1. Retrospect

If ever we were innocent, that time that came and went.
Looking back we'll hang our heads and say, "All things change."
At the start of this you have no idea.
Barring precognition you just couldn't know how merciless all of this
would seem from here and now but regret is just a game for fools,
Barring hindsight there would still be disbelief lingering, bearing down.
In retrospect, we can laugh at how obvious it is when the pillars go
But when it's all collapsing around your feet it seems you're always the last to know.

2. Prelude (Again)

It begin with this.
This is a declaration of intent.
We're taking back all those somber years we spent full of days we wasted wishing we had stayed in bed.
Our debts are paid in ink and blood for all the things we've said this is a statement of our will.
We're not going down in history for standing still.
We are racing against the sun.
Our debts are pain in ink and blood for all the things we've done
We're making blood oaths, we're making promises to ourselves and hoping someone's listening.
Our debts are paid in ink and blood
Kiss the ground goodbye for a while.
Fare thee well, everything we knew.
We're trading in our lives for a song and hoping beyond hope that it'll see us through.
We're doing our best to make good on this.
Fare thee well, everything we knew.
We're trading in our lives for a song and hoping beyond hope that it'll see us through.
So what have you got left now?
You're gonna have to dig real deep,
We're paying off our debts in ink and blood, 'cause these are promises that we intend to keep.

3. Here Come The Rains

I've been thrown in to this mess now I'm just trying to survive.
This is the sound of a young man breaking ties.
Out here nothing makes sense, I cant decipher fact from pretense.
This is the sound of a young man breaking ties.
This is a convoluted attempt to find some source of hope, this is the sound of letting go.
You might feel the urge to turn back now, cause we know it just gets worse and worse.
Regrettably this might just be a waste of time.
It just deteriorates verse by verse.
If you're still reading along be warned, its the kind of thing that ends in a dot dot dot.
If you know what I mean just hang your head, it's the kind of thing that ends...
Dark skies for ominous times.
These days, they just get worse and worse.
Now that you know how this ends you can get started making amends, it just deteriorates verse by verse.
If your still reading along be warned, its the kind of thing that ends in a dot dot dot.
If you know what I mean just hang your head, its kind of thing that ends...so just read along

4. Permanence

This is the end of days that source and cure of all our pain was hidden deep in the grooves of record skip refrain.
No, theres no coming back from nights like these.
We'll write melancholy anthems, to commemorate disaster.
Bookmark this page cause this is where things fall apart.
Remember these days cause this is how downward spirals start these are the things I never wanted to say,
this is a place I never wanted to be...
So let it all come crashing down on me.
This is permanence.
This is youth's last dance.
This is the end of days that I could look you in the eye and tell you nothings wrong.
Darkened halls doomed phone calls, take this down, cause we're telling all with melancholy anthems to commemorate
disaster.
Bookmark this page this is where things fall apart
Remember these days, cause this is how downward spirals start.
These are things I never wanted to say, this is a place I never wanted to be...
So let it all come crashing down on me.
These are the things that we never ever wanted to know, with smiling scars across our throats,
If the good die young we'll fucking live forever.

5. 4/8/05

(инструментал)

6. Polygraph Cheaters

Don't believe a word of this, don't believe a single thing you hear.
We're sinners and we'll surely get sainted while real saints will simply be tainted.
Don't believe a word of this, don't believe a sing thing you hear.
Sometimes villains deserve your applause cause our heroes are tragically flawed.
Medic! Medic!
Man down and we're losing him fast.
Forget it
Forget it.
That last breath was his last.
Medic Medic.
We were seconds to late.
Don't believe a word of this, don't believe a single thing you hear.
These things are romanticized, but in the end they're only colorful lies.
Don't believe a word of this don't believe a single thing you hear.
The poetry of a stone hearted cynic and all the demons that I've broken bread with.
Medic! Medic!
Man down and we're losing him fast.
Forget it Forget It.
That last breath was his last.
Medic Medic.
We were seconds to late.
This is the sound it makes when it all comes crashing down.
We're arsonists among architects, and we'll burn this fucker to the ground.
This is the sound it makes when it all comes crashing down.

7. Deliver Me

Crashing down.
As I reflect on the stories of my youth I dig deep for a kernel or truth these
are the kind of things that keep us up at night I've yet to find those fairy tale
endings save for the times I was just pretending, these are the kind of things that keep us up at night
What does it mean when we mean what we say but we keep losing faith every day.
Deliver me from this wasteland, deliver me from feeling alone.
These days, at best are a shadow of what they should have been.
Deliver me from this wasteland, deliver me from feeling alone.

8. Absentee Ballot

A million candles line these streets.
Back home theres just melted wax on the concrete
and I recall a heart so pure it that ceased to beat.
I haven't said nearly enough.
But I've already said far to much.
This is the best and worst things will ever get, so don't forget...
back home they curse our names, but good or bad we all rot the same

9. Broken Teeth

We named this vessel hope in spite of fate but it's taking on water at and alarming rate
Hours and days and weeks spent biting my tongue until my teeth met.
Hours spent days spent, weeks spent biting my tongue until my teeth met.
The sun is out and I'm feeling like the walking dead, completely unaffected by the blood I shed.
Hours spent, days spent, weeks spent.
I bite my tongue, we are the walking dead.
We do this now because we've done it before.
We cling to hope because she floats like a corpse.
The sun is out and I'm feeling like the walking dead, completely unaffected by the blood I shed.
Hours spent,days spent, weeks spent.
I bite my tongue we are the walking dead.
We don't sleep, this is a restless road.
We're getting much too used to burying our own.
Our senses dulled but we still know.
Unaffected by the blood we shed are are the walking dead.

10. 8/27/05

(инструментал)

11. Procession Commence

We're far beyond redemption, and thats why I'm still screaming.
Those saccharine lies that taste so sweet, in the end they only rot your teeth.
We're still disillusioned, and that's why I'm still screaming.
One of us is taken away almost every day.
Everything that I've believed just proves that I'm easily deceived I'm trying to understand that.
I'm tearing out last few pages of every book I own, cause some things I don't want to know.
This is a joke on the grandest scale, and that that's why I'm still screaming.
Paid for by pawns who sense something wrong but still carry on.
This story is fucked, and thats why I'm still screaming.
Theres no denouement, no happy ending, just slow steady decline.
Everything that Ive believed just proves I'm easily deceived.
I'm trying to understand that I'm tearing out last few pages of every book I own,
cause some things I don't want to know.
Heaven please lay waste to this cause no good will ever come of it.
I am a modern day Nero, so hand me a fiddle and a bow,
cause dancing on ashes and graves is the only joy I know.
We're dancing on ashes and graves.

12. Nobody Leaves Without Singing The Blues

We're writing confessions behind locked doors that's all we're good for.
Through this what have we learned? It doesn't matter if you play with fire, either way you get burned
This game was fixed from the start, we don't have a chance.
We're just knocking on deaths door, waiting for an answer.
If you're still wondering what the future holds, it's our names in the brightest lights with burned out bulbs.
Through this, what have we learned? It doesn't matter if you play with fire either way you get burned.

13. Epilogue

Innocence was never seen again.
No goodbyes to family or friends, but we've compiled enough evidence to substantiate rumors of a tragic end.
Hope gave up on being abandoned.
She got sick of reaching out and coming up empty handed.
She left a farewell note and it reads, "May we meet again." We know how this ends....