Napalm Death
Time Waits for No Slave
1. Strong-Arm
Pent up and chewed up at a fleeting glance
Miscontrued in the mood for assistance
Flames fanned with compliance
We all have fallen foul
And forced the striking hand
Indiscriminate and loathe
To now backtrack - see red and fight fast
Punishment is somehow
Always due somewhere down the line
Until this realisation dawns:
Spare the rod and you'll arise
Spare it! Spare the rod and you'll arise
A strong-arm is for bleak times
But spare this rod and arise
Pent up and chewed up at a fleeting glance
Miscontrued in the mood for assistance
Flames fanned with compliance
We all have fallen foul
And forced the striking hand
Indiscriminate and loathe
To now backtrack - see red and fight fast
Flurries of blows to tenuously prove that dialogue
rarely makes things right
Until this realisation dawns:
Talk it through, gain insight
Talk through! Talk it through, gain insight
A strong-arm is for bleak times
But talk it through, gain insight
So spare this rod and arise!
2. Diktat
"To have and hold for all eternity"
Limitations and ambitions are a pretext to falling short
We'll be doomed, marooned and two fatalities
Anomalies in whispered circles
For pledges we could never hope to fulfil
But if it works for you
Then it works because of you
Not a diktat from a guild
For who love is (unflinching) servitude
Castigate or deprecate - they want heads hung in shame
When a union runs its course
For pledges we could never hope to fulfil
Irrepressible, irresponsible love
Is the wild-eyed antitote to cold imperatives
Love is the wild-eyed antidote
To cold imperatives
Love is like the last day you'll ever live
So why lose that spark
When our paths begin to merge?
It's the yoke of absolutes - those pledges
We could never blight in compliance
Love is the wild-eyed antidote to cold imperatives
Love has since been hi-jacked to tether down its whims
Obey, obey, obey so the passion dilutes
Obey, obey, obey, obey, obey, obey, obey
Perhaps under angry clouds of the imagined higher force
Refrain, refrain, refrain
From ending on a high note
Refrain, refrain, refrain, refrain
Refrain, refrain, refrain
Perhaps under angry clouds of the imagined higher force
Perhaps it's this and other such constraints
From which we must divorce
3. Work To Rule
You don't need space to focus
There is no cause to dream
Compulsive gatherer leans over drifters
And the lame to get right to the prize
Stampede at expectation's peak
Blow to blow
Job to job
Work to rule, lauded one
Work to rule with derision
You don't need space to focus;
There is no cause to dream
Run a mile
Dialled in
Work to rule, pre-emptive
Work to rule, primitives
In determinate are the hours
Or minutes to happily take stock
At the point when you return to the earth
Precious little left to objectify and shun
Will you wish you'd broken ranks?
Or was 'living' still a drawback?
Indeterminate-
Your achievements just egocentric figments?
To settle down and be tranquil
The preserve of the idle (!)
Obsessive go-getter means to surpass
Every pleasure and dumb time-waster
Stampede at expectation's peak
Take up slack
Break your back
Work to rule on the rack
Work to rule...and collapse
4. On The Brink Of Extinction
Born between chaos and hatred - a lottery of fate
We sit on the brink of extinction
The world lies in wait
Just a scratch on the surface
Of time that will wash away
We delude ourselves with the notion
That we are here to stay
As life starts to shrink
An impending state of neurosis
Will we awake from this negligent narcosis?
On the brink, the brink of extinction
We're on the brink, the brink of extinction
Locked together in a mindless campaign
It's only now we see
Appreciation is the one redemption
For all that lives and breathes
Like a virus it's conscious - impure
We have farmed disease
It's time now to step back
And find an inner peace
As life starts to shrink
An impending state of neurosis
Will we awake from this negligent narcosis?
On the brink, the brink of extinction
We're on the brink, the brink of extinction
Will we avoid a natural selection?
Do we have the right to survive the failures?
Nature, its force - the scales unbalanced
What's the next step? How do we evolve?
Can we avoid a natural selection?
Do we have the right to survive the failures?
Nature, its force - the scales unbalanced
What's the next step? What can we resolve?
5. Time Waits For No Slave
Sanitize
To blitz every lasting stain
Turning fashioned...
Heads turn
Heads to marvel at plastic landscapes
Heads to fill a vacuum of synthesized grace
Globalise
In continuum to equalise
turning littered...
Heads turn
Heads to forego distinctions to make
Heads to embrace prospects of life in a cage
Plastic landscapes, synthesized grace
Distinctions to make, life in a cage
Time waits for no slave
Just give them convenience upon pain of death
Cut out the middleman
Keep them uniformly spoon-fed
Time waits for no salve
Just give them convenience
Upon pain of fucking death
Honoured cattle-class turning fattened heads
Heads turn
Heads to enthuse in a permanent daze
Heads once longing for flaws to disassociate
Permanent daze, disassociate
Synthesized grace, life in a cage
In one breath you denounce
The authoritarian reach.
Turn of the cheek and you're basking
In the fake sunlight of its grip
6. Life And Limb
Push the envelope further from reality
Banishing the hope, interrogating strategies
Inhumane aggression, isolation jails
Forcing a confession when all else fails
To stand in judgement of a so-called offender
That represents immortal behaviour
Push the envelope from the civilised norm
Push the envelope, catastrophic storm
Stripped of life and limb by this torture germ
Stripped of life and limb just for standing firm
Naked and bound, pain and consideration
Extremely profound, grotesque cooperation
Cruelly implied, no sense of divide
Particular intensity, deception and lies
To stand in judgement of a so-called offender
That represents immortal behaviour
Government task force questioning the source
Widespread abuse
Innocent victims of power misuse
Push the envelope from the civilised norm
Push the envelope, catastrophic storm
Stripped of life and limb by this torture germ
Stripped of life and limb just for standing firm
Psychological intimidation
Traditional methods of interrogation
Polluting our culture, it's prolific, outright
For nothing more than specific insight
A dire killing thrust
To satisfy the lust
When beaten to their death
Lingering aftermath
7. Downbeat Clique
For independence we alone define
Open-ended, not monopolised, it's just as it is.
Does not need overstatement
Don't broadcast it from the rooftops
It's we alone that convene
But radical actor there you are
The radical statesman picking holes
But radical actor there you are
The radical stateman's checklist of faults
But radical actor there you are
In radical terms this target's soft
But radical actor there you are
In radical terms it's power to your lost soul
But radical actor there you are
The radical heights of alienating
To be a cut above - or below.
Infighting starts to establish
A clearly marked distance because image is at stake
Mindlessly stifling, downbeat clique
Down-at-heel, downbeat clique
Infighting starts to establish
A clearly marked distance because image is at stake
Pitifully sniping, downbeat clique
Re-branded morality, downbeat clique.
Exactly what are YOU achieving?
The faithful patron of one conclusion
With reflection, effects are null and void,
It's just as it is
But radical actor there you are
The radical statesman picking holes
But radical actor there you are
In radical terms it's power to your lost soul.
But radical actor there you are,
The radical slip into social structure,
And your threatening alliance with the norm.
8. Fallacy Dominion
Redress effects,
Of past and current discriminations,
Intention to promote access to education
Equality, employment, public institutions
Meekly lamenting racial group victimisation
Intent to destroy traditionalist opinion
In whole or in part - this fallacy dominion
Intent to destroy by reverse definition
Intent to destroy
Long, arcane sliding scale on the population
Rubbishing preferential treatment accusations
An accomplishment to live and learn
In my opinion.
Intent to destroy traditionalist opinion
In whole or in part - this fallacy dominion
Intent to destroy by reverse definition
Intent to destroy
Ingrained affirmative action
Dismays conservative factions
Ingrained affirmative action
Prevention is better than a cure
However obvious or obscure
Prevention is better than a cure
However obvious or obscure.
Quick degradation
At the root and inciting violence
Encouraged prejudice towards ethnic appearance
Oppose the hierarchical machine -
Oppose dominance!
Protest old punishments, free from harassment
Fresh ideology breaks model society
Burning resentment, departing conformity
Inflicted confinement, created anxiety
Ingrained affirmative action
Prevention is better than a cure
However obvious or obscure
Prevention is better than a cure
However obvious or obscure.
Prevention is better than a cure
However obvious or obscure.
9. Passive Tense
Overbearing drive to break loose,
But not to inflict any wounding
Back-breaking social codes
I'm hurtling toward apoplexy
"Conduct inappropriate!"
Cry misappropriating know-alls
Conduct inappropriate!
Institutional oafs break loose
Care to neutralise us human germs
Guidelines they so staunchly espouse
Adjustable once they are exposed
"Lifestyles disproportionate!"
Cry misappropriating know-alls
Lifestyles disproportionate!
Verbal diarrhoea
Virtuous fawning makes my flesh crawl
Are you some God, King and Sage?
Superfluous slurs
Resent, interject, intercept and molest
Superfluous slurs
Entrap, double back
They collapse and entrance
Superfluous slurs.
10. Larceny Of The Heart
Now that the time has passed,
We look back in angst at the past
Now that the dust has cleared,
The ugly head of fear has reared
Was there ever a guiding truth -
A light to silence the cries?
Suspicion is building a case to coutner-attack the lies
Now that time has moved on,
Can we look to the future with hope?
Now that the dawn has returned,
Forget not the sense of pain
Is the world still a masquerade - a deja vu of trauma?
Hidden plans and corrupt ideals
Molest the true spirit to live
We cannot fight what we cannot see
Larceny of the heart
We can't take back
What we didn't know was taken
Larceny of the heart
Now that the time has passed,
We look back in angst at the past
Now that the dust has cleared,
The ugly head of fear has reared
Now that time has moved on,
Can we look to the future with hope?
Now that the dawn has returned,
Forget not the sense of pain
We cannot fight what we cannot see
Larceny of the heart, we can't take back
What we didn't know was taken
Larceny of the heart
Stripped to the nerve we obey
A shadow empire lies in wait
Stripped to the nerve we obey
The pounding pulse of deceit
We cannot fight what we cannot see
Larceny of the heart
We can't take back
What we didn't know was taken
Larceny of the heart
11. Procrastination On The Empty Vessel
Procrastination on the empty vessel
Roll over and over to take a breather
Is this dereliction of duty
To no throw a giant stick in the works?
To labour so rigidly,
Fleeing safe havens of natural beauty
Procrastination on the empty vessel
Toil to the bone so the machines roll on
Is this vague assumption
That a call to a halt will signal our untimely end?
To labour so rigidly, all the safe havens of natural
Beauty just merge into form
Not to be seen, tasted, touched or felt
We don't believe that we have the nerve
We can believe that refusal won't hurt
We don't believe much in... ourselves
Nil retribution on the empty vessel
Bracing ourselves as we smashed our routine
This feels like liberation
Or a call to a halt that signalled
Our untimely end (?)
To have laboured so rigidly,
Barred from safe havens of natural beauty.
We don't believe that we have the nerve
We can believe that refusal won't hurt
We don't believe much in... ourselves
12. Feeling Redundant
The past drags behind us like a dead weight
Prone for the large part, yet piling on the guilt
Bullying, rebuking, lest we re-imagine
Because by moving in the here and the now,
It has become ingrained as given
Directionless, transparent, brittle beings that we are
But consider this:
Those who can't escape the past
Are condemned to repeat it.
They place us in a losing battle
But will we die for any flag? I don't think so.
Quietly unwilling, escorted...
There is little of our choosing.
Disorientated by the noise of custom
It dissipates the present and the future unbalanced,
Excluded for envisioning a new space.
Those who can't escape the past
Are condemned to repeat it
The past gives us oversight
But we have nothing if it is rehashed
Are we so stupefied
That we've run out of steam?
The past can keep us blissfully ignorant
Away from a plunge
Into the (exhilarating) virgin unknown
Are we so fucking drained, that we've run out of steam?
Are we so stupefied, that we've run out of steam?
The past drags behind us like a dead weight
It has become ingrained as given
Directionless, transparent,
Brittle beings that we are
They place us in a losing battle
It dissipates the present and the future
Directionless, transparent,
Brittle beings that we are
But consider this:
Those who can't escape the past
Are condemned to repeat it.
13. No-Sided Argument
Abject...Engulfed...
Assail the heathen you!
Cheer the martyr home
Never drop your guard
Smear campaign against clarity
A no-sided argument
Bite that tongue!
Slum in a turgid rut
Self-flagellate to assure
Pleasures trampled flat
Obligation to those pious myths
A no-sided argument
You seem a brow-beaten husk -
Sheltered from salacious 'everything'
You've reached saturation point -
Every violating human touch
Sets bombs off inside your brain
With turmoil as an epitaph
A no-sided argument
14. De-Evolution Ad Nauseum
Bent double and the vibrancy has gone
Termors upon shutdown of my auto-function
They sold it well:
Contentment with no effort
Domesticated drone lets slip its motor skills
Nothing seems to click
Without my auto-function
They sold it well: Disempowerment
On demand, play dead, play dead, play dead
No verve and no drive, as I passed it all on
Trails of life relieved via my auto-function
They sold it well:
Appeasement and smooth transferal
Do I need to speak? Or emote?
And problem-solve? Or dream anymore?
Have I shrunk in stature or plummeted
Into deep hibernation?
On demand,
Play dead,
Play dead,
Play dead
15. Suppressed Hunger
[Bonus track for Japan]
16. We Hunt In Packs
[Bonus track for Japan]
17. Onmipresent Knife In Your Back
[Bonus track for Japan]
Line-up:
Mark "Barney" Greenway : Vocals
Mitch Harris : Guitars / Backing Vocals
Shane Embury : Bass
Danny Herrera : Drums
2009 Century Media Records
Lyrics in plain text format
