Legacies of Human Frailty

“Rise now, ye faithful! Witness these auspicious signs The riotous winds blow with terrible greatness And sovereign purpose illuminates the grand design! Behold clamoring chaos Ripe for rapture, the multitudes await Your leaden devotion A boot to quake the earth, a fist to wield the weapons of fate" Scavenger prophets These foul vultures of loss Proudly aloft in their ill-gotten sky A swarming starving cloud The holy vermin Desperate for burden and flush with demagogue urge They see themselves as kings Reap the spoils from the tributary herds And unto a ripe world Hiss the word of god “Resurrect the esoteric words” Liars tongue Benighted reason “A fist against the weakness of the world” Coward strength Desperate urges “Arise! Arise! to meet a golden day!” Mass affliction Joyous rage, the work is never done Scavengers, vultures of loss Victims of their own invective Lives turned kindling for the flame The noble work is never-ending Lest their prayers will not be heard For every silent fear there crawls a shadow born from where no joy abounds and time is but a shrill reminder of a frail existence Not bound by memories but measured by the deepest sorrow Wither hope and rise reborn A vessel of the damned to claim the world A just doom for a savage season Cruel their purpose, cruel their death A just doom for a savage season Cruel their purpose, cruel their death Glorious freedom, the hate lives forever A just doom for a savage season From the depths of loss something worse appears Cruel its purpose, cruel its death Glorious freedom, the hate lives forever A just doom for a savage season From the depths of loss something worse appears Cruel its purpose, cruel its death

Chaotic voices scream in frantic tongues A savage din reaching from primal dark Red frothing rage consumes the hearts of man As if ordained to kill by hateful hands The shining city's lights confess its truth The living ruins boast of myths disproved Its gaudy glow can't hide its dark charade Hungry torches for the next Crusade Walking the worn path Onward, oblivion, the oldest face of man Inside, they all know Onward, oblivion, the oldest face Hatred The reliable refrain Raze the rags of civilization All at once retreating Tribal warfare thrives In the ashes of the world Walking the worn path Cast away the chains of enlightenment The truth for all to see Onward, oblivion, the resting place of progress Sacrifice your convictions Dominate your cherished virtues New skin stretched over faded leather Old refrains survive generations Their songs, we sing We studied all their failures And gasped at all their crimes And centuries past the primal rage that lingers deep within our weaker moments, An ancient language from a dark and twisted time Still speaks its ageless violence Vestigial tongues somehow survive And now, where have they fled? Bright-eyed champions of peace? Gone are those better angels Here we have familiar beasts And now, where have they fled? Here we have familiar beasts And now, where have they fled? Here we are familiar beasts The justice of gnashing teeth Chaotic voices scream in careful tongues A savage din filtered through modern thought Red frothing rage defines the worth of men So gladly led to kill by nature’s hand Walking the worn path Onward, oblivion, the oldest face of man And everyone knows Onward, oblivion, the oldest face Sacrifice your convictions Dominate your cherished virtues Every era thinks that it is different Until it sees The broken bodies at its feet

What fearsome beast awakes again to stalk this harrowed earth? What thing beyond imagination, sloughing skin in timeless rebirth? The dread of the new day, the threat of the last, a fever dream breathing, the future aghast The living lament of power misspent on history's profoundly shameful regrets The brazen sycophants, the spineless drones emerge To sway in craven veneration, drawn to its pure vacuous dirge Somehow faith strains to nourish the garden that logic denies In fealty to the madness that consumes the world and never truly dies Against the wall, pushed to the ground, forced to a cell Into a crate, into the flames, cast down to hell A crumpled husk to feed the worms that feed the earth That never cared, that could not stop the thing it grew Tremble under the weight of the lurid contempt For imagined slights against petty tyrants and their tragic recompense Against the wall, pushed to the ground, forced to a cell Into a crate, into the flames, cast down to hell A crumpled husk to feed the worms that feed the earth That never cared, that could not stop the thing it grew Joyous in conflict Nourished by fear The beat of an ancient drum Legacies of human frailty Carrion tragedy Vultures of loss A swarm for the sadness Devours worlds in lucid horror March of oppression finds gleeful embrace Gluttonous masses Gorge themselves on every failure Drink the very marrow From their bones It comes again Fresh chaos greets the dawn You never see from where it comes A defeated sun groans to its post To weep away an endless day Against the wall, pushed to the ground, forced to a cell A crumpled husk to walk the earth That dares not stop the things it grew Mourn for the living It comes again

Distant epitaphs drain the world of color so vibrant and leave dark craters A constant drone of loss howls the words and rains in torrents upon desperate masses A frantic, captive throng -- prisoners of men and madness of hate and power Gasps of snuffed-out light reverberate like some foul wind that tears through nature Resentful eyes will track the men who destroyed them Accusations pierce the silence The unheeded testimony of stolen voices Betrayed in contempt to an unmarked grave Distant epitaphs roar from where sanity fled and horror gives chase Snarling and ravenous creatures emerge from the dark Nightmare monstrosities shamble forth Decayed and servile to rancid ambition Dredged from a past of primal virtues Wherein nothing grows but dread machinations of violent compulsion That stalk the virgin day and strangle dark crisp nights In terrible campaigns Resentful eyes will track the men who destroyed them Accusations pierce the silence The unheeded testimony of stolen voices Betrayed in contempt to an unmarked grave Fearsome echoes of death pang eternal Conscript the world to war The ever-constant pulse of degradation The pounding drum of ceaseless confrontation Awash in sorrow, we gaze from distant vistas And thrash against the tearing claws of time The helpless victims of an empire's failures Chained to dark annals of a history that's already written Unending screams, inhuman conditions Forever to speak their deafening truth Forever to sing their sorrowful dirge Forever to command we cling to the future that they were all denied

One final march to shores of extinction Far-off trumpets call through the glow of dusk Heavy eyes spare no glances A haze descends To still the world Last rays of sun stretch shadows cold and vacant No more home than fiery day Heavy eyes spare no glances A haze descends To still the world below The choking sky is theater to procession Long-dead stars silently await Heavy eyes spare no glances A haze descends To still the world Where once grew forests rich with ambition Now lie graveyards of ancient hopes Heavy eyes spare no glances A haze descends To still the world below A haze descends upon the masses And stills the world below Color drained from the faces None remember how to mourn Entranced by flames on the horizon Nothing is lost, nothing is found Under a silent sky that never heard prayers Nothing is lost, nothing is found One final march towards the end

Every parent dreams of peace in wartime Gentle reason that yawns throughout the day Of simple sadness, of fading scars, old studied anguish The kind that lives in other people's songs Every parent knows the fear of daylight The lurking dread of sorrow's fresh assault Every shadow hides the next vicious invention Of time's cruel march against the fallow heart A world no child dares explore Strutting, jeering in the despairing face of hope Seethe a roiling, man-shaped multitude Jerking to the greedy whims of a hundred ruthless masters who manipulate the world The promise of a moment that makes great what others took And erases generations Devours helpless young Raises flags of victory over dead and salted earth Blinded eyes gaze past the ruin Of this world towards the next Can you hear the trumpets blasting? Are you ready to ascend? Rushing down ever-further No remorse, no escape Nothing's left for the future Beyond today there's only hate A world no child dares explore The lasting memory of our age Their lasting memory of our time Hatred, fear, failure This is our gift Hatred, fear, failure This is our curse The lasting memory of our age Their lasting memory of our time Hatred, fear, failure Far beyond the fracture of the sky Higher than the surging of seas When the embers of cities die What will there be to inherit? When the age of reason is failed When the word of God is law When every man knows his place What will there be to inherit? Rushing down ever-further Rushing down ever-further Every parent dreams of peace And driven to lie To those wondrous gazes Somehow sentenced to life