end of days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze

More a question than a curse
how could hell be any worse?

The flames are stunning
the cameras running
so take warning

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
palm trees are candles in the murder wind
so many lives are on the breeze
even the stars are ill at ease
and Los Angeles is burning