[DESCENT][MORAL DECAY][ADAPTATION] [START] [VERSE 1] [VOCAL – LOW BARITONE, BREATHY] [SUB – RESTRAINED][DRUMS – SPARSE] [SYNTH – LOW][PIANO – DISTANT][GUITAR – SWELLS] I slip through the silt where my sympathies settle, With a mouthful of medicine, mercury, metal. My appetite’s biting its teeth through the muzzle, While chemicals christen the cracks in the puzzle. I’ve been thinning my limits and thickening habits, Making ritual rabbits from chemical hat-tricks. Every vice has a voice and a vowel to borrow, So I swallow the sound and pronounce it tomorrow. There are fingerprints pressed in the folds of my thinking, Little whorls where the wanting keeps widening, sinking. I can feel myself forming from things I’ve forbidden— Like a shape under skin that remembers being hidden. [VERSE 2] [VOCAL – LOW BARITONE, INTENSIFYING] [SUB – DEEPER][DRUMS – FULLER] [SYNTH – WIDENING][GUITAR – SUSTAINED] I’ve got sins in my sinew that simmer like silver, Little slivers of shiver that swim through my liver. My pulse picks a pleasure, then pleads for another, Till impulse and instinct bleed into each other. I make meals of the morals that mold in my molars, Chew commandments to chalk between chemical closures. What was sacred gets shaved into something I savor, And the taste trains my tongue to translate it as favor. I’ve seen guilt grow gills just to breathe in the grime, Seen the filth find a foothold and flourish with time. Now the shame sheds its skin when it swims through my system, Leaves scales in my veins where the current has kissed them. There’s a shape in the shade of the self I’m shedding, Not a face, not a name—just a nature assembling. And the farther I fall, the more frightening the notion: I’m not drowning down here—I’m developing oceans. [HOOK] [VOCAL – DOUBLE-TRACKED BARITONE] [SUB – FULL][KICK – DEEP][DRUMS – HALF-TIME] [SYNTHS – WIDE][GUITAR – SUSTAINED] Down where the dark makes a den of my damage, I’m learning to live in the language of famine. The farther I fall, the more foreign my features, Like something is sanding the man from the creature. I’m sinking, still sinking, but something feels different— The pressure grows precious, the poison grows pleasant. If hell has a habitat, I’m adapting within it; God, what will I be when I’m finally finished? [VERSE 3] [VOCAL – STRAINED] [SUB/INFRA-SUB – BUILDING][DRUMS – BUILDING] [DRONES – RISING][SYNTHS – TIGHTENING] The air has gone aching and thick in my throat, Every breath bears a weight that keeps bending the note. There’s a tremor that travels from tendon to tooth, Like the dark found a pulse and is pushing me through. Now the walls of the wound seem to narrow around me, With a pressure so patient it practically crowns me. I can feel every ligament tightening inward, Like my flesh knows the shape before I can remember. There’s a frequency flowering under my sternum, A hum in the marrow; I’m thrumming in turn. Every inch of the infinite feels more confined, Like forever is folding and closing behind. And the deeper I drift, something changes in distance— The dark isn’t endless. It’s gaining dimension. There’s a terrible tension that tugs at my center... Like the void opened its arms to welcome a sinner. [BRIDGE] [VOCAL – CRESTING → EXPLOSIVE] [SUB/INFRA-SUB – MAXIMUM][DRUMS – RUNAWAY] [MID-BASS – SATURATED][SYNTHS/GUITAR – SURGING] The infinite buckles—a boundary beneath me, A terrible terminal suddenly sees me. There’s an end to the endless, an edge to the ether— And something down there has my shape in its features. Oh God, I can feel what the falling has fashioned, How hunger grew hands and put holes in my passion. How sin became skin, how the skin became thicker, How every new scar made the old screaming whispers. I’ve been bred by the breadth of this bottomless sickness, Bent into shapes that can stomach the distance. Every depth that I entered, I entered adapted— Every piece that went missing made room for what lasted. Now the pit pulls a print of my shape from the pressure, Every fracture fits faster, each failure hits harder. I can feel what I feared becoming familiar— Feel the stranger beneath me grow steadily nearer. [VOCAL – FULL-THROATED] [SUB – CATASTROPHIC][DRUMS – UNLEASHED] AND I SEE IT BELOW ME—I SEE WHERE THIS ENDS! I SEE WHAT IS WAITING WEARING MY SKIN! IT LOOKS UP WITH MY EYES, WITH MY MEMORIES INTACT— [SUB – HELD] AND IT OPENS ITS MOUTH— [FULL-BAND IMPACT] AND MY VOICE ANSWERS BACK. [FINAL HOOK] [VOCAL – FULL-THROATED] [SUB/INFRA-SUB – CATASTROPHIC][DRUMS – RUNAWAY] [SYNTHS/GUITAR – MASSIVE] DOWN WHERE THE DARK MAKES A DEN OF MY DAMAGE, I’M LEARNING TO LIVE IN THE LANGUAGE OF FAMINE. THE FARTHER I FALL, THE MORE FOREIGN MY FEATURES, LIKE SOMETHING IS SANDING THE MAN FROM THE CREATURE. I’M SINKING, STILL SINKING, BUT SOMETHING FEELS DIFFERENT— THE PRESSURE GROWS PRECIOUS, THE POISON GROWS PLEASANT. IF HELL HAS A HABITAT, I’M ADAPTING WITHIN IT; GOD, WHAT WILL I BE WHEN I’M FINALLY FINISHED? [END]
