The Present Has Teeth

[Intro: dry spoken vocal, close mic, cold and transactional] Buy now. Pay later. Later has no say. [Hard stop] [Verse 1: low dry half-spoken vocal, clipped rhythm, controlled anger] We buy the day with borrowed years The farther out, the less it weighs The now gets paid before the proof Tomorrow signs with empty hands We trade the long view for a hit The first bite hides the debt We take the win and shift the cost To lives we haven’t met [Pre-Chorus 1: rising pressure, sung-shout, drums building] We know what we are taking We know who cannot speak We mark tomorrow down And trade it for a week [Chorus: big chantable melodic shout, full band, gang echo] The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We sell off the future For one more today The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We call it survival And look away [Riff Break: heavy groove, no vocals] [Verse 2: tighter barked vocal, more aggressive] A four-year clock eats fifty years The quarter smiles, the decade pays The books go blind where damage starts The profit takes its cut and leaves The ones who pay don’t get a seat No future hand gets raised They call it growth when nothing heals And send the bill ahead [Pre-Chorus 2: more accusatory, higher pressure] We call the shortcut common sense We call the damage growth We sell delay as strength And make tomorrow pay [Chorus: bigger, rough gang doubles, no glossy polish] The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We sell off the future For one more today The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We call it survival And look away [Bridge: half-time, stripped down, cold spoken into barked vocal] No witness in the room No hand upon the scale We wouldn’t steal it face to face So we steal it out of sight We spend the lives we’ll never face Then call the balance clean No one born can stop the pen No one born can bite us back (bite us back) [Beat of silence] [Breakdown: half-time stomp, barked lead vocal, gang chant response, hard stops] [Lead] Take the hit [Lead] Shift the cost [Gang] No seat [Gang] No vote [All / gang chant] Feed the now Starve tomorrow Feed the now Starve tomorrow [Lead] Buy today [Gang] Bill tomorrow [All / gang chant, heavier] Feed the now Starve tomorrow [Hard stop] [Final Chorus: biggest arrangement, gang vocals on hook, raw melodic shout] The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We sell off the future For one more today The present has teeth (has teeth) The now eats tomorrow We call it survival [Band cut to near silence] And look away [Outro: dry spoken vocal, band stopped, no reverb tail, morally cold] Buy now. Pay later. Later has no say. [End: cold stop, no resolution]