Labor After Labor

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Labor After Labor Lyrics written by: David Wolfe [Verse I] Morning breaks in static, every summons stamped “obey,” Iron vowels fall like shackles hammering the day, Obligations coil and crown me in a sallow gray array, Every favor forged in furnace brands another debt to pay. First head — Panic — pacing, pupils flaring, razor-wide, Gnashing at the ghost of errors multiplying at my side, Sever one demand and watch two serpents slip inside, Hydra hissing numbers while my backbone bends in stride. [Pre-Chorus] Hear the scraping talons rake the thresholds of my thought, Deadlines breed like vermin in the corridors I fought, Every severed serpent splitting faster than it ought, Anxious jaws are fastening on battles never sought, Cerberus encircles me with triple fury fraught, Pressure mounts like cannon fire primed and overwrought. [Chorus] I wrestle with the Hydra in the hall of shattered stone, Every head I hew away returns in doubled tone, Threefold hounds behind me bare their teeth against my bone, Clawing at the marrow till the will is overthrown. Labor after labor — binding sinew, binding will, Cut it — watch it multiply — it never lies still, Hammer after hammer falling cold and shrill, Twelve become a thousand climbing every hill. No rest granted, no reprieve, Every triumph forced to grieve — Still I battle, still I cleave. [Verse II] Noon descends in judgment, mirrors mutter what I lack, Polished glass like polished daggers glinting at my back, Second head — Depression — drooling venom, whisper-black, “You are lesser, you are hollow, you are destined now to crack.” Comparison is carrion crowned in counterfeit applause, Every laurel twists to briar tightening its claws, Hydra heads erupt again through fissures in my laws, Two for every conquest — multiplication’s jaws. [Pre-Chorus II] Hear the ribcage rattle like a war-drum under skin, Every breath a battlefield I never seem to win, Serpents spiral inward through the fractures deep within, Cerberus grows louder, second muzzle steeped in din, Hope lies in a sepulcher grown narrow, cold, and thin, Pressure swells and surges toward eruption’s origin. [Chorus] I wrestle with the Hydra in the hall of shattered stone, Every head I hew away returns in doubled tone, Threefold hounds behind me bare their teeth against my bone, Clawing at the marrow till the will is overthrown. Labor after labor — binding sinew, binding will, Cut it — watch it multiply — it never lies still, Hammer after hammer falling cold and shrill, Twelve become a thousand climbing every hill. No rest granted, no reprieve, Every triumph forced to grieve — Still I battle, still I cleave. [Bridge] Of all the beasts I battled in the catacombs of mind, I found the fiercest monster was the one I could not bind, Third head lifts in embers with a tyrant’s eyes that blind, “Burn the towers,” low it murmurs, “leave the trembling world behind.” [Breakdown] CUT IT DOWN AND IT DOUBLES BREAK IT AND IT GROWS AGAIN CRUSH A CROWN AND IT BLOSSOMS THROUGH THE CRACKS OF BONE AND BRAIN SNAP THE NECK HACK THE HEAD WATCH IT MULTIPLY I AM THE LABOR — I AM THE LASH — I AM THE REASON WHY. [Final Chorus] I was wrestling the Hydra — now it coils within my throne, Every head I severed left a scar beneath the bone, Threefold voices echo through a timbre overgrown, Clawing at the marrow but I claim it as my own. Labor after labor etched in muscle, etched in will, Cut me — watch me multiply — I am rising still, Hammer after hammer — I endure the anvil’s chill, Twelve became a thousand — yet I climb the hill. [Outro] Midnight in the marrow, hear the hammer slowing low, Twelve labors lie behind me, yet the thirteenth starts to grow, Hydra sleeps in silence where the darker currents flow, Cerberus keeps vigil where the ashen winds now blow, I am both the beast and blade — the wound and final blow — And tomorrow brings another head I’ll strike below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Album "Hades" for download coming soon! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------