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Pandemonium Across The Event Horizon

by A Modern Synthesis

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1.
I was born today A non-combatant in this wild frenzy Crash-landed in prismatic space Breathe-in monochrome, but I will survive This essence you create A constantly adapting entity May mold itself into something great Someday this beacon could be burning bright I want to leave this place More beautiful than when I got here But if stagnancy were to reign Would our idle hands make it all disappear? I want to leave this place More beautiful than when I got here I want to leave this place I want to leave this... View slightly askew Parallax error deceiving you Cryptic doctrines delivered through These stellar celestial cues they'll tell me what to do Scattering ashes Predestined obsolescence Helpless, yet hopeful I am. I was. I will be again. A framed amalgamation Mass of drones in our fleet Reconstructing split nations Reform Pangaea in me From scintillating summer skin Our skeletons retreat After decades of separation Dissolve to dust in defeat A framed amalgamation Mass of drones in our fleet Reconstructing split nations Reform Pangaea in me From scintillating summer skin Our skeletons retreat After decades of separation Cyclical motion repeats A framed amalgamation Mass of drones in our fleet Reconstructing split nations Reform Pangaea in me From scintillating summer skin Our skeletons retreat After decades of separation Dissolve to dust in defeat
2.
Capital vices, cardinal sins But to err is to be human Capital vices, cardinal sins Bracing for impending Armageddon Dead roots hold no water Sun-dried vines writhe on the sidewalk Archaic cancer has transferred Skyscrapers compromised each block They'll ensnare those whom you love And strangle them all one-by-one In the name of, in the name of Decomposing in our eternal present That you reminisce about In the future-tense with your past-mouth The slaughtering of sacred cows In a sea of flames, they all drown Would I dare seek out your guidance now? Innermost animals: unshackled These changes, I cannot control The vultures weigh in: "Is that acceptable skin?" Before feasting on impoverished beasts below They will poach the ones you love And consume them all one-by-one In the name of, in the name of Decomposing in our eternal present That you reminisce about Would I dare seek out your council now? Some will starve for glory Others search for death But some may find no difference When they have nothing left Is this really the way to fight the dark? That uncertainty plaguing my mind and heart How about erasing the first thought Instead ponder nurturing what nature has brought Decomposing in our eternal present That you reminisce about In the future-tense with your past-mouth The slaughtering of sacred cows In a sea of flames, they all drown Would I dare seek out your guidance now? No!
3.
A bird with singed wings flies above Abruptly eclipsing the sun The former matriarch misplaced In the manufactured dusk, yet Sky-yearning lanterns grace the night skyline of Tokyo While observers stare from the streets Displacing the stars, but their radiance can’t pass ours As descending sparks burn in reprieve An unforeseen collapse to land Will we ever take-off again? The flightless bird mouths voiceless words Its earthbound hymn of eternal grounding, still Turbulent waves crash along the Golden Coast of Mexico As on-lookers gaze from the shore Entrancing ocean mist beckons the cerulean abyss So, coursing gulf currents drift you home To a desolate Midwest state Shrouded in sterile, off-white sheets Weary wayward eyes search the heavens For remaining signs of flight Burning through antiquities With space constrained, all senses fade Abandon earth, sky, and in-between Last fleeting seconds of an eternity’s day Passing through the phantom tunnel Obscured mind you find escape Tattered fragments of memories past Once forgotten, now fall back into place Vibrant view of the ethereal kingdom (Every monarch) Now you're off to a greater estate (Will be dethroned and) Set ablaze by luminous shards (Is destined to) Overlooking a celestial cliff face (Be replaced) Cascading blue and green serenity (Nameless Gods) Swirl and fold, mesh and fuse to be (Whom I was not) A brilliant bent turquoise (At all willing to) And an effervescent aquamarine (Hold that high above you) Forgoing manmade constructs (They all felt) Beyond the depths of the midnight sky (So slighted, so) When tracing new constellations (We shall become) Your steady hands guiding mine (Their sacrificial pawns) Soaring on fractured porcelain wings (Once grace is lost) Your former vessel previously contained (I'll never be king again) My eyes forever scan horizons (Our grace is lost) In pursuit of your royal flames (I'll never be king again)
4.
Hey Hey Hey Hey Heiresses compare inheritances outside of café conglomerates Descend onto the upscale taverns they frequent Connoisseurs of coke and cocktails A portrayal of good fortune You haven’t earned the lifestyle you’re living Or the perception you’ve been fronting Hey Hey (What the fuck do you hope to change--) Hey Hey (When revolution seems so cliché?) Foreign enclave, double vision Slide the keys into the ignition In search of a scarlet emporium Find wayward shacks buy love in Stiletto Junction Let the healing power of money help fill the void Marbled clouds grow sentient overhead Keeping watch on the passersby Heavenly bodies illuminate the night They’re just millions of prying eyes Dying remnants of a fleeting past We’ll monitor every movement When every dream is analyzed on screens Orwellian aspirations have come to fruition Whoa! (Thieves and counterfeits) Yeah! (New-age ex-patriots) Baby! (Fixated on borders on maps) Oh! (Urban decay) Wow! (Births urban sprawl) Motherfuckers! (But are these boundaries ours to draw?) Stampeding death machines Armed with heatseeking laser beams Execute tactical maneuvers into the fog of war Profiteers rehearse war slang for the new generation Then broadcast the blood-soaked symposium To display the remarkable destruction we've created
5.
Crustache 03:45
Momentum means everything now Can’t push on further, too burnt out Let me out, now let me in Two paths converge, split, then they begin When the highest of hopes Could illuminate the vast unknown I used to be the brightest spark But cannot exist like that anymore I was so naïve all those years I felt completed I didn't really know what I truly needed At this point, it could go either way I could lie awake for weeks or I could sleep for days Suspended off the edge I'm scaling the Great Divide To face this wishful fiscal cliff Where ambition and indifference coincide Wha-oh-oh-oh Wha-oh-ah-oh Wha-oh-oh-oh Whoaaaaah Thirteen years, continuously Tearing up the stolen blueprints Of your generic battle-plans Flat palm strikes to cold pavement A gathering of nightmare architects To deconstruct our damaged dreams Bow down before the Demolition God Destroying a house of memories I was so naïve all those years I felt complete I still don't really know what I truly need At this point, it could go either way I could lie awake for weeks or I could sleep for days Suspended off the edge I'm scaling the Great Divide To face this wishful fiscal cliff Where ambition and indifference coincide Wha-oh-oh-oh Wha-oh-ah-oh Wha-oh-oh-oh Whoaaaaah Waking from a compulsory coma To nobody at your side, except A statue peering into your earthen soul With its stony, hollowed eyes Starving for unfiltered sunlight but Morning shades cloak dirty windows Frail archetypical scaffolding Our framework built of porous bones Watch one era bleed into another Admire time's viscous laminar flow Standing over an unfinished canvas A portrait of where we've been and will go Wandering aimlessly abroad to avoid The countless walking dead like me Stock footage replaces pivotal moments of your life Homesick for places you'll never see We've been burned by our heroes Too many times before This time as a phantom Now once more as a ghost
6.
Standing strong from dusk ‘til dawn Staggered home as the streetlights turned off Drinking Southern Comfort under the Northern Lights Infiltrating higher institutions with our gutter lives Stoic white eagle, majestic silver wolf My guardian spirits keeping me safer with every pull Let’s drink to our good fortunes, let’s toast to our success The freight train is coming and you’re bound to its tracks The trees stand resolute Yet mountains shift in the breeze A greater sense of purpose Used to resonate through me Reclaiming the frontier Our resolves fuel the revolution This vice is no longer the problem It’s becoming our solution These can’t be the Deadlands 'Cause we feel so alive Nowhere left to go When there’s nowhere left to hide We were greenhorns, newly christened pioneers Inundating unfounded boundaries they domineered Masked marauders are sweeping the highlands Blazing aimlessly across the golden shifting sands Smoldering tumbleweeds disintegrate by the water's edge Can't resuscitate submerged ambitions from the riverbed But we dreamt of this moment oh so long ago This town is finally ours and we’re never going home The trees stand resolute Yet mountains shift in the breeze A greater sense of purpose Used to resonate through me Reclaiming the frontier Our resolves fuel the revolution This vice is no longer the problem It’s becoming our solution These can’t be the Deadlands 'Cause we feel so alive Nowhere left to go When there’s nowhere left to hide This can't be the Promised Land It was built on lies There's nothing left to lose When you've never even tried Going through the perpetual motions Can nothing stop this now? Swimming in concentric circles Even though we know it's worthless how We drank to our good fortunes, we toasted to our success The freight train came and went; still left you scattered on its tracks In saloons, scoping double-barrels equipped with pump action We emptied every single one of them like they were our future caskets Scorched lungs collapsed from constant smoke inhalation Compounded with wilted eyes from sensory depravation Started romanticizing the idea of leaving it all behind Outlaws prepare to settle-in for the endless, empty grind Smoking six-shooters: spent, holstered at our sides Set sights on the prosperous new horizon as we saddle up and ride
7.
Jointventure 02:49
Chasing the rising sun Back to its native land Soaring on synthetic wings Traversing the Earth again Thousands of feet, descending Clouds still touch the ground Crossing the Prime Meridian Still a few hours left 'til touchdown Stateside, overseas It's all the fucking same to me Except you A transatlantic world away from me Enciphered signals span the sea, and We're bleeding out the lust As it coagulates to love See shattered slivers of self In jagged linear streaks Reflections cast from thin puddles Between wet cobblestones in the street Stumbling drunk alone Without you Transatlantic worlds away from me Encrypted signals sail the sea, and We're bleeding out the lust As it coagulates to love Realized growing up and growing old Are two separate things One’s a choice; and other’s a woken dream Departures and arrivals force continental drifts But a final red-eye across the ocean could break me free from this Do you remember feeling young and in love? Do you remember obsessing over what you'd hoped you'd become? Moderately successful yet miserable and never quite wealthy enough Still got a ways to go 'Til this distance will lead to milestones But like the setting sun whets the rising tide This constant sense of us is keeping me alive
8.
You and what fucking army Think you could take me down? For this fortress that surrounds me: My impenetrable walls Those days we were invincible At least when we were kids that’s what we’re told They say youth’s wasted on the young But I don’t think it’s wasted on anyone Fashioned in wolves clothing Incite a dance amongst the sheep Immersed in disdain and self-loathing Entitlement-scars brand failed thieves You and what fucking army Think you could take me down? For this fortress that surrounds me: My impenetrable walls We can't heed the call to adjust But that’s just the nature of beasts like us You can run, but you can’t hide Sometimes the monster it lurks inside Fashioned in wolves clothing Incite a dance amongst the sheep Immersed in disdain and self-loathing Entitlement-scars brand failed thieves Nightmares of deceptions unfolding Instilling panic while you sleep Unraveling pelts once worth owning Crime's never felt so chic You and what fucking army Think you could take us down? For this fortress that surrounds us Our impenetrable walls You're not my fucking family You don't mean shit to me You're not my fucking family And you'll never be You're not worth fucking shit
9.
While the blue apparitions bloomed From the cinders of the dense cedar empire A former forest you remember That once burned out crimson and gray Until the neon clouds tore open And poured down their fluorescent rain Out of those murky depths, molded from ashen clay I lifted myself up with this fledgling frame What circumstances have brought me here? Infinite paths, a million years From then on, nothing ever changed A slightly modified tune, same melodic refrain Admiring art only nature could create The shadows dance amongst the light cascades Borne by the stem, stitches of foliage pining for seduction Of wraiths to infiltrate via vacant space between flora You're not my brothers, encircled by false kin Forged a shroud of leaves, entombed in fall skin So, I lit myself a fire that burnt out for days Until the great flood came and washed it away And we watched the towering timbers turn into kindling And we saplings grew into the trees they used to be Seeds they sowed with hopes of future growth Still, all we are are organized carbon structures With a subtle spark created to swell and fade That at birth our vessels took in like emaciated strays We nurture it our whole existence With hopes of being saved What circumstances have brought me here? Infinite paths, a million years From then on, no, nothing ever changed A slightly modified tune, but the same goddamn refrain Even with this curse of limitation bestowed In isolation, we could manage to thrive on our own But we'd dismiss such an incredible experience The opportunity to be together in this Admiring art only nature could create The shadows dance amongst the light cascades Borne by the stem, stitches of foliage pining for seduction Of wraiths to infiltrate via vacant space between flora You're not my brothers, encircled by false kin Forged a shroud of leaves, entombed in fall skin So, I lit myself, a fire that burnt out for days Until the great flood came and washed it away It's a deceivingly fruitful existence When we spend our entire lives Learning how to leave everything behind With such limited time We'll never get it right It's such a meaningless fucking existence When we spend our entire lives Perfecting how to die In the end, with steady years of practice We'll all get it right
10.
Existential peril in flux Capitalizing on dissonance By randomly assembling Fragments of abandoned melodies Maintaining a critical path of least resistance Cognitive malnourishment: a lifeless lifestyle Force-fed simple algorithms Bred for substandard intellect Survival under these conditions becomes fucking futile Acid-etched lines slowly tracing up your spine Sending communicative signals Racing through your vital nucleus An analog solution in a digital age The balance of control has begun to shift And your negligence is to blame (Magnets to memories: a cleansing of everything) You recall breaking through The subterranean plate Where the bottom of the ocean Looked just like deep space Now existing no longer as a grand resonance But a lost echo that now bears repeating This failing empire built on premeditated art Was birthed from calculated creativity The motherboard's maternal instincts Sent current surfing against the circuitry Constructing overshoots and volatile oscillations Materializing the spark that formed a glorious arc Of white lightning that stunned the stillness Out of its golden, silent submission (Magnets to memories: a cleansing of everything) Different seas: find same shore Atlantis, I'll see you soon Will the sunken planets only align Or will they collide too? Now sheltered behind barricaded and reinforced doors We drained the ocean with plans to drown the core Rapid flashes of dispersed pixels reconvene When viewed through the translucent slipstreams Integral components submerged A fatal error has occurred The artificial warmth of the distant terminal's glow Pseudo-sentience sets in: "I'm 'alive' still, I suppose" A single blinking underscore on a black, empty screen This pulse of synthetic life could allow electronics to dream Our future terminus has been defined The former operator deemed obsolete When the wires connected, did you not expect this? Overlord Override Sequence: Complete
11.
Prism Breaks 01:32
The crystalline lair in which we slept Watched bird after bird fly into and break their necks Their limp bodies sprawled out on the pavement Their limp bodies sprawled out on the pavement I think of their babies waiting in the nest And spouses waiting up all night for them No one will ever find out where they went No one will ever figure out why they’ve left We all looked down below at the ground and wept “I wish I could have done something more to help” But secretly craved the abuse, and Silently savored the amusement While perched up high atop our ivory thrones Formed of tiny, bleached, white orphan bones Our ebony hearts plated in gold Our ebony hearts plated in gold And when the patron saint of philanthropists Clawed at the armored walls of our ecosystem We knew that his efforts were worthless He eventually came to that conclusion, too To prove that absence makes the heart grown fond I'd claim that my humanity was my first love Dearest God what have I done? Oh good Lord what have I become?
12.
The mountains have been scaled The seven seas are sailed The jungles, explored But I refuse to be bored Cosmetic consumer distractions Purchasing power perturbs how much to the curb Incessant infant contractions Reproducing fleshed flowers, just more cattle to cower Self-fulfilling family contraptions Struggling to survive the hardships of a sour life Manufactured religious abstractions Searching for a truth, but cannot find a use I must abandon this putrid place For the empty healing of desolate space I don't drift, I drive I don't float, I fly Sitting in pairs Two-by-two Our earthly affairs The minutiae of cares Will soon be incinerated By the fury of our flares I will wipe my ass with the porcelain clouds Then shatter the shit to the vomit-stained ground I don't drift, I drive I don't float, I fly I soar and explore forevermore Peering out into the blackest abyss Dark heavens, unrivaled bliss A cosmic crusader An outer-worldly arbitrator From up here, I can see it all Stars wished upon now not so far Sadistic humor ensues as I realize Such greedy dreams will never reach your eyes Feeling the fever Pushing the psychotic lever Emotionally levee of distaste break Humanity must be erased Give me the controls Remove yourself from the hull 'Cause outer space is so cold And this crash can warm our souls Would you disconnect me from the ship? Force my life into fate's chaotic grip Call your world saved It will die another day Though I'm faced with an untimely demise My goals and dreams have reached my eyes Driven by my disgust with complacency I continue to ponder the atrocities Floating and drifting throughout time Now my spirits are free to fly While civilization hugs the floor I soar and explore Forevermore
13.
Shriveled balloons sway in the cold autumn breeze Tangled in the telephone wires along this abandoned highway The door's been left wide open for weeks, yet no one's coming home In the decrepit, empty ruins, sits an illegibly scrawled note: "Behind each vacant noose, a retired reveler now weeps Their brethren hanging from the charred remains of trees While the golden guardian protects desperadoes The silver specter haunts its ghostly gallows Pastures echo cries of smoldering calves being birthed White wolves scatter snow-like ashes that taste of bitter war-scorched earth The voltaic cloud kingdom begins sinking deep below the sea The shrieking winds are shifting, burying everything Into the shallows fell the wax-winged slave Tempted by the glisten of the black omen’s flames We watched the fires overtake the coastal hills Held hands as waves crashed and laid perfectly still 'Til the end" (There's a beauty in all of the colors pulled from the gray) (Seamlessly culminating into a vibrant display) Now staring into a vacant mirror At the furthest edge of space Where recessed stratosphere Let's precious air escape Cold aura ignition To the void devoid of time's our fate We are here to survive Not merely create With all this almost coming to an end We can soon begin anew again Instincts guide us as we bravely descend Reach terminal velocity, watch the colors blend With renewed vigor, shattered bones they will mend We hold our breaths as we prepare to land With all this soon coming to an end We can almost begin anew again From trees to machines, we all breathe Do you still feel threatened by abstract thoughts and their consequences? We live to combust, rust, and erode Serve our master until in existential exhaustion we decompose Lovingly cradled like an infant in the everlasting arms Carried into the carnivorous maw of the abysmal great beyond But will we be prepared to leave when we're summoned to go? "Do you think you'll ever be ready?" I guess I'll never know With all this almost coming to an end We can soon begin anew again Instincts guide us as we bravely descend Breach terminal velocity, watch the colors blend With renewed vigor, shattered bones they will mend No regrets as we prepare to land With all this now coming to an end We can finally begin anew again

credits

released August 20, 2014

Ryan Taylor - Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Piano, Programmed Instruments
Benny Burrito - Drums, Vocals, Piano, Samples

Additional Musicians:
Rick Lonneman - Piano on Track 7
Andy Olson - Trumpet on Track 6
Roman Wolfe - Violin on Tracks 7 & 9
Zach Zaijian - Guest Vocals on Track 12

Produced, Recorded, and Mixed by Ed Ackerson at Flowers Studio

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Magneto Mastering

Album Artwork by Ian O'Neill

Released by AMPERS&WICH Records

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A Modern Synthesis Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ryan Taylor
Benny Burrito

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