Madder Mortem
Red in Tooth and Claw
1. Blood on the Sand
There's no blood on the sand
There's no sand anymore, there's no sky
There is nothing but dreams
And how the stomach burns
since the last stone fell
When I lick my wounds I can taste your relief
But in anything you touch I will be
I am the space between your hands Wait for me, wait for me
Set the world on fire for me
In anything you touch I will be
And you will not understand
Wait for me, wait for me
Set the world on fire for me
You shed bad dreams as you writhe
I curl around the edge to tuck a little mouthful to sleep
Don't let a single blow miss
Just sink your teeth
There's no choice anymore
There is nothing but belief
In anything you touch I will be
I am the space between your hands
Wait for me, wait for me
Set the world on fire for me
In anything you touch I will be
And you will not understand
Wait for me, wait for me
Set the world on fire for me
Let me sing it like you made me
May it bring you what you gave me:
Old eyes to see for you
New heart to bleed for you
In anything you touch I will be
I am the space between your hands
Wait for me
2. If I Could
This goes out to you
Once you were my friend
Someone who could go on
where I would turn and run
But we were different then, not so worn
When last I heard your voice,
you sounded like a ghost
And now you're almost gone
I'm so sorry
This will not turn out as it should
I'm so sorry
And I would change it if I could
Broken hearts are fragile
The shards are sharp as knives, and bitterly cold
The strength that drew you in
became the wall that shut you out
You ran, never looking back,
and anyone who cared was made a liar
But a safe road is hard to find
when there's nowhere left to go
I'm so sorry
This will not turn out as it should
I'm so sorry
And I would change it if I could
And I've spent too many hours diving back down in the mud
to find some meaning in a madness that I never understood
I am tracing, step by step, the rot and where it first took hold,
back through the promises you've broken and the lies you must have told 'Cause something must have chased all the softness from your face Turned your eyes into a visor, pushed that hard mouth into place
Some doors, when they've been closed, will not open for a grin
There's no one on the outside
And there's no way back in
I'm so sorry
This will not turn out as it should
I'm so sorry
And I would change it if I could
I’m so sorry
3. Fallow Season
Bad blood wells from the troubled ground
where prophets breed and faith comes cheap
like fast words spilled from a careless mouth
They’re hollow leeches, preying on our minds
Small men kneel at the riverside
This will be a fallow season
Twelve dogs leashed in a salesman's yard
Their bellies full, their fangs are greasy
No fire, no dreams, no chase at heart
The wild hunt has been tamed
These are the signs
Small men buy what they can't deny
This will be a fallow season
And the darkness will surround us
Shadows grow like walls around us
Rats and preachers hide in the corners
Draw your knives
It ain’t over
Let the greedy strangle the blind
Small men fall and their cities die
Let this be a fallow season
4. Pitfalls
Close your eyes, go to sleep
Some things are just what they seem to be
I don’t care for artful games
Never doubt just what you mean to me
I chased my heart out on my sleeve
There it stays to guess at who you want to be
And you may use it as you need
For what it's worth, I think it is the best of me
Strangely wrought, but freely given
If you need it, have it all
And in time you'll chase your demons off
You'll run with the fire without burning out
And if all should fail, you know I'd be there still
I'm frail of heart, but I'm strong of will
These are the facts
Small things you might need to know some day
So let your mind wander for a while
You have the time
The strangest dreams may yet come alive
You’ll be all right
Where you go is not my business
But if I can, I'll guide you home
And in time you'll chase your demons off
You'll run with the fire without burning out
If you fall, if you fail, you know I'll be there still
I may be frail of heart, but I'm strong of will
These are the facts
Small things you might need to know some day
There’s a minute in each hour when the thought is hard to hold
There’s a hollow right at my doorstep where the draft is bittercold,
and the pitfalls are too many and too close
Some things are inconvenient to know
That’s how it goes
These are the facts
Small things you might need to know some day
if your world should come apart
You might need to know some day
5. All the Giants Are Dead
No oath guards their dreams
No hope molds their schemes
Down comes the curtain, up goes the puppetry
Here come the moguls, dressed for the upper seats
Name us hands and peasants
Know our mettle when we crawl
Curled beneath our lintels
for a hammer that may fall
Once the backbone, titans bent beneath the right
Now a plump, decaying featherbed that smells of knives
Rank pretenders, spurring us to lay our lives
in the hands of the profiteers who'd eat the light
Loud teeth made to gleam
Won't be if they can seem
warm like a person, cold like consistency,
true like a newborn, whole like integrity
Charming layers of menace Sleek suits, coming when they go
Not one turn not planned
The smiles, the ties, the yammer
There's a stern wind singing in the trees tonight
Find your strength in the will of root, it stays alive
Make no tombs for the vermin built to warp your sight
By our blood and soil: This effigy, it dies tonight
All the giants are dead
6. Returning to the End of the World
I'm coming down to pick a short straw
To draw a fate out from a hand
To sever ties I was not made for
To ease the burden while I can
Stay until it's over
'Till those lights are out of range
It won't change a thing
But it makes it easier to take
You'll feel the slow hills behind me
Down there the road ends, and it's done
Did you mean to divide me?
It doesn't matter, anyhow
Stay until it's over
'Till that light is out of range
It won't change a thing
Just makes it easier to take
You see, the spell must break at dawn
If you look back, I will be gone
And everybody's on their own
What's yours is yours and yours alone
Reach out into cold, empty air,
like no one was ever there
And you are running out of time
If there's a way out here, it's mine
At the end, call my name
7. Parasites
You never learned to share
You always thought you were the one
who would land on your feet
No matter who, no matter how
Look behind you, baby, and you'll see
the doors are slamming shut
Listen to the whispers
and the queasy feeling in your gut
Your path was undisturbed by woes and cares
You struck gold at every turning
We were left with scraps and trinkets
tucked between the bodies left behind
Hiding in us, filthy parasites
Worming through us, greedy and malign
As they grow, we can't tell worth from price
Eat us hollow, treacherous and blind
But your spoils will come to lose their shine
You'll wake each day to feel the noose is tighter
'Cause nothing rings as loud as truth
and you will learn there is a price to pay
Because we know the day will come
when we'll stand over you and look down in your eyes
and we will smile at you
And we will tell you that your luck ran out
and your life has been a barren, empty waste
Hiding in us, filthy parasites
Worming through us, greedy and malign
As they grow, we can't tell worth from price
Eat us hollow, treacherous and blind
8. Stones for Eyes
No one knows it like you do:
If it's spoken, then it's true
How you rumble in my ear
You're in the way of how I'm thinking
And I won't let anyone
sit back and waste my time
No one!
Mazes, bold and shiny new
High hopes, showy interludes
Silver linings kill my clouds
Your tinsel-town, I do not want it
Perfect faces in a swarm
This is where I draw the line
You'd give me stones for eyes
to see the heartland
through inner city tears
Lost without my kind
Plastic painted people
You claim it is a home
and try to win me over
by telling me I'm wrong
You may choose your fortress
But this is mine
You'd give me stones for eyes
to see the heartland
through inner city tears
Lost without my kind
Sidewalks kill the spirit
I've seen it all along
You won't win me over
by telling me I'm wrong
This is my voice, my way
Why would I let you undermine it?
Choose your fortress
This is mine
You'd give me stones for eyes
9. The Whole Where Your Heart Belongs
There's a place by the water where the sea stands to win,
where the waves bend their heads as if in grief
And there's a hole in the levee where the tide washes in
You'd be amazed at what is left when it recedes
Songs buried with a friend
drift back to flood your eyes again
Drowned, renounced, disowned
they crawl back home to grow
And it seems it never will let you go
and never, oh, never fade
The hole where your heart belongs
will remain
Don't turn your back on that dark pool
What it swallows, it keeps,
forever rolling in the billows
You know that if the wind turns inland,
breakers white over the shoals,
all it carries will be flung back up on the shore
'Cause some things have no end
The waves will bring them back again
to join their own
Sad and cold and slow
And it seems it never will let you go
and never, oh, never fade
The hole where your heart belongs
will remain
Dead things born again
Dead things brought home again
You know it won't let you go
and never, oh, never fade
The hole where your heart belongs
will remain
10. Underdogs
Wake a beast that sleeps
Feed it right: Love to wake it, pain to make it grow
And feel it claw its way up through the dirt
until the beat is running through you
Puns and whispers, words that weep:
This is what I chose to be
Name yourself to run with the underdogs
It withers if you tame it
It withers and is gone
And no matter how you play it,
it's still my song
We've died to give it life
Down below, where the music is relentless and the truth is colder
Where old kings fall apart we tore our gods to shreds
and fed the bitter pieces to each other
Break your back on entropy
and swallow down the legacy
Pay your dues to howl with the underdogs
It changes as you name it
It changes and moves on
And no matter how you play it,
it's still my song
So take my love and fear and dreams
and all the secrets that my tomb will hold
Make from the ghosts that crowd my mind
a single thing that will hold
The bruised and seething hearts believe
and bleed for it so faithfully
And when it grows and roars, it feeds
back into to those who made it be
to be eyes for those who lost their sight,
and strength for those who lost the fight,
A tongue for what you cannot speak
and life for all that couldn't be
And nothing you can say or do
will ever take that away from you
But it can't be shared with anyone
who doesn't know or won't belong
'Cause all your soul is what it takes
Hold your heart out 'till it breaks
Then you own the music of the underdogs
Lyrics in plain text format
