top of page

GRAVEN IMAGES

CD released March 2007 by Eulogy Recordings (USA), A-Team/Alveran Records (Europe), LP released April 2008 by Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records


Recorded and Mixed by Jonathan Nunez at Southern Noise Studio (Miami, FL)
Mastered by Luke Gilfeather


Artwork and Layout by Daniel Austin

Daniel Austin–lyrics, vocals, guitars

Chris Gentile–bass

RJ Noel–drums


Making a Killing

Succumb to whims of the machine

We are mere playthings of corrupt industries

Our health is pawned into private sectors by the pharaohs of our time


We submit with wallets, willing

Grovelling for scraps and relief

We forfeit our lives as they make their killing

But we just want to live!


The suffering of many is the wealth of a few

_____


The Story of Our Lives

Bow to your masters malevolent

Challenge their control and you shall repent

They possess the means of production,

The fruits of your labor, the moments of all our lives!


As we toil down below,

We're raped of the crop which grew from seeds we've sown


This is the story of our lives

I beg you–open your eyes!


Blessed in this age: the economy which maintains the modes of power

Our labor and our dollars fuel their industries

While those atop the pyramid leave us to rot!


The pursuit of liberty–rhetoric which means nothing

The pursuit of liberty–in pursuit we shall remain


This is the story of our lives

_____


Fuck the Imperialists

Fuck the imperialists

The war-mongers in white collars placing profits over people

History has been written by biased hands in their favor

We will be the ones who suffer the blowback of their crimes

Against humanity in foreign lands and not so distant times

Public servants and corporate henchmen walk together hand in hand

Drunk with wealth and power in this new feudal age


They lull the masses through work and sleep with battle hymns and conveniences

Inundated by daily routines, rarely do we stop and think:

"Who was it who armed rogue nations?" and

"Why do they hate our freedoms?"

The pieces of the puzzle make a picture that we'd prefer not to see


All your hopes, all of your dreams--threatened most by those you elected

They care not if you suffer as they pursue world domination

Lives are but a small price to pay for the luxuries we demand


Fuck the imperialists

Call them what they are–they're terrorists!


Their history of brutal conquest must be seen for what it is

Call me 'traitor' if you please...

Enjoy your party while it lasts


Fuck the imperialists

Call them what they are–they're terrorists!


_____



To Forget Civilization

When I die...

Spread my ashes in the sea

Set me free from humanity

When I die...

Give me back to the endless wild

Give me back to the earth we've defiled


How I long to be at peace

To be absolved through eternal sleep

When I die, set me free from the lies

Of this culture you call civilized


Entire lives spent longing for escape

As we grind ourselves into early graves

For precious progress we lay this world to waste

Day by day, the violence is ingrained


And you call this 'civilized'?


How I long to be at peace

To be absolved through eternal sleep

When I die, set me free from the lies

Of this culture you call civilized

_____



Graven Images


Two thousand years and nothing has changed

Still, palaces stand in your savior's name

Dominion: the righteous path of his children to rule the weak and squash the helpless


Fair christian, I too await

The day on earth when the meek shall reign

But for now, as we serve the snakes,

Who will deliver the justice you crave?


Six billion lives, and soon to be ten!

Selling our souls for the chance to exist

Like cattle, we're branded and numbered,

Tied to machines and raped till our slaughter


Fair christian, I too believe

Humanity has been led astray

Should power stay in tyrants' hands

There will be no deliverance for us


Your savior died for nothing, didn't he?


"There was only one true christian and he died on the cross" (Nietzsche)

Would he condone your palaces of gold as children starve?


Two thousand years and nothing's changed

​

_____

​

​

Your Trusted Friends


They addicted you whilst in your mother's womb

With time they knew you'd grow and consume

Newborns now a mere target market

To magnetize with slogans and narcotics


Like all drug pushers, they want your children

Such feeble minds make for perfect victims


The days of The Jungle are not long gone

They still own the game, and you're still their pawn

Though they wouldn't dare eat the shit they sell,

You stand in line, hypnotized by their fucking lies


_____



Distant Memories


The dark skies hang over our heads

In the shadows of towers we dance,

Oblivious as the earth suffocates under the heels of human advance

And with each step forward we forge a path we'll live to regret

The children of your children will inherit the weight of our debts


We used to run beneath the sky as one complete with the stars at night

Now held captive in these cities, working ourselves to death

Addictions help us cope with pain

Numb yourself enough to sustain

All this death in the name of progress


Those simple times when we knew peace slip through the cracks as distant memories...


Tell me what have we gained

Lives of luxury? Hearts plagued with pain?

Invest your hopes in technology till there's nothing left

Barren wastelands and bankrupt souls–the legacies that we uphold

So much waste in the name of freedom


Nevermind the laws of nature, we obey supply and demand

As man becomes machine, and the land–commodity,

Our existence wanes between complete collapse

And the desperate hope that we may...reconnect

​

_____

Lonely at the Top


He sprayed his brains upon the wall

Another masterpiece

May he rest in peace...


Behind flimsy facades of safety, comfort and luxury,

Their hearts hearken the call

Of siren songs in their secret dreams

To lust and squander all

When the last horizon is reached, the final challenge won,

What then will fill the void of at last being content?


Glut yourselves

There's no escape from the pain

How many lives have been betrayed

By American Dreams?


The obituary reads:

'Another wealthy man paints his masterpiece'

Why is it that those who sleep on the streets

Would rather live to see another day?


We need the struggle to survive


_____



Carried by Visions


Aggression boiling over with nowhere to go

We find no peace at home

So we shave our heads and take to the road!

Carried by four wheels and visions of

A better life outside the walls, beyond the fucking lies

Of this dead end life


What is it that we have to lose?

I would rather starve and squander my future

Than sell my precious time to you


No, I don't know how things will work out,

And I don't fucking care–I don't fucking care!


To taste freedom

To spite your rules

To claim our lives as our own

To taste freedom!


We will carry on


_____



Ghost Towns


Among the ruins of this city and the thousand more alike

Livelihoods have been devoured

The streets seem to have been deserted

Only shadows dare stalk the night–

Those human shells discarded by the system


They own nothing, and thus they are less than human

Blessed are the rich who make the wheels turn

As the steamroller rolls right over us


Where were the cops before the fences went up?

They serve and protect private property

We watched our parks become their parking lots,

And the local markets soon closed up shop


Only the strong remain

All I see is death


_____



The Dying Atheist


He could only react to the stimuli of his environment

The tides of torment, they came and went

No illusion could ever repair the damage of the flood,

Nor the void left thereafter


We bear our crosses of martyrdom in pursuit of love and truth

Chained to the chase of vice, ghost or grail,

We're absolved all the same


What difference does it make

To catalyze the waves of change?

The human world comes to an end


Dear beautiful friend,

Do not repent! Do not relent!

Through life's toils and uncertainty,

Fear can seize the strongest of hearts

Let your heart be strong to seize the fear!


To seek the answers none wish to seek

Is to bear the cross of unholy truth

All must have illusion–one and the same


The difference you can make

Is in the legacy you leave

The world won't stop without us


Though the new world may be as fictitious as any deity,

To give up hope is to live in defeat

The pull of nihilism, at times, can be too much

Which legacy will you leave?


_____



Become the Change


The flames of youth most often burn blind and brief

Our days are ours to seize until we're faced with reality

Then we feel the hammer fall

It's impact we cannot deny

Can't you hear the masses call:

"Get back in line, get back in line!"?


Do you sense the heels of power casting shadows over you?

Has that dread consumed your youth?

What is "free will" if we have only one choice between two evils?


Time has a way of bludgeoning the hope in our hearts

We learn to settle for less even though we long for more

And there, in the twilight of youth, alone with all your failures,

Will it suffice to say "I make no difference anyway"?


For us to achieve change we must move beyond the self

And become that change ourselves


Become the change yourself!


_____



Reiteration (The Message)


It's time to revive the idea

Rekindle the spirit that brought us here

To live in silence is to live in fear

So I'll speak my mind loud and clear


This voice could be the spark to ignite the (silent) masses

Let us all behold each voice that is full of passion

I know tomorrow isn't promised to me

So I must break free from the fear of failure, the fear of death

The fears that breed our complacent disease


We are all faced with this choice:

Escape or recreate

To live in hell or rewrite out fate

One voice, one fucking pen–

How I long to begin again

And leave this goddamned world behind


Fuck you all, I don't care if it's all been said before


These are the thoughts plaguing my mind

And I know you don't want to hear

For fear the truth may set you free

Then what will you do?

What's your excuse?

And then when it all comes crashing down

And your gods are nowhere to be found

What the fuck will you do?

What's your excuse?


Beyond the walls of this world you've come to know

Of dead-end streets and needless suffering

Awaits a message dying to be read:

'Look beyond this fucking scene!'


It's time to revive the idea

bottom of page