Welcome to the New Dark Ages, Part 3

Our blood is boiling (spilling from our mouths) Our teeth are rotting (from the inside out) Our bones are breaking (under their own weight) Our flesh decaying (right before our eyes) A moment on the lips A lifetime on our knees Living hand to mouth Dying by degrees Radium angels, born without wings Burning bright and bleeding light From beneath their spectral skin The phosphorescent glow Of incandescent bones Such terrible beauty We were not meant to know Radium angels, dancing with the dead Choking on their swollen tongues With every tortured breath Luminous phantoms, shining like diamonds Radiant visions, haunting the factory floor Sometimes the dead refuse to rest In peace of be forgotten No matter how deep beneath our feet They sleep within a lead-lined coffin There is a light that does not lie And it dwells within us And even when we die It will be buried with us Radium angels, wearing crooked halos To hide their sorrow, and mask their pain Luminous phantoms, shining like diamonds Radiant vision, haunting the factory floor They have silenced our voices And blackened our names But we are still burning We are still glowing In our graves

So begins the new regime, no different than the old A gathering of well-dressed thieves, draped in drag from Saville Row Their heads are filled with scripture but their hearts are full of hate Their tongues inlaid with silver to better hide the taste It's just the same old faces Shaking hands and switching places Preaching water, drinking wine Public servants, private swine Reign of error - ignorance is bliss Reign of error - ruling with an iron fist Reign of error - arrogance unbound Reign of error - empty is the head that wears the crown That sits a crooked angle Upon a crooked brow The enemy of truth is a lazy mind That demands no proof, only a pleasing lie Reign of error - ignorance is bliss Reign of error - ruling with an iron first Reign of error - arrogance unbound Reign of error - empty is the head that wears the crown Somehow the worst among us Just keep on falling upwards They fascinate the fools with gaudy ostentation And muzzle the intelligent with threats of violent retribution They tell you to reject the evidence of your own eyes And if the jackboot fits they wear it with perverted pride Reign of error Off with their heads

Ad infinitum Ad nauseam Ad absurdum It never ends Violence breeds only more violence (death breeding death) While hatred breeds hatred that cannot be sated (mercy breeds only contempt) It's all against all, it's us versus them Divided we fall, into a hell of our own making First as tragedy, than as farce History repeats itself and we learn nothing It begins again The words may change but the story has only one end Men become beasts, and beasts become men Age after age it shall be, as age after age is has been The past becomes the future, prologue becomes prophecy The follies and crimes, and misfortunes of mankind Form a litany of infamy and moral compromise First as tragedy, then as farce History repeats itself and we learn nothing It's a vicious cycle, an endless downward spiral A race towards the bottom That no-one ever wins Our knives are long but our memories are short And only the dead will see the end of war They say the road to hell is paved With all of our mistakes And the best laid plans we've made But failed to follow And those who will not listen To the history we've written Are destined to repeat them Until the end of days