A. S. M. (A State of Mind) - War lyrics

[Narrator] Faces frozen with pride, guts knotted by fear Kingdoms keepers' rank and file Born to die as the flag flies high [Shalim] It's been a few days since we slept On a lone road that never ends A war heaven sent So they say in the ranks under General Rongon's reign My mind drifts away, while my feet obey The rhythm of the war drums night and day But why this way? Why weapons? Marching for weeks, I don't see where the threat is [Narrator] Blind in belief, seduced by athena Flood of the ma**es, troops of medina Courtship, war dance Weeks roll by as the ranks advance Drums pound relentless Age old mating call of the trenches Forth! Onward the regiment Fossils bleed in the rock face sediment Faces frozen with pride, guts knotted by fear Enemy on the horizon No more turning back pup, its live and let die Are you wolf or a mere sheep? Now or never, man up! [Shalim] Pull the steel out the sheath, scope the tree line Boulders are flying for the first time from our catapults Inadequately placed in the center, me Trying to find Illys in this chaos unsuccessfully Not to mention sense in this burst of moments In self-defense bringing ends to Bangali soldiers They're coming at me faster than a cobra But “ching” goes the swing of my sword and it's over I fear for my flesh, hence the blood on my hands And the countless men with no heads for their shoulders But no regret, best to live than be dead In a Bangali riverbed left for the vultures [Narrator] Many men fall to the wrath of the broad sword Natural warlord Moves like water made a pact with poseidon Trance-like dance let his instincts guide him Blinks, dives in, warrior within him Swimming easily as the blood-lust takes hold Found the sound of the slice quite satisfying Ends sh** quick with the blade to the throat Only 16 but his mind is old And when he's on the front line his warm heart turns cold Another foe deceased another story is told Seminal, even caught the eye of the general [Shalim] And then it strikes me, lightning Is this who we're meant to be fighting? With iron-forged weapons and blessings of titans Stick waving fishermen who bear a lot of likeness No, there must be more to this I've never seen so much helplessness And innocence in the face of the children and women It's the ways of the tyrant and it's sick And I don't know where Illys is Illys man, we gotta go quick ILLYS! [Narrator] He feels the body in his arms grow ever more heavy as the life seeps out Hollowness where his friends eyes had been On the top of the hill, the prodigious form of rongon the king's heir presides Still intoxicated by the fumes of battle ----- That night at the camp, light of the lamp All those that died that day No sleep would come His wheezing lungs So sore and the call of the jungle Feels he could indefinitely hibernate Mind is racing in hyperspace Giving out riddled with doubt Another motherless helpless pebble in the tidal wave [Shalim] Can't take another sec, can't break another neck Can't let a brother go yet Now we are the threat We're supposed to be opposed to Roll through slaughtering the feeble First time contemplating evil Bear witness, Illys did not die in vein Now, I'm gonna run away Through the forest, new to all this Wield only my sword and my garments And of course there's my Amulet I can't live without it As if a force bared in the clouded Shade of jade makes the pain be milder But I'm alone, I'm all alone [Narrator] He's a legal murderer, illegal deserter Can't undo what had been done So there's only one way to go Into the sun, gotta run Flight, only ally the night and the stamina Generated by both the fear and the conviction That he wouldn't die for fiction's depictions [Shalim] Heart's racing, Motivation Feeling the breath of the wild dogs chasing How can they be hungrier than me? How can I be safe among the trees? How can the Bangali and Vabarians live in eternal peace? So many thoughts cluster my mind All I wanna know is why did they all die? [Narrator] Reinterpret the texture of the surface Of that which had led ‘em to bow down to rhetoric A desolate symbol of freedom the hectic Eerie orchestra sends him back to the sorcerer That he had become when his eyes turned to fireballs Burning like inferno Had pleased that beast at the helm Heir to the throne, prince of the realm Rongon! And he couldn't forget A little more familiar than he cares to admit Vague flashes of memory stacking up Rush! All seemed new much realer Soul of a monk, sk**s of a k**er [Shalim] Finally find my bearing In a faint drum sound that I'm hearing Try to get near, not fearing Slowly approaching a clearing I hear cheering, it's alive Wondering if I can trust my eyes [Narrator] As the fear subsides Gradually his heart rate starts settling And what he had though to be the slight of the panic, auditory mirage Was indeed the sound of drums in the distance, hypnotically beckoning And what was left to lose?