Digital Lies

(Instrumental)

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Liner Notes: Latin for “begin”, we wanted something to set the mood of the album having a more dark electronic vibe and be a hint at the theme behind the title track.

Words: n/a Music: T. Grose

Deception, a hollow victory
Raging, in murderous fury
Reflection, a jester devil sent
Parading, marauding malcontent

“I march on, through the chaos of my affliction
Remain strong, against inciters of sedition
I stand tall, amongst agents of iniquity
If I fall, I’ll rise to reclaim my destiny”

Betrayal blind, believer of a lie
The fire died, no longer can I fight
An end in sight, breathing in new life
The darkest night, dreaming of the light

Inception, born of blackening
Engaging, vehement war within
Deflection, shadowing of mind
Denying, echoing through time

SOLO: MARK

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Liner Notes: This was the first whole song idea submitted for this album, the first one that we made a video clip for and the first introduced into our live set. A good, solid metal song that always gets a great reaction live.

Words: M. Furtner Music: M. Furtner / T. Grose

Utopian dream or so they say
The world has changed
Tomorrow is today
Our lives enriched, enhanced
Nature obsolete
Fibre optic data stream
The only path we seek

Strapped down, alone, the table cold
I fear my fate
Around me tools and cables coiled
My forced “upgrade”
Stripped of my will and freedom sold
Skin ripped away
Augmented flesh and bone
Now taking shape

So come follow me
I’ll show you eternity
We’ll reach for the morning sky
Tomorrow is yours and mine
So come follow me
And live out your wildest dreams
A digital life arrived
A cybernetic future world, it’s time

Dystopian life is here to stay
Pushed too far ahead
Mankind lost their way
Our lives betrayed, replaced
Humanity obsolete
Crying tears of ohs and ones
And artificial screams

Cold steel and laser beams
Dismember limb from limb
My captors work and smile
With mirthless, heartless grins
A child of Frankenstein
Not man and not machine
Scheming sweet revenge
The likes before unseen

SOLO: MARK / LT

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Liner Notes: A disturbing glimpse into a dark, dystopian future where mankind has been augmented by technology, sometimes against their will. Such a futuristic song called for a lot of electronic elements and different voices representing different parts of the story; the spoken parts acting as the narrative, the harsh vocal from the point of view as the victim, and the melodic chorus representing the false propaganda of a better “cybernetic future world.”

Words/Music: T. Grose

Today the world can go to hell you say
An angry life for angry times
And all around conspiracies
When life is out to kick you down
No chance, just dance – a puppet on a string

And you see your world through cold jaded eyes
All the beauty and wonderment is gone
There can be no joy – all darkness without light
At the day’s end you know there’s something wrong

The path you take is up to you
Can’t you see your life is waiting
Light and dark – a point of view
Understand this plan is at your command
Your fate in your hands or be damned

Today is gonna be a perfect day
A smile and goodwill all around
Ignoring plain reality
Won’t let the bastards bring you down
You feel, unreal – gloss-over everything

And you see your world through rose shaded eyes
All the beauty and wonderment adorn
There will be all joy – no darkness only light
At the day’s end you know there’s something wrong

The path you take is up to you
Can’t you see your life is waiting
Light and dark – a point of view
Understand this plan is all in your hands

The life you make is up to you
And you’ll see a new world is waiting
And good or bad – a point of view
Understand this plan is at your command
Your fate in your hands or be damned

SOLO: LT / MARK / LT

Today is just another normal day
Where good and bad can come to anyone
Dumb luck and no conspiracies
No false pretense to guide my way
That’s life, that’s right – I know it’s up to me

And I see my world through unclouded eyes
All the cruelty and wonderment unbound
And the key is balance, no darkness without light
At the day’s end I’ve known it all along

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Liner Notes: You see these two types of people on social networking sites every day: the bitter pessimist who expects the world to be horrible from the moment they wake up, always finding a downside even to the good things that happen, and the eternal optimist that spends most of the day posting up motivational sayings and convincing themselves they’re going to have a fantastic day no matter what. Both groups of people are invariably disappointed when life just simply goes on as normal. What you see in life is really just a point of view and up to you as to what you get out of it.

Words/Music: T. Grose

Oh no, the circle turns again
So low, return to play pretend

And so much time has gone
The years have passed us by (time and time again)
Still the song’s the same
Believe our own true lies

Oh, now times have changed, rearranged
Become estranged (turn the pages again)
And we’ll never be the same again

When a promise is betrayed
And we turn to walk away (from the life we had)
A choice you’ve made
And you’ve gone where I can’t follow
Like the passing of the days
Things will never be the same (as the time we had)
Now it’s time to say goodbye
And walk away

No grow, we stay the same, yet expecting change again
So go, this charade must come to its end

SOLO: LT

Oh no, the circle turns again
So low, return face the end

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Liner Notes: This was an idea that LT had well before the Ascendence album was written that, for one reason or another, never quite worked. One day, after playing with a synthesizer patch, it was the spark of inspiration needed to finally get this song done.

Words/Music: T. Grose

Got a metal suit and brutal tie
Throw the horns at all who pass you by
Off to work, you bang your head
Rock all day then it’s off to brutal bed

You’re more metal than me
You drift away to steel dreams
The one thing that’s harder than you
Is how hard you try…

I don’t ever want to be
Someone else untrue to me
Just a parody
And be a 2D person in a 3D world
Never buy into the hype
Always follow what feels right
Become the archetype
And not a 2D person in a 3D world

Got your pants down low and your hood up high
Wrapped up tight, your golden chains they shine
It’s forty degrees on a summer’s day
Your skin white as the snow so far away

You’re more hardcore than me
Crusin’ to your R’n’B
You’re so ill dope and fly
You’re from the west side… of Bankstown

Don’t care if you’re…
Black, white, tall, short, thin, fat
Or care if you’re…
Gay, straight, boy, girl, rich, poor
Or even if you’re…
Hardcore, raver, punk rock, metalhead
Gamer geek, Jesus freak, atheist
Or have a…
Big house, rich friends, fast car, ten guitars
You’re still a douche!

SOLO: LT

So like what you like
Be proud of who you are
But you look like a fool
When you take it too far…

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Liner Notes: We all know this person – the guy who is so metal, he wears his battle jacket to bed and yells “SLAYERRRR” at random people in the street. Or the guy who is so gangsta that, despite being a white middle-class kid from the ‘burbs, still thinks he has bitches and hoes, yo. Or the opinionated atheist or religious fanatic. Or the over the top sci-fi nerd or sports fan. Or the super blokey Aussie bloke or the person who is so gay they shit rainbows. There’s nothing wrong with being passionate about your beliefs or endeavours but there comes a point where you can take it too far and you basically just become a parody of your own making.

Words/Music: T. Grose

The day has come, out of time
Journey’s end – it’s the end of the line
A time for tears, to face your fears
Retrace the years, here by fate or by design

Will you stare back in sorrow
Or remember the smiles and the sighs

So farewell everyone
One look back now the race is all but run
End of day, no more to say
Accept your fate
Or do you pray it’s some mistake

Be it leading or follow
Face the truth, were you all you should be

In the final seconds of your life
Will you cry or fly
As you walk into the light
“So take me”
One last reflection on your time
As it fades away
And you face your last tomorrow
Forever
Your time has come

SOLO: LT / MARK

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Liner Notes: When your time comes to leave this mortal coil and you look back at your life, how will you remember your time? Will you go out knowing you made the most of it all, or wishing you spent less time wondering “what if?”

Words/Music: T. Grose

Tonight there’s a spark in the air
The last curtain call
With crowd growing restless
I take to the stage
To the cheers of their great enthrall

Under the fervid gaslights
The pleasure and pain
Reciting line after line from the heart
This moment unseen again

It’s so long ago, it all feels like yesterday
The thrill of the show, this chill never goes away
The roar of the crowd, the agony and ecstasy
That was then, this is now
Now it’s gone…

I’m walking through a moonless night
Keep searching for a new spotlight
And everyday it takes all my might
To make it through to morning light, oh

It must be two hundred years on
The years lost in time
Gets harder with each passing day to recall
The day that I died

It’s so long ago, it all feels like yesterday
The chill, it’s like snow, the cold never fades away
In a heartbeat, a breath, all stolen away from me
A man, once with dream, once with life
Now it’s gone…

And we all turned to bow, it was glorious
I’d give all I have for one just last encore…

SOLO: LT (acoustic) / LT / MARK

It’s so long ago, it all feels like yesterday
The thrill of the show, this chill never goes away
In a heartbeat, a breath, all stolen away from me
A man, once with dream, once with life
Now it’s gone…

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Liner Notes: A tragic tale of a Victorian stage actor who dies before he can take his final bow. His spirit remains for the next two hundred years, haunting the theatre, always searching for that final spotlight to mark his last encore.

Words/Music: T. Grose

(INSTRUMENTAL)

SOLO: LT / MARK / LT / MARK / LT / MARK / LT / MARK

BASS SOLO: ANDY

SOLO: LT / MARK / LT / MARK / LT / MARK / LT / MARK / BOTH

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Liner Notes: Yes, we’ve recorded yet another short, tongue-in-cheek instrumental track where we play over-the-top, scary and arguably tasteless shredding. Why do we do it? Guess. 😉

Words: n/a Music: T. Grose

We think we know the answers
It’s there in black and white for all to see
Yet look beyond the madness
Another truth, another world for you and me

Show you open doors
To use your mind and think
Lead you to the shore
To the water, but you have to want to drink

And once I too was blinded
Believing what was told for all to hear
We’re all so simple-minded
Another lie, another life controlled by fear

Show you open thoughts
Oppression now defied
Reveal the truth, distraught
At the prophecy, our journey’s end is nigh

Condemn the crazy man
His eyes are filled with sadness
With chalkboard prophecy
Foretold, we turn away

SOLO: LT

Just walk on by
Don’t stare, don’t look him in the eye
His ranting insane, profane
Just turn and walk away

He’s seen on every city corner
A human wreck, around his neck a chalkboard sign
But is he mad or sent to warn us
To take control and save us all before it’s time

Tolling of the bell
A final desperate plea
Heed the tale he tells
I know the truth, that crazy man is me

Condemn the crazy man
His eyes are filled with sadness
With chalkboard prophecy
Foretold, we turn away

He’s just a crazy man
His mind is lost in madness
Are we too blind to see
That he’s the one who’s sane?

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Liner Notes: In almost every large city you’ll see disheveled homeless looking people carrying signs proclaiming the end of the world is nigh. We pass those people by as if they were invisible, not giving their message a second thought. But what if they were actually right all along and we were just too blind to heed their warning? What if you were given foresight into a terrible disaster but you were treated as crazy by the rest of the world?

Words/Music: T. Grose

“It was a massacre that forever stands as a deathly warning to all civilised kingdoms. The unification of the clans to claim vengeance for the sins of the western nations marked the beginning of a life driven by a destiny known only to the gods…”

Born to lead, fated to be king
A dying breed, death amidst the din
Beyond these years, fifteen winters seen
Rising fears, Cimmerian war machine

Forces rage, the land of blackened skies
Ruthless pride, blood lust battle cries
Steel descends, wet blades will sanctify
Invasions end, this horror justified

Fate unseen, outraged they’ll bleed
Hate resounds, as one they’ll drown

Darkness soars on wingless flight, devouring the daytime light
Creeping through the northern haze, intensifying warring ways

“The barbarians emerged from the dark lands to destroy the invaders in ways never before seen…”

SOLO: MARK

“With sword in hand and strength ingrained, a conqueror amongst them strode forth with the aura of a king, destined for greatness…”

Fate unseen, outraged they’ll bleed
Hate resounds, as one they’ll drown

Darkness soars on wingless flight, devouring the daytime light
Creeping through the northern haze, intensifying warring ways
Reigning down this shadowed form, resurrection god reborn
Illusions of a grand empire, mocking this now dead desire

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Liner Notes: This song tells the tale of Conan, a then fifteen year old barbarian warrior, engaging in his first battle – a brutal massacre of the southern Cimmerian settlement of Venarium, which drove the Aquilonians back across the marshes, and became the beginning of the legend of a man who would be king.

Words: M. Furtner Music: M. Furtner / T. Grose