Red Tide Rider

[Intro - sung softly, clean guitar]
I saw a wave of rust
It had teeth
It had a mouth like a canyon
And it spoke beneath

It said: "Rider, rider
The red tide's high
You don't need an ocean
To learn how to die"

[Verse 1]
I built my board from a hearse door
Waxed it with earwax and gore
The horizon was bleeding and torn
The red tide was already born

[Chorus]
Red tide rider / Blood on the rail
Red tide rider / The ocean failed
But I don't need water / To catch a wave
Just a hill of corpses / And a hungry grave

[Verse 2]
I paddled through the rib cage
Of a god that drowned in thirst
The ribs made a tunnel
And the red tide came first

I looked behind me / The shore was gone
I looked ahead / Just a bloody dawn
I looked inside / And what did I find?
A red tide rider / Leaving my mind behind

[Chorus]
Red tide rider / Blood on the rail
Red tide rider / The ocean failed
But I don't need water / To catch a wave
Just a hill of corpses / And a hungry grave

[Middle section - bass and reverb only, whispered then sung]
[whispered]
The red tide doesn't ask. It takes.
The red tide doesn't break. It makes.
[sung]
Makes riders out of the damned
Makes surfboards out of the sand
Makes waves out of everything you lost
And then it asks: "What's the cost?"

[Guitar solo] – [One minute. One note climbs higher every 4 bars, each note ringing out fully before the next.]

[Outro - sung, fading]
Red tide rider... red tide rider...
The ocean's dead... but I'm inside her...
[last line, clear, no reverb]
I am the wave now.

Surf Rock, male, Key: E minor
· Tempo: 95 BPM (steady, building)