Bad Religion : The Empire Strikes First

Hardcore / USA
(2004 - Epitaph Records (USA-1))
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Lyrics


1. OVERTURE

(Instrumental)


2. SINISTER ROUGE

Ooooh! Ooooh!

Innocents burned alive at the stake
Tortured & dumped in nameless graves
Centuries waned, authority died
Scattering seeds of ancients lies

Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!
Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!

Child molesters & Jesuits
Holding secrets conference
Underneath the Pontiff's nose
And only God will ever know

Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!
Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!

Ooooh! Ooooh!

Give us this day our daily bread
Your legacy - we'll not forget
Lick the wounds, cleanse the land
The modern world rejects your hand

Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!
Sinister rouge coming back for more, to even the score, woooo!

Sinister rouge (x6)
Ooooh! Ooooh!
The nightmare comes in sinister rouge


3. SOCIAL SUICIDE

Right now!
Well it's finally time to face my fears
Gonna get the hell out of here
And create a fresher atmosphere
But the consequence is clear

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning underfined
But it's time to turn the tide
It's social suicide

Like you!
Perseverance is a useless tool
Just a patron on a ship of fools
Feigning interest in the cast & crew
While you've broken every single rule

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning underfined
Now time to turn the tide
It's social suicide

Shadows entertain the unwashed masses
Scholars explain their numb reactions
I don't even know if I can ever find Truth
But I'm sure it won't come from following you

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning underfined
But it's time to turn the tide
It's social suicide


4. ATHEIST PEACE

Maybe it's too late for intellectual debate
But a residue of confusion remains
I'm changing with the times & developmentally tortured minds
Are the average citizen's source of pain

Yeah! "Tell me what we're fighting for"
I don't remeber anymore
Only temporary reprieve

And the world might cease if we fail to tame the beast
From the faith that you release comes an atheist peace
Wooo! Oh! Oh! Oh! An atheist peace

Political forces rent bitter cold winds of discontent
And the modern age emerged triumphantly
But now it seems we've stalled and it's time to de-evolve
And relieve the dark chapter of history

Yeah! "Tell me what we're fighting for"
No progress ever came from war
Only a false sense of increase

And the world won't wait for the truth upon a plate
But we're ready now to feast on an atheist peace
Oh! Oh! Oh! Yeah!
Wooo! Oh! Oh! Oh! An atheist peace


5. ALL THERE IS

This song goes out to all the hopeless sinners
With grave allegiances so meaningless & vain
The walking wounded, in a pageant of contenders
Who balance on a rail of pain for just a pail of rain

And everything is barely mist
Blood relations & bricks
My expression, my confession
Add it up extract a lesson more than this
Once again, like a bullet, as a friend, tell me
Can that be all there is?

In my rectory of doubt I kneel to pray like one devout
As time the great gray dreamless sleep of a useless modern God
Erodes away each storied day as wretched Adams with hell to pay
Content upon a rail of pain for just a little rain

And everything is barely mist
Blood relations & bricks
My expression, my confession
Add it up extract a lesson more than this
Once again, like a bullet, as a friend, tell me
Can that be all there is?

There's an endless disposition and it doesn't mean a god damn thing
There is space for a paper airplane race in the eye of the hurricane
And if pigs could fly then surely so could I
But this pedestrian knows better than to even try
My divinity is caught between the colors of a butterfly

And everything is barely mist
Blood relations & bricks
My expression, my confession
Add it up extract a lesson more than this
Once again, like a bullet, as a friend, tell me
Can that be all there is?
All there is?


6. LOS ANGELES IS BURNING

Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of blue
St. Anne's skirts are billowing
But down here in the city of limelights
The fans of Santa Anna are withering
And you can't deny the living is easy
If you never look behind the scenery
It's show time for dry climes and bedlam is dreaming of rain

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

This is not a test of the emergency broadcast system
Where Malibu fires & radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality
Catch it on prime-time, story at nine
The whole world is going insane

When the hills of Los Angeles is burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

A placard reads "The End of Days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze
More a question than a curse
How could hell be any worse?
The flames are stunning
The camera's running
So take warning!

When the hills of Los Angeles is burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning


7. LET THEM EAT WAR

There's a prophet on a mountain and he's making up dinner
With long division & 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!
Let them eat war!
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war!
Let them eat war
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!
Let them eat war!
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war!
Let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed
Declining pride

We've got to kill 'em & eat 'em before they reach for their checks
Squeeze some blue collars, let 'em bleed from their necks
Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat
Cos it's Freedom or Dept and they won't question it -- they won't question it
At a job site the boss is God-like
Conditioned workhorses park at a stop light
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 'em death -- Cos they're the finest in the nation
Feed 'em death -- When there's nothing left to feed them with
Feed 'em death -- Cos it's freedom or it's death!

Let them eat war!
Let them eat war!
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war!
Let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed


8. 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 & 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

Tell me!
Tell me where is the love
In a careless creation?
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause & 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

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...

Tell me!
Tell me where is the love
In a careless creation?
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause & 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

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


9. 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 cos I had nothing to offer but insufficiency

And you know that it's a bitch
Wwhen 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 & their vague conceptions
Obliterate each other with impunity
And you wonder, "what's in this for me?"

To another abyss -- Abyss
To no avail - No avail
The search is bound to fail
To another abyss -- Abyss
To no avail - 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

To another abyss -- Abyss
To no avail - No avail
The search is bound to fail
To another abyss -- Abyss
To no avail - 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 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


10. 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 wing
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
Please come back to me* again
Because the way that she bleeds
Is in the law that he reads
Confusing words & deeds
So 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!

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

To come alive? To come alive! To come alive! -- To come alive
To come alive? To come alive! To come alive!
To come alive? To come alive! To come alive! -- To come alive
To come alive? To come alive! To come alive!


11. THE EMPIRE STRIKES FIRST

We strike first
And we're unrehearsed
Here we go again to stage the greatest show on heaven & earth
Come on! Get your moneys 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 comin' 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 & 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 give -- Can't give
Don't wanna be -- Won't be

I can't live
If it isn't with you

Can't live
Can't give
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


12. 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 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 Gazing heavenward forever, forever, forever, 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

Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring -- Let's go where the raptor goes to the mountain in a cosmic glow
The conversation of impassive planets intercepted by a human being -- We'll have a genuine terrestrial show on a mountain, on a mountain
Up on a mountain encased in solar rays -- Let's scan the horizon clean for any trace of human schemes
Beyond electric dreams, on a mountain, on a mountain -- And try to touch upon immortal themes, on a mountain, on a mountain
Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring -- Let's go where the raptor goes to the mountain in a cosmic glow
The conversation of impassive planets, on a mountain, on a mountain -- We'll have a genuine terrestrial show on a mountain, on a mountain
Up on a mountain encased in solar rays -- Let's scan the horizon clean for any trace of human schemes
Beyond electric dreams, on a mountain, on a mountain -- And try to touch upon immortal themes, on a mountain, on a mountain
Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring -- Let's go where the raptor goes to the mountain in a cosmic glow
The conversation of impassive planets -- We'll have a genuine terrestrial show
on a mountain


13. BOOT STAMPING ON THE 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...

"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."

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 Superior lied?"
And "Is it possible too many have died?"
It's only natural to reply

"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."


14. LIVE AGAIN (THE FALL OF MAN)

The road is narrow, the horizon wide
And they 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 & purpose help us realize
We pass along a brighter faith even though it must be blind

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?

Let's go!

Oh! 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?




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