Madder Mortem Eight Ways 1. Formaldehyde Time bent out of shape A swirl in the waters of Lethe Time stretched impossibly thin Webs beneath the laughter Silence for the master Time striking poses at life A prancing and prideful accountant Time dragging cold feet behind Webs beneath the laughter Breathe the sticky sweet (It is the way, it is the way, the only way) Never-ending rooms where nothing seems to move Breathe the sticky sweet (It is the way, it is the way, the only way) Liquid clinging hours neatly stowed away Just endless choking time tracing patterns in the dust Time waiting only to pass at a glance So hungry to find and devour us Time smirks and gloats at our backs, eating all our hope away Time, time, time Time stretched unbearably thin Webs and woe and laughter Silence for the master 2. The Little Things Like a rolling tide Like a gentle slide nears the point where you and I converge I won't have you say that my wilful ways is a vast new land just now emerging You know what I am I'm the fire you thought you'd lost I'm that breathless touch of frost The one spell that will endure The cancer and now the cure And you seem to find a pleasant peace of mind in the fact that I'd take on the world for you Does it strike you then, when you withdraw again, that it might be worth your while to see it through? Make a leap of faith Trust the riddles and the signs Cross that cold, forbidding line Find the trail between the words and chase down what you have stirred 'Cause I know you feel it change From a whisper to a storm From a keyhole to a door From a flow of honeyed brine to your tremors locked in mine I was never moved by serenades beneath my window, but by your gentle touch on my spirit and on me I am! I am spirit, I am clay I am growth and I'm decay I'm a saint ablaze with sin and I end where I begin And I will not be defined by another's set of rules; by a Reason void of Truth My own path is mine to choose, but my heart is all for you It's the little things, like this need to sing Like the way your voice resounds in me Like the way you resound in me 3. Armour I'm handing in my guns now I will stop slipping away like sand between your fingers For better or for worse, I yield to you I will lay my armour down, claim the hunger and the words that were always on my mind Any triumph breeds defeat Any blessing holds a curse but for once I won't let go You laugh at all my twists and turns The stories I tell find a home in your memory And by now it is too late to run, so I yield to you I will lay my armour down, claim the hunger and the words that were always on my mind Any triumph breeds defeat Any blessing holds a curse but for once I won't let go You see me like no other And I have tired of staring it down, tired of turning to find it all too strong, too strong to let it go 4. Resolution When the time and the place is not my own I'm okay just as long as you are around It's just like Eden's door is ajar and desolation's peeking out Coiled like a snake lies the shadow of a doubt that gnaws at the roots of my heart and dismembers my peace When I'm caving in When I loose myself too far from home you'll kill the distance But I'll close my eyes, close my ears, close my mind and put my head down and run Is it a coward's heart that trembles in your hand? There's a fear in me you will never understand, but beneath that fear there's a will of steel and I think you know Then there's just the little matter of where and when you need to make a stand Make yourself clear, I'm damn sure that you can A token of will and resolve is long overdue I need to know I can depend on your sight, that you know the difference between what's not wrong and what is right and I'll sing and I'll scream 'till you hear me But it's all right - I don't mind Build your own words, make your own time You've got nothing to prove I know you hold I know you hold 5. A Different Kind Of Hell There are many names for the place I'm in It's a different kind of hell There is room enough but too many stairs No one asks and no one tells With each door you pass, another set of traps revealed Pin-on smirks that smell like fear See behind the pretty faces There's just no substance underneath It's all a game, and how I hate it when all their fancy words turn out to mean the same Let it seep - let it slide Let it fill you up You'll feel the little cracks appear The venom dancing in your blood You're coming just in time to see me tear See behind the pretty faces There's just no substance underneath It's all a game, and how I hate it when all their fancy words turn out to mean the same Just a little hope stretched far too long It's different kind of hell Just a different kind of hell 6. Riddle Wants To Be This ordeal has made you fret, but you know it's not that bad We thought ourselves beyond its reach Well, it seems we've both been had See, it flows so easily A ruthless piece of art And it grows and speaks of mysteries to be And flips itself to show the deuce of hearts The riddle wants to be It rubs our noses in nature's demands and it wrestles our dearest doubts out of our hands There is a balance of hope and despair How we bleed for it! In our need for it all sense disappears The riddle wants to be 7. Where Dream And Day Collide There's a man far from here who made sure to stay well clear of taking hold or letting go, always choosing not to know But then his bridges burned Sometimes still he stops and turns, listening to open skies for broken words and severed ties And I believe that wordless call he hears sometimes could reach us all I stayed for so long where dream and day collide Now I'm on fire There's a girl, one I know, who wrapped up her heart in snow Much too proud and much too vain, she thought she could hide her pain in that clean and crispy chill To this day, she feels it still Once frozen to the core, she's not who she was before And I believe that chilling cold she feels sometimes could touch us all I stayed for so long where dream and day collide Now I'm on fire Let it freeze, let it burn Someday soon it is your turn to fall down as others fell As they wept, you will as well 8. The Flesh, The Blood And The Man This morning reeks of disaster A storm waits to unfold Lover, come feed me your silences Words could be too sharp and cold Don't leave me out I search for signs beneath each stone you're turning I don't know how to keep myself un-bound Oh, lover, you smile me such promises and then you veer away and bring my heart back down Don't leave me out Fight! It's too easy to slip into lethargy Crack a smile to uphold the illusion of truth Close your eyes and keep getting lost in modality or make your peace with the flesh and the blood and the man Here comes the haze again Restless thoughts that chew through their tails much too soon No answers, but no end to slick replies, empty and useless and groomed Fight! It's too easy to slip into lethargy Crack a smile to uphold the illusion of truth Don't close your eyes Stop getting lost in modality Make your peace Make your peace with the man 9. Get That Monster Out Of Here So now the bringer of unease has reappeared He has dared to show his face within our walls His visage hidden in the mouldy earth and his fingers in the waters I had calmed His intrusion is a presence in the air and the fire is a nuisance to our hearts and he's showing off the secret little thoughts we kept apart And then the trap will spring Nip our heels and make us bleed Just as we found our ease pops a monster out Behold the travesty! Get that monster out of here! He is steadily uprooting all our plans, letting loose the sordid demons we had bound Turning all our dainty gestures upside down and misplacing all the footholds we had found Every corner holds a shadow to expose, every closet has a skeleton to show, and he's proudly re-displaying all we worked so hard not to know And then the trap will spring Just around our time of need I fear the change he brings Get that monster out of here Behold the travesty! Get that monster out of here! I will mask the wounds I could not heal while you set your resolve We'll be laughing at some joke we played while our options dissolve It is only fate, my love Who could wear it down? Behold the travesty! Get that monster out of here! 10. Life, Lust & Liberty You know that something's coming and even fools would see the signs So let's set fire to heaven and smother hell between our thighs And we will live and we will breathe (As it will always be) All the world right at our feet It is our right, it is our place (As it will always be) Life and lust and liberty In golden fiery letters Your wicked streak brought forth to shine So strong and so elusive, a waking dream that is all mine And we will live and we will breathe (As it will always be) All the world right at our feet It is our right, it is our place (As it will always be) Life and lust and liberty We go beyond the shells of flesh that hide the burning souls Roaming free or fettered down - the choice is all our own 'Cause fate is just a string of bets we place as we go And we will live and we will breathe (As it will always be) All the world right at our feet It is our right, it is our place (As it will always be) Life and lust and liberty See how we go 11. All I Know All I know is the light of lanterns hanging from the trees and the sound of the heart that beats to keep me here And then the darkness falls (It always does for the likes of us) Stripped of voice and thought and cold on the ground I fall between the stars All I know is the path that led me out here on my own where there's no time A lonely place for old and frozen stone And the darkness falls (It always will for the likes of us) The distant burning suns of other worlds singing dreams of ruthless light All I know is the light of lanterns hanging from the trees and the sound of my heart beating inside of me 12. The Eighth Wave Time floats so slow here We won just to lose Here all walk solemnly No light shines through Here the waves break for you Deep blue the spell on us Old, sick and drained All creation turned its face away to leave us blind and torn and failed Here the waves break for you Nothing stirs the underneath Our hearts are so cold Up above bright life ebbs and flows Salty tears below Here the waves break for you Always Here the waves will break For you