1. |
Arcane Knowledge
08:15
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Arcane Knowledge
Imposed ideology shiny and glittering
Effortlessly navigating inquiry
Evading questions under scrutiny
Demagogues spewing misinformation
Deception expunging the wisdom of the centuries
Of late I’ve suffered feelings of uneasiness
Regarding our current state of affairs
Fervour has rendered logic meaningless
Entitlement negating compassion
First World forcing on all humanity its greediness
I’ve arcane knowledge of what happens when we go to war
Beyond mere history you may have read
Cull revelation from a page of long-forgotten lore
Stop living lies that you’ve been fed
Now more than any other time in history
I’m haunted by images in my head
Consequences of reason’s mutiny
Liberty auctioned to highest bidder
The wealth of nations taxed by legislated misery
Long ago and far away
There might be a place that’s safe for us to stay
Peace might not survive to fight another day
I’ve arcane knowledge of what happens when we go to war
Beyond the history you’ve been read
Cull revelation from the pages of forgotten lore
Shit out the lies that you’ve been fed
Recoil in horror knowing what the future has in store
Foreboding fills my soul with dread
Nations compelled to up the ante and even up the score
Filling their coffers with their dead
I’ve arcane knowledge of where we go when we wage our wars
Places mere mortals fear to tread
Must we keep making the same mistakes that we’ve made before
Can’t we do something else instead?
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2. |
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3. |
Just One More Wish
05:04
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Just One More Wish
If I had more time I might continue this journey
Walking, stumbling, crawling as I fall through this wasteland of desire
You can’t just wish for just one more wish in this plastic corridor
It will only ever leave you wanting more
Never satisfied, a victim of desperate longing
Sowing expectations that the field could not hope to provide
Trapped on the path of least resistance to the emptiness of yore
Leaving to rot the bounty grown before
You can’t just wish for just one more wish in this bankrupt candy store
It will only ever leave you wanting more
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4. |
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Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea
Hard soled shoes clattering on cobblestone streets, avoiding chimney sweeps
Icicles drooping from unkept eaves
Trapped in the prison of the fire escapes and steaming sewer grates
And still the cold rain keeps pouring down, concerned with neither hair nor wedding gown
In characteristically well-heeled fashion another climber falls to his death
From a height he could never hope to achieve
Unwittingly at the time he believed the contrary to be true
But then he hadn’t counted on meeting you
Orchestrated on a subway train to sterilize the pain
Invisible tears dripping from undressed wounds
With uncharacteristically unbridled passion, concealing carefully cloaked contrived plans
To become the one you’d hoped to deceive
Unkowingly at the time you believed that was all you could ever be
But then you’d never counted on meeting me
The thrill of it all, empires rise and fall
Ignoring our trivial little schemes
Oblivious to butterflies flapping their wings
Do ya do ya feel relief or a slight trepidation
At this sudden intrusion into your dysfunctional world?
Forgive this exposition of reality
The chance to see things as they should be seen
Is not everyone’s cup of tea
Would you prefer a return to your fantasy?
Are you not seeing the things that you hoped you’d see
Or is it just me?
Attention focused not on vision’ries, nurturing violent streaks
Inspiration hidden in empty rooms
Lost in the labyrinth of double speak and concrete ink
A reign of confusion teeming down, taking no notice of the deserted playground
With unequivocally nefarious logic a troubling plan presents itself to you
Falling from heights of what you could have achieved
Who would have thought what you thought you believed and the conclusions that led you to
Could become the very thing that dismantled you
Empires rise and fall and still after all
People keep scheming impossible schemes
Unconvinced that things aren’t quite what they seem
Have you become desensitized to your own lamentations?
Were they the portal you might get pulled through from the depths you’ve sunk to?
Forgive this invasion of your reality
It can be hard to see things as they might have been
And things once seen can’t be unseen
Is this a case of mistaken identity?
I think that things should be seen as they ought to be,
But everything’s not up to me
Forgive this exposition of reality
The chance to see things as they should be seen
Is not everyone’s cup of tea
Would your prefer a return to your fantasy?
Are you not seeing the things that you hoped you’d see
Or is it just me?
Should that same subway train with renewed disdain find you on it again
Would you consider altering your point of view?
Or will life be measured in all-consuming hate that you yourself create
And still the cold rain streams down like fear till one day without warning everything just disappears
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5. |
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Whatever Happened to Christmas?
At the very first Christmas
Shepherds heard glad tidings of great joy
Left all they had in the distance
Found a star in a poor baby boy
They tried to sell me their Christmas
Starting one day after Hallowe’en
But the thing that they missed was
They couldn’t sell me what cannot be seen
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Whatever happened to joy and good cheer?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Is it still the most wonderful time of the year?
Somebody handed me Christmas
Pleasant tripe on some holiday card
I see you’re ready for Christmas
Plastic Santa Claus out in the yard
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Whatever happened to peace and goodwill?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Did they grow impatient lined up at the till?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Did it go half price at some boxing day sale?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Is it all just presents and cards in the mail?
Did hearts used to be big ones?
Are they now all just small ones?
If hearts used to be big ones
When did they all shrink to small ones?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Did it get swallowed in some corporate merger?
Whatever happened to Christmas?
Was part of the deal gold, frankincense and myrrh?
It’s time to wake up it’s Christmas
And the time of salvation draws near
If you really love Christmas
Try to keep it each day of the year
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6. |
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Just as the present becomes past so the future will pass into antiquity
Will this all make sense 10 000 years hence after lengthy inquiry?
Welcome to your final dissent made without your consent – a one way trip to fantasy
And now that logic and reason have been charged with treason do you trust your sanity?
Or is this not your cup of tea?
Sorry but our time together's drawing to a close
We spin around and 'round but where we land nobody knows
Don't be sad it's not too much for you to bear
'Cause in the end it's obvious nobody really cares
Just keep your chin up, steel your nerve and don your armour because
If this all goes well we may yet escape hell and secure our place in history
Welcome travelers, please step inside
Enjoy the journey, you're in for a ride
A once in a lifetime chance is all I have to offer you
To play a game no one's ever played
The greatest invitation ever made
Extended to you who've passed up a thousand chances on the way
And if the operation goes as planned
When this is all over you'll understand
The Innocent Victim seeks and now is closing in on you
The conversation that we never had
Your brilliant deception back in Leningrad
The spy that defected chasing shadows in the rain
Still, nothing can harm me until
I have to rise to confront a new day
Consciousness securely locked away
Somehow it all seems painfully obvious now
This could be my last chance to move on
And banish demons I've happened upon
'Cause the life that I once had is gone
How did I suddenly arrive here, surrounded, engulfed by doubt and fear?
A haze of mixed emotion dissolves me as I fall through this gloom
An open empty tomb
Infinity
Maybe all that I see
Was never meant for me – maybe something else is lurking in the darkness waiting to make off with the key
What horrors awaken in this place, here where we meet madness face to face?
St. Dymphna pray for us
Our darkest fears have come true
There’s no returning for us
To anything we thought we knew
Won’t anyone pray for us
Is anything getting through?
The end makes its appearance and draws ever near
Somehow something has escaped through some small opening
Somehow something somewhere’s broken free
Something’s surfaced that somehow for centuries remained unseen
Reality has fallen through a hole in time
Tried, convicted and awaiting sentencing for future crimes
Is all this just the imag’nings of my mind
Beware for what you seek you just might find
Listless on this path I wander
A wayward ship upon the sea
Through it all I can’t stop wondering
What yet lies in store for me
Free me from this spell I’m under
Release me from this mystery
From its enchantment set me free
Evading police at security checkpoints
Frustrating the efforts made by border guards
Slip into the forest and escape in waiting getaway car
Watching all this drama unfolding in my mind’s eye
Oblivious to the shocked looks on the faces of passersby
Questioning their validity and all that that could imply
Devising a plan for the safe return of these passengers in time
Fragments of your mind’s creation lay scattered in the
Realm of time’s unforgiving truth that’s become the history of man
Wise men speaking wise words in tongues none could understand
Infiltration of rebel soldiers from hostile foreign lands
Deliberations are underway for a viable extraction plan
Agents of ill defined affiliation are seeking safe passage into
Clandestine meetings secretly arranged by secret societies
Enemy leaders from enemy nations found secretly cohabitating
Intelligence has gone underground and weaponized the insurgency
But nothing that lies in secrecy can keep itself from being revealed
I’m afraid the time we have together’s nearly gone
And truly wish I wasn’t all you placed your hope upon
If you ever find one you can just walk out the door
Just know things never will return to what they were before
So this is how it ends – this close to being apprehended and the plan is simply to abandon me?
All the things I’ve been conceding I find ever more misleading
Isn’t someone somewhere missing me?
To know what was, is, and what might have been
To see things that nobody else has ever seen
To witness things not even conceived of before
Before you do though you’ll be transferred to another floor
I never asked to be a witness to these revelations or be party to your generosity
Through this barren wasteland am I doomed to roam, a wanderer without a home, without a history?
I have it on reliable authority
Concluding our affairs has taken on new urgency
Sadly you have no idea what you have in store
After fighting in the trenches of this mental war
Doo do do do do...
I’ll never escape the presence of these spectral apparitions
Phantoms haunt me to my bitter end
The cost has been so dear with every fear uncovered here tangled in this animation I suspend
The joy of my childhood lost somewhere in time
Alone in the darkest recesses of my mind
Long gone are those days of innocence of my youth
Who dares to solemnly swear to tell the whole truth?
In an unexpected twist the court has been adjourned
And the verdict of the jury declared overturned
No explanation for this irregularity
Perhaps it’s just a case of mistaken identity
Doo do do do do...
Psychology Professor:
“OK, now we come to this concept of truth, and truth (as I’m sure many of you may recognize) is a bit of a dicey proposition, especially in a world as technologically advanced as ours, because not only are what we believe to be true and what is actually true often two very different things, the line between what we know to be the truth and what we only believe to be the truth has become increasingly blurred. And this becomes even more problematic when you recognize that some people will benefit from convincing others that a lie is actually the truth. This has potentially devastating implications, and here’s one example: A couple of years ago I watched a documentary on a book written by a former, let’s call him an “intelligence operative”. He described how they would go into a foreign country that they had some interest in, for whatever reason, and hire people in the streets to act in what would become “news footage”. He said it was a simple thing to get enough people to act like, say, they were rioting in the streets, to make a convincing “news segment” that would show that there was a great deal of civil unrest in that country. Now, we don’t know whether this type of stuff actually goes on – I think a lot of us suspect that it does – but, that’s exactly the point: How would we know? Now it seems to me in a climate like this it would be very easy to manipulate large numbers of people into believing things that have no basis in any actual reality...”
...and with that our time together now comes to a close
You’ve sacrificed so much it’s such a shame no one will ever know
I know you’re sad I know you wish someone would care
But how much more time will you waste chasing things that might not really be there?
Why don’t you let your guard down, calm your nerves, sit back and tell us
Do you think things went well? Do you think you’ll escape Hell? Did you mark your place in history?
And at the very least did you manage to free yourself from your captivity?
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Falling Edge Ontario
Surviving a number of lineup changes since its inception in 2006, Canadian prog rockers Falling Edge have just released their 4th album. Featuring Rob Kovar on drums and background vocals, and Chris Rupert on everything else, the album features their most ambitious effort to date - the epic 27 minute Final Dissent (Into Madness?). ... more
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