Song Description

The song begins with an 11/4 figure repeated 8 times. The drums cut out (apart from accents) for 2 additional repetitions of this figure, this time with both guitars harmonizing. It then enters a figure which serves as the song's refrain. Following this, an extended half-time groove plays. The band then plays 4 measures in 11/4 and 4 measures in 4/4; this pattern repeats once. The song returns at this point to the extended groove. After a brief section of clean guitar, the band plays a 4/4 figure that adds one beat with each repetition. The drums, meanwhile, play a mirrored part, where the second half is the rhythmic reverse of the first; the vocals provide accents between the guitars and drums, with everything resolving at the last 10 beats. Following this is a 4/4 figure repeated 8 times, and the second refrain. Leading up to the solo, the band plays a short half-time segment and a figure with unison tapping between both guitars. The solo rides over a quarter-time backing which eventually speeds up to a double-time blast beat pattern. We then return to a quarter-time figure, a brief breakdown, and an extended half-time section that closes the song.

Lyrics

Devour, and live, devour.

Cyclic in nature,
Gory in us.
Considered by many
An uncivilized act.

Consumption of cow and pig
Are needed for you to live.
Regardless of how you feel,
You're out of options.
All that you drink and eat
Wastes away energy,
While sources are lacking--
It can't be saved fast enough.
There's not enough to go 'round,
The optimists lie to themselves.
Sustainable living
Can't catch the masses fast enough.
We treat our decline
As a means of affliction--
We tend to forget
We're due for a mass-extinction.

By no means
Should we consider this
The end of the earth
Because it isn't.

Some will survive,
Many will die, that's all
We won't be wiped out,
Stop going hysterical.

We could meet our end
In an act of sedition,
But to me that sounds like
Too active a proposition.
Right now, I would doubt
Many would turn
From computer screens and magazines
To watch the earth burn.
After all, it's in HD--
Live! On CNN,
With tons of bloody visuals
To fill your family t.v. den.
Probably we'll get to see
Whatever it is from where we sit.
Personally, I'm rooting
For a zombie apocalypse.

I'm a pessimist.
Every day I wait for it:
Cataclysm,
To keep things interesting.
Reminds us of our roots,
That while we think we can
Advance beyond our current state,
We're animals in the end.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, these are the most mundane of all the
Options for slaughter of every human being living.
I'd like to see something more exotic in the mixture,
Something more frightening, well worth the price of admission.

Something carnal,
More than usual.

Cyclic in nature,
Gory in us.
Considered by many
An uncivilized act.

Nobody wants to admit
Our actions are driven by chemistry,
Reaction upon reaction
Defines every part of our being.

[Guitar solo.]

We like to think that our culture
Has taken over for nature.
But this, naturally, is a pretense,
An imposed kind of cultural defense.

Sublimation.