Pt. I: The Brightest Horizon Creates the Darkest Shadow (The Storm is Coming, Can You See?)

"All young men, come sail with me!
a life of fortune waits at sea!"
the captain walks along the streets
and greets the people cheerily
"Adventure and a steady wage
are yours atop the ocean's waves!"
the captain struts throughout the town
and promises the young men how
each was born for life at sea
and tells us how good life could be
but no one tells us 'bout the men
drunk at bars and roadside inns
incoherent slurring lines
mumbling tales of all that lies
beyond the solid ground beneath
for no one knows the things they've seen
of death and ill and storms that rage
of seeing only waves for days
of sinking ships and drowning men
and hoping just to breath again
but whats the point of one more breath?
surviving's just a living death
enough to make a man lose heart
or rip his sanity apart
instead, they drink away their lives
with hollow chests and empty eyes
they drink all night and drink all day
to keep from turning up insane
they drink up all their bottle's worth
of drowning out their sailor's curse
but no one speaks a word 'bout them
to show us how we'll be condemned
to die at sea a hundred ways
or live to slowly rot away
but boys like us, we don't think twice
we hop on board for a sailors life
the town will come to see us off
and pray our lives will not be lost
we leave behind our hopes and dreams
for better things that we can see
we sail away without a care
but what is it that brings us there?
haunting ghosts we must outrun?
a nightmare that we're fleeing from?
or could it be adventure's call
to break from form and risk it all?
no matter what the reason was,
whatever we had called our cause,
now we know that all along
we listened to the siren's song


Pt. II: The Deepest Sleep(Tonight We Make our Bed at the Bottom of the Sea)

the sky looks dark, the mariner's words
the sea begins to froth and churn
where's the sun, the deckhands say
the wind blows in and makes the waves
hold fast your posts! the captain yells
the rain comes down in sheets until
abandon ship! the sailors cry
a wall of water blocks the sky
instead of black clouds overhead
blacker water falls instead
for one eternal moment there
our death, suspended in the air
the sailors cannot shout or move
but motionless, await their doom
and cling to their last breathless hour,
shadowed by the tidal tower
the sea observes her massive arms
created by her perfect storm
as nature watches it in awe,
it seems the ocean's stopped to pause
and holds in place, as if to say
"never before was such a wave"
the seconds drag out slower til
time itself is standing still
in each man's mind, a movie plays
of how he spent his earthly days
rememb'ring joy and pain alike
from schoolyard games to bar-room fights
and how each memory he's made
sinks with him to his unknown grave
while the water's mystery
is drowning out our histories
a half a life of living, lost
and half a man, soon forgot
as time and gravity return
and wreak their havoc, each in turn,
ceilings of water breaks the ship
the floor beneath the men caves in
the chaos pulls the sailors down
all hands on deck now tossed around
the sea, she holds us in her grip
and beats us with her crashing fists
a driftwood raft will save us all
until the mast begins to fall
it topples from its lofty height
and breaks the hope we had for life
it tangles in its sails, our limbs
and pulls our bodies further in
we sink alone and we sink fast
our hands tied to the broken mast
it drags us deeper to the depths
that strangle till there's nothing left
we breath as living men no more
our new home on the ocean floor
our sea-sick bodies rot alone
the fish will make our bones their home
the sirens sing above the waves
we sleep in peace beneath their wake

Pt. III: The Return(We'll Raise an Empire From the Bottom of the Sea)

the lighthouse shines from land due east, but
what light penetrates such deep?
no candle burning bright can show
what the black tide hides below
the water veils the brightest light
and turns the daylight into night
but while the tower's fire burns
the vigilante watchman stirs
he lights a candle, wipes his eyes
his blurry vision scans the night
a full moon greets his midnight gaze
his eyes met by the misty haze
but still, the twilight seems so dark
the sky has swallowed up the stars
the watchman turns to go to bed
but as he leaves, he turns his head
and sees a glow beneath the waves
and wonders if he's seeing straight
a golden ball of glowing light
barely breaking through the night
he stares with unbelieving eyes...

..and watches as we come to life
above us, waves will crash and break
we rise again beneath their wake
we piece together broken bones
and move with strength thats not our own
our bodies will take shape again
while the sea revives her dead
our lives are lost, but not our souls,
yet we are not completely whole
where once a beating heart was kept
now silence fills our hollow chests
oh, the resonating void!
where silence is the loudest noise
and what depth the darkness hides
where once these cavities held eyes
but no torch burns at such a depth
resolve instead burns in our chests
it lights us as we march along
and shout aloud our vict'ry song
we once were dead men, drowned in sleep
now skeletons that climb the reef
we walk the shallows to the shore
and scream above the ocean's roar
our tattered banner held up high
waving as the wind blows by
the beaches will be overcome
we swarm the dunes and overrun
the coastal towns, deserted now,
still haunted by the legend, how
at midnight on the full moon's eve
the shipwrecked sailors, lost at sea,
return to walk the empty streets
remembering when they took their leave
to sail the seas and leave their homes
how we regret the day we chose
to walk our last on solid ground
before we walked this true ghost town
we stop and stand in stillness there
to feel the breeze and breathe the air
our bodies back where they were born
but this is now our home no more
we slowly turn our shattered heads
to gaze out at the sea instead
our home is now the ocean's depths
our mistress, now, the waves' caress
once a sailor, forever we'll be
legends here beneath the sea
and quietly now, soft and small
we still hear the sirens' call