INTRO (Slow mechanical drones. Distant bells.) Iron horizon Ash in the rain Columns of statues with wires for veins The road behind me folded away Like memory burned frame by frame Then from the dark Beyond all flame A voice like collapsing mountains sang: “ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE.” VERSE I The gate rose higher than the weather Black steel bound in corpse-white letters Every sentence carved alive Every word a severed eye Pilgrims wandered toward the arch Covered in electric scars Some still praying through their teeth Some already underneath The air itself became compressed Heavy as confession pressed And every breath I tried to steal Returned tasting like burning steel PRE-CHORUS No stars remained above the walls Only static snowfall CHORUS Gate of the hopeless Mouth beneath the earth Where every dream is measured By its failure at birth Gate of the hopeless Engine made of grief The doors swing inward slowly Like a funeral of belief ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE VERSE II A thousand towers lined the void Built from names the dead destroyed Clocks without a single hand Turning over poisoned sand Then the guardians appeared Faceless helmets fused with mirrors When I looked into their chrome I saw everything I’d become Coward Machine Traitor Ghost Each reflection split apart Like cracked circuitry of the heart PRE-CHORUS The iron choir began to rise Singing in a language made of knives CHORUS Gate of the hopeless Threshold of decay Every sin becomes a monument That never fades away Gate of the hopeless Cathedral without light Where mercy was dismantled By eternal appetite ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE INSTRUMENTAL SECTION (Polyrhythmic riff spiral) Choirs chanting in Latin beneath distorted radio static Double kick drums accelerate like machinery activating Whispered voices pan left and right: “ENTER” “DESCEND” “NO RETURN” “THE GATE REMEMBERS” BRIDGE Then the hinges screamed open wide Like continents colliding inside And from beyond the endless frame Came storms without a source of rain I saw the circles turning below Red oceans illuminated slow An empire built from human fear Grinding onward year by year And standing there before descent I felt my final heaven spent FINAL CHORUS Gate of the hopeless Burn my former skin There is no absolution now Only deeper in Gate of the hopeless Crown of buried flame I crossed the threshold willingly And forgot my earthly name ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE ABANDON WHAT YOU WERE OUTRO Massive orchestral chord Machine drones Heartbeat slowing One final whisper: “WELCOME BELOW.”
