VOID OF KINGS LYRICS

1. Crossing The Acheron

Together with all the souls,
Flowing ever onward,
Into the mouth of darkness,
Charon ferries forth:
Always rowing, always pressing forward.
Currents converge.
Sirens sing over waxed ears.

Give me your siren disease.
I hear you, you’re calling to me.
And I can’t get enough.
This ship is sinking at best.
And your throat of rust, I can’t get enough.

If ever there was a Hell,
If ever Hades spoke,
I’d know the place of torment,
His song, his signature.
Crossing the Acheron.
If ever Hades spoke,
Crossing the Acheron.

Poseidon, Earth-Shaker, Storm-Bringer,
Drown your chariot here.

Give me your siren disease.
I hear you, you’re calling to me.
And I can’t get enough.
This ship is sinking at best.
And your throat of rust, I can’t get enough.

I’d drink the entire river and name myself Lethe
If I could erase the memory of the day the world fell silent.

2. Wounds

Every morning I look at my reflection
And question who is staring back at me.
Do I choose to be bitter, spiteful,
and quick to make enemies?
All my words are daggers,
My tongue is poisonous.

Always quick to judge and slow with forgiveness,
I keep burning bridges before I finish crossing.
Spiral through the free-fall and pray for solid ground,
Spiral through the free-fall, I can’t find solid ground.

Reaching towards the heavens, looking for a hand,
A hand I’ve never seen in this darkness.

Who can pull me from this darkness?
Stop the tide from drowning me, in a sea of my regret.
When all hope is fleeting, the waves carry me to shore
So I can start again.

Fix my eyes on a new horizon,
free myself from the burden of my past
And pretend who I was yesterday is gone.

Each time that I claim that I have been reborn,
The voice inside tells me that I can never change.
All my words will always turn to daggers pinning me to the wall.
Now I’d die just to feel.

Every emotion I’ve shown has been a clever forgery.
Every memory held regret
And I was dying just to feel something real
Besides the shame of feeling every choice I ever made made hurt you.
If it meant I could feel alive,
I would show the world the truth
And let them take me as I am or cast me aside.
At least I’d feel alive, (feel alive).
Or cast me aside, (cast me aside).

3. Scars

Digging deep into identity
We unearth what’s buried: the purpose in the pain.
So dredge the bay inside of me,
Yeah dredge the bay.
Becoming who I’m made.
Dredge the bay.

All my scars speak to who I am beneath the skin.
I’ll tear away the mask I wore,
And upon release of the weight of the past, recovery will come.
And every breath I inhale will hold inspiration.

I see beauty in the rain, purpose in the pain.
Taste the infinitely sweet in the bitterness of defeat.
Beauty in the rain, purpose in the pain!

And though our scars remain, there is healing.
This broken heart will mend again with every beating.
The darkness breaking, and now I see how every sunrise is a gift.
The weight of the darkness I used to carry
Lifted like a fog and burned away.
I found the life I thought was dead,
And now I’m holding tight to this second chance.

I will not give in. This is resilience.
I will not give in, I am resilient.

These scars are not a weakness in the fabric from which I was made.
They are reminders to spur me on,
To climb onward to higher heights.
Here and now, eyes to the sky,
I’ll pray for strength to stand.
And when all hope is fleeting,
These waves still carry me to shore.
And each time I get back up
I shake away the sands of the past.

I no longer doubt, that I am here with purpose.
There is a design behind the chaos.
We are all refined through struggles we endure,
Let us never forget the wounds
So every breath we inhale will hold inspiration.

And though our scars remain, there is healing.
This broken heart will mend again with every beating.
The darkness breaking, and now I see how every sunrise is a gift.

4. Pathways

You can be the candle clearing the spiders from the tomb,
Showing the faces of the dead to dying men in their graves.
You can be the shovel digging deep into this cavern,
Offering a journey down, six feet under ground.

Or, on the other hand, you can be the lightning,
An electric thread of light showing the path between the heavens and this hell.
You’ll cut the darkness in two and send it to the corners of Earth.
You’ll shoot through the storms, with sights set far and wide.

The choice is yours: where will you be?
The choice is yours, we are that free.
This is your life, you get one shot.
What will you do with the time you’ve got?

If you’ve got hope in the palm of your hand,
If you’ve got love inside a beating heart,
If you’ve got faith or a soul renewed,
Never let it go, never let go.

You can be the lighthouse, the ever-present searchlight spinning,
Built on firm foundations, never giving up that spark.
You’ll call the sick to land and bring the wayward back to home,
Calling them away from the tempest and leading the weary men ashore.

Pointing life to death, or pointing death to life,
I know what I would choose. Res ipsa loquitur*.
The legacy is yours alone to leave.
Yours alone to leave!

The choice is yours: where will you be?
The choice is yours, we are that free.

[“Res ipsa loquitur” is Latin for “The thing speaks for itself.”]

5. The Darkest Place

This is the darkest place beneath the brightest light

Shine bright!
A study in contrast: I’ve watched the shadows fall
While beings of light reach to the ends of the universe.

Where there is light there will always be shadow.
Lunar cycles build and collapse,
From new to full and back again.
Night’s horizon is chased by the edge of day.

One thousand moons will pass, one thousand suns will trace
As the Earth breathes in days.
We too fill our lungs in alternating tides
Like waves that crash and then recede.

Oh distant one, darkened to the bone,
Will you bite the hand that feeds and give up on yourself?
You define your life with every breath you take,
Choosing your steps backwards.

I’m learning of the brightest light that I’ll ever know.
There is a lantern within my soul:
A fire placed that God ignites and leads me to show,
Lighting the path before me to blaze!

Feel the power of the heartbeat within your veins.
You are still meant to climb the rocks of the shores,
To stand against the storm. Stand against the storm!
Feel the power of the heartbeat within your veins.

One thousand trees will fall, one thousand plants regrow,
An oscillating dance.
Still we fill our hearts in alternating beats,
And in time we learn to change.
We can change.

This is the darkest place beneath the brightest light.
Do you see the light shining? Reach out, ask.
This is the darkest place beneath the brightest light.

6. H.O.P.E.

[Part I]

I will wait and call your name.
And I will say, “I’m here for you.”
Don’t walk away.

Love is such a short word,
And it takes a lifetime to live out.
Two hearts entangled, two lives twisted into one:
From the top of a tower, from the mountain side,
Standing as giants we screamed,
“We are skyscrapers, we are skyscrapers!”
The sun could bleach the sky,
Over fields as orange as embers,
Our smiles white, our eyes bright,
While dancing in these golden dreams.

Put your hand in my hand,
We don’t need a reason to watch it burn
Put your hand in my hand, it’s only for a season.
I swear we’ll make it.

And the warmth inside could melt the hardened stone,
Cutting off the ties, breaking the chains.
Every word is honey, every thought made of sparks.
Every breath is God, every breath is God!

[Part II]

Love is a four letter word.
And it takes two to fall apart.
Two lives, two separate lives.
Two hearts ravaged. Ravaged.

(What once I thought was honey, left a stinging burn)
Her name inside this heart, her name on everything!
Force the wedge between,
Force contempt down your throat.
Erase the memories with flames.

[Part III]

But what is there to gain from bitterness?
What truth do we uncover when burying each other’s secrets?
We learn to forgive in the time we dig each other’s graves,
And standing in the earth, we find we only buried ourselves.

Be brief, bear your scars,
Hold your hand to the wound and find redemption.
Hold (Put your hand in my hand,)
On (Put your hand in my hand,)
Pain (We don’t need a reason…)
Ends! (to watch it burn.)
Hold (Put your hand in my hand,)
On (Put your hand in my hand,)
Pain (It’s only for a season.)
Ends! (I swear we’ll make it.)
Yeah!

7. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

I dream the most awful of things.
In the morning I wake and my hands are blood red
Because all night I’ve wreaked havoc and death.
I’ve burned down the buildings I have built.
Burned it to the ground. Burned it down!

Alone I manifest the gears that set in motion
The systematic collapse of my sanity.
The clock strikes twelve and dies,
The birds that fly will fall.
Upon this stage I’ll set it straight:
Life and death will tangle.

I am the machine!
While I sleep, I can see what I’ve become.
I am the machine!
My veins are wires, my skin is stretched over steel.

As I stare into the mirror,
With every star ripped from the sky,
No regret, and I’m forgiving myself for what I’ve done.

My chance to get out of this place has come and gone,
Still I’m standing here before the cheval glass.
This is empowerment. This is the fuel in my blood.
Feel the gasoline in my blood,
Feel the gasoline burn.

Through every adversity,
I found a way to justify,
Now look into my eyes!

My nightmares will come to an end
As a red sun rises over head.
Sunlight floods my eyes, washes out my skin,
The long shadows shorten, another day begins.

Life is new every single day,
And every nightmare shows the beauty of the dawn,
But even in the darkness of cold and starless nights
The Earth sleeps aside her mistress in the sky.

8. Conviction

Behind every child that grew up to make a difference,
There’s a life dedicated to a better world,
To build up the strength, to keep fighting.

I saw the need for every heart to beat,
I saw the need for every heart to bleed,
I saw the need for every heart to bloom.
I saw the need for every heart.

Mine was a story of misplaced hope:
You told me I can’t, that I would fail.
Even so I’ve found (without you) I still have a voice.
Can I say…

This is my time. I’ll step up,
I will not shy away. I will not!

This is for you, oh downtrodden:
Do you have the strength to speak your mind?
Then say it with conviction.

Don’t waste a minute holding your breath,
You have the power to change the world.
Find what makes you move, hold it tight.
Say to your brother, “It’s my life!”

And when you speak, speak from the heart!

Say the words, and breathe new life.
Live and let live, love and let love!

9. Foreverwar

The desire of Man is boundless,
The thirst for destruction, endless.
Break free.

When will we believe we’ve dug to the bottom of the barrel?
We’re scraping the floor. There is no more to excavate.

We all fight for control.
Hand over hand, fist over fist.
We all fight for control.

Don’t wait. This breath is broken at best. I know you.
I’ll take whatever you give. This want, we fail to save this.
I know you, I know you.

We’ve turned to industry and the thought of progress,
Forsaking the natural world, as though silicone and electricity
Could somehow replace the sanctity of this place.

Frack the shale, poison the wells,
Gut the mountains, and scar the face of the Earth.
We’re destroying the ground on which we stand.

And if there is a soul tied to the heart of Man,
Would you not want to live to understand?
Break free.

Is this war all we’re fighting for?
Could we fight for something more?
Educate the ignorant, returning hate with grace.
We could transcend this place where
We all fight for control.
We all fight for control.

Don’t wait. This breath is broken at best. I know you.
I’ll take whatever you give. This want, we fail to save this.
I know you, I know you.

What have you gained? Was it worth it?

We all fight for something.
We all fight.

10. Surrender (Bleach The Flag)

I never cut you down, never broke your knees.
Everything is inspiration, except the words you speak.
Kick me when I’m down, pack the wound with salt.
You can break my skin but I would never let you crush my ambitions!

Dear doubter, yeah naysayer,
I am no soothsayer, but my will is strong
And I will lead this one.
There is a difference between us:
The rationalist versus the dreamer.
This is Morpheus bound by Socrates,
The thought of flight layered deep in crude oil.

Wave your colors, dig your feet in,
Show me your teeth, and we’ll prepare for war!

Tribes of the world clash.
We bury the skulls within the earth,
Hide the bones beneath, beneath our ancestors,
And pretend we can hide our guilt below our apathy.

Bleach the flag, bleach the flag.
The earth will bleed its colors,
The eyes will be bled of tears,
The rivers will run dry.
Our flags will be white.
There will be peace.

Our flags will be white.

War has no winner.
Put down your gun,
Rip out your teeth.
Rip out your teeth.

11. Serotinous Seed

The air weighs heavily on my back
And sits as stone on my shoulders.
I wake face down on the ground
With the smoky taste of burned soil.

I open my eyes to a charred landscape
Of trees and homes scorched to black,
Of hills of dark and smoldering ash,
To towering stacks of skulls.
Death blankets the whole earth
Like a dust that spreads its wings
And settles on everything.

The smoke trails on for miles.
We fight just to breathe.
I am the serotinous seed.
Amidst the black I bloom,
Birthed of blood and fire,
Built to prosper in the black.
I am serotinous,
Built to defy the hand of death.

The white sun is smeared behind a charcoal sky,
The bullets of light pierce through the inky clouds.

Blessed with the strength of life,
Blessed with a life in death.
I was made to take the hard road,
Blessed with a curse.

Bring your fire here, call me to rise,
And I will reach the heavens.
I am the serotinous seed!

Raise the siege, raise the flags.
Raise the siege, “Cry ‘havoc!’
and let slip the dogs of war!”

[A serotinous seed (a seed that exhibits serotiny) is a seed that only opens with environmental triggers such as with heat from wildfires or forest fires. The freshly burnt ground after such an event is fertile, and this survival tactic allows Aleppo Pines (Pinus Halepensis), for example, to be one of the first plants to regrow after a fire.]





VOID OF KINGS LYRICS