1. |
Sacrifice
04:07
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Look up! Is something telling you to run?
What do the animals say?
Follow your instinct and get out of the way
Before the dam collapses and the pipeline breaks
The fire surrounds you and the fracked earth quakes
It’s all part of the price we’re supposed to pay
To live the easy life
For the machine to run
It takes a sacrifice
Somebody pays in blood
Put your kids up on the cross
Feed your town to the fire
Dump the river full of oil
Before the toxic flood
Make a tribute to the Gods
Did you hear it in a dream?
The way the branches snap
Trust the predator instinct!
Step away from the trap
Before the shots ring out and the cameras roll
The glass shatters and the blood hits the floor
The ritual begins and the crows are all flying away
From the sacrifice
For the machine to run
To live the easy life
Somebody pays in blood
Put your kids up on the cross
Feed your town to the fire
Dump the river full of oil
Before the toxic flood
Another tribute to the Gods
Or just a body in the pit?
When you reached out to take the deal
Did they just leave you there to bleed?
You made a bargain for comfort
But the machine still needs to feed
Thru the school shooter and the poisoned land
The priest at the altar with the knife in his hand
Shortest straw pulled in a game you didn’t know you were playing
It takes a sacrifice
For the machine to run
To live the easy life
Somebody pays in blood
Put your kids up on the cross
Feed your town to the fire
Dump the river full of oil
Before the toxic flood
Are you a tribute to the Gods
Or just a body in the pit?
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2. |
Deus Ex Machina
04:34
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I shook hands with a one-armed man
His grip was strong and strange
He took me to a place downtown
Beneath the elevated train
The people there were made of stone
Their faces wracked with fame
They pulled me in with uncanny strength
Shouting “He’s the one to blame!”
Then you crashed in through the skylight
With a shotgun on your back
You said “Come with me if you want to live”
And the walls began to crack
You’re my deus ex machina
You’re my salvation unforeseen
You’re the twist I never saw coming
Now you’re stealing every scene
In this scarifying dream
That I don’t ever want to wake up from
I don’t want to go back!
I saw my face on a gaslight pole
Found out I was missing
Midnight caught us by the Morlock hole
Beneath a broken streetlight, kissing
You said “I guess this doesn’t make much sense
But I’ve known you from before
It’s been ten years since I began your escape
Now this world cannot hold you anymore!”
Sure there were holes in your story
How else could you have possible escaped?
The truth has no plot when we write it ourselves
We can break through the walls on the page
- Chorus -
We rode the tunnels to the top of the bridge
While the harriers searched for us in vain
The Blood Moon rose upon a decadent world
And two derelicts laughing in the rain
You said “No one believes in Gods down there
and everything is cheaper than it looks”
I said “You look like trouble and you smell like a punk
and I don’t care what’s been written in books
“Because you make me remember when it was all an adventure
and everything was possible and nothing was boring
and what the fuck happened to those days?”
- Chorus -
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3. |
The Last Wild Werewolf
05:01
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The doctors have all drawn their conclusions
They say I'm God's cruelest mistake
I don't care about their medical opinions
‘cause tonight they forgot to lock the gate
I want the chills that you give me
Your eyes shining yellow and black
I took the pills that they gave me
But nothing's gonna change me back
I want to run with you tonight
Somewhere out in the rain
They slaughtered our kin
Out on the frozen plains
Now you're the last wild werewolf
You're the one they never caught
We're all that's left of a dying breed
Love's the only chance we got
The moon never shines in the basement
Of this desperate house for the insane
But tonight I feel a change in the darkness
It's time to break these silver chains
I hear your voice through the floorboards
Howling at the edge of the swamp
How beautiful you must be in the moonlight
Your teeth growing long and sharp
- Chorus -
I know you're the one I've seen in my dreams
Never believed you were real!
The stories foretold, the legends of wolves
How could I know they were true?
In Saint Petersburg they drink to the hunters
One by one they shot us down
Now the Great Cull is over, their weapons lie cold
Let's you and me hit the town
- Chorus -
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4. |
Monsters
04:32
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Once upon a time there was a little boy afraid
Of the crawling things under his bed, the shadows in the cave
The cellar full of terrors in that space between the stairs
Voices in the walls at night, clowns with teeth and hair
He left it all behind him, went to school and got a job
A practical vocation and a mortgage from the mob
When the monsters finally got him they came straight through his front door
His eyes were shut, his papers signed, he couldn't see them anymore
That’s why:
I believe in monsters
I believe in ghosts
I believe in demons
And the blackened witching post
I'm scared of all my nightmares
But the thing that scares me most
Is not believing anymore
Once there was a girl who couldn't sleep without a light
She lived in a castle by the sea and rode horses in the night
She hated taking baths because a witch can smell you when you're clean
But a girl who won't eat her vegetables makes a treat for Sawney Bean
One day she threw it all away in a box out on the street
The castle was foreclosed upon, she moved into a basement suite
She used to hide under the covers from the monsters at the door
Now the Ogre sleeps beside her and she cries forevermore
- Chorus -
The Goblin lives under my bed, he's hungry for my hide
Cthulhu rises in my dreams with the Kraken by his side
I believe in Spring-Heeled Jack and the dark Unseelie Court
I'm scared to see 'em but I'm more afraid of what'll happen if I don't
So keep your feet under the covers, beware of trap doors and black cats
Never kill a spider, make friends with the local rats
Neverwhere's a scary place but it's safer cause it's not
The Real World, where the monsters hide in the nightmares we forgot
- Chorus -
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5. |
Footprints In The Dirt
04:33
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Trapped in a lonely place
You built the walls yourself
You threw yourself down from the ship
Before they could lash you to the mast
Now all you can do is trust
That it's a fortress, not a prison
You built the walls, you hold the key
And now it's time to hit the road
Hiding from the world
But you're not the only one here
There are footprints in the dirt
And you're not the only one here
You’re not the only one here
You’re not the only one here
Now your boots are all you got
Your big black boots are all you need
To walk away from all your pain
And leave the monsters to the dark
Read the blood left on the page
The secret hand of ancient scribes
It's a map back to the underground
Where there's a path cut for you still
- Chorus -
Now the old world dies again
In every pile of bricks knocked down
For the plastic generation's lonely
Boxes in the sky
But the water finds a way
King Tide sweeps away the banks
And the towers rise like tombstones
While the river still flows underground
- Chorus -
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6. |
Murderers
03:52
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The darkness lives inside of every one of us
It's human greed, human instinct
To protect the way you think
You can call it business, call it war
It makes no difference to the poor
Who die in hunger, poisoned soil
While you hug your kids goodnight, and tell them:
“All of the real world monsters
Live outside of our suburban gates
And there’s more each day! There’s more each day!”
You can kill
With a gun or with a pen
With a conscious decision from the safety of a desk
Feed the war, for diamonds or for oil
So you can line your pockets while the blood lines the soil
Murderers! You know exactly what you do
Murderers! We know exactly what we do
Unleash the death squads to protect your politics
Indigenous people cut to pieces
By the wars you help create
Ken Saro-Wiwa! Hanged for Shell
Machine gun hands your wealth controls
The final privilege of the rich:
It buys you distance from the pain
Because there’s always an army for hire
To do your killing so your hands can stay clean
While you’re an ocean away! You’re an ocean away!
You can kill
With a gun or with a pen
With a conscious decision from the safety of a desk
Feed the war, for diamonds or for oil
So you can line your pockets while the blood lines the soil
Murderers! You know exactly what you do
Murderers! We know exactly what we do
Insulated from the true cost of our wealth
The world economy: built on suffering
To feed our fucked-up society
You call it right! You call it faith!
You say we have no right to water
You pass this poison to your children
The toxic waste you leave behind
‘Cause all of the real-world monsters
Are as human as the average saint
Were they born this way? Were they born this way?
You can kill
With a gun or with a pen
With a conscious decision from the safety of a desk
Build a wall, set the world on fire
Shoot all the survivors when they try to climb the wire
Murderers! You know exactly what you do
Murderers! The deadlights will reveal you too
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7. |
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Well they called him Jack the Ripper
He killed five of her sisters
Stolen from a hard life of dirty tricks
They called him Jack the Ripper
He killed five of her sisters
He never shoulda’ tried for number six
He came at me down Goulston Alley
A flash of something silver in his hand
With a tooth-eye grin and a gentleman's smile, he said:
"You look like a girl who could use a friend"
I took his knife and I turned him out
Spilled his guts all over the fishmonger's door
I kept his smile for a souvenir and said:
"Sure Jacky, let me be your whore”
- Chorus -
Of course they found the body
I never thought to bother with trying to hide it
You think I told the cops? Hell no!
A story won't sell if no one wants to buy it
To them he was doing a public service
And what's more, they were in on it anyway
The doctors and the lawyers know
People get killed in this town every day
- Chorus -
This town has seen its share of killers
Working from positions both high and low
Some of them are dressed in rags
While some of them wear finely tailored clothes
The careless fools take all the heat
While the successful psychopaths have always known
That a bloodstain's easily overlooked
If you wear it with a diamond or a rose
Chorus -
Creatures of the night gotta stick together!
Guard against the wicked interlopers in our midst
Creatures of the night gotta stick together!
Be watchful during the silence of a kiss
As for me, I leave no trace
No identifying marks or memorable clothes
Unlike poor Mary Nichols & Annie Chapman
Lizzie Stride, Mary Jane Kelly & Catherine Eddowes
History will say I been forgotten
But ain't that just the way it always goes?
The ones who really make the difference
Are the nameless thorns who dress the pretty rose
- Chorus -
Creatures of the night gotta stick together!
Guard against the wicked interlopers in our midst
Creatures of the night gotta stick together!
Be watchful during the silence of a kiss
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8. |
Shadow Figures
05:00
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Wandering rumours of wolves at the door
Only way out’s through that hole in the floor
Do you dare to descend any more?
When the bottom fell out long ago
The slithering feel of fingers rustling through your hair
Like the hand reaching for you from that space between the stairs
Shadows in the closet and the memories in the walls
They’re all trapped inside the cage you call home
When you wake up in the darkness
Is there a ghost sitting on your bed?
The shadow figures in your room
Are they real or did you conjure them up?
When the handle turns on your bedroom door
Did you lock them out or are they already here?
You can fight your demons, you can fuck your demons
In the end they’re all part of you
A haunted house is scary, for the people and the ghosts
The rattle in the basement and the bones chained to the post
But the loss of all your reason makes no difference to the Host
When the past won’t stay down anymore
How long has it been since you were sure of who you were?
When the faces in the mirror know exactly who you are!
Do you know how to avoid being seen?
By the nightmares and the things that should not be
- Chorus -
Do you trust? Do you trust?
Who do you trust to save yourself?
You kept your windows shuttered ‘gainst the dark world as you slept
But the Rapture came and went and now there’s nearly nothing left
Crosses in the alleys and the faithful and the dead
They’re all just dust now that the storm has passed you by
So will you lock yourself inside your chambers, waiting to be saved?
Or will you venture out to find the others, wounded but untamed?
The ghosts all walk the streets now, but there’s life up in the hills
You have to trust you’re not the only one still here
- Chorus -
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9. |
Wounded Wolf
03:41
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“I need a place to go where no one can see me,”
she cries and hugs herself as the alley fills with rain.
“The world is crumbling and I can’t sleep for fear of falling.
And what the fuck does it even mean when you’re so scared of your own dreams?
“The sky’s gone dark, but the water’s clear.
The Blood Moon’s gone, but I’m still here.”
Fight the darkness, fuck the demons
Trust in your own mind
There’s no way out if you can’t break the cage they built inside your head
Don’t let the bars tear you down
You got everything you need to stand up
It’s a trap, but you’re a wolf, still out there howling in the rain
You’re a werewolf - and in the end
They left you wounded but untamed
“There’s shouting in the darkness, but I been running for so long…
it’s so tempting just to lay down, let the harriers take me here!
They broke the world apart with the machines they built for power.
Now they’re fighting for the rubble and somehow I’m the thing they fear?
“They called us monsters, freaks, mistakes.
They blame us for the fear they make.”
- Chorus -
“I don’t need the moon to change me, it’s all here inside of me,”
She stands and wipes her claws as the alley fills with blood.
“I’m so sick of being human, we don’t deserve this fucking planet.
Breeding animals for cages and dumping poison on the land!
“But there’s not much left of the great machine.
I just need a handful of matches and can of gasoline…”
- Chorus -
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10. |
Survivor
04:09
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Deadlights in the darkness
The forest belongs to the ghosts
Fire at high speed, poison in the soil
The future belongs to the dead
Harriers rule the highways
The cities fall to ash
The desperate cling to the remnants of old
No hope for those who can’t let go
We are bound together
Family beyond blood
Survivor! Survivor!
You’re alive, now the world is dead
Survivor! Survivor!
What’s left, now? To live instead
Survivor! Survivor!
You’re alive, now the world is dead
Survivor! Survivor!
You can break the chains in your head
Systems crash to chaos
Technology laid to waste
A beautiful day dawns empty and cold
You weren’t sorry to see it all go
The rules of men are over
It all shrinks down to this:
The people you love are the only thing left
It’s time to heal the wounds in your head
- Chorus -
Home is no place!
It’s the handful of people on Earth who you’re willing to die for
- Chorus -
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Jeff Andrew Vancouver, British Columbia
Fiddles, horns, double bass and subterranean percussion from the tunnels of East Vancouver. Songs from the road and beyond
the grave.
"A backroads troubadour with a few things to say by way of viscera, nerve and hard experience." - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
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