centuries past

Lyrics

(Verse 1)
(Heavy, distorted guitar riff. Slow tempo, driving beat)

I still taste the ozone from the day the sky broke
The same kind of grey as a dying fire’s smoke
I watched the horizon fold in on itself
While the world put its history on a dusty shelf
Then the frost took my blood, a long, velvet sleep
Two hundred years of promises I couldn't keep
Woke up to a wasteland, a ghost in a dress
Finding the beauty in this godforsaken mess.

(Pre-Chorus)
(Build up with crashing cymbals)
And the road was a ribbon of ash and old bone
A long walk back to a home I’d never known.

(Chorus)
(Full power, anthemic rock sound)
And I’m screaming at the silence of a dead world’s choir
Walking through the wreckage, walking through the fire
From a vault of cold iron to a general’s star
I’ve carried the weight of exactly who we are
Just a survivor with a gun and a grudge
In a land where the ruins are the only ones to judge.

(Verse 2)
(Bass-driven, grittier tone)
Then came the morning, the scream and the blade
The cost of a life in a murderous trade
They took my boy, left a hole in my chest
A mother’s madness, a heart that wouldn't rest
So I built an army from the dirt and the rust
Turning the rubble back into trust
I wore the armor, I commanded the line
Thinking for once, the victory was mine.

(Bridge)
(Tempo slows down, atmospheric guitar, raw vocals)
But the truth is a synth, a mirror, a lie
A white-walled city where the memories die
My boy... the Director, the hand on the wheel
The cold, calculated, Institute steel
He was the monster, he was the seed
The very thing that made my spirit bleed
I looked at the monster and saw my own face
A ghost of a mother in a heartless place.

(Guitar Solo - High energy, soaring, slightly chaotic)

(Outro)
(Music drops to just a steady drum beat and a clean electric guitar)
(Vocals become intimate, almost a whisper)

Piper, look at me.
Past the war and the ruins, past the ghosts of the city.
I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for a world that’s gone...
But you’re the only thing that feels like a new dawn.
I’m tired of the fighting, tired of the chase.
I just want to stay in this one honest place.

(Slight pause)

God, I love you.

(Final heavy crash of instruments - End)