(Intro - Clean electric guitar, slow and echoing)
(Clean, soft voice)
Leaves drop in the middle of July
Green turns to gray before the branches dry
Sitting in the grass, watching power decay
Rotting in the shadow of what they had to say
(Verse 1 - Clean voice, rising tension)
Black or white, left or right, pick a side
Not gay enough, too gay to hide
Generational weight dumped straight on my chest
They built the box, now they judge how I rest
I missed the rainbow hiding right in between
Trapped in the binaries of their bitter machine
(Pre-Chorus 1 - Bass heavy, driving drum beat)
(Clean, building to a rasp)
You told me to think about it...
Well, I did.
You told me to calm down...
Look what you did!
(Chorus 1 - Full heavy drums and distorted guitars)
(Mixed singing and high-energy screamo)
VIOLATED! LET DOWN! RIDICULED AGAIN!
Drowning in the mold where the quiet should’ve been!
I’m sitting in the rot of your handed-down pain
Trying to find the sun in a black-and-white rain!
(Verse 2 - Music drops out, rhythmic guitar, clean and intimate)
(Clean voice, reflective)
Trusting the hands that were pulling the thread
Peaceful inside while the world saw me dead
Disillusioned by the rules you forced me to keep
While you traded my boundaries for something cheap
(Pre-Chorus 2 - Drums kicking in, fast pace)
(Building rasp, rising intensity)
You told me to think about it...
Well, I did!
You told me I was changing...
Look what you did!
(Chorus 2 - Explosive, driving screamo)
(Full scream)
VIOLATED! LET DOWN! RIDICULED AGAIN!
Drowning in the mold where the quiet should’ve been!
I’m sitting in the rot of your handed-down pain
Trying to find the spectrum in a black-and-white rain!
(Bridge - Music slows down, dynamic guitar picking, quiet ambient noise)
(Clean voice, soft and steady)
I am not your black.
I am not your white.
I am every color bleeding into the night.
I carried your ghosts until my shoulders broke...
Now I’m stepping out from the smoke.
(Breakdown / Climax - Complete silence for half a second, then a heavy, slow, crushing beat drop)
(Spoken / Low guttural voice, growing in power)
You wanted a warning?
Here’s your warning.
(FULL, UNFILTERED, RESONANT MAN-VOICE SCREAM - MAX VOL/POWER)
SHAME IS A MOTHERFUCKING LIAR!
SHAME IS A MOTHERFUCKING LIAR!
(Scathing screamo over heavy guitars)
I BREAK THE TREE!
I CLEAR THE MOLD!
TAKE BACK THE POWER THAT YOU STOLE!
(Outro - Heavy instruments fading out into soft, clean guitar chords)
(Clean, peaceful, breathing heavily)
Dead leaves on the ground...
Making room for the spring.
Hope in the quiet...
In everything.
