[Intro: Delicate, haunting acoustic guitar picking. Ambient sounds of rustling wind.] [Vocals: Soft, whispering, melodic but carrying an underlying tension, like Aaron Lewis of Staind or Maynard James Keenan of Tool] [Verse 1] Five hundred miles from the nearest ringing phone I rented out this timber shack to finally be alone The market and the traffic and the buzzing of the screen Have driven me to seek out something perfectly pristine. No airplanes overhead, no engines in the street Just the pine needles crunching underneath my tired feet. The isolation chamber at the bottom of the world Where the chaos of the century is finally unfurled. [Chorus] [Soft acoustic strumming, a faint, distant bass drum heartbeat] It’s so quiet out here, I can hear my own blood flow. The silence is a blanket covering the earth below. No static on the dial, no voices in the hall. Just the majesty of nothingness answering the call. Peace at last. Perfect peace at last. [Verse 2] [A brooding, clean electric guitar joins the acoustic. The bass drum gets slightly louder.] The sun went down an hour ago, the shadows stretched out long I’m waiting for the crickets to begin their evening song But the insects are refusing, and the owls are staying mute The stillness is unsettling, it’s entirely absolute. The timber of the floorboards gives a cavernous, deep groan As if the dirt beneath the house is hollowed out to bone. My coffee cup is trembling on the heavy wooden desk The architecture of this woods is feeling picturesque, yet grotesque. [Pre-Chorus] [Drums enter with a steady, military snare march. Guitars gain a slight overdrive.] I step out on the porch to see why nature holds its breath The atmosphere is heavy, carrying the scent of death The soil starts to ripple like a dark and violent sea And a fissure opens up exactly where the lawn should be. [Chorus] [Guitars explode into a massive, heavy, drop-tuned wall of sound. Bass is thunderous.] [Vocals: Erupt into a roaring, anguished scream] It’s so quiet out here, I can hear my own blood flow! The silence is a blanket covering the earth below! No static on the dial, no voices in the hall! Just the majesty of nothingness answering the call! Peace at last! Perfect peace at last! [Bridge] [Dissonant, grinding guitar breakdown. Polyrhythmic drum patterns.] [Vocals: Spoken word, terrified, distorted] The silence wasn't peace. The silence was a predator. The birds didn't fly away. They were too terrified to move. The earth isn't splitting. It's opening its jaw. [Outro] [Frenetic, crushing heavy metal climax] [Vocals: Screaming at the top of the lungs] The cabin is tilting! Sliding down the throat! A subterranean leviathan without an antidote! Swallowed by the soil! Buried in the deep! It dragged me underground so I could get some fucking sleep! Permanent quiet! Permanent quiet! [A massive, heavy chord strikes and sustains, followed by a sudden, unnatural cut to total silence]
