Album Lyrics

Spoken Word

I was fifteen when the old man with the fangs finally started to break.
The monster didn't look like a giant anymore.
He was curled on my mother's couch,
tumors the size of grapefruits blooming in his chest.
For the first time, I felt gratification watching him hurt.
Later that year, I stood over his open box.
I leaned down, close to his cold, dead ear,
and I whispered: "Now you're dead." And I smiled.
But the shadows had another branch.
My mother's brother.
The one she left me with while she went to live her life.
He was a pillar of the community, but a parasite in the dark.
A predator to his own blood.

Verse 1

Seventeen years old, at the kitchen table sitting down,
While the guests out in the living room were making joyful sounds.
He sat beside his wife, boasting loud and acting proud,
Laughing at the torture, safely hidden from the crowd.
He looked right at me and my cousin, making jokes about the pain,
While the boy just sat in silence, wearing every single stain.
Just a coward at the table, thinking he was still the king,
Blind to what the passing of the heavy years would bring.

Pre-Chorus

I looked him in the eyes, beneath the kitchen light,
The boy he used to break was standing ready for the fight.
I didn't need a weapon, I didn't need a sound,
I just watched the monster's ego crumbling to the ground.

Chorus

"Try it now!" I said it clear, and watched him start to choke,
The "mighty man" was nothing but a mirror made of smoke!
I saw the coward swallow, I saw the terror in his face,
Realizing he was nothing but a shadow in this space!
The reign of terror ending, the giants falling small,
I watched his ego shatter as he hit the final wall!

Verse 2

I moved to New York, not looking back, leaving the darkness behind,
Trading the house full of monsters for a quiet peace of mind.
My mother's only worry was her welfare checks would die,
Never any compassion, never any love.
A tech support consultant, with a new band starting to thrive,
Leaving the ghosts of New Jersey, I was finally coming alive.
He died a few years later, and his wife passed away soon after,
The obituary lied about the man, making him some sort of saint forever after.
But I knew the truth, and I knew where he'd gone,
A legacy of ashes in the breaking of the dawn.

Bridge Spoken Word

I had a vision of him once... after he passed away.
I saw him in the pit. I saw him in the flame,
the place reserved for those who like to hurt the weak.
The boasting was gone. The jokes were gone.
Just a coward, finally meeting the darkness he spent his life creating.

Chorus

"Try it now!" I said it clear, and watched him start to choke,
The "mighty man" was nothing but a mirror made of smoke!
I saw the coward swallow, I saw the terror in his face,
Realizing he was nothing but a shadow in this space!
The reign of terror ending, the giants falling small,
I watched his ego shatter as he hit the final wall!

Outro

I moved to New York... and I never looked back.
The monsters are all in the ground now.
The old man is dust.
The coward is gone.
The house is empty.
And I am still here.