Amebix Album

Welcome to Cell Block 427, it's 10 o'clock at night
Can you see the rows of bodies twitching in their sleep?
And if you're hungry, if you fancy a bite
The guards will be obliged to pick the fattest from the heap

They drag the body through the filth by a cruelly mutated arm
Up into the kitchen of the human factory farm
It tries to scream but can't without a tongue
One more slaughtered in the kitchen of the human factory farm

[Recipe:]
Take your body, grease it well and rip the kidneys out
The sweat must be left on the skin, the throat allowed to bleed
Prepare a stuffing, smash the jaw and jam it down the throat
Then braise your beast for two hours for a healthy, filling treat

Back in Cell Block 427, the rest don't care if he's missing
Two beasts fuck frantically, fearful of their slaughter
One bloated specimen rolls off its mate and proceeds with pissing
The shit drips between his legs as he pisses on his rotting daughter

And in our ignorance, we let them take control
And in their wisdom, they decreed that we should bow

Their grips extending to encompass all the world
The cages open to accomodate the crowd

When we put our lives into their hands
We put our hands into their chains

Refuse to aid them, refuse to hold their gun
You must refuse to light the fuse, to activate their bomb

Progress? That's just regression
Technology? That's nothing new
"Advance!" you scream insanely
"Advance"? From this to what?

And every time you smile, I smell decay, killer!
Your empty eyes stare, cold and grey, look at that face!

Machinery (master?), we're all expendable
It's just so obvious, it's more dependable
This progress will mean a number
Branded to your skin

They lead you to your slaughter
Like they lead a horse to water
They can't force you to drink
But you do!

It's a race against time
And there's nowhere to hide
So they look for the sign
In the sky

No sanctuary

But it's all a mistake
It's already too late
The key to our fate
Is inside

Yes, it's hidden away
From the light of the day
In the minds of
The masters of men

The damage is done
So the suffering goes on
With the aid of
The people's consent

The pulpit's standing empty, the congregation's left
Because to qualify for piety, they had to pass a test
(Q:) How much "roughly" is your god worth to you?
(Q:) And if he said, "Lay down your life for me," could you give that too?

And will they never understand
That the future is in man

The priests, when told of starving kids, look on in mock dismay
While thinking of new ways by which to make religion pay
Money from mass misery? There's nothing wrong with that
The church holds out a bloodstained hand to pass around the hat

"By the pricking in my thumbs
Something wicked this way comes" (Shakespeare)

Roses are red. sometimes violets are blue
But we're always puking on cider and glue
People say that we're twisted, you know it's not true
We just get so bad when there's fuck all to do

Life in this building is freezing and wet
If I once had a brain, then I seem to forget
'Cause just when I caught it, it slipped through the net
Now we sedate ourselves slowly, no time for regret

Sunshine ward's laughing, the inmates are here
Filling our lives full of sulphate and beer
We've tried every way to make "real life" less clear
As stupidity sets in, the truth disappears

Sunshine ward's screaming, we crawl to the door
Reality creeps back, I can't take no more
There is no more stairway, we're stuck on this floor
And fear digs in deep, as the patient's hands claw

The happy dream shatters and falls to the floor
The doubt crawling in that we can't just ignore
Should we carry this farce on just as before?
Or start living for life's sake, away from the ward?

[No lyrics]

Sing to your sisters, your brothers are dead
The army retreated, the soldiers have fled
The carcass of nations lies out on the plain
For many to question, but none to explain

Such carnage, destruction

They came in their thousands, to die for belief
In a guardian of freedom, once branded a thief
Led to their slaughter, to fight for their wife
Trapped by a system that demands only life

Such carnage, destruction

The corpses are buried, the day may yet come
When man reaps the land with a plough not a gun
The sorrow of millions will be buried with them
That demanded the death, not the life of those men

Such carnage, destruction

Take your chance, uphold your victor
Go with the crowd and suck with them too

We don't believe in you

Have you heard the new sounds
Of battle on the streets
Have you seen the army uniforms
Heard the sound of marching feet

Sitting in your bunker
With your radio on
Follow these instructions
Or take your chances with the bomb

Have you ever watched them as they gather there on Sundays
In grotesque clothes as tokens of esteem
And stoop beneath the musty pulpit, ready to submit
Their bodies and their souls to the machine

It's normal to submit
To feed the holy leech
To sell yourself to slavery
Believe in what they preach

The smell of the church lies like guilt upon their shoulders
Oppressive silence dulls the brain, accept
Kneel in repentance, you will accept our doctrine
And share in all the relics we have kept

People must believe in ways to eliminate their freedom
The church is just like bondage of the brain
It's frightening to realise what's happening outside
Obscure the view with Christ on coloured panes

Your god is your chains
Reject your god, reject your system
Do you really want your freedom?

The cold outside lays waste to life
Suspends the process of decay
Alone without a friend
Suffer as night becomes the death of day

Winter

This is the season of the fire
This is when the reaper crawls
Feed the flames and make them higher
No sanctuary behind four walls

Red sky at night, the shepherd's delight
But nothing left by the morning
In the town, they feel safe
Fools like flies, their friends are falling.

Wrap up warm, you'll catch your death
Don't let your death catch you
The winter tears the earth apart
Let's hope we see it through

What will you do when your property's gone?
When the finger on the trigger's your one and only son?
When the money in your pocket cannot buy even bread?
The city has crumbled, the people have been bled

Looks like the beginning of the end

The machine has grown to crush the world, the walls are getting higher
The youth will be the first to throw themselves upon the pyre
The reason for living seems so fruitless in the aftermath
When we've finally walked to the end of the path

The time is near at hand, a fact you must accept
Time stands still for no man, not even for the rich
So sorry we're so humourless, it's just the way we are
You laugh, but I don't get the joke, we walk but don't get far

Maybe there is hope in the dawning of the day
When no rules define survival, when the earth starts to decay
It's you who face the holocaust, it's you who cast the vote
The sad part of your future is it lacks an antidote