1. THE HIGHER SIDE OF LOW

Swallowing an ocean of absence
Soaking in the tortured admissions and passionate denials
The absent friends and enemies, the manufactured threats
The crushing weight of memories are all that I have left
The absence of feeling - no love, no pity, no hate
And the absence of anything as what's left of me
Drowns in waves of mindless apathy, submerged in total despair
Dilute the venom of misery
See the world through the bottom of a glass
As all sensation separates from a numbing heart
Another dosage of the antidote suffocates emotion before it starts the same depression
The same fear...constant frustration at the same reflected stares
...but cold flesh protects my mind like a clear, smooth, hard bottle-glass skull
From crushing volumes of nothing


2. MAY BE MONITORED TO ASSURE QUALITY CONTROL

Our teeth break on nails yet we chew on them still
As moths to a flame
No one is saved
No one still lives
Driven by guilt and greed and numb to all extremes
And you want everything in arms reach
Gorge yourself on images and promises
But what do you have? What do you feel?
What do you want besides more?
What is your definition of what is real?
Who uses you and what for?
Sculpted, written in stone: the myth of "satisfaction"
Reach out for the intangible
Chase your fantasy in to the wasteland
Shit breeding shit - this what is left of us
Shit breeding shit - what has become of us?
"give me convenience or give me death"
This is what rapes us, makes us and breaks us every fucking day


3. RELEASE THE CURE

Our pain is profit, health is poverty
Unveil the truth - we've swallowed lies
They've stripped us clean - tied us to their machines
One death is tragedy - billions the industry
Epidemics equal revenue
Plugged in for life as you wear that caring disguise
How many more lies am I insured for?
We pay for research while we live in disease
So sick and tired as we wait...(for you to)
Release the cure
How many more lies are you prepared to sell?
I'll swallow another pill as I drown in my wishing well
Searching for something more by the light of a fading torch
Weeding us out, keeping us down - involuntary unnatural selection
Bleed out the money before we are dead
Force us to wait as the infection spreads
All this time the clock is ticking


4. THROUGH THE WASTELAND GO SEARCHING WE

Through the wasteland, forward to death
Closer to it with every step
In stale air we draw a breath
In the midst of life we are in debt
And closer still with every step
Through the wasteland forward to death
Once we were so young and lived so carelessly
Now through the wasteland go searching we
Life feeds on life - as parasite to host
Dust returns to dust
And in god we rust....slowly, in god we rust
Wastelands of regret like you could never imagine
Trying hard to forget defeated aspirations
But each day your hands shake in fear of what comes next
What comes next?


5. TUNNEL VISION

Self preservation - the end of ambition
Life is so long when you spend it waiting for
All the things you'll never be getting
Everything you don't deserve is everything you want
You think you deserve everything you want
Now you're getting older
Your whole life is over
The glass stares right back - you watch yourself disappear
In the bathroom mirror - like so many others
In tunnel vision we see ourselves with eyes wide open
Lying awake at night hating ourselves
For not living the life that we should have led
Life is so long when there?S nothing worth living for
Life is so long when there?S no one else
This is not what you'd call living...


6. BURNING SAINTS

Where is the center of the world?
Arrogance is ignorance, arrogance is blinding
Empires are temporary - every government is temporary
No standard prevails - nothing lasts forever
Your assimilation is at hand
Shield your eyes from the sun and kneel and pray
Waiting for the destruction of the new roman empire
Waiting for the end of televised war and plastic culture
Reaching across the world and spreading like a fucking cancer


7. CRAWLING

You're running away from your enemies
You submit to every attack
Everybody gets their chance to wrap their hands around your neck
This is how life imitates death
Nothing changes - nothing moves
Spend your final hours hearing roaches crawl across your casket lid
Hear the soil falling over your head
It buries you - weakness
Crawling on floors and trying to hide yourself in dirt and in cracks
Disaster follows you so cross your filthy fingers behind your back
Circumstance makes you the victim
That's what you want to believe
But you become the vermin that you hate when you let weakness keep you safe
Let's just say that I went back inside to pull you out
Then you said that you'd much rather crawl
Let's just say that I left you there to rot away
You're so determined - chest dragging...
CRAWL - you're crawling
While I live, I may fail - but I will never be weak


8. SAVE ME

Where did you go and where were you running to?
How could you not know I would come after you?
This comes and goes in waves and in spirals
Nothing is permanent - nothing is final
Save me
Where did you go and where were you running to?
And so you asked but why should I answer you?
That's one thing I never told anyone
Because I'm saving that for when the end comes
Save me
Save me from the great white noise
Save me from the spirals and the tides
Save me from the passage of time


9. DEAD

Every day is another nail in your coffin
Sealed inside and forgetting all light
Take as much as you can -shove it down
And coke on the best years of your life
This is life - so welcome to it
This is life - it's the way it is
This is life - so get used to it
This is life - it doesn't get any better than this
Sacrifice every part of yourself and each day you will never get back
And no matter how much you give
They will still take it - take it all away
Take it - take it all away
You will never survive this life
You gave too much of yourself away
You can't survive this life - you're dead
You've sealed yourself away
Sealed away from the rest of the world


10. SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

Authority is based on nothing but intimidation
They live to instill fear to compensate for the courage that they lack
Their power is an illusion kept alive by those it abuses
And by those who sit back and watch while others suffer the subjugation
So I won't break and I won't bend
No compromises - I'm not giving them another inch
I won't break and I won't bend
Their power is a fucking lie
It's false power - their power is nothing but a lie
Acknowledging the power structure is the first step towards allowing it to dominate you
By living inside the system's confines you allow yourself to be controlled and supervised
Constantly under their surveillance isn't it time you recognized what it means to live above and outside their laws
By obeying your very own moral code?
Hasn't too much time been wasted staying right where society placed you?
Aren't our lives far too short to waste even one more minute standing in line? Yes!
When no one fears them
No one respects them
No one runs from them
Watch them as they disappear
Their power is a lie


11. AT THE WAKE

How does it feel? How does it feel?
All of your dreams - well did they ever come true?
And did you get what you want?
How does it feel to be alive?
Stare into the eyes of all your dead friends
You're the one that did this to them
Stare into the eyes of all your dead friends
All these ghosts no longer children
Stare into the eyes of all your dead friends
You were met with resistance
You fought hard, you persisted
Now look back on your transgressions
Head in hands
This is your punishment - and this is your penance
This is your reward - trophies and tombstones
How does it feel to be alive?


12. THIS TIME TOMORROW

Carve your name into my chest
Burn myself down till there's nothing left
Concrete rushes up to meet my fading heart
Death is the climax of all emotion
Tear me down - let me fall
What we once held so dear disintegrates in our hands
This time tomorrow - where will I be?
This time tomorrow - where will you be?
This time


13. END OF A SHORT ROPE

Waking up suicidal
Penniless, broken and a wasted
Getting used to the desperation - the sweat, the panic
Can't find a reason to maintain this charade
Why the fuck should I keep going when every day gets more meaningless?
What do you want me to say? Everything is not ok
I used to think that I was good enough
But now the easiest decisions are just too much
You have your status and all of your money so don't presume to understand
So don't patronize me privileged fucker
You could never know what it's like to feel so starved
At the end of a short rope
At the end of every night - ask yourself
What is left of your life?
It's a disease