Subrosa
For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
1. Despair Is A Siren
Let down a rope
I know there is another world
In their geometry
Is a straight line to a living death
The earth is shifting like a plate
My skin doesn’t fit anymore
I’m hanging by the noose of their lamp cord
I see the bars of the cage
Like paper dolls we’re linked here
Homesick for chains
In their gilded whalebones
We gasp and wilt away
The earth is shifting like a plate
My skin doesn’t fit anymore
I’m writhing in the flame of their ghost lights
I see the bars of the cage
Despair is a siren calling through the night
The earth wraps itself in a shroud
I curse my fate, I curse my free will
In you, I see the glass towers coming down
In you, I see something that died in me fester and ignite
I’m not sleeping in glass chambers
Who’s the dead one now?
My stand lives on in gas chambers
Who’s the dead one now?
2. Wound Of The Warden
The wound of the warden
From cradle to the grave
The senseless apprehension
Of freedom’s wily ways
I know one day they’ll be grateful
I know one day they’ll worship me
Choice is too precious
To be wasted on vermin
That’s how we’ll keep them
Sheltered, fetal, fed and glutted
The sweet drug of anesthesia
Hell is easy to find
And I know that in time they’ll be glad I kept them blind
I will save you, I will absolve you
I will spare you, I will rob you
I’ll take upon me the canker of knowledge
I’ll take upon me the fetid price of glory
How great it is, the transcendent goodness
The self-assurance of the pure
Suffering eases at the gates
And laughter ceases at the gates
Someone above you always knows better than you
There’s something comforting in the stranglehold of a shepherd’s crook
How great it is, the transcendent goodness
The self-assurance of the pure
Not one misstep, not one mistake
All calculated for our sake
Like children we’ll step into the fire
3. Black Majesty
Isn’t it good to be acquainted with darkness,
To caress it gently, to slit its throat,
To know the hidden pockets, caves and grottos of the mirrored landscape,
To catch a glimpse of black majesty,
To know there’s more horror to this existence than anyone could ever know,
Standing in the shadow of our own?
Isn’t it beautiful
To know exquisite remorse,
To see the truth that drives men fleeing into early graves,
To be wise, to dream every day of a great escape, of a Houdini blade?
We love the taste of false perfection – the more the lies, the more we laud.
Isn’t it beautiful to live and die alone, to carve a path out of unyielding stone between the crushing narrow divide of the war of two tribes steeped in a hate so narrow and deep it leaves two inches of earth on either side to save you from the final breath-taking fall into a deep hush – a silence so profound that your ears run and melt with the deafening sound?
4. Il Cappio
L’amore e come un cappio che ti strozza
Che ti lascia sospezo a mezz’aria
Senza respiro, senza forze, indifeso
Come una marionetta
5. Killing Rapture
Revealing love to be a test tube of untidy sludge
Is the greatest triumph of the modern era
Evolution belies this unfortunate defect
We’re smoothing out the gross chaos of biology
Antithesis to precision
A threat to order and reason
Inverse of numbers
The fruits of the heart are a useless and troublesome thing
A waste of time, thief of quota and peace of mind
Rapture is such an inefficient emotion
With the surgical arts, we’ll free them from their foolish hearts
To feel is the enemy
To be a dead tomb is a mercy
Hanno combattuto la battaglia della loro vita per questo
Per essere fatti a pezzi, per venire ridotti al nulla
The time has come to take someone, anyone
Courtship is no more than a menu of flesh and blood
We’re interchangeable as dung at the city dump –
A city laid waste, where everything’s been decided for us
So get a ticket
Erase all difference
Undo the burden of identity (your body is not your own)
6. Troubled Cells
There, beyond the windowsill
Lies the child that we all dread
An affront to our ease and our lassitude
A thorn in our side
How soon will she die?
Now every road I take, no matter how far
Leads me back here again, convicted by your smile
And every waking dream, and every wasted hour
Seems veined with a disease that I cannot escape
Soft music plays on the gramophone
A fire in the grate, arm around your wife’s waist
Warms your crocodile tears
As you think of the child under the cellar stairs
When will she disappear?
If there’s no way through for you, there’s no way through for me
I refuse the cool gardens, I reject my honored seat
If there’s no way through for you, there’s no way through for me
I don’t need the golden banners, I don’t need the vain embrace
Now, every road I take, no matter how far
Leads me back here, convicted by your smile
All is veined with a disease that I cannot escape
For troubled cells do not a healthy body make
There is no greater good if you’re trodden underfoot –
There is no greater good.
Paradise is a lie if we have to burn you at the stake to get inside
Paradise is a lie if you’re not by my side
Rebecca Vernon: guitars, vocals
Sarah Pendleton: violin, vocals
Kim Pack: violin, vocals (backing)
Andy Patterson: drums
Levi Hanna: bass
Lyrics in plain text format
