Blank Stares and Silence

One of the saddest things for me to think about is that I missed the chance to see Requiem live, October 2004 in New Orleans. At the time I didn’t know who they were, so I went to see Eyehategod instead. Okay, Eyehategod was amazing, I can’t deny that. But two years later and Requiem, now disbanded, is one of my favorite bands.

So here I am offering you my favorite song of theirs, “Deliverance” from their album Storm Heaven

If you dig it, head over to CrimethInc and buy a copy. And while you’re at it, buy me a book or twelve.

DELIVERANCE

One escapes—a boy won’t go back
I did my time in the prison you call life
In spite of surveillance, the judgmental eyes
Defying the lies that there’s nothing outside
One escapes
From landscapes laid waste by your toil
From cities that run on your blood, sweat, and tears
Come workers—desert
Come soldiers—desert
Come, life is for living, not living in fear
What chain chokes your throat, what gate bars your path
What prison entombs you in concrete and stone
What fence stays your step save the one you accept
What key could release you from walls of your own

No—this girl won’t go back
The older I get, the more I want to fight
To destroy institutions, for total revolution
No compromise, it’s my fucking life
Fight—for each inch of ground
For each hour untrammeled, for every wrist bound
For songs yet unsung, desires unrealized
For all of the ones who should be at our sides
Don’t go back
No don’t fear, don’t relent, don’t back down
Don’t falter, don’t turn away now
No wealth could replace the riches we forfeit
Nor monuments ransom the chances we waste
None will even recall what we squandered at all
If we never dare to give wings to our longings
If we never dare to give teeth to our rage

Do you remember what I said?
I wouldn’t take away a word
Better die in defeat, starved, crazed, and alone
Far from this or any herd
No law can give freedom, no state can give power
No wages can buy back the life that we sell
No god can grant grace in this forsaken place
We have to storm heaven and seize them ourselves

Storm heaven
Unleash hell

Requiem - “Deliverance” And yes, I’m trying hosting this one directly, so just right-click and save.