Music, lyrics, recording, and mixing by Thomas Alan Sandage
Mastered by Dorian Falconeri
Stop motion puppets, animation, and design by Thomas Alan Sandage
(c)2023 InOpsProductions
The Band That Drips Blood
Lyrics:
Pamela’s Song
Mother can you hear him calling
From along the murky water’s edge?
And the other people calling
Nevermind, just rest your weary head
Sweet summer isolation
Sun setting on a forest basin
Still broken; oncoming headlights
Silent whispers stirring in the woods tonight
The firelight flickers on the campsite
Devil music on the radio all night
Desire like a fog along the shoreline
It isn’t over til the last one is dying
Lunar dances like crystals on the water
Bodies glistening, embers glowing hotter
Wild laughter of the young and the reckless
Innocent, yet lustily infectious
They should have been watching closer
Now it’s gonna happen over and over
In the morning sun, the lake will be blood red
More will come and it will happen again
Mother can you hear him calling
From along the murky water’s edge?
And the other people calling
Nevermind, just rest your weary head
The House
Why won't it burn?
These walls have seen
Such unspeakable things
If they had a voice
They would surely scream
Cross the threshold
And feel the air grow cold
The smell of dead mold
The sound of secrets untold
This place should not be standing anymore
It’s been torn down so many times before
Yet it remains, looming there on the hill
It’s like something inside refuses to be killed
Why won’t it burn?
These creaking doors
Will simply not stay closed
It’s raining dust
As ceilings decompose
Shattered windows
And shards of porcelain
Like broken memories
That can’t be rebuilt again
Every brick and board
Has known the taste of gore
So much dread and horror
Soaked right into the floors
This place should not be standing anymore
It’s been torn down so many times before
Yet it remains, looming there on the hill
It’s like something inside refuses to be killed
Things You Shouldn’t See
One day this isn’t gonna matter to you anymore
You’ll forget this all in time
One day you’re gonna have to open up the cellar door
And let out what’s been locked inside
Stay where it’s safe, now
Don’t go into the hideous night
There are things you shouldn’t see
For you may just lose your mind
One day you’ll figure out a way to make it out of here
And you’ll feel the light of day
One day the scratching in your mind is gonna disappear
As the whispering fades away
Stay where it's safe, now
Don't go into the hideous night
There are things you shouldn't see
For you may just lose your mind
But in the madness, deeper wisdom lies
If you can see through your burning eyes
Catch a glimpse of the ancient truth
As the abyss stares back into you
One day the visions in your head are gonna dissipate
Like echoes down a distant hall
One day you’ll finally kill the thing that’s keeping you awake
Until then, rest against these padded walls
To Be Alive
Let’s go a little deeper
It’s been so long, you see
Are you the weed? Are you the reaper?
Or something in between?
All you see are the endless lies
So this is what it means to be alive…
So many gone… so many wasted
So many waited too long to try
Vienna burns while they are sleeping
Now they wait to slowly die
It’s getting harder to afford the prize
So this is what it means to be alive…
One life, one shot
So are you gonna take it or not?
One life, one chance
So get up, get up and dance
One life, no fate
All the world is an empty stage
One life, one break
You only get what you’re willing to take
One life, no stop
You’ve got to take it to the ultimate top
One life, no gods
So show the world everything you’ve got
When it’s spinning out of control
Find a piece of ground and take hold
Grab a hammer and carve your own stone
Something to lay beside your slender bones
Don’t wait – The world is turning
And days can slip away
Do what you must, say what you want to
Before this all decays
Always fighting and losing time
So this is what it means to be alive…
The Ladder
Just another quiet mourning
On a day like any other one
Without a sign or warning
Something is different with everyone
They won’t answer your calls
They don’t seem to hear at all
Staring off in the distance
Like hollow empty shells
Can you remember yesterday?
Outside the fog is cold and thick
People stumble away, scared and sick
Why won’t anyone help you?
It’s like they just look right through
Can you remember yesterday?
There was a moment in time
Elusive to your weakening mind
A thing you can’t seem to see
Outside the reach of your memory
How did you end up out in the fog?
Nothing seems to make sense at all
Can’t feel the street beneath you
Or hear the sound of your footfalls
You grab and shake a passing stranger
And beg them to be a friend
You watch their face contort and twist
As they scream at the top of their lungs
Wandering these streets as panic sets in
Searching for a way back home
Refusing to see what it all has to mean
Desperate for anything normal
Why are they ripping your life away?
Why did it have to happen today?
The light is fading and turning gray
But there was so much left you wanted to say…
And it doesn’t matter – nothing matters anymore
There’s nothing you can do, but walk on through the door
And all your angels and demons fade away
As you let go of yesterday
So Long
Among the ruins of the old and the new
We can start again and try to make it through
We can make promises we know we can’t keep
And hope tonight that we may sleep
You know you should’ve said something more
But the words just weren’t in your head
Sometimes it’s all so beautiful
That you don’t know what should be said
Forever isn’t so long after all
Forever isn’t so long after all
No it isn’t so long after all
Forever…
You’ll get to the places you need to be
We only hope you’re in time to see
Was anything ever worth it?
Will anything ever be?
Sometimes this road never ends
Or takes you straight off the edge
You know you’ll never be this young again
You may never know how this will end
Forever isn’t so long after all
Forever isn’t so long after all
No it isn’t so long after all
Forever…