(Verse 1) The ink was dry before the parchment hit the floor A thousand years of knocking on a locked-up door The crown is just a circle made of stolen gold And the story of the conquest is the only one ever told I used to think the blood was a glitch in the design A temporary fever, a crossing of the line But the ruins in the desert have a certain kind of glow They’re screaming that the seed was planted long ago. (Chorus) And it’s the way it’s always been The feast for the few, the famine for the kin A handshake in the shadow, a dagger in the sleeve The only honest thing is that we’re taught to believe That tomorrow is a mountain we can actually climb While the architects are stealing every second of our time Yeah, it’s the way it’s always been. (Verse 2) Now the dictators are digital, the whispers are in code But it’s the same old map on a different kind of road They trade the iron scepter for a polished, glass screen The slaughter is sanitized, the corruption is clean I watched a city burn while the lawyers wrote the bill The appetite for power is a void they can’t fill And we’re fighting for the scraps of a promise made in dust While the gears of the empire grind away our trust. (Bridge) Sift through the archives, peel back the skin Find the same old monster where the history begins Same greed, different garment Same lie, different tongue The song of the oppressor is the only one ever sung And we keep hoping for a pivot, a break in the chain But the rain is just the rain, and the pain is just the pain. (Chorus) Because it’s the way it’s always been The feast for the few, the famine for the kin A handshake in the shadow, a dagger in the sleeve The only honest thing is that we’re taught to believe That tomorrow is a mountain we can actually climb While the architects are stealing every second of our time Yeah, it’s the way it’s always been. (Outro) Don’t tell me it’s a phase Don’t tell me it’s a haze It’s the blueprint, it’s the bone The king is just a thief upon a borrowed throne Always been... Always been... Just the way it’s always been.
