(Intro)

(A cold, metallic clanging sound echoes. Low cello notes build tension. A distorted voice whispers names of fallen empires.)

(Verse 1)

Draw a line in the shifting sand

Claim the ocean, bruise the land

Build a tower, reach the blue

Just to look down on the rest of you.

We’re measuring shadows to see who’s tall

While sharpening axes to build a wall

The throne is narrow, the crown is cold

The same tired story, a thousand years old.

(Pre-Chorus)

(Music swells with rising violins)

Look at the flag, look at the steel

Break the spirit beneath the wheel

Who is the master? Who is the king?

When the winter comes for everything?

(Chorus)

It’s a race to the edge of a jagged knife

Trading the world for a ghost of a life

My fire is higher, my border is wide

But we’re all just drowning in the same red tide.

Why do we break what we cannot mend?

A fever for power that has no end.

In the quest to be greatest, we’re losing the soul

Breaking the mirror to keep the whole.

(Verse 2)

(Beat becomes more aggressive, industrial "clanking" sounds)

Silicon hearts and uranium breath

Calculating the math of death

Your glory is written in smoke and lead

But the soil doesn't care about the blood it’s fed.

Why does it function? Why is it geared?

To love the things that are only feared?

We’ve mapped the stars and the deep abyss

But we can’t find a way to a brother’s kiss.

(Bridge)

(The music drops to a haunting piano melody)

Peace is a whisper in a thunderstorm

A quiet shape that we refuse to form

Because peace has no ego, peace has no price

And we’re too busy rolling the loaded dice.

(Explosive drum fill)

WE’RE TOO BUSY ROLLING THE DICE!

(Guitar/Orchestral Solo)

(A frantic, weeping melody over a heavy, crushing rhythm section)

(Chorus)

It’s a race to the edge of a jagged knife

Trading the world for a ghost of a life

My fire is higher, my border is wide

But we’re all just drowning in the same red tide.

Why do we break what we cannot mend?

A fever for power that has no end.

In the quest to be greatest, we’re losing the soul

Breaking the mirror to keep the whole.

(Outro)

(Music fades to a single, heartbeat-like drum)

Greatest nation...

Smallest world...

(The clanging sound from the intro returns)

The mirror is broken.

Silence.