ANTHEM


We are the standard
We are your last excuse
You're one in a million
You have everything to lose
And don't try to reason
You'll burn up in atmosphere
'Cause we are the Standard! Issue.


GET IT THROUGH


Here's a beat
It is a solid beat
And no one's paying attention so I'm free to speak
Something passionate will work real well
But I am bored so bored, yea, it's easy to tell
But I don't mind that it's the same old shit
'Cause innovation's really hard to sell
So come on!

Well its the second verse now
And I really like how this sounds
It's got all the right elements that I like
It's that four / four on the floor
That keeps me moving all night long
And that chord progression
I've heard it before
It's the same one in every song
But this message
Really throws me off
I can't sing along to this at all

Get it through
I'll never get through to you
I'm too wide

Get it through
I'll never fit like you do
But you're too blind
So shut up and swallow!


Don't mind me
I'm just another face
Just turn your head and I will be replaced
And don't you worry, I am all alone
But you'll never understand

(So just shut the fuck up and swallow)


NO EFFECT


I wake up everyday and it feels like death
I'm sure that you can all relate
But while you think it's tragic?
I think it's great!
I'm getting farther than all of you combined

And I'll pretend
There's nothing out there
And no, my words have no effect
I'm just so different!
Nothing applies to me
You can't fill me up

And if I'm wrong
Then I am faceless
And if I'm right
Then I belong
But there is no difference
Nothing applies to me
These are the best days of my life

I am the second coming of nothing at all
I predict things that never come true anyway
And it'll never happen for me like it does for you
I'll just work myself to death and that'll be the end

You know, I wish I could stop
I wish I could stop it all


BREED TO DEATH


My words have no meaning to you
You interpret as you please
I know that you pretend to care
But there's nothing you will miss
And if you think this isn't about you
Well I'm sorry, 'cause it is
But all you wanna do tonight
Is get caught up in youth

And maybe you're impressed
With everything I do
But
I don't give a shit
I don't give a shit

I'm just being used
So all you idiots can
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death

I just can't wait to get you all out of my way
My metaphors didn't work so I'll just say it straight and plain:
I'm not that good with affection
Or with getting inside
But you just force it down so hard
That I wish I could just rip the tension right out of my lungs

I know you're still impressed
With everything I do
But
I don't give a shit
I don't give a shit

 I'm just being used
So all you idiots can
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death

Here, I'll sell it to you:

I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death


PRESET


I took a long hard look at your face today
But it wasn't really yours at all
Yea, I've seen it before
It's the same old swarm
You all wear it the same

You're just a preset
And you don't even know it
So keep spinning along
And when you want it
You let everyone know it
It's not really like you have a choice

You're just upbeat, confident, confident, confident
Upbeat, confident, yea!

They say don't judge a book by its cover
Because there's always something new to discover
Well that's bullshit, it's all upfront
I can tell by the way I'm being ignored
And I think it's funny how I'm being myself
And you're telling me that I'm somebody else
When I don't want it as bad as your wave
So stop telling me that you can all relate

And all the stereotypes that I hear are true
And I just can't wait to apply them all to you
And don't listen, don't think this through
But just know that I'll predict your every move!

So stay upbeat, confident, confident, confident
Upbeat, confident, yea!

Shallow passion
Always wins
And shallow fashion
Always leads

And if you
Don't believe me
Then turn this off
'Cause I wrote
All this shit
Just to prove you wrong


FIELDS


I've said it all before in so many words
And I'll say it all again
Until the meaning is lost
There's nothing to untangle
It's all upfront
I'll say I'm leaving again
But I'll come back for more


And it feels like I've been
Falling forever
While their fields of love
Have looked on amazed

That I had
So much time
So much life

But nothing has given way

And they'll use up
All that I've given
And turn it
Into nothing I'd miss

Until I'm out of time
Out of life
But they don't seem to mind
It's all the same

I've said that I've been falling
But I kind of lied
It's all just in my head
I don't even use it that much

So stop your listening
And leave me be
But I forgot I let you loose
And now you just can't get enough
Out of me

And it feels like I've been
Falling forever
While their fields of love have looked on amazed

That I had
So much time
So much life

But nothing's going away

And they'll use up
All that I've given
And turn it into nothing I'd miss

Until I'm out of time
Out of life...

Whatever, I don't care
It's all the same
You're all the same


RECALL


And I recall

Before the skies were
Strapped to the detonators

Before the lights all
Dimmed in their simulators

Before I saw them all as cheap imitators

They said:

"Don't tell me what to do
Don't tell me what to choose

Just know I will never ever lose
Or even burn up
That is impossible
I followed all the rules"


"But give me all the tools
And tell me what to use
And I will know exactly what to do
That's what I'm here for
Everything's possible
And I just can't get enough!"

And now I'm here
And they're all back where they're supposed to be
I know they fail to see the irony
As they repeat it all around

I love the way they fold around you
I love the way you're understood
I know I'll never get inside you
I know I'll never get it through

I love the way they fold around you
I love the way you prove me right
And now I'm gone
So don't remind me
To look back


STANDARD ISSUE


All my clever words had run out
I'm just scraping bottom now
I'm not really here and you can't hear this at all
But it feels like I belong
None of this seems like it's wrong
I'm just doing my job while you do yours
So make me stare at your bright and busy days
But to me they don't mean shit

So breed to death, my love
You don't exist at all
And even if you did
I wouldn't care at all

Because you are the standard
You were my last excuse
I'm one in a million
I have everything to lose
And don't try to reason
You'll burn up in atmosphere
Cause you are the standard issue
Yea, you are the standard issue

I should really get out more
'Cause you people make the world go round, yea I know
But everytime I do it's just a maze
And you're light years away
And I have no one to blame
Except me and this head


ATTENTION


This is the last impression
That I'm going to make
So you should pay attention
'Cause everything's making sense
So much sense
And now I'm going backwards
This is the first wave
I'm at the end of the start
And I'm everything that I've made
Yea all I've made
This isn't getting deeper
Just repeating itself
I've heard it all before
But didn't catch a word you've said!
But you're not impressed
So scream back at me:

ATTENTION!
I'VE GOT THESE FOUR LIMBS AND A HEAD!
And I demand attention!
I've got nothing to lose
So much to gain

ATTENTION
There's nothing out there
But myself
And I demand an answer
I've got so much to give
So much to take

I guess I'm too dependent
On what you say
So I'm completely detached
From what I need for myself
(Yea, my demands are great!)

But I don't have a system
That works real well
So now I'm stuck in a frame
Trying to push you all away
It's not going too well!
So give it up for those
Who have no one to blame
And fit so well
Into these boxes that you've made
I'd love to put myself away
But you'd have no one to blame


THANKS FOR EVERYTHING


This is for myself / As selfish as it gets / And the only thing that I have
left
But you don't understand / 'Cause you're the standard wave /
You got your balance down / but your vision is so plain.

The pictures in my head are great! I prefer them over you.
There's nothing you can do or say / To make me ever change the way I am.

I'm the one that let you in / And you walked all over me / So thanks for
everything
Well, that was my mistake / And now I'll have to pay / So I'm selling all
these dreams
Just so that I could stay / And watch it fade away / Into all this grey /
 I can do so much but you've all got me caged.

Tell me / Things will always work out / We are really on your side!
It's alright! / We feel your pain!
Too late / All is said and done now / Go ahead and make the calls
No one's home.
I've gone away.

 
ARMED AND READY


Enforcer:

Post
Nuclear
Surface probe
Scanning for
Life signs
All either dead
Or praying for
the next impact
Couldn't rise
Past all these
Sworn perimeters
And besides,
All their wars
Were just cheap breeding contests

And unearthed
Their ripped jaws still screamed:

Survivor:

Awoke to find the sky below a swollen ground as it all lifted up
I heard no voices in this storm and even as they overburned,
I've never felt more alive

They built me well against this dawn until
They led me through their righteous armored gears
And as they grinded on, I realized that I've swallowed whole
The corpse of my belief

Yet still...

I am all armed and ready
My faith is all strapped
The blood runs colder
The days drain past
I go on
I'm ready for war

Except:

Raised flags and all the pride you spit
Will never make an impact

I'm still all armed and ready
This mind is all torn
They ripped this faith off, they'll have it ready to blow
I'll go on
They're still praying for war

Enforcer:

So let them
Praise their swarms
And worship their every
Impact
While they
Grind their wars
And sell them to every last
Perimeter

They have bred
Beyond all hope
Of a resolve
Let their jaws
Rip into their last
Oblivion

 
BACKWARDS


Their heads on backwards
Decisions frozen in vain
The fate grows colder
Illusion of power prevails

No conscience left
They'll die to resurrect their fallen
As long as the faith holds
The outcome will never change

Cut them off from the tubes they feed you
In to keep the worms from crawling out
Faith on concrete

Their meltdown is as predictable
As all these strings they pull
To keep their faith in line

Face down
The mind rips open
Open core

 
THE SWARM

They swarm, whenever you're on
For others, they swarm without an on or off
Self-sufficients breed best always on
Ignore, but bioforced never to bypass a swarm
Overfed the self with their faith, tried to tear it all off
But could not, it all stayed on
Strapped myself to the faces that'll never
Give me anything more

On or Off
On or Off
Somehow I always turn it off
But
I'd rather live a lie that's always on

Upright
They form their walls
They had their eyes carved out
To lead their own
They've got an iron vision
And they only make room
For those self-sufficients who never choose

Upright
They all grind on
My own internals scream that I won't fit their mold
But they're so self-sufficient
They're bred so well
That I just wanna smash through
And pretend I'm them and now:

Uptight
They've all just stalled
Their eyes all upon me
Waiting to swarm
Now I'm a self-sufficient
I've built myself well
But they will never swarm,
Oh they will never swarm

But I have no complaints, no
I made a promise I could never undertake
This corner always served me well

But I...
I can't beat the swarm
Get ahead, get a life, get a face, get anything
Just stay the fuck away from me

 
HAD A LIFE

Walked straight for the longest time
Never looked at that exit to the other life
Kept it airtight, lost all sight
Although all I ever had to do was stay blind
As well as stay down
The eyes are open now and I'm screaming towards the ground
Slammed back onstage now where I will mime
Through a broken jaw
But I forgot again, just my imagination
Out of touch with reality again
Where the outer surface never rises
From the nukes
That implode and pass, that implode and pass
Even though eventually they'll throw off the mask,
Reveal the insides and every past
To an empty night when all the flesh
Had crawled back into the stale light
They've spent their lifelines
On making sure I reach their landmines

If I had a life
I probably wouldn't notice
If I had a mind
I wouldn't let it choose for me

Well the sun's nailed up now
The swarms all loose now
Preparing in full force to climb their ladders up
While their engines drill the skies down
As long as it takes to build that armored skyline
Under which I've dried up
While waiting for the ocean's rise

To sweep it all away somehow
To the carefree glow of the grey sand
Where the blueproof tide unwinds its grasp
To the paper shores' sway of an ion sky
But now the stillframe skips over and back
And all folds away into these cartboard blinds
And then I hear the voices whisper: "Give it up"

I said:

Give it up this isn't what you wanted
Now just give it up this isn't what you wanted
Give it up, this isn't want we had in mind

You had your life to live
Now tell me what to do
I've got no life
I won't even choose

 
CORNERED

Cornered
Teeth scraped along the walls
Jaw frantic in protest
Scarred hands jerk like last breath on a string
Along the floor,
Spilled eyes all fixed on a frozen heaven
Staring down black eighty feet through a ripped 'scraper top
Waiting for a hell to rain down from the longest iron wings
Because all the faith in this world has crawled up
Just between these swollen ribs
Sprouting nails and wings and worms and lies for those who take

The lights below
You know they'll bleed forever
Get back as the cores blow
Let me fall

 
EXIT

Faced the crowd
in a blind mirror
Skull smashed headfirst
Against this wall of inner need
I knew this fall
Would send it all down towards the lights
And they will question once more
From their unscathed towers

I'll answer:
Go on and force
Your one-bit truth until the end
I'll swallow every bullet
That rips through the hull
A sheltered life crawls forward, vomits
And folds around twin blades
I pull it back like last time
Yet it never cuts through all the way
I always have to take it hostage

Whenever I feel
I find no way to begin
It always bled from within
They fed the dreams so it could rip
I've grown content in this dream
I'll let those others take and give

Whenever I feel
There is no way to begin
I've grown content in this dream
I'll let those others take and give


And if I had:
Leaned forward and let their downpours mask
Preburned fields growing supports for a future set in past
Every reflection would lie and every breath would climb blind
Toward their shallow corpse of a self-lit sky
And just its weight would be enough
To send it all off the edge towards that same undecided mind
Towards that self-absorbed conscience that only screams
So predictably:

"Someone burn me an exit"

Stormed their black-rise tower looming past
Drove them all out into a corner
Of the memory gridmap
Airlocked and silenced, I kept holding back
Finally burned them all alive
Before cutting off my own blood supply
I knew they had it bypassed to a bloodthirsty human mass
That infested with a false promise of a chance
And held a freedom already dried up and past

 
A SHALLOW LIGHT


You're running out now
You've led them through your tired edge again
They know you're mourning now
Your every selfish loss was an excuse to up your gain

Bring down the walls
On yourself
On yourself

Rise up and question now
I'm just suprised your vision is so set in doubt
And I know... I am so over now
Too used to being buried in a shallow light
Gone blind
But the damage is done
And I've left their sky
Too overwhelmed in this light
And I've just realized they're right
I just can't handle this life

Just leave me inside and let me say (to myself):

"In your light hangs a suicide,
And I wish you cared"

But you brought down the walls
On yourself
On yourself

 
THE LAST EXCUSE

If there is a hell
It filters through its neverending shades of green
And when it turns on those rains
it mutes it all to grey

If there is a hell
Its only life support is an idle screen
But to unplug is to spill a restless world at unset knees

If there is a hell
It always stares back through the same new cracks
And its every face seems worn and stale and overplayed

If there is a hell
It rings through wires and into my head
It asks me where and how and why I just don't try

But how can I explain
When all I've been is blinded
These words do talk
These heads do turn
But yet it's probably worthless

I'm not the one
I didn't want this
And whether it's chemical, emotional, physical
It doesn't mean shit

If there is a hell
There must be a heaven
And if just once
It shined right through
Perhaps I'd try
But it's only there
So the mind can fake it
And it seems that
All its innocence
Has all but drowned
And sometimes it calls
Through the submerged distance
And as its glimmers
Fade to black
The depths seem undone
But the only way to dive
Is through their engines
And while they always take the plunge
I've learned to stand aside
And leave them to collide

Since
I'm not the one
I didn't want this

And there is a hell
I had it all made

 
ESSENCE

I glanced away
And the tides swept past me

Wherever you've run
And whatever you've built
Stop
Open your eyes
And realize
That life had run past you

 
FROM THE COMA-SWEPT RUINS

I've got an army of one behind the last wall
Fuels the engine in the last room to the right
Meanwhile the hallway is in another past
I had it nailed down to the last future pointed up

My faith's crawling through the vents again
The last time it came down
It felt something like a last rain
And the drains are all clogged again
The smashed mirrors are leaking from the pipes within

I've got the world in a metal shelf
Above a window grinning
Perfect ocean blue
And every life I take is my own
Don't have the fuel to burn it my way

Mind is wide open to the eyes pointed left
They've taken all they could again
The rest hangs black in the storm ahead
I can't pass it with these roads I've cut through

And I'm impressed with all you do
With just four limbs and a head
And if I were anyone else
I'd be the mirror staring back at a face so deaf

I'm in the open now yet all enclosed
The hollow winds of engines shuffling fog again
Ahead the distance smears all that's left
I used to walk it now the wheels just blur through

And at the end they've all turned to air
And left their shadows behind for me to follow
And what they say is that I have got to change
So I think I'll go and do that right now

 
PURITY

Feedback surge
Probe injected
Data flood overloading neural circuitry
Trodes on
Pulse is racing
Neon grid expanding into binary grey

We run through wires, disguise in screens
We blend in patterns of input streams

We trace our pathways, dissolve in beams
We breach through cores on static wings

Pressure starts
Ice below you
Shockwaves tumble, pulling
down the consciousness
below the circuits
Noise sets in
Nervous system failing
Locked into eternity
forever looped in frames

We run through wires, disguise in screens
We blend in patterns of input streams

We trace our pathways, dissolve in beams
We breach through cores on static wings

Sky collapsing over static spheres
Underneath the blackened cores
Static waves are flowing

Trapped beginnings burn the vacant light
Interchange the silent beams
Stained in silent whispers
All deforming

Merge, merge away, into gray

 
HUMAN

Deluded whispers
Burned out memories reprise
The silent resentment
Sinking over vacant eyes

The skyline ruptures
Past the barriers of sight
Inverting silence
Into streams of tainted fright

Climb into your concrete hole
Forget this
Deep inside the truth awakens
Pulling you away

Hey human
Do you see the grid expanding
Hey human
Do you hear the static rains washing your blood away
You say you want to live this life forever
Forever is as distant as your stars

 
DYSTOPIA

Conditioned knowledge
Arranged through screens
Controlled emotions
Aligned through dreams
Repressed desires
Maintained by fear
Imprisoned faith
No will to flee

The order is issued
Enforced by steel
Compliance required
The transfer begins
Assembled and numbered
Assigned to cells
Injected and wired
Reality fades

Chorus:
We'll
Program your minds
Program your dreams
We'll
Program your lies
Program your thoughts

We'll
program your thoughts
program your lies
program your dreams
program your lies
program your thoughts
program your dreams
program your thoughts
program your lies

Awake at last
All thoughts are clear
A strength is present
The walls disappear
You stand surrounded
Feel no constraints
New blood is flowing
Through artificial veins

* Chorus *

The sky is burning blue again
A blinding light protects the gray
A stainless shield against the wind of change

A rising grid expands beyond
Converting stars to perfect form
Above horizons merging into gray

 
SURVIVOR

Searchlights
Awake the night
Blasts rip open
Scores of faceless masks

Afterburners
Scorch the charred remains
A shattered dawn
Looms above the waste

Blackened sun
Poisoned hope
Distant dreams
Forever lost

Distorted figures
Crumble to ash
Corroded structures
Dismember the past

Thermal heat
Scorches skin
Vision lost
Another corpse
Falls beneath

Nuclear fires
Blaze through concrete walls
Cities burn
No escape
From this final world

A final collision
Free from pain
Tormented shadows
Remind of the slain

Wasted skies
Bury all hope
A nuclear flash
Consumes the earth

 
EXTIRPATION

Marching forward
Blind with rage
Faces strapped to tubes
Devoid of human flesh
Fire blindly into
growing walls of steel
Retaliation starts
Helments melt into this concrete smear

The end is brightest
When the withered hands
are reaching for the sky
Their fading cries deforming
As the shockwaves rip the stars apart

Still alive
Barely crawling
Hands blown off
Limbs torn away
All shields breached
Decimation rising
Red sky falling faster
As the wave deletes your fears

Annihilation
Swept the ruins away
The tubes that once clung to the melted flesh
Have frozen
And crumbled on the mud of broken faces

The end is brightest
When the withered hands
are reaching for the sky
The end is brightest
When you never look away from your fate

 
SHIFT

Blind existence
Second wave deployed
Final distance
Transports fading into blinding light

Surface melting
View distorting within mind
Paths erasing
Leaving traces beyond sight


Chorus:
As the cities crumble into burning light
Can you see
Can you see

As the skies turn inward over vacant eyes
Can you see
Can you see

Inside the clouds
Concrete shifts
So
Trivial

 
CIRCULAR

It walks in circles all the time
Different mind

It claws the walls with bound hands
and tries to climb this shell that grew inside

It keeps correcting all its non-existant
flaws while it pretends they're gone

It knows the mind that's keeping track
of all mistakes that ever made its life

Sometimes I can almost reach the sun
Yet, the distance
Is blinding

It walks in circles all the time
Different mind

It keeps repeating all its goals to make
the purpose seem so worthwhile

It inputs air into the lungs just so they
see that it pretends to breathe

It ran the circle one last time
One last time

Abandoned all these faces
living in the dreams
that emptied out its cries

It climbed the wall on broken hands
until the edges pulled apart
Revealing all the same divides
Mind is set on 'loop'

 
SUBCORE

You've reached it
The final frontier
The grid is behind you
Yet the mind is blank

Encoded sunsets blind you
The centuries fade to seconds
Deleted time refusing shelter

Memories of skylines rising, falling
Descent towards a final core

A human hope poisoned from the skyline.
Withheld to ease the backward march
Faith eclipsed by ignorance
Deleted time refusing shelter
Dismantled.

 
BREED TO DEATH

My words have no meaning to you
You interpret as you please
I know that you pretend to care
But there's nothing you will miss
And if you think this isn't about you
Well I'm sorry 'cause it is
But all you wanna do tonight
Is get caught up in youth

And maybe you're impressed
With everything I do
But I don't give a shit
I don't give a shit

I'm just being used
So all you idiots can
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death

I just can't wait to get you all out of my way
My metaphors didn't work so I'll just say it straight and plain:
I'm not that good with affection or with getting inside
But you just force it down so hard
That I wish I could rip the tension right out of my lungs

I know you're still impressed
With everything I do
But I don't give a shit
I don't give a shit

I'm just being used
So all you idiots can
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death
Go and breed to death

Here, I'll sell it to you:

I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death
I hope you breed to death

 
WAR DREAM

Lately I have been noticing
That this other life
Does not revolve around
A silly war dream
I have been
Living underneath
And everything I'm meant to hear
Is not making sense anymore

Chorus:

Get up on me
Get down on me
I know you'll never claim me

All these years
Spent internally
Trapped under the wheels
Which would only spin
For the outside's needs
All so indiscreet
And then supposedly
All fell incomplete
I began to breathe
And then the grid fell in
So now the patience leaks
Time to switch the film
Capture a brand new scene
But now they start to sneer
So it's about time I warned
The disinterested:

Get up on me
Get down on me
I know you'll never claim me

But all that flesh
Rips through like a shockwave
The flash of eyes
Brighter than a nuclear sunrise
You always had to be artificial
You always had to shine your floodlights past me

I am not all I'm supposed to be
In fact I'm under the impression that they all agree
But yet they keep it sealed
Underneath their grins
Until I wander past
Dragging this insecurity
But all they want to see
Is a pretentious glee
And that's quite fine by me
Whatever helps it spin
It's just a script, you see
That functions independently
Of one's unique identity
Promptly spit out by the social grid

Was that too much to take in?
This should be easier:
Get off of me
I know you'll never claim me

But all that flesh
Rips through like a shockwave
The flash of eyes
Brighter than an nuclear sunrise
And I just wish I was artificial
So I could reach out and mute
This swollen silence

Just step aside
Let it all slide
You are the outside

 
ON YOUR KNEES

The towers crumbled to the void of ignorance
Images all split to frames
Forever burned to memory
The seconds never fade
A future frozen in a flash
A false beginning
All the hope denied

Unfocused faces cover screens
All exits blocked from inside
Inhuman faith against the plight
The rubble forces all the sorrow
To rise into a hate-filled sky
A systematic rupture
Who let a reason so misguided
To let the innocents tumble down
The choice of ignorance will strike those down
Amidst their icons of decay
No ruins left on which to pray
And yet the purge won't end in silence

On your knees
Are you praying
For this world to set you free

On your knees
Are you praying
For the concrete to forgive your tears

Pray to concrete