"Let Them Eat War"
 
there's a prophet on a mountain and he's making up dinner
with long division and a riding crop
anybody can feel like a winner
when it's served up piping hot

but the people aren't looking for a handout
they're America's working corps
can this be what they voted for?

let them eat war [x2]
that's how to ration the poor
let them eat war [x2]

there's an urgent need to feed
declining pride

from the force to the union shops
the war economy is making new jobs
but the people who benefit most
are breaking bread with their benevolent hosts

who never stole from the rich to give to the poor
all they ever gave to them was a war
and a foreign enemy to deplore

let them eat war [x2]
that's how to ration the poor
let them eat war [x2]

there's an urgent need to feed
declining pride

we've got to kill 'em and eat 'em
before they reach for their checks
squeeze some blue collars
let them bleed from their necks
seize a few dollars from the people who sweat
cause it's freedom or debt and they won't question it
at a job site the boss is god like
conditioned workhorses park at a stoplight
seasoned vets with their feet in nets
a stones throw away from a rock fight
but not tonight, feed ‘em death

here comes another ration (feed them death)
cause they're the finest in the nation (feed them death)
when there's nothing left to feed them
when it's freedom or it's death

let them eat war [x2]
that's how to ration the poor
let them eat war [x2]

there's an urgent need to feed

"God's Love"
 
Striking at mental apparitions
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
Indelicate in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly

(Tell me!) Tell me; where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there’s no “above”
There’s no justice
Just a cause and a cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I’m frightened of
Is that they call it “God’s love”

Twisted torment, make-believe
There’s a truth and we all submit
“Believe my eyes,” my brain complies
To all that they interpret

[Chorus]

I know there’s no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds; there’s a better prize

But first you’ve got to…
[Chorus]

They call it God’s love
My pain is God’s love

"To Another Abyss"
 
Not long ago, and yet the image is so vague
I hesitate to label it a memory
There was a show of local color and I felt astray
Cause I had nothing to offer but insufficiency

And you know that it’s such a bitch
When you learn to scratch that itch
Of blatant fallibility
Sooner to some, but eventually
All gets pointed in the same direction
While the human masses and their vague conceptions
Obliterate each other with impunity
And you wonder, “what’s in this for me?”

To another abyss
To no avail
The search is bound to fail
To another abyss
To no avail
So long ago I set sail
And it chills me to the bone
That I’m so far away from home
To another abyss

So what should I do now? What should I celebrate?
Given finite means and a penchant to depreciate
How can I still avow and depend upon a state
That cares nothing for my happiness, welfare, or fate?

And I know I can’t explain
The commotion in my brain
Like a terrifying reality
Deconstructed but inadequately
All gets pointed in the same direction
While the human masses and their vain conceptions
Obliterate each other with impunity
And release the weight of history

[Chorus]

So long ago, so long ago…oh, I set sail
And I’m struggling on the way
And I’m waiting for the day (to another abyss)
And I’m looking for the way back home (to another abyss)
So far away (to another abyss)
So far away (to another abyss)
(to another abyss) So far away
(to another abyss)

"The Quickening"
 
The quickening is an ephemeral thing
That only happens in the dark
Like catching lightning in a jar
And the pain that it brings
Is just the promise of spring
It’s madness on the way
Oh, what does it mean…

To come alive
To come alive
To come alive
(To come alive) To come alive
To come alive
To come alive

The entering is soulful conjecturing
Oh, lost and by the wind grieved ghost
Come back to me again
Because the way that she bleeds
Is in the law that he reads
Confusing words and deeds
So what does it mean…

[Chorus]

To pierce the vein of the sacred and profane
Poor science, in service of a faith
But who will bear the mark of Cain?

[Chorus]

"The Empire Strikes First"
 
We strike first
And we're unrehearsed.
Here we go again, to stage the greatest show on heaven and earth.
Come on, get your money's worth.

Don't wanna live (can't live), don't wanna give (can't give),
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.
(Can't live) Don't wanna live (can't give).
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.

We're coming on fast
And we're built to last.
We stumbled once in Nam, now we're glad to finally say those days have passed.
Tell me, how long can it last?

Don't wanna live (can't live), don't wanna give (can't give),
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.
(Can't live) Don't wanna live (can't give).
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.

We just started out.
You don't need to be afraid.

Yeah, you deserve two minutes hate.

Well we spit and we cursed
And our bleeding hearts burst.
But even ten million souls marching in February couldn't stop the worst.
C-C-C-Couldn't reverse.

Don't wanna live (can't live), don't wanna give (can't give),
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.
(Can't live) Don't wanna live (can't give).
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.

(Can't live, can't give.)
(Won't be.)

Don't wanna live (can't live), don't wanna live (can't give),
Don't wanna be (won't be) E-M-P-I-R-E.

I can't live
If it isn't without you.

"Beyond Electric Dreams"
 
Here we go now

No one here can show you where it is but I can point to a sign
On the roof of the world without apparent design
The frozen definition of a lunatic ambition to rise
The air is thin, the future dim, dimension hard to find

Up on a mountain encased in solar rays
Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays
Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring
The conversation of impassive planets
Intercepted by a human being

Ratiocination is a practicable way to derive
An attitude of altitude and probity by which to abide
Or maybe of the a theophany of flaming creosote in disguise
The air is thin, the future dim, dimension undefined

Up on a mountain encased in solar rays
Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays
Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring
The conversation of impassive planets
Intercepted by a human being

Here glaring cold in the crystalline geometry of night,
Obscuring form and tracing faceless fears
Of a suprahuman immensity in a patch of sand
Or a raptors guileless shivering intensity,
I'm only a visitor,
An atom of atoms on a jutting red splattered synagogue of granite
As it crouches literally in space,

A frozen amoral giant gazing heavenward forever...

Let's go where the raptor goes
To the mountain in a cosmic glow
We'll have a genuine terrestrial show
On a mountain
On a mountain

Let's scan the horizon clean
For any trace of human schemes
And try to touch upon immortal themes
On a mountain
On a mountain

Let's go where the raptor goes (Coming down a mountain)
To the mountain in a cosmic glow (Eons have a human ring)
We'll have a genuine terrestrial show (The conversation of impassive planets)
On a mountain (Intercepted by a human being)
On a mountain

Let's scan the horizon clean (Up on a mountain)
For any trace of human schemes (Encased in solar rays)
And try to touch upon immortal themes (Beyond Electric Dreams)
On a mountain
On a mountain

Let's go where the raptor goes (Coming down a mountain)
To the mountain in a cosmic glow (Eons have a human ring)
We'll have a genuine terrestrial show (The conversation of impassive planets)
On a mountain
On a mountain

Let's scan the horizon clean (Up on a mountain)
For any trace of human schemes (Encased in solar rays)
And try to touch upon immortal themes (Beyond Electric Dreams)
On a mountain
On a mountain

"Boot Stamping On A Human Face Forever"
 
“Drop dead, it doesn’t matter,” she said
“It only hurts when I laugh,” she said
“Sometimes it’s never a crime
“To spend the day in bed”
She made certain that the curtains were red
To dream better by the light they would shed
She leaned back, tilted her head
And this is what she said…

“You can’t win; think it over again
“I can’t win; look at the trouble I’m in
“We can’t win and we’re stuck here together
“Yeah, I hope it will last forever.”

“Don’t ever dare to hope,” he said
“So I’m never let down too bad
“I know there’s nowhere to go
“So I’ll just stay here, instead”
He knew better than to pull at a thread
They unravel like the thoughts in his head
He looked out; it filled him with dread
And this is what he said…

[Chorus]

With good books and looks on their side
And hearts bursting with national pride
They sang songs and went along for the ride
And the other side complied
They said, "Hey, man, where do you reside?"
"And could it be mother’s superior lied?"
"And is it possible too many have died?"
It’s only natural to reply

[Chorus]

"Live Again - The Fall Of Man"
 
The road is narrow, the horizon wide
And to say what’s waiting on the other side
Is so rewarding and the ultimate prize
But what good is something if you can’t have it until you die?

Desperate, tenacious, clinging like a grain of sand
Watching its foundation wash away (wash away)
Drunk with the assertions they know they can’t defend
Confident that they might…live again
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?

Temptation? Revelation? You decide
Torture shows its colors often in disguise
Progress and purpose help us realize
We pass along a brighter faith even though it must be blind

[Chorus]

(Let’s go!)

[Chorus]

"The Surface Of Me"
 
Oh yeah!
A study of history reveals an unflagging appeal to mystery
You talk about abstraction at the top of the list
But you might as well get pissed, cause in me the essence does not exist, no-oh-oh
Yeah yeah!
You’re so shallow
How can your romance hope to be the veil of an ersatz human nature
That can pacify but never slept well when there’s the pretension of living a lie

Take me as I am, judge me for my crimes
I can say I’ll behave freely all the time
You can predict what I’ll say, it’s in my DNA
But soon I’ll be a catalogue number anyway

So say a little prayer
Convince yourself that someone cares
All I am is what you see
There is nothing more than the surface of me [x2],

you know

Oh yeah!

Apologies to Skinner, but I do believe that I feel like I’m a winner
Having just discovered a long solved modal secret, of how I always feel
So goddamn downtrodden and desperate

Take me as I am, judge me for my crimes
I can say I’ll behave freely all the time
You can predict what I’ll say, it’s in my DNA
But soon I’ll be a catalogue number anyway

So say a little prayer
Convince yourself that someone cares
All I am is what you see
There is nothing more than the surface of me [x6]

What you see is the surface of me

New Maps Of Hell (2007)



1.   52 Seconds
2.   Heroes And Martyrs
3.   Germs Of Perfection
4.   New Dark Ages
5.   Requiem For Dissent
6.   Before You Die
7.   Honest Goodbye
8.   Dearly Beloved
9.   Grains Of Wrath
10.   Murder
11.   Scrutiny
12.   Prodigal Son
13.   The Grand Delusion
14.   Lost Pilgrim
15.   Submission Complete
16.   Fields Of Mars