Silence Between the Cracks

[Verse 1]
I grew up on your letters
Red ink in a worn-out book
Folded prayers in my pocket
Till they burned right through the cloth
Every verse was a promise
Every promise came up short
Now the words taste like rusted nails
On this splintering tongue
[Chorus]
Are you there in the silence between the cracks?
I keep screaming your name till my throat turns black
If you're love
Why does mercy feel like attack?
I am losing my faith
But I still want it back
I still want you back
[Verse 2]
I still sit in the back row
Mouthing lines I don't believe
Watching halos on the projector
Flicker
Tremble
Then freeze
All these saints feel like strangers
Every hymn like a ghost in the hall
If you're carved in the ceiling
Why do I stare at the floor?
[Chorus]
Are you there in the silence between the cracks?
I keep screaming your name till my throat turns black
If you're love
Why does mercy feel like attack?
I am losing my faith
But I still want it back
I still want you back
[Bridge]
[Band drops to sparse clean guitar
Vocal on the edge of breaking]
Teach me how to curse you honest
Teach me how to miss you true
I don't know if I hate the silence
Or that I still talk to you
[Half-time breakdown hits
Harsh screams]
WHERE WERE YOU
WHEN I WAS BLEEDING THROUGH MY TEETH?
WHERE WERE YOU
WHEN THEY LAUGHED ME OUT THE PEW?
IF YOU'RE THERE
WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SPEAKS?
WHY DO I STILL
REACH OUT TO YOU?
[Chorus]
Are you there in the silence between the cracks?
I keep screaming your name till my throat turns black
If you're love
Why does mercy feel like attack?
I am losing my faith
But I still want it back
I still want you back
(I still want you)

Emotional post-hardcore with male vocals; verses start tense and restrained over clean, chiming guitars and gritty bass; drums push with off-kilter accents. Choruses explode with layered screams and strained melodies over wide, distorted guitars and tom-heavy hits. Bridge collapses into a half-time breakdown, vocals shredding and then dropping to a raw, near-spoken whisper before one last, desperate full-band hit., post-hardcore, emotional