I AM (Lyrics and Music: Smith) I am the light upon your path when you have lost your way I am the footprints in the sand the oceans tide cant wash away I am the shelter from the storm that rages on and on The incorruptible foundation that the wise man builds upon I am the bread that feeds a starving man upon the street I am the bounty on the table in the palace at the feast I am the rain upon the earth after a scorching drought I am the quenching of the thirst you never thought youd be without I am the melody that weaves its way inside your soul I am the symphony, the masterpiece, the actors greatest role I am the poetry that speaks to you with every rhyme I am the songwriter who seems to write your life in every line I am the simple truths that shaped your world from your birth I am the vast volumes of knowledge spanning all across the earth I am the whisper of the wind you feel, but cannot see I am the alpha and omega, first and last, eternally I AM You cannot see me I AM The resurrection and the life, the doorway and the vine, I AM I AM You cannot touch me I AM The bread of life, light of the world, long before Abraham, I AM Lead Break: Val I am the trusting child whose simple faith is ever sure I am the parents love, unchanging, unconditional and pure I am the loyal friend whose heart will never let you down I am the hand that pulls you back into the boat before you drown I am the thunder and the glory and the blinding light I am the still small voice that tells you what is wrong and what is right I am the sacrificial lamb a guilty world reviled I am the father ever waiting for his lost and wayward child I AM You cannot see me I AM The resurrection and the life, the doorway and the vine, I AM I AM You cannot touch me I AM The bread of life, light of the world, long before Abraham, I AM I am the heart of the righteous desire and the fourth man you see in the midst of the fire I am the giver of life and the promise of Israel I am the hope of the lonely and lost in the blood running down to the foot of the cross I am the breaking of chains and the tolling of freedoms bell I am the notes that eternally ring in the music too holy for angels to sing I am the fire on the altar consuming the sacrifice I am the three and yet I am the one in the grace of the Father and death of the Son I am the one who redeemed you by paying the highest price I am grace and mercy, I am sacrifice I am endless glory, I am light and life I am long-awaited hope of Israel I am longing sated, prophecy fulfilled I am from the beginning of time, and I am sustaining the system of life I am symmetry, reason and rhyme, and I am conviction that cuts like a knife I am the author of order and flow I am the Father of Lights: watch me put on a show! I am the seeker of all gone astray I am the keeper of souls til the end of all days I am power, I am glory, I am loves unending story I am justice, I am honor, I am hope and living water I am righteous, I am holy, I am three and one and only I am sovereign, I am faithful, everlasting, I AM that I AM Solo: Val Harmonies: Val and Jon I am humility, the one who laid it all aside Traded a crown of kings for a crown of thorns, betrayed by human pride I am humanity, took on your curse and all your pain I am divinity, eternity, forever I remain I am your guilty scars, as Roman soldiers tear my back I am the crimson stain that washes all the souls faded to black I am the one who bled in silence and endured it all I am the Word who spoke no word, with a thousand angels waiting for my call I am your covenant Your hero in these bloodstained pages I am your guilt, your sin Your debt fulfilled for all the ages I step into your shoes, your substitute Your sacrifice Your raison detre Your second chance Your breath of life I AM I am the joy of angels dancing in the streets of heaven I am the sinners prayer for mercy and a past forgiven I am the lamb upon the altar dying willingly All hope that was All hope that is All hope to be I AM
The Master Storyteller (Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Hinds) What do you see when you look around? In the shadows where you would think no light could be found It’s there Pictures and signs in these modern times? It’s there to be seen if you read between the lines Everywhere Tell me, do you see what I see? Tools of the Creator to tell His story All that ever was and will be Is it really hard to believe? Turn the pages, all down through the ages See the Master Storyteller bring His masterpiece alive All the shadowed glimpses, scattered fingerprints align And tie the threads together to the Architect of Life Turn the page, the story is alive Everything good comes from above Every picture of grace and sacrifice and love It’s Him Music that makes your spirit fly It’s His signature painted right across the sky again I can see His hand everywhere Even in the dark it’s so obvious He’s there It’s really not a surprise If you only open your eyes Solo: Jon Turn the page, the story is a masterpiece of faith and reason Turn the page, the story is alive
Nailed (Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood) I’ve been working for my whole life to get to the other side And try to achieve true righteousness All the scourges and whips I cracked The flesh I ripped off my back It only led me to emptiness Here I am, a broken man who’s done all that a man could do And found that it’s only filthy rags Monasteries, religious schools, indulgences, laws and rules It all added up to nothing and darkness and death Vanity, Heartache, and emptiness Efforts all fading away The flesh and defeat that it brings ‘Till You guide me and show me things That my eyes have never seen before As I burst forth from the belly of the beast Never fight it anymore For the burden on my life has been released Nail it to the door Solo: Val Nailed these ninety-five things I’ve learned They’ll say that I must be burned For God has no place for heretics All the things that they try to sell It’s trickery straight from Hell To turn it into a den of thieves See these madmen peddling the wares of dead men’s souls Collecting on a debt already paid so long ago There’s fire in my spirit, and fire in their eyes For now they’ll want to burn me alive Yet freedom rings Unworthiness is all I bring The blood of Christ is all I claim This grace revealed everything That my eyes have never seen before As I burst forth from the belly of the beast Never fight it anymore For the burden on my life has been released Nail it to the door Solo: Val
Hide in the Fairytale (Lyrics and Music: Smith) A child in sweet duplicity For innocence? Or slavery to nature And the bents that haunt him straight out of the womb? He doesn’t have to learn the things unseemly that his instinct brings To carry like a burden from the cradle to the tomb You’ll never have to teach him how to lie If we are born in innocence, well, don’t you wonder why? For selfishness already dwells inside The birthright of Adam, the curse of the old man Day and night Jekyll and Hyde in the fairytale This is much more frightening Darkness and light Feed the new man and tear the veil See the old man dying Behold the loving family man Who tries to do the best he can And loves his wife and children even more than his own life But just like that, a wandering eye leads to a suffocating lie And selfishness and deep betrayal cuts them like a knife If mankind doesn’t have a sinful drive Then tell me why he’d wreck his life to get some on the side? The warring of two natures deep inside Starving the new keeps the old man alive Soulsickness nailed to a cross Solo: Jon Solo: Val Harmonies: Val and Jon Humankind in innocence, a lie so thinly veiled Man born without Soulsickness: this is the fairytale Hide in the fairytale
The Gift of Music (Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood) Close your eyes, you little dreamers Numbered as the grains of sand Do you believe there is a treasure you can’t hold in your hand? Stewards of My great Creation I will give this gift to you A language that can speak your heart when words could never do The melodies will give you wings to fly above creation Whenever you can’t find the words to say So My child, I give this gift to you and all the nations So you can give it back to Me one day See the child, ashamed and broken Words can never come out right Dreams of failure dance in his head every single night But twelve words in a simple language suddenly make sense somehow That little boy, once shy and awkward, stands before you now Music is Your masterpiece, Your signature and smile The glorious crown jewel of all Creation Gave a voice and sense of wonder to this lonely child Whose melodies ring forth Your coronation now Instrumental Section Solo: Val And the strings crescendo like the sunrise in the sky The percussion section thunders like the stormclouds In their wonder up on high The brass is roaring like the mighty ocean’s tide Creation is music, and music is creation All the earth, a symphony of balanced majesty All of life, a melody with four-part harmony The rhythms march in great complexity Creation is music, and music is creation, let it sing
30 Pieces of Silver (Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Benson) What’s the bottom line? Or what’s the price I’d take to leave it all behind? To trade a cross of shame for glory of mankind To sell a crown of life for pennies on the dime And trade eternity for one moment in time For if the key to life is right here in my hand Why would I trade it for an hourglass of sand? Or choose the riches of this mortal coil Forego the incorruptible for praises of man All the treasure in the world so blinding 30 pieces of silver shining Tell me what’s the price you seek To place the kiss of death upon His cheek? Blood money and the serpent winding 30 pieces of silver shining Treasure fades away What a price to pay anyway What’s the price you’ve named? Well is it money, power, acceptance, or fame? And will you sell out for a temporary gain Or dare to stand up undeterred and unashamed And let the glory fall to whomever it may? When all the world is asking you to sell your soul And to deny the cross for silver and for gold The kiss of Judas or the bended knee? Vainglory or humility? The ultimate goal All the treasure in the world so blinding 30 pieces of silver shining Tell me what’s the price you seek To place the kiss of death upon His cheek? Blood money and the serpent winding 30 pieces of silver shining Treasure fades away Sold out for the price of slave Solo: Val Treasure blinding Silver shining Redefining
Drown (Lyrics and Music: Smith) I see a ghost, a spirit Walking on the water He bids me come to Him Without a boat To walk upon the sea So I jump over the edge And take a step upon the water I’m getting closer As I feel the sea move Underneath my feet I feel the wind and hear The roar of waves That crash around me And when they get their hold on me I feel I’m going down Please don’t let me drown Like Peter all those years ago Who looked away and sank below When I sink in seas of doubt Will You take my hand and pull me out? The devil and the deep blue sea With open arms awaiting me But I won’t go down tonight If I keep my eyes on You, I’ll be alright God, the storms are heavy And the waves have beaten me down And the winds have turned me Every which way Round and round and round It’s so hard to focus But I don’t want to look away Even when the waves grow higher Every day Higher every day Waves and whirlwinds turn my eyes Raging under threatening skies The miracles of yesterday Can sometimes seem so far away Oh we of little faith, how quickly we forget Solo: Val Tired and battered by the waves Won’t let the waters be my grave Devotion deeper than the sea The ocean’s tide won’t swallow me A hand is reaching I grab it and rise
Altar to the Unknown God (Lyrics by Smith; Music by Smith and Wood) Build a fire and fan the flame Sacrifice without a name Offerings on the altar to the unknown god Multitudes of gods cover our landscapes and our lives Images of deities and halls of sacrifice Philosophers and scholars and sophisticates we are Our gods are our religion and religion is our god A stranger came to town one day And fearlessly proclaimed “The unknown god you worship On this altar has a name” He said, “This god is not an image Or a statue of the dead In Him we live and have our being As your own poets have said” Build a fire and fan the flame Sacrifice without a name Offerings on the altar to the unknown god Dance around the altar blaze Brings the works your hands have made Place them on the altar to the unknown god He dwells not in temples Built by human hands He needs no assistance Or service of man The nameless you worship Is greater than all Your idols of death Never answer your call All nations He formed From the flesh of one man He marked out their times And the boundaries of lands Your life and your breath He bestows with the day So seek Him and find Him For He is not far away Fire upon the altar Burns the sacrifice Sacrificial lamb was slain to pay the final price Come, ye heavy laden Sinner’s mercy cry The unknown God your call upon is nigh Gather ‘round the altar Stoke the holy fire Purifying flames of righteousness Are rising higher Come ye hungry, eat the bread of life And drink the wine Altar to the living God divine Solo: Val No image of stone or of silver and gold No effigy mankind has raised to behold The day and the hour of judgment is set He’s proven Him by the resurrection of the dead Build a fire and fan the flame Sacrifice without a name Offerings on the altar to the unknown god Stand before the altar blaze Bring the lives His hands have made Place them on the altar to the one true god Your unknown god Is the one living God
Light of the World (Lyrics and Music: Smith) So the candle’s gone out, it’s been soaked by the rain And the cold winds of doubt have extinguished the flame The lighthouse sits idly in darkness again As the ship sails ocean alone The sun’s frozen over and all has gone cold And the fires of the past have been bought and then sold And the light on the porch is abandoned and old So the child cannot find his way home Arisen Forbidden We keep our candles hidden Born leaders That follow, floating with the tide “You are the light of the world,” He said But we’ve blown out our candles And left men for dead Singing “we are the light of the world, He said” As the darkness descends on us all If we were the light of the world today Would we hide in the shadows And scare them away? Are we the light of the world Or are we failing to answer the call? Lead Break: Val Men love the darkness Much more than the light For their deeds can be kept out of mind Out of sight And the line has eroded Between wrong and right Like it’s all relative after all To stand like a wall and resist the temptation To sell ourselves out For hollow acclimation And cheapen the message A weakened foundation Revealing the cracks in the wall No power No glory No one to tell their story No wonder It’s all unraveling “You are the light of the world,” He said But we’ve blown out our candles And left men for dead Singing “we are the light of the world, He said” As the darkness descends on us all If we were the light of the world today Would we hide in the shadows and just look away? Are we the light of the world Or are we failing to answer the call? Solo: Val To lift up the fallen To stand for the downtrodden The poor and the hurting Are our ministry “You are the light of the world,” He said But we’ve blown out our candles And left men for dead Singing “we are the light of the world, He said” As the darkness descends on us all If we were the light of the world today Would we hide in the shadows and darken the way? Are we the light of the world Or are we failing to answer the call?
As the World Bleeds (Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood) Why do we only call Your name when there’s no one else to call? And we only really seek You when our mighty towers fall Why do we say You’ve failed us and You’ve turned Your eyes away When we’re only sleeping in the bed we made? Why do we call for free will, but reject all consequence? Why’s the path we’ve made to Heaven stained with the blood of innocence? Why’d we ignore the warnings that we’ve read and always known And get angry when we reap the things we’ve sown? So we blame You ‘Cause our world’s not come out right While the devil’s masquerading As an angel of the light Just imagine All the pride and all the nerve To ask where You’ve been, when we’re the ones we serve It’s not a mystery, it’s been foretold But we ignored the warning bell so long ago There’s a way that seems right unto men, but we’ll die with the wages of sin As the world lies bleeding The giant is no longer sleeping Poisoned harvest reaping Blindly we just carry on, but the glory is gone Gone We live our lives like we could care less what You have to say Then curse the skies when You don’t come clean up the ugly mess we’ve made But You gave us a choice and we made it and dug ourselves into a hole We always thought we knew the way despite the things You said We just ignored the pile of bodies and the bloodstains on the bed Painting ourselves right into a corner as life spiraled out of control As the world lies bleeding The giant is no longer sleeping All we’ve sown now reaping Blindly we just carry on, but the glory is gone See us – Our promised land of milk and honey Became a land of filth and money Like Babylon and Rome before A land of greed and sin and guilt, a stained and scarlet whore See us – Living in our ivory towers Self-appointed kings with no power Built a monument to man We’re passing down empty decrees like a disease across the land Solo: Val This is the system we’ve created This is the world so devastated This is what it looks like when mankind asks You to just leave us alone This is the monster now awakened This is our legacy creation This is the place we end up when we say that we can do this on our own This is our masterpiece: corruption This is our monument: destruction Game point of life and death, the nadir of existence painted black This is the road the Hell we’ve wandered This is inheritance we’ve squandered So raise a glass to all we’ve lost and wonder if we’ll ever get it back Nations calling “Our will be done, mankind answers to no one” But now it has begun – In death, our sin hath borne a son Please forgive us for we’ve only made it worse Even after You had warned us Sin would only bring a curse Guess we knew better so we went a different way Now we’re only sleeping in the bed we made All the glory and the power left this place When we turned our backs upon You And chose to live in our disgrace But You warned us And You let us have our way Now we’re only drowning in the mess we made Blood on our hands
I love ALL of these lyrics but I particularly love the lyrics of I AM because its very original and I like these kind of song, and something else that I like in this song, is that their is two words in french and I love that! =====> Your raison d’etre For the person that don't know it, ''Raison = Reason'' and etre is the verb ''to be'' Thank you a for post them. Thank to Matt for these wonderfull lyrics.
Hey man, thanks for finally typing up the lyrics! [/lifeiscomplete] Though I might suggest that SeaStorm lock and sticky this thread. ^.^
Thanks for posting these! It's also cool that you included the lyrics and music credits. I'd been wondering how the other members had contributed to the writing process, and now I know. EDIT: Just saw that the solo credits are there too. Awesome.
I typed what the booklet said verbatum (except the credits, the last page said "all lyrics by Matt Smith" so I assumed the credits on the individual songs were who wrote the music), and the booklet included solo, lead, and harmonization credits. Odd, since just last week someone wondered who did what. The booklet was obviously printed before they asked, so it's really cool that it answers that question.
Not to be rude or point anyone out here, but how does a drummer help write a song and the bassist doesn't?
Shawn's been with the band for 7 years and Jared's the new guy, and still getting a feel for the specific nuances that make a Theocracy song. Shawn's been playing all of them for years, so he knows the ins and outs. Plus, he got pregnant on the song it gives him credit for, so that actually may be why.
Queensryche used the same French words on the album Operation Mindcrime. I believe the song "I don't believe in love"
Um...because that was the first new song Shawn and I ever jammed on together, looooong before MoS. Probably 2004. But I don't understand your criticism. Hetfield/Ulrich, anyone? Don't say "not to be rude or point anyone out" and then rudely attempt to point someone out.
