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SKYCLAD LYRICS
"A Burnt Offering for the Bone Idol" (1992)
1. War and Disorder
2. A Broken Promised Land
3. Spinning Jenny
4. Salt on the Earth (Another Man's Poison)
5. Karmageddon (The Suffering Silence)
6. Ring Stone Round
7. Men of Straw
8. R'vannith
9. The Declaration of Indifference
10. Alone in Death's Shadow
1. War and Disorder
2. A Broken Promised Land
See the red "messiah" high upon a soap-box pulpit
Agitating his apostles with the gospels in his hand
While apprentice hitlers gather down in inner city subways
To immortalise their ignorance with aerosol spray cans.
Life is the lesson - History our tutor
Learn from the past - preserve us a future.
So many causes I could die for - but I don't know which is right
In this millenia of martyrs and injustices to fight
Why must brother kill his brother - when united they should stand?
Men by swords and words divided in our broken promised land.
These tattered battle standards fly - their colours do not run
Unlike our tears that trickle down the decades soon to come.
You promised us a "Golden Age" - we couldn't wait to try it
But never told us of the blood we'd have to shed to buy it!
[Chorus:]
We are brought forth with nothing we struggle for nothing
And then unto nothing return.
Though their words have no meaning - to question them: "Treason!"
Look back - watch the pages of history burn
Our Devil has two wings (both left wing and right)
They carry him far on this anarchic flight
'Til the fools of all nations now at his commmand
Bring darkness to once green (now unpleasant) lands.
The voices on your TV are like whispers in a dream
Someone else's nightmares in a place you've never been
But the streets run red round Tianneman Square - and the blood won't wash away
You don't recognise their faces - so young and dead they stay.
You've never had to answer to the barrel of a gun
So how could you expect... (expect what was to come?)
In the troubled streets of Moscow - and in tenements in Moss Side
There are people using silver tongues to turn dissenting worms
How can the dissatisfaction of some left or right wing faction
Hope to justify the bombs that burst - the innocents that burn.
We move in vicious circles as we fan the fires of hate
And laugh as the 'Four Horsemen' clamour at the starter's gate.
(Repeat chorus)
Preserve us a future.
3. Spinning Jenny
She came down from the Western Hills when we were not prepared
I turned deaf ears to words of warning now I'm running scared.
Casting caution to the wind now that the cat's away
I say my grace - fill my face (then for forgiveness pray).
God knows I was an honest man - the same as any other
Who loved his wife - worked all his life to keep his family
Until the 'beast' that never sleeps beneath my silken covers
Reared its head and bit its thumb at my morality.
[Chorus:]
Her passion for passion - it will devour
Cruel are the thorns of this delicate flower
Her lust for lust - it will consume
A siren song summons all men to their doom.
She whispered of her innocence - (a plea I must contest)
While baptising helpless sinners with a missionary zest
She will exorcise your demons - then exercise your thighs
Await your 'second-coming' with a hunger in her eyes.
Her sweetmeats are the souls of men - she'll gorge herself to bursting
And for yours her heart is thirsting - as a spider craves a fly
No mortal man could ever hope to suit her as a suitor
She'll rewrite the Kama Sutra if you'd care to watch her try.
[Repeat Chorus]
I reach for heaven - desire drags me down
When fools choose their king I'll be heir to that crown
A strange kind of madness I cannot condone
If you are without sin come cast the first stone.
4. Salt on the Earth (Another Man's Poison)
Out of the East a prince shall rise
To summon fire from the skies.
I'm lord of this wasteland - where my word is law
My bedfellows pestilence, famine and war
Turn children to orphans - make wives into widows
Then laugh at your plight behind bullet-proof windows
With swords made of "Black Gold" the world is my whore
I've all you could wish for yet still I want more.
Out of the East the prince shall rise.
They are the victims (the ones who survived)
To bury their families along with their pride
Forgotten, forsaken, defenceless and lost
They count their blessings whilst counting the cost.
All they can do is pray that his greed shall destroy him
But meanwhile they choke on another man's poison.
Should we turn our cheeks so the mad and the twisted
May strike us again 'cus we never resisted?
They'll slaughter our allies - invade all our neighbours
Then when they come here there'll be none left to save us...
Then we'll be the victims - the ones who must fight
Bury our families and our human rights
To the hands of a madman all liberty lost
He'll reap the rewards while The Earth pays the cost
Spill oil on troubled waters - believe yourself divine
By calling it an "act of war" you cover up the crime.
5. Karmageddon (The Suffering Silence)
Awake at the "Souls Midnight" I seek that I may find
An amicable separation from this state of mind
My sins so unoriginal they cannot be forgiven
An overwhelming sense of doubt from me all hope has driven.
Ships at night we pass each other by one stormy crossing
Now in dry-dock solitude we reminisce and wait
For "trade-winds" that will guide us
'cross the ocean that divides us
Pray that time and tide unite us not one moment too late.
With all my coins cast in your fountain I have wished on falling stars
Remembered times together when the minutes seemed like 'ours.
The strangest things can happen on the way to paradise
Where the grass is always greener on the other side of life.
Forever held in this dilemma - I see no escape
When misery awaits me down whichever path I take
No "prima-donnas" are allowed in this "menage-a-trois"
So will someone please accept us for the naive fools we are.
Caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea
I'm not waving - I am drowning (someone rescue me!)
Life's tides drag me always deeper down - I'm sinking fast
The question is no longer whether I will die - but how long will I last.
I scream out to the brooding stormclouds heavy with despair
Yet know they hold no answers - there's no silver hiding there.
Destiny has turned the key and locked the gates of heaven
But Kismet is the combination to my Karmageddon.
Contemplation on my isolation - immolation by my desolation.
I spiral down the cortex vortex - though to live this live I shan't be forced
I'll break my vow of silence - race towards the holocaust
Absence makes the heart grow fonder (where the heart lies - there is home)
But I am lost and have no shelter - nothing I can call my own.
This soul consumed by inside outrage never had a choice
An anger cloaked (choked into silence) seeks an estranged voice
To excommunicate my conscience - reprieve the condemned
And summon courage to admit that all good things must end.
6. Ring Stone Round
An apple in the eye of the storm that's coming
When winds of change sweep 'cross the land
These "old grey men" have braved the weather
Watched kingdoms fall while they still stand.
Walk with me down moonlit ley-lines
Farther than the eye can see
Where each breath lasts a thousand lifetimes
That is where I long to be.
Down at Ring Stone Round (together)
Down at Ring Stone Round
Down at Ring Stone Round (together)
Down at Ring Stone Round
Am I a fool - am I a dreamer?
Well ask me if I really care
And when your hearts and eyes have opened
I will meet you there.
Down at Ring Stone Round (come follow)
Down at Ring Stone Round
Down at Ring Stone Round (tomorrow maybe?)
Down at Ring Stone Round
7. Men of Straw
I pray that soon the blessed meek their world shall inherit
When all of these bastards are judged by their merits
And called to account for the acts they've commited
The jury their victims - no sins are omitted.
I'd gladly burn these men of straw who beat the weakest hardest
They sow the seeds of misery - let children reap the harvest
The "lowest of the low" are they - not fit to share our planet
They are not men but beasts indeed, so take this beast and hang it.
Suffer the children - unseen and unheard
Who live in the dark closets where skeletons stirred
Behind mental parapets feelings lay hidden
They cried out for nothing - and nothing were given.
Why is it so hard to comprehend
They should not be released to re-offend?
I think instead that they should take the place
Of the animals dissected by this so called "Human Race."
The time has come to take these scum and set a fine example
The only problem is - I fear no punishment is ample
Now I am not a violent man - but it would give me pleasure
To watch these vermin crucified (then kill them at my leisure).
They rob the young of innocence and then show no repentance
We should relieve them of their lives - the crime befits the sentence
Instead set free to hurt again for reasons I can't figure
Just line them all against the wall and let me pull the trigger.
8. R'vannith
I still hear the screams of my lover torn from me
Still taste the salt of her tears on my face
As they left me for dying my shattered corpse writhed
On a pyre of anger - I choked on the stench of disgrace.
Flint and bone are all we wield
Against the might of Roman steel
While eagles stare with mocking eyes
Their legions cut us down to size.
R'Vannith, R'Vannith, R'Vannith she cried
As the last of her kinsmen fell dead by her side
Oh why could I not stand with my warrior queen
There to share sweet release in a death swift and clean?
From out of the wildwood they came down upon us
These olive-skinned butchers that shone like the sun
With hate in their dark eyes they robbed us of our lives
But left me to weep when the slaughter was done.
Invaders came to violate - to subjugate and legislate
Put our homes and farms to fire to feed the greed of their Empire
R'Vannith, R'Vannith, R'Vannith I cried
As I grieved for the fallen - and wished I had died
I heard ravens laugh - stripping the flesh from her bones
Well fed by the Senate and People of Rome.
Two thousand years pass by - yet still they hold sway here
Their Empire is holy (its motives the same)
They have traded their spears for the cross that man fears
Those who nailed Him up high now rule in his name.
Invaders come to violate
To subjugate and legislate
Believing their forefather's crimes
Give them the right to twist our minds
R'Vannith, R'Vannith, R'Vannith we'll cry
When the last of our freedom is crushed by a lie
New legions of pious hypocrisy ride
To baptise us in blood (an unstoppable tide).
9. The Declaration of Indifference
There's a "Fat Cat" sitting in a Caddilac
Riding ten feet off the floor
Who says "I used to do a little, but I couldn't get enough
And so a little got more and more."
Well I've nothing to show for all these years -
But it still makes me smile
That the ones you always hear the most
Say nothing that's worthwhile.
No gold, no frankincense or myrrh we bring
Just faith and this "burnt offering"
So raise your voice with mine and sing
A hymn to long lost causes.
[CHORUS:]
Pledge allegiance to pretence
The white flag of indifference
You sought a grail forged of fools gold
And on the quest your souls were sold.
Living the life of milk and honey
I bet it tastes real sweet
Now the "chicks" are queueing cus
They all want screwing down on
Institution street.
Does it feel so cool when you act
The fool with "Charlie", "H" and "E"?
Well to my way of thinking there's
A whole lot of nothing where your
Brains should be.
This planet burns and you couldn't really care
That your head (unlike the Earth) is full of air
If there's anybody in there - time has come to face the real world
[Chorus]
They're walking tall yet heading nowhere
Shouting loud but saying nothing
So empty-headed, hollow hearted
Tell me how this farce got started
If there's anybody in there - time has come to face the real world.
[Chorus]
10. Alone in Death's Shadow
Carnal gladiators lie restless awaiting the dawn
Slaves to their passion - so eager its will to perform
They wrestle the "Double Backed Beast" face their foe hand to hand
The arena was life but alone in deaths shadow they stand.
You brand the social leper - then spare no second thought
Too scared to give this kiss of life - "Come rise my son and walk."
On these streets of damnation the destitute huddle once more
Can we pass them by just like all who have been there before?
Are you so cold and heartless you can feel no shame
That we allow a human life to become a death in vein.
A fear that's bred of ignorance perpetuates the lie
Well there but for the mercy and the grace of God go I.
Prisoners in a sterile vacuum - hearts that feel but dare not touch
The freak show in this callous circus - on parade so all may look
Those who gaze upon the outcasts to taste how bitter life can be
Can't comprehend the pain you feel - their blinkered eyes will never see.
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