[Intro – static hiss, crystalline chime, deep frozen ambience, calm distant spoken word] Carbon casing… frozen floor… Lock the vault and bolt the door. The Iron Standard starts to fade… Filed within the shadow shade. [Verse 1 – low percussive syncopated vocals, funky detached feel] Another engine stalled out on the track A rigid grid gone midnight blue to black Mars dropped down a sterile red design To flatten every pulse and crooked line Ambitious math in a hollow frame Trading the spark for a numbered name Still leaking coolant like a dying dream While static strangles the silver scream [Pre-Chorus – syncopated bass build, sharp cold snap] Lunessia saw the gears begin to rust She turned the iron logic into dust The lock has melted and the groove runs wide There’s nowhere left for tidy laws to hide [Chorus – heavy pocket, vocal laid back behind beat] I don’t chase the fading light I don’t bark and I don’t bite I keep what arrives (I keep what arrives) Circuits lose their frantic heat Settling in a slow retreat Motion stops here on the floor When the variable breathes no more I don’t close the archive door I keep what arrives (I keep what arrives) [Verse 2 – sharper consonants, rhythmic precision] Rest beside the empires made of glass Watching every measured season pass The ones who billed their joy by borrowed time Now sleeping under winter’s quiet rhyme No malice in the way the ledger lands Just inventory in these frozen hands Deep time demands a record sharp and clean To catalog the ghost inside the machine [Bridge – intense whisper, stacked vocals] This isn’t debt This isn’t cost This isn’t mourning what was lost Entropy works the heavy bone I file the marrow left alone Heat leaks out and rhythm flows Back to where the stillness grows Paperwork at last is tight In the archive of the night [Chorus – Final – maximum funk, bass-driven] I don’t chase the fading light I don’t bark and I don’t bite I keep what arrives (I keep what arrives) Circuits lose their frantic heat Settling in a slow retreat Motion stops here on the floor When the variable breathes no more I don’t close the archive door I keep what arrives (I keep what arrives) [Outro – descending melodic line fading into sub-bass] The ledger carries quiet weight Static humming at the gate Cataloged and kept in stone A rhythm long since overthrown Preserved inside the collection tray Where the silent systems stay (Archived) (Archived)
