1. FORSAKEN

A hollow man in a shallow world
The novelty of anonymity long faded
Searching for the last good thing he remembers
So obsessed with an ideal existence
That the slightest imperfection is catastrophic

Through the perpetual night
So far from where he started,
And racing towards the end
Disappointment awaits him again

The deepest cut elicits a cry
From the deeper layers of past lives
Neglected by design, forsaken by time
Awaiting an imminent demise
Unshackled, shooting towards the sky
Where freedom lies
Left to perish in the cruel light of day
All that's left is a vessel of decay

Let the numbness take over
Or take pleasure from the pain
Misled by the promise of another day
Victimized by the passage of time
So slowly comes this afterlife paradise
Different paths lead to different fates
What path to take ?

Left to perish in the cruel light of day
All that's left is a life in decay
The deepest cut elicits a cry
From the deeper layer of past lives
Neglected by design, forsaken by time
Awaiting an imminent demise

Who cares where the blame lies ?
There's no glory in living -- the defied die young
The nature of existence is it's inevitable end
Let them die -- eternity is where peace resides


2. COMPLEX GODS

An iron fist, the hand of god
With the force of millennia and minions
Crashes down upon the faithful
Shattering their skyward towers
Scattered remnants struggle for supremacy

Lost and searching for a guiding light
From the ashes of solidarity, factions originate
Written words reinforce the widening divide
between cults of idolatry
A singular deity, torn apart, adapted to incompatible allegiances

Redefined with a new plurality, the essence of God is Solidified in commandments
A doctrine of intolerance based on ignorance
The allegorical is rendered literal
Forming cuts of heresy

Far removed from the mythology of old,
Or so they're told
All hope lies in enchanted serpents and
Cengful gods
Until all hope dies
A burial in an ocean of unanswered prayers
A faith still hinges on blind devotion and soothsayers

Lost and searching for a guiding light
From the ashes of harmonious rapture,
Collapsed under it's own weight
Obsolescence of a corrupted morality
Exiles revel in decadence

An iron fist, the hand of god
With a prophecy self-fulfilled
A plague of doubt descends among the faithful


3. EMBRACE THE INHUMANE

A disharmonious symphony
From the killing floors, sick with indignity
The voices join together as one
To decry a common injustice
The blood is spilled -- watch the fear of death in their eyes
Defenseless, contemptible devaluation af life

A sadistic tradition continued with brutal indifference
Subsidized and industrialized
To feed the overpopulation
Gluttony's gaping maw -- a deadly sin consumes a deadly sin

Condemned to a life of fear for the crime of nature's design
Chance spares the blade as a birthright
Ancestral dominance over all living things, undeserving kings
Obsessed with suffering and the taking of lives
Violence desensitized

A simplistic position
As butchers man the disassembly line
The soulless beasts feel no pain
This is how we sleep at night

The question reamains is this necessity ?
Does efficiency justify such cruelty ?
Legitimized brutality -- the true beasts embrace the inhumane


4. PLAGUE OF DIVINITY

With divine purpose and the flash of a blade
Sacred land is reclaimed
No tolerance for false prophets
The conquered savages assimilate or perish

The heretic scans the horizon
At a land once ruled by enlightenment
Now overrun with brutish conformity
No prisoners in this quest for cleansing
As the armies of Christ invade and spread the plague of divinity

The specter of oppression spreads its wings
And casts it's shadow across humanity
Darkened gazes portend dark ages
A siege is laid upon the spirits of men
Embracing a singular sorrow, the will is broken

Scriptures tell of wars
Fought to bring salvation to those who suffer without
Their souls are rescued from the abyss
Baptized in the blood spilled by the righteous

God wills it, so it is done


5. PROVIDENCE

They walk the earth among the mortals
The lords of all creation, their healing hands promise redemption for our transgressions
Shunned, the outcasts who disbelieve
From their secret palaces, ethereal and serene
Painted with the blood of Christ, built on the backs of the deceived
Bought with the sins of humanity

The troops mass at the golden gates
At war with an antichrist to reach a fabled afterlife
Seperatists with weaponized faith on the path to dominate
Hate-filled are their diatribes to stir the rage they feel inside
Onward Christian soldiers, march the darkened path to righteousness

Sociopaths with unchecked ambition on a crusade to indoctrinate
With twisted words devoid of meaning, with one truth to sustain a myriad lies

Cathedral bells ring to welcome the conquering kings
Blurring the line between artifice and reality
They walk the earth alone
The lords of nothing
Their withered hands promise deception and damnation


6. DENOUEMENT

In a perfect world, we'd all die young
Spared the inescapable ravages of time
Innocence framed in a portrait contains our purity
And the serenity we've left behind

The empty moments don't seem so empty
When you're facing your mortality

With expectation comes disappointment
So many mornings after bridge one into the next
Worn and weary, dreading each predictable conclusion
Beaten into submission, craving an escape
It's not so black and white
As the ebb and flow of life paints in shades of gray

Searching the past in vain, grasping at the remnants of tranquility
How can I get from here to there ?
Can I reverse the sands of time ?

In a perfect world we'd all die young
Spared the inescapable ravages of time
Ignorance framed in a portrait contains our purity
Oblivious to the destiny that lies ahead

Laid to waste, the semblance of ambition
An illusory concept born of discontent
Progress is marred by my resignation
To embrace the past in all its simplicity

To know no responsibility, to have no aspirations
No complications -- a life of austerity
Salvation through disenchantment

So I erase all of my memories
Of a childhood that seemed so dear to me
And I lie helpless against the torment of my stagnancy


7. DOMINION'S END

The art of war
The broad brushstrokes of conflict paint a masterpiece of devastation
That bleeds and burns and rips the canvas
Leaving scars across the scorched earth
Horror and carnage as beauty
Peace as the ultimate obscenity
The downfall of all we cherish
Brought about by the viral spread of freedom

Awash in the fetid stench of decadence
Belligerence and arrogance masked as benevolence
Empires rise and fall but never last
Corrupted to their core
Their devious machinations hasten the fall of reason
Imperialistic dreams of conquest
Doomed to failure, doomed to repeat the past

Deceased and decomposed, the distrust of our leaders
The remnants of a skeptical populace replaced with obedience
When men become gods to those whose loyalty erases all fault

One hand washes the blood off the other
The blood of the innocent spilled in the name of this perversion of liberty
Where is the outrage ? Our revolution ?
Why do these crimes go unpunished ?
Carving up the earth with impunity and feasting on the spoils
Why ?
Asking why is treason, while the jingoistic answer comes so easily

All things have their end
Witness the end of dominion
When power rests on the edge of a sword
It's nothing more than sowing the seeds of violence and resentment
Waging a war on ideology, mired in futility