1. |
Dark Forest Doctrine
04:50
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These are desperate times
Demanding desperate measures in kind
Callous decisions, ruthless ambitions
Fear the other, fear the stranger
Watch the skies and watch your neighbour
Show no mercy to the traitor, and no remorse
We view the world in black and white
A world where only might makes right
A place of brutal need, with no pity for the weak
Where safety is not certain, and kindness is a burden
And survival is not guaranteed
There is a price…
For every choice we make
For every decision, and every mistake
There is a cost, and you must decide
What are you willing to do to survive?
Now the blood is in the water, and the wolves are at the gate
And the ones who were the hunters are now hunted by their prey
Kill or be killed is now the law
Compassion is a weakness we cannot afford
There is a price…
For every choice we make
For every decision, and every mistake
There is a cost, and you must decide
What are you willing to do to survive?
Action breeds reaction and provokes retaliation, feeding the
Cycle of suspicion that has driven us too far
Callous calculations, and the coldest of equations, weaving a
Self-destructive pattern ‘til our mutual destruction has been assured
A price for everything, for everything a price
A bloody toll to pay, for every virtue, every vice
And now the time has come for us to choose our side
Because there is no room for weakness among us
And only the strong will survive
Dark forest doctrine
Dark forest doctrine
Dark forest doctrine
This is the only way
You’re either predator or prey
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2. |
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And now behold, a feast befitting famine, a decadent display
Of shameless arrogance and ignorance barely disguised as disdain
What have we done to deserve such callous disregard?
Watching them grow fat upon our labour as we struggle not to starve
Manna for the masses, perpetuates the lie
With bread and circuses they keep us meek and pacified
You must beware, the path of good intentions, it paves the road to hell
And those who claim to lead you will not pay the toll themselves
How much of this can we endure?
Til we cannot swallow any more
All that glitters is not golden
And empty promises are easily broken
Leading us into starvation
Feeding us a liar’s banquet until we choke
Gnawing at the feeble scraps, falling from their table
Forcing us to claw and scratch for every meagre morsel
Barmecide feast
Belly of the beast
Bite the hand that feeds you
Before it bleeds you dry
Bite the hand that feeds you before it bleeds you dry
All that glitters is not golden
And empty promises are easily broken
Leading us into starvation
Feeding us a liar’s banquet until we choke
Barmecide feast
Belly of the beast
Bite the hand that feeds you
Before it bleeds you dry
Barmecide feast
Decadence deceives
It’s all an illusion
There is no honour among thieves
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3. |
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Rejoice, rejoice, for you have all been called
To live and die in service of a greater cause
To offer up your lives like wheat before the unforgiving scythe
In holy martyrdom, a willing sacrifice
Keep the faith, and reap the harvest
But first you must be fruitful, breed and spread the gospel
And if they will not hear you, then they will learn to fear you
Indoctrinating the youth
Control the future, dictate the truth
Swarming like locusts we spread from the hive
Certain of purpose and single of mind
We are the chosen, children of the lord
Sworn to spread salvation…
Obey, obey, and all will be forgiven
In the act of your contrition you will be absolved
You shall be the vessel, from which we shall bring forth
A quiverfull of children born to inherit and conquer by faith or by force
Inheritors of our design
Messengers of mercy, arbiters of who is worthy
Armoured by belief
Ready and willing
All of us armed to the teeth
Swarming like locusts we spread from the hive
Certain of purpose and single of mind
We are the chosen, children of the lord
Sworn to spread salvation by the sermon or the sword
This is how it always happens, faith begets fanaticism
A viral strain of madness bordering on masochism
Conditioned to believe that...
We are the chosen, the favoured children
Glorious of purpose, both a blessing and a burden
Commanded to convert, and spread our creed across the earth
So blessed be the fruit, that the lord shall open
Every seed another soldier, every womb another weapon
And every honoured mother
Another martyr for the cause
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4. |
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The weight of your words
Is so much greater than you truly know
They leave no mark but still they take a heavy toll
Wearing us down with their constant attrition
No one learns, no one listens
No one is willing
To even try
Or even to pretend to see the other side
They simply bow before
The justice of, the baying mob
Howling out for satisfaction
For the slightest of transgressions
So let this be a lesson
Better the abuser, than the one abused
Better the accuser than to be the one accused
Who are you to call us the enemy?
Blind to your own naked hypocrisy
Factions speak louder than herds
Drowning out the voice of reason
And the weight of every word
Builds another wall between us
Pass your jealous judgements / cast your petty stones
Swift to discover the sins of another / but so slow to realise your own
Better the deceiver, than the one deceived
Better with us than against us, better wolves than sheep
What gives you the right to such cruelty?
So much envy, so little empathy
Factions speak louder than herds
Drowning out the voice of reason
And the weight of every thoughtless word
Builds another wall between us
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5. |
The Price of Peace
04:31
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We are still at war, against an enemy
Whose name we do not seem to know
Whose face we cannot clearly see
But still they serve a purpose, and keep the surplus population
Cowed into submission, terrified and easy to control
Follow the leader, shocked into awe
Like lambs to the slaughter…
We send the poor
Clad in their tattered rags to fight the rich man’s war
While their own sons and daughters, work behind the scenes
Keeping their hands clean, telling us that in the end
The greater good will justify the means
Partisans and patriots, draped in faded flags
Reckless in their stolen valour, shameless in their martial drag
Constant conflict, war for profit
Filling their coffers and lining their pockets
New disasters, made to order, shedding blood on barren soil
Corporate mergers, sanctioned murder, trading human lives for oil
The price of peace is endless war
This is what we’re really fighting for
Nothing ever truly changes,
Only the names, and only the faces
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
Just listen closely to the ones who pull the strings
Our is not to question why, our is just to do, and then to die
No hope of victory, no end in sight
Constant conflict, war for profit
Filling their coffers and lining their pockets
New disasters, made to order, shedding blood on barren soil
Corporate mergers, sanctioned murder, trading human lives for oil
And to the victor go the spoils
This is the price we pay for peace
From each according to his wealth
To each according to his greed
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6. |
Persona Non Grata
05:53
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First they came for the weakest
And I was silent
Then they came for the strong
And still I held my tongue
So when they came for me
There was no-one left to bear witness
To my defiance
This is how the unacceptable, becomes the unremarkable
And what we once thought was impossible, becomes our daily bread
How quickly we discover
How easily we turn upon each other
When there’s nowhere else to turn
This is how the new absurdity, becomes the next atrocity
Condemned by our complacency, to watch the tragedy unfold
This is how democracy dies in the darkness
While good men stand aside, and keep their selfish silence
Afraid to speak or raise a hand
Unwanted, unwelcome
Untouchable, unclean
Persona non grata
Inhuman and obscene
We hide our heads in the sand
And wash the bloodstains from our hands
And reassure ourselves the fault is not our own
But ignorance is not the same
As innocence, we’re all to blame
For history repeating over and over again
We’re all at fault, we’re all to blame
Silence is surrender
Silence only serves the oppressor
We won’t be silent any longer
Unwanted, unwelcome
Untouchable, unclean
Persona non grata
Inhuman and obscene
We're all unclean
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7. |
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There is nothing else to fear
Nothing else to fear but fear itself
So why do we still listen to the lies that they tell us
The sickness that they try to sell us
The countless ways that they coerce us and compel us
By sowing discord and division, all to serve their own ambition
Divided we are conquered
Easy pickings for the vultures
Preying on our paranoia
For their own gain
Rumour, slander, spreading fear and propaganda
They lit the match and fanned the flames
And now the world is burning...
A mindless conflagration, of manufactured rage
Bloody libel spilling out on every single spiteful page
They fill their pens with poison
And wield their words like weapons
Callous comments cutting deeper
Leaving wounds to weep and fester
They try to hide, their venom deep inside
Locked behind a crooked smile that doesn’t reach their eyes
Straw men and paper tigers
Leave no trace but burn much brighter
Blinding us with smoke and mirrors
While they make their plans
Distract, dissemble and deny
Distort the facts, defend the lie
Obfuscate, obstruct, obscure
Until there’s nothing left but…
Rumour, slander, spreading fear and propaganda
They lit the match and fanned the flames
And now the world is burning
Liars, conspire, to set it all ablaze
With twitching tongues and tapping fingers
They dig our common grave
Carefully constructing their illusions
To feed the mass delusion
With subtle sleight of hand and clever misdirection
They conceal their true intentions
Til it’s far too late
Fabricating fact from fiction
Turning villains into victims
Rumour, slander, spreading fear and propaganda
They lit the match and fanned the flames
And now the world is burning
Liars, conspire, to set it all ablaze
With twitching tongues and tapping fingers
They dig our common grave
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8. |
Our Kingdom Undone
12:05
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This is how the world will end
Not with a bang but the stroke of a pen
You’ll sign away your life in anger
Sell it to the highest bidder
Who promises to keep you safe
And keep the outside world at bay
To build a gaudy, gilded cage with no bars
As everything else falls apart
Complicit in our own control
Conditioned to conform
We pledge allegiance, blind obedience
For our own convenience
Now the best lack all conviction
But the worst are filled with passion
And the rest no longer even seem to know the difference any more
This is how the world will end
Not with a bang but a whimper instead…
Building bigger cages, forging longer chains
All to preserve the illusion of freedom
The status quo must be maintained, at any cost
No matter what lines must be crossed in the process
Counting our losses, selling us safety and calling it progress
So what will you choose?
The freedom from or freedom to?
The good of the many, or the greed of the few?
We are the blinded, led by the blind
Unwilling to believe, what’s right before our eyes...
Burning all our bridges, building our walls
Raising them higher, only to watch as they fall
Into ashes, everything passes, as the colony collapses
A fragile house of cards we built on the backs of the masses
Still toiling in vain
The imbalance of power is shifting
The ivory towers are falling one by one
The tables are turning, and Rome is burning
And all our best laid plans have come to less than nothing
We are the blinded, led by the blind
Unwilling to believe, what’s right before our eyes
We are divided, by lines we have drawn in the sand
An isolation that we cannot withstand
They say the rising of the tide, will lift us all in time
Another empty promise, to keep us all in line
They tell us to be patient, to bide our time and keep on waiting
For salvation, waiting for a day that never comes
This is how our kingdom comes undone
And all the ties which bind us
Blind us to what we’ve become
We are the blinded, led by the blind
Unwilling to believe, what’s right before our eyes
We are divided, by lines we have drawn in the sand
An isolation that we cannot withstand
We built ourselves a system, a pure and perfect vision
With all our best intentions for a better world
We made it in our image, merciless and unforgiving
And far too late we realised that we had erred
For what we built was a lie
Corrupted by its very nature and design
A shining symbol of our flaws and failures
A monument to compromise
All the kingdom’s horses
And all the kingdom’s men
Were not enough to give us safety again
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Beyond Grace Nottingham, UK
Cerebral, crushing, cathartic Death Metal.
BEWARE
THE
DEATH
OF
REASON
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