Rise Against – ‘Wolves’

1. Wolves
Light all the torches and wake up the King
The smoke you’ve ignored is a flame you can’t contain
We circle the walls and claw at the dirt
We growl from our guts and howl until it hurts

I told her «come with me
And I can take you from this place now
Somewhere these roads don’t go
A place that we can start again»
I grabbed her hand and pulled her close
She looked at me and said

«Hey I don’t even know your name
But I am ready to explode
Like a tiger in a circus
Cracking whips are all I know
I’m searching for a sense of purpose»

We are the wolves at the gate
Our numbers growing every day, yeah
You can’t fight us all, no
No, you can’t fight

We are the wolves at the wall
We break in like a waterfall, yeah
You can’t fight us all, no
You can’t fight

The water is breaching the walls of the dam
Trampling dreams in a rush to higher land

Are you ready to explode
Like a tiger in a circus?
This cage is all I’ve ever known
But now you’ve given me a purpose

We are the wolves at the gate
Our numbers growing every day, yeah
You can’t fight us all, no
You can’t fight
We are the wolves at the wall
We break in like a waterfall, yeah
You can’t fight us all, no
And we are not going away

Roaming in numbers and chasing the scent
Circling in for the kill
And you are the winter, the long discontent
We won’t stop till we’ve had our fill

(We are the wolves)
Roaming in numbers and chasing the scent
(We are the wolves)
Circling in for the kill
(We are the wolves)
And you are the winter, the long discontent
(We are the wolves)

We won’t stop till we’ve had our fill
We are the wolves…
*

2. House on fire
I can see the storms in her eyes now
I’m falling overboard in the waves
In over my head and she’s a high tide
That keeps pushing me away
I thought that we would build this together
But everything I touch just seems to break
Am I your sail or your anchor?
Am I the calm or the hurricane?

I feel the ground start to shake
I hear a voice shouting move
But there is no fucking way
I’d leave you

So I’ll just hold you like a hand grenade
You touch me like a razor blade
I wish there was some other way right now, ohohohoh
Like a house on fire we’re up in flames
I’d burn here if that’s what it takes
To let you know I won’t let go of you, ohohohoh

Is the soundtrack to our lives
The bang of a slamming door
What happens when we all start to feel like
Nothing matters anymore
Every day like a chambered round, a trigger pulled
A hammer click, a breath we hold
A world outside I can’t control
No matter what I do

So I’ll just hold you like a hand grenade
You touch me like a razor blade
I wish there was some other way right now, ohohohoh
Like a house on fire we’re up in flames
I’d burn here if that’s what it takes
To let you know I won’t let go of you, ohohohoh

How is it a thing
That we just wanna hurt each other
I’m waiting out the rain
Feels like it’s gonna rain forever
Someday you will learn
That all I ever did was for you
And I would do it all again
I would do it all again

‘Til then I’ll hold you like a hand grenade
You touch me like a razor blade
I wish there was some other way right now, ohohohoh
Like a house on fire we’re up in flames
I’d burn here if that’s what it takes
To let you know I can’t let go of you, ohohohoh

Of you, ohohohoh…
Of you
*

3. The violence
Dancing on the crumbling precipice
The rocks are coming loose just at the edge
Are we laughing? Are we crying?
Are we drowning? Are we dead?
Or is it all a dream?

The bombs are getting closer everyday
«That could never happen here» we used to say
Have these wars come to our doorstep?
Has this moment finally come?
Or is it all a dream?

Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
Is the violence in our nature
Just the image of our maker?
Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
To become something greater
Than the violence in our nature?
Are we not good, good enough?

Or is it all a dream?

To a predetermined fate are we condemned?
Or maybe we’re a book without an end?
We’re not stories, we’re not actors
We’re awake and in control
And this is not a dream

So can we break this mold
And set in motion something new?
Forgetting what we know
An evolution overdue
Fight the current
Pull the ripcord

Get away!

Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
Is the violence in our nature
Just the image of our maker?
Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
To become something greater
Than the violence in our nature?
Are we not good, good enough?

Well-trodden paths are all we take
We need a storm, let’s pray for rain now
To wash these roads away
Let’s get off track and wander far
Same roads lead to same destinations
Follow nothing but your heart
We’re talking in our sleep
And sleeping through our lives
And we dream of the places where we never die
We step from the shadows and into the light

Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
Is the violence in our nature
Just the image of our maker?
Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
To become something greater
Than the violence in our nature?
Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
Are we not good, good enough?
Or was it all a dream?
*

4. Welcome to the breakdown
All hail the jester has landed
In flyover country he sings
We’re charmed like a snake in a basket
We should be coiled up and ready to spring
Raising a cross just to burn it
The clergy are selling their souls
Clearing a path, ignoring the facts
Intoxicated by the throne

But we’ll be standing here holding our ground come what may
Like a ghost haunts from beyond the grave

Welcome to the breakdown
Welcome to the end of the road
Welcome to the breakdown
And we’ve got nowhere else to go

When we all go deaf in the chamber of echoes
Cheering the missile parade
Agreeing to let all the banks rob the people
Together we circle the drain

We’ll be standing here holding our ground come what may
Like a ghost haunts from beyond the grave

Welcome to the breakdown
Welcome to the end of the road
Welcome to the breakdown
And we’ve got nowhere else to go
Welcome to the breakdown
Welcome to the end of the road
This is a breakdown
And we’ve got nowhere else to go

It’s a game, you’ve been played
It’s a flock, you’re the sheep
It’s a pied piper song that has lulled you to sleep
It’s a lie and you fell for it, hook line and sinker
A hand that you shook that then gave you the finger
A fraud and a fake, a cowardly king
A lie to your face, but you still kiss the ring
This is the breakdown, this is the breakdown
This is the breakdown!

We are standing here holding our ground come what may
Like a ghost haunts from beyond the grave

Welcome to the breakdown
Welcome to the end of the road
This is a breakdown
And we’ve got nowhere else to go
Welcome to the breakdown
Welcome to the end of the road
This is a breakdown
And we’ve got nowhere else to go

It’s not much but this is home
And there’s nowhere else to go!
*

5. Far from perfect
Keeping up appearances don’t break now
Or buckle from the weight
Pretend to laugh but don’t laugh too loud

Do you feel the pressure building
The anger spilling out now
Meanwhile the cracks have formed on
The masks we’ve worn up ‘til now

We are far from perfect
But perfect as we are
We are bruised, we are broken
But we are goddamn works of art
Works of art

The pieces of our hearts all gravitated
Together but before we could be part of this mosaic
We had to break apart

Like glass we’re falling faster than stars
Meanwhile the cracks have formed on
The masks we’ve worn up ‘til now
Take a look

We are far from perfect
But perfect as we are
We are bruised, we are broken
But we are goddamn works of art

In every color we shine
A tapestry of scars
With every thread
We’re growing stronger and moving on
We’re finding right ways despite the wrong ones
We’re clearing paths blocked by storms
We’re finding the beauty in what you’ve ignored

We are far from perfect
But perfect as we are

We are far from perfect
But perfect as we are
We are bruised, we are broken
We are goddamn works of art

Yeah we are
Perfect as we are
Perfect as we are
*

6. Bullshit
Thank you for your silence, your continuing compliance
It’s your buried head so deep in sand that ushered in the virus
Oh no please don’t lift a finger, don’t get up, just sit right there
Don’t worry about the thoughts inside your pretty little head

So we stick to the script and recite your lines
Don’t break from the character just keep it inside

But this is bullshit (bullshit)
It’s finally coming into focus (focus)
You’re lying and I think you know it but you’re too afraid
To face the storm you helped create
Yeah this is bullshit (bullshit)
And did you think I wouldn’t notice? (notice)
Cracks in your theory are showing like a broken vase
Your grip around me dissipates

And we are separated only by division and the walls that we create
But we are more alike than different when we stop and take a minute face to face

They say we’re divided and we are conquered
Yeah, but our enemies have never been each other, no

Because this is bullshit (bullshit)
It’s finally coming into focus (focus)
You’re lying and I think you know it but you’re too afraid
To face the storm you helped create
Yeah this is bullshit (bullshit)
And did you think I wouldn’t notice? (notice)
Cracks in your theory are showing like a broken vase
Your grip around me dissipates

So we scale the walls and fire escapes
A wheat paste brush and cans of paint
To cover up your walls with something new
Because we all know, oh

Your signs say we’re not good enough, not cute enough
Not smart enough, not worth your love
Out with the old and in with something new

Bullshit, I’m not sorry to say
That this is bullshit
You been lying to me
Bullshit and it always was
And you know and you know and you know and you know
That this is bullshit coming right at you
Bullshit coming home to roost
Bullshit and you’re too afraid
To face the storm you helped create

This is bullshit, this is bullshit
Bullshit and you’re too afraid
To face the storm you helped create
*

7. Politics of love
I hear your voice in the wind
It follows me, it cuts right through the noise
As we spin on dance floors made of ice
So rest your hand in mine
Steady now, ignore the sound
The breaking lines
The crack beneath our feet as time runs out
Each night like a white noise frequency
Broadcast the waves, I tune them out
Clear signs outlined
But I couldn’t see what I see now

I should’ve said something to you
When I saw you walk away, instead I did nothing
And now you’re gone and it’s too late
We board up the windows we used to look through
I should’ve said something, I should’ve said something to you

Like buried seeds in the ground
Invisible but growing
Underneath pushing out
Now tangled in the vine, I hear the sound
Heartbeats from a world so far away
The distant drums, I tune them out
Each night right before I fall asleep
I hear them now

I should’ve said something to you
When I saw you walk away, instead I did nothing
And now you’re gone and it’s too late
So we board up the windows we used to look through
I should’ve said something, yeah, I should’ve said something to you
I should’ve said something, yeah, I should’ve said something
So we board up the windows we used to look through
I should’ve said something, I should’ve said something, I should’ve said something
Yeah, I should’ve said something to you
*

8. Parts per million
There’s something wrong with the words that we’re not saying
And the silence we’re creating like a ghost note symphony
There’s something wrong and the temperature is rising
Ignoring every siren as we’re marching towards a cliff
But these are choices that we don’t have to make
Block out the voices ‘cause they have led you astray
What I’ve been trying to say to you is that

There’s something in the water, there must be something in the air
Just ‘cause I can’t put my finger on it, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there

We are all turned on but then we all tune out
As we are hypnotized by the sparkling lies
We fall under their spell
But don’t forget that these are choices
That we don’t have to make, so many voices
That have led us astray, we can’t keep anything down
The room is spinning around

There must be something in the water, yeah there’s something in the air
Just ‘cause I can’t put my finger on it, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there

You are the grains of sand that slip through my hands again
And we are the hourglass, love like a flame that can’t be held
Somewhere beyond the lives we burn, lies the point of no return
Like the sand in the hourglass
But there is something in your eyes that shakes me back to life
And though I can’t put my finger on it
Now I know we’re gonna be alright
It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright

‘Cause there is something in the water, yeah there is something in the water
In this life we sink or swim or just float
We all die yeah, but did we live at all?
*

9. Mourning in Amerika
Stand by to switch on, we fire on all pistons
We’re singing along but no one is listening
From dusk until dawn we stay up to carry the flame
And when it’s all said and done in these alternate endings
When nothing is left but the stragglers and empties
We’re sleeping it off just to wake up and start it again

So burn the statues to the ground
It’s time to lay your weapons down
Bound for glory on this train
But there’s a bridge out up ahead
Noise cancel, drown the signal out
Change channels, manufacture doubt
When the only thing we’ll fight for every day
Is a better seat on a crashing…

Plain to see but hard to breathe
The streets are full of tumbleweeds

And now it’s morning in the streets of amerika
But we don’t go outside anymore
The radio blasts hysteria
With a television sideways on the floor

Under moonlit skies and surveillance
As we cheer from the stands in the stadiums
On a jumbotron we all sing along to escape

Once we were the lighthouse
To the world’s most desperate ships
But what we became was a towering flame
Leading the moth right into it
Now we are waking up to the phone lines cut

Because it’s morning in the streets of amerika
And we don’t go outside anymore
The radio blasts hysteria
While the television’s sideways on the floor

With the teleprompter in our faces
We don’t even know what we’re saying
A car that’s slowly crashing and we can’t look away
Parading to the edge of a cliff now
We’re trying to figure out how to get down
While the night is fast approaching

Will we even recognize our former lives in this artificial light?

Morning in the streets of amerika
And we don’t go outside anymore
There’s something wrong with the stereo
And the television’s sideways

We’re mourning in the streets of amerika
Mourning in the streets of amerika
We’re mourning in the streets of amerika
Mourning in the streets of amerika
*

10. How many walls
How many walls can you put up?
How many guns ‘til you feel safe?
How many times can we watch this story
Over and over and over again?
And how many years have we wasted
Counting the lies that we’ve been fed?
For something to change we have waited
Over and over and over again

I’m entertained by the monkey on your back
But can we still call it a joke if no one laughs?
It’s either going up in smoke around me or according to plan
A bittersweet disaster mounting over and over again

How many walls can you put up?
How many guns ‘til you feel safe?
How many times can we watch this story
Over and over and over again?
How many years have we wasted
Counting the lies that we’ve been fed?
For something to change we have waited
Over and over and over again

Chasing our own tail, the more we learn the less we know
As the monsters lost in history are now making their return
As we bow down, roll out the carpet red as rose
We should have known

How many walls can you put up?
How many guns ‘til you feel safe?
How many times can we watch this story
*

11. Miracle
We scan the empty sky always without success
We’re lighting signal fires and spelling S.O.S.
We stare at broken clocks, the truth comes twice a day
While every second just slips away

Are you going to wait here for a sign to let you know now?
Are you going to sit there paralyzed by what you’ve seen?
Or are you going to finally grip the wheel? I think you know how
Is this more than you expected it to be?

Don’t wait for a miracle to tumble from the sky
To part the seas around you or turn water into wine
Don’t wait for a miracle, the world is passing by
The walls that all surround you are only in your mind

The stage is set and the curtains pulled
Ready or not, it’s time, on with the show
Now the crowds have grown impatient
And the train has left the station
And the candles you are lighting in the dark will fade away

So what are you waiting for? A sign to let you know now?
Are you gonna sit there paralyzed by what you’ve seen?
Are you going to finally grip the wheel? I think you know how
Are you gonna throw it all away?

Don’t wait for a miracle to tumble from the sky
To part the seas around you or turn water into wine
Don’t wait for a miracle, the world is passing by
The walls that all surround you are only in your mind

When the weight we carry breaks us
We’re tempted to stay down
But every road to recovery
Starts at the breakdown

But we don’t need miracles to tumble from the sky
To part the seas around us or turn water into wine
Because we are the miracles, we happen all the time
We’re not scared of what surrounds us, we’re not waiting for a sign

We are the miracles
We are the miracles

We are the miracles

Hey!
*