Velvet & Vitriol

The marble floor is cold enough to bleed

I’m sowing every secret like a seed

You’re standing in the corner of the frame

A ghost who forgot to mention his name

I’ve polished up the silver and the spite

We’re dining on the echoes of the night

Tighten the corset, sharpen the tongue

The sweetest songs are the ones left unsung

Is it love? Is it debt?

The stage is dripping wet with the things we’ll regret

So let the ceiling fall, let the plaster crack

There’s no use in trying to lead us back

We’re the masterpiece of a broken hand

Sinking like a cathedral in the sand

Play the requiem, make it loud

I’m the only body in a standing crowd

In the velvet and the vitriol

Yeah, we’re losing it all

The clock is ticking backwards on the wall

I’m waiting for the mercury to fall

Your shadow is a weight I have to drag

I’m waving our surrender like a flag

But even if the theater is cold

The lies we tell are shimmering like gold

(Music strips back to a distorted cello and a ticking clock)

One for the curtain

Two for the crime

Three for the beauty we killed just in time

(Build up with heavy industrial percussion)

Four for the madness!

Five for the fall!

Six for the silence that swallows it all!

So let the ceiling fall, let the plaster crack

There’s no use in trying to lead us back

We’re the masterpiece of a broken hand

Sinking like a cathedral in the sand

Play the requiem, make it loud

I’m the only body in a standing crowd

In the velvet and the vitriol

Yeah, we’re losing it all

Strike the lights, leave us in the dark

Every masterpiece needs a finishing mark

The paint is peeling, the velvet is torn

But wasn't it beautiful being reborn?

(Music swells: A frantic, rising violin tremolo meets a heavy industrial pulse)

I’ll see you in the echoes...

I’ll see you in the hall...

We’re the only ones left who can stand this tall.

(The percussion stops abruptly. Only a haunting, low cello remains)

The house is empty.

The mercury is spent.

God, what a beautiful accident.

(A final, crashing orchestral chord rings out, layered with the sound of a heavy velvet curtain hitting the floor. The reverb decays into the sound of distant, ghostly applause that slowly dissolves into white noise.)