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Axiom
Axiom înseamnă 19 axiome — adevăruri simple despre condiția umană, spuse fără ornament, în imagini fizice: foc, piatră, sare, dinți, sânge. O singură voce feminină duce tot albumul, de la growl feroce și scream tăios până la un singur refren clean bântuitor per piesă. Fiecare piesă are sunetul ei — de la un vals cu vioară și un cântec de leagăn cu pian până la un remix industrial și un final melodic death pur — iar fiecare refren e o axiomă care se poate cânta dintr-o singură respirație.
Track List
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- First Breath
Cold... it's been so cold in here...
Strike... strike...I was born with frost inside my ribs,
A coal asleep beneath the bone.
I cupped both hands around the dark
And blew until the dark was gone.
Smoke first — then a small red eye —
It stared at me and would not die.One spark beneath the skin —
Open the doors, let the air rush in.Everything alive must burn —
Strike the dark and watch it learn.
I was ash until this breath;
Everything alive must burn.You kept me damp so I'd stay small,
You called the cold a kind of care!
But lungs are bellows, ribs are grates,
And every breath is feeding air.
The ember I had swallowed young
Is glowing through me everywhere.One spark beneath the skin —
Open the doors, let the fire in.Everything alive must burn —
Strike the dark and watch it learn.
I was ash until this breath;
Everything alive must burn.Everything alive...
Everything alive...
Must burn!Light it or lie in ash
Light it or lie in ash!
Light it or lie in ash!Everything alive must burn —
Strike the dark and watch it learn.
I was ash until this breath;
Everything alive must burn.
Burn! Burn!Everything alive must burn.
- Gravity
I sewed my pockets full of stones,
One stone for every word I kept.
The road was flat, the sky was near,
Yet every step went down a step.
I called them mine, I called them me —
The iron nodded while I slept.Heavier now, heavier still —
The ground has time, the ground has will.What you carry carries you —
Iron learns the shape of skin.
Set it down or sink within;
What you carry carries you.You strapped your winters to my back,
You buckled sorrow to my chest!
My shoulders memorized your weather,
My knees mistook the road for rest.
Bent so long I called it standing —
I wore your weight like it was flesh.Heavier now, heavier still —
The ground has time, the ground has will.What you carry carries you —
Iron learns the shape of skin.
Set it down or sink within;
What you carry carries you.The one stone I won't put down
Is the one I chose to keep.
It doesn't pin me to the ground —
It holds the ground to me.Put it down or be put down
Put it down or be put down!
Put it down!What you carry carries you —
Iron learns the shape of skin.
Set it down or sink within;
What you carry carries you.
Down! Down!What you carry carries you.
- Teeth
Open wide!
I kept it muzzled with a smile,
A live thing pacing on my tongue.
It drank the words I didn't say
And sharpened on the swallowed ones.
Three years polite — three years of white —
Enamel cracking one by one.It's pushing through the gums —
Here it comes, here it comes.The truth has teeth, the truth has teeth —
It gnaws the quiet from beneath.
Spit it out or bleed within;
The truth has teeth beneath your skin.You filed yours down to even white,
You kiss on cue, you smile on time!
But mine grew crooked in the dark —
And crooked things cut cleaner lines.
Say it! Say it while it's small!
Unsaid, it only grows a jaw.It's pushing through the gums —
Here it comes, here it comes.The truth has teeth, the truth has teeth —
It gnaws the quiet from beneath.
Spit it out or bleed within;
The truth has teeth beneath your skin.Every lie goes down like silk...
It never comes back up that way!Swallow me and I bite back
Swallow me and I bite back!
Bite back! Bite back!The truth has teeth, the truth has teeth —
It gnaws the quiet from beneath.
Spit it out or bleed within;
The truth has teeth beneath your skin.
Teeth! Teeth!The truth has teeth.
- Rivers Don't Look Back
The mountain held me once — now watch me GO!
I started thin above the snow,
A cold bright thread through broken stone.
The mountain asked me to remember —
I answered with the sound of going.
Every bend I've ever been
Is water now, and water's gone.Down is the only prayer
This water ever learned to say.Rivers don't look back —
They wear the mountain down to sand.
I left my name in your two hands;
Rivers don't look back.You built a dam of "stay" and "sorry",
You stacked your reasons bank to bank!
But water never argues — water leans,
A patient shoulder on the plank.
One grey morning, hairline-thin,
Your wall of reasons cracked and sank!Down is the only prayer
This water ever learned to say.Rivers don't look back —
They wear the mountain down to sand.
I left my name in your two hands;
Rivers don't look back.The sea doesn't miss the spring...
The sea doesn't miss the spring...
I am already downstream!I am already downstream
Already downstream! Already downstream!Rivers don't look back —
They wear the mountain down to sand.
I left my name in your two hands;
Rivers don't look back.
Don't look back! Don't look back!Rivers don't look back.
- Hollow Crown
A thousand steps... and no one home
A thousand steps of hollowed stone
Worn to a shine by beggars' knees
The torches drowned in their own smoke
The banners rotting in the breeze
I came to see the face of power
I brought my scars like coins to pay
The doors swung wide without a guard
And every echo ran awayListen — the hall breathes back
Nothing sits where the king once satNo one rules the void
A cold seat in a colder hall
No one rules the void
The heavier the crown, the harder the fallI found the chair, I found the dust
An iron ring gone green with rust
A cushion keeping just the dent
Of a weight that was never there
You knelt for years to an empty seat!
You bled your sons for a dead man's feast!Listen — the hall breathes back
Nothing sits where the king once satNo one rules the void
A cold seat in a colder hall
No one rules the void
The heavier the crown, the harder the fallIf I sat down, would the silence crown me?
The void doesn't crown — it swallows!Kneel to nothing, king of dust
Kneel to nothing, king of dust
Kneel to nothing, king of dustNo one rules the void
A cold seat in a colder hall
No one rules the void
The heavier the crown, the harder the fallNo one rules the void
- The Scale
Weigh it! Weigh it all!
Brass pans swinging in the morning cold
A fist of salt against a stone
The scale-man's hands are steady, old
He weighs the bread, he weighs the bone
No thumb has ever tricked this beam
No prayer has ever moved the arm
It took the harvest, took the ring
It took the strong hand off the farmAll we are is weighed
Grain by grain on the brass-cold pan
All we are is weighed
The needle doesn't care who I amI brought my years in a burlap sack
And poured them out like rusted screws
Some rang like silver on the plate
Some hit the pan, gave nothing back
You stacked your stones on the other side!
You bent the beam and called it right!Put your heart on the pan
Put your heart on the pan
Put your heart on the panI saw a feather hold its ground against an anvil's head
One gram of light on the other pan
And all my iron roseAll we are is weighed
Grain by grain on the brass-cold pan
All we are is weighed
The needle doesn't care who I am - Wolf Hour
Three! A! M!
Ceiling pale as butcher's paper
Sweat like frost along my spine
Something pacing in the hallway
Keeping perfect time with mine
I fed it minutes, fed it hours
Fed it meat from off my plate
Every scrap I slid beneath the door
Just made it salivateFeed the wolf, it stays
Three a.m., it scratches the door
Feed the wolf, it stays
Every night it wants a little moreI nailed the frame, I moved the bed
I slept with all the lamps aflame
It licked the light from off the walls
And learned to scratch my name
You said just starve it and it leaves!
You never heard it chew!
You never counted teeth at three a.m.
While it was counting you!The floorboards creak in rhythm
It knows that I'm awakeFeed the wolf, it stays
Three a.m., it scratches the door
Feed the wolf, it stays
Every night it wants a little moreOne breath... the house goes still
One breath... I almost sleepI left the door open
I left the door open
I left the door openIt stays! It stays! It stays!
Feed the wolf, it stays
Three a.m., it scratches the door
Feed the wolf, it stays
Every night it wants a little moreIt stays!
- Glass
We break where light gets in
Every crack is a vein full of dawn
We break where light gets inA crack runs through the kitchen pane
Thin as a hair, white as a scar
All winter long I taped it shut
Ashamed of how it spread so far
But morning finds that fault line first
Before the walls, before my face
It fills the flaw with molten gold
And turns the damage into laceDon't tape the window shut
Watch what the sunrise doesWe break where light gets in
Every crack is a vein full of dawn
We break where light gets in
What was sealed in the dark is goneI carried myself like a museum piece
Wrapped up in cotton, scared to ring
Ten careful years without a chip
Ten years the light showed me nothing
You wanted me flawless, factory-clean!
But perfect glass is never seen!Run your finger down the fault
Feel where the light gets warm
I'm not afraid of shattering!We break where light gets in
Every crack is a vein full of dawn
We break where light gets in
What was sealed in the dark is goneWe break where light gets in
Every crack is a vein full of dawn
We break where light gets in
What was sealed in the dark is gone - Axiom
Take away the sky. Take away the floor.
Take away my name. Something still aches.
Start there.Midnight, a desk, a burned-down flame —
I doubted the walls, I doubted my name.
I peeled the world like old gray paint:
No ground beneath it, no god, no saint.I think, therefore I bleed —
The proof is warm, the proof is red.
I think, therefore I bleed —
Alive in every drop I shed.I wrote my being in careful ink,
The page stayed white, the well went dead.
The quill snapped deep in the meat of my palm —
And the sentence finished itself in red!Doubt the light, the flesh, the stone —
But pain believes in you alone.I think, therefore I bleed —
The proof is warm, the proof is red.
I think, therefore I bleed —
Alive in every drop I shed.An old man by his stove once said:
I think, therefore I am.
But thought is a knife with no handle —
You cannot hold it and stay whole.Look down.
The proof is on the floor
The proof is on the floorI think, therefore I bleed —
The proof is warm, the proof is red.
I think, therefore I bleed —
Alive in every drop I shed.
I bleed! I bleed!Something still aches.
Start there. - Zero
Shine!
Zero. A circle drawn around nothing.
A mouth, about to sing.Before the first light there was cold —
A black page nothing wrote upon.
I stand at the window counting stars
That died before my mother was born.Count down to zero, hold your breath —
The sky is a graveyard, and it glows.From nothing, we still shine —
Dust that learned to hold a flame.
From nothing, we still shine —
And the dark can't do the same.They weighed my worth and wrote a zero,
One round white scar on a page of night.
But zero is the shape of an open eye —
And the void blinked first, not I!From nothing, we still shine —
Dust that learned to hold a flame.
From nothing, we still shine —
And the dark can't do the same.Listen. The darkness is not empty.
It is full of light still traveling —
Old fires crossing the cold to reach an eye.
Shine!Light outlives the star
Light outlives the starFrom nothing, we still shine —
Dust that learned to hold a flame.
From nothing, we still shine —
And the dark can't do the same.
We shine! We shine! - Salt
Salt on my lips where the crying dried —
Little white maps of what I've lost.
All night the waves ask after your name
And drag their nets through the dark.Every tide goes out, every tide comes home —
The water in me knows the way.The sea lives in our tears —
We grieve in waves, we love in tides.
The sea lives in our tears —
An ocean small enough to hide.I stood on the pier where you set sail,
The rope still wet inside my fist.
The horizon swallowed your little light —
And the sea climbed out of my eyes!The sea lives in our tears —
We grieve in waves, we love in tides.
The sea lives in our tears —
An ocean small enough to hide.They say we crawled out of the ocean once.
We never left. We carry it behind our eyes.
And when it grows too heavy — it spills.The tide keeps what it takes
The tide keeps what it takesThe sea lives in our tears —
We grieve in waves, we love in tides.
The sea lives in our tears —
An ocean small enough to hide.
The sea! The sea! - Iron Lesson
Strike!
I came in crooked, cold and raw —
A bar of iron bent all wrong.
The forge-light licked across my back
And the old smith read me like a flaw.What breaks you forges you —
The hammer falls, the iron sings.
What breaks you forges you —
The fire is the kindest thing.Heat me past the color of shame,
Past orange, past gold, to blinding white.
Strike me again! I'm still not true —
I bend, I ring, I hold the light!Hold me to the anvil — don't let go.
A blade is a scar that found its shape.What breaks you forges you —
The hammer falls, the iron sings.
What breaks you forges you —
The fire is the kindest thing.The quench barrel hisses like rain on a roof.
Cold now. Harder than the hand that made me —
And every scar is written in heat.Steel remembers the fire
Steel remembers the fireWhat breaks you forges you —
The hammer falls, the iron sings.
What breaks you forges you —
The fire is the kindest thing. - Mayfly
One dawn! One dusk!
Nothing in between but wings!Born at dawn on the river's skin,
Wings still wet with the dark I left.
No mouth to eat, no time to sleep —
I was built for one bright thing.The sun is already halfway home —
So give me everything at once.One day is enough to love —
The light comes up, the light goes down.
One day is enough to love —
So love it loud and love it now.Noon is a furnace of little wings,
The air is thick with a million like me.
We spiral up in columns of light —
And the river glitters with the fallen!One day is enough to love —
The light comes up, the light goes down.
One day is enough to love —
So love it loud and love it now.The water turns to copper, the air goes cold.
I am not sad — I was all flame, and I left no ash.One day is enough to love —
One day! One day!
The light comes up, the light goes down.
One day is enough to love —
So love it loud and love it n— - The Debt
Pay what you owe.
Pay what you owe! Pay what you owe!
Count them. Count them all.I woke up owing, born into the red,
A collector's shadow at the foot of my bed.
Each coin I swallow turns to lead in my chest —
I pay in hours, I pay in rest.The ledger opens, the ink runs dry —
My name is written where the numbers lie.Every breath is borrowed — spend it slow,
The lungs are lenders and the lenders know.
Every breath is borrowed — nothing's mine,
Just interest burning down the line.I dig through pockets full of yesterday,
The wasted days I still have left to pay.
You sold me minutes at the price of years!
The debt compounds with every breath in here.Every breath is borrowed — spend it slow,
The lungs are lenders and the lenders know.
Every breath is borrowed — nothing's mine,
Just interest burning down the line.What did I buy with all this air?
What did I buy?
Nothing I can carry! Nothing I can keep!Pay what you owe.
Pay what you owe!Every breath is borrowed — spend it slow,
The lungs are lenders and the lenders know.
Every breath is borrowed — nothing's mine,
Just interest burning down the line. - Echo
Morning is a hammer striking the same nail,
The nail becomes the hour, the hour becomes the rail,
The rail becomes the circle I walk until it's worn —
Worn into a canyon where the same day is born.I shout into the hallway of my years,
And every answer echoes what it hears.We are what we repeat (Repeat, repeat),
Each habit is a footprint, each footprint is a street.
We are what we repeat — so choose the sound:
The canyon keeps whatever you shout down.You carved your voice into my throat!
Now every word I bleed is one you wrote,
The words became a ritual, the ritual a chain,
The chain became a ringing I mistook for rain.We are what we repeat (Repeat, repeat),
Each habit is a footprint, each footprint is a street.
We are what we repeat — so choose the sound:
The canyon keeps whatever you shout down.Say a thing a thousand times and it stops sounding like a lie.
Say it one more time. (One more time... one more time...)
Break the pattern, or the pattern is your spine!Same wound. Same knife.
Same wound! Same knife! Same wound! Same knife!We are what we repeat (Repeat, repeat),
Each habit is a footprint, each footprint is a street.
We are what we repeat — so choose the sound:
The canyon keeps whatever you shout down.We are what we repeat. (Repeat... repeat...)
- Lullaby for the End
Hush now... hush now...
The lights go out in windows, one by one,
The streets forget the shape of everyone.
I hold the dark the way you'd hold a child
And hum it something gentle, something mild.If everything must close its eyes,
Let no one leave without a lullaby.Even the end needs a song — so sing,
Low as a candle, soft as a wing.
Even the end needs a song — sing on,
So nothing beautiful goes out alone.I've watched the ashes learn to fall like snow,
I've heard the rivers empty as they go.
So lay your head against the fading light —
I'll be the voice that stays inside the night.If everything must close its eyes,
Let mine stay open for the last goodbye.Even the end needs a song — so sing,
Low as a candle, soft as a wing.
Even the end needs a song — sing on,
So nothing beautiful goes out alone.And when the last door closes...
I will not let the silence take you.
I'll sing you through. I'll sing you through.Even the end needs a song — so sing,
Low as a candle, soft as a wing.
Even the end needs a song — sing on,
So nothing beautiful goes out alone.Even the end needs a song.
Hush now... hush now... - The Garden of Stone
Nothing grows here!
There was nothing here but bedrock and the wind's dull knife;
We came with empty stomachs and a fistful of life.
We knelt on black basalt where nothing ever grew
And struck the ground like flint till our knuckles bled through.The old ones told us: stone does not forgive,
You cannot teach a graveyard how to live.
We heard them out. We planted anyway —
One seed for every word they made us pay.A crack is not a wound.
A crack is a door.The first root split the granite like a slow white flame,
And the mountain learned our names!
Every fissure drank the rain we carried up by hand,
Green blood in the veins of dead land!Under the dust, a pulse of green —
The stubbornest thing this rock has seen.We plant gardens in stone — we always will,
With bleeding hands against the hill.
We plant gardens in stone — though nothing's sure,
The bloom is brief, the root endures.You can salt the field — you cannot starve the seed!
Cut us down — we grow back twice the speed!Even stone learns to bloom.
Even stone learns to bloom! Even stone learns to bloom!We plant gardens in stone — we always will,
With bleeding hands against the hill.
We plant gardens in stone — though nothing's sure,
The bloom is brief, the root endures.And when I'm gone, the moss will keep my shape,
My ribs a trellis where the vines escape.
Bury me shallow where the cold winds blow —
I'll be the warmth that teaches green to grow.We plant gardens in stone — we always will,
With bleeding hands against the hill.
We plant gardens in stone — though nothing's sure,
The bloom is brief, the root endures.Everything alive must burn...
So burn green. - Remelt
Everything alive must — must — m-must burn
What breaks you for— for— for—Drag the whole record to the furnace floor
Seventeen stones, one open door
Heat doesn't ask what the carving meant
It only asks what the stone is made ofListen — the bass is the blood of the machine
Copper under skin, current in between
Every truth we cut in rock
Runs liquid now — but it still knows its namePour me back into the fire
What melts remembers its shape
Gold in the crack, iron in the wire
What melts remembers its shapeHammer — piston — bellows — breath
The furnace eats, the furnace keeps
Slag runs off, the ore stays true
Burn me down — you'll still get meWhat melts — Remembers —
Stone to liquid, liquid to stone
What melts — Remembers —
Same mineral, same bone(From nothing, we still shine)
The old songs bleed through the static
(Everything alive must burn)
They're not gone — they're moltenI was cut, I was carved, I was cooled too soon
Throw me back, let the heat resume
Every crack the light got in
Is a vein of gold when I run againPour me back into the fire
What melts remembers its shape
Louder now — higher and higher
What melts remembers its shapeDid you hear that?
...It's still molten.Pour me back into the fire
What melts remembers its shape
What melts! Remembers!
What melts! Remembers!...What melts remembers its shape.
- I Bow to No Stone
Axiom!
They carved their laws on a mountain wall
And told me: kneel where the shadow falls.
I read their stone from end to end —
Then lit my torch against it all.Strike the flint!
Raise the flame!I bow to no stone —
No law cut in rock can cage the fire.
I bow to no stone —
My spine was forged, not carved.
No stone!The old kings sleep in granite halls,
Their names dissolve when the rain applauds.
I owe my blood no monument —
I am the chisel, not the wall.Strike the flint!
Raise the flame!I bow to no stone —
No law cut in rock can cage the fire.
I bow to no stone —
My spine was forged, not carved.
No stone!No throne. No chain. No stone.
No throne. No chain. No stone.If I am dust — then I am dust that burned,
And every stone I would not worship... kept my shape in its scars.
Remember me standing!I bow to no stone —
No law cut in rock can cage the fire.
I bow to no stone —
My spine was forged, not carved!
No stone! No stone!I bow to no stone!