spoken words by Midori Hass-Kayanuma

Daybreak, cannons fire
Attack a bleeding empire
Their armies they lie in wait
No escape it's too late

Join our army, join our war
Now's the time to settle the score
The war to end all wars

From far they came, from foreign lands
Grim forces marching on
Under a darkening sky

Arch enemy you won't defy
Take no prisoners, take their lives
March into the enemy lands
March, two, three, four

Under a darkening sky

Die
No hope, No glory
Die
No victory
Die
Under a darkening sky

The salient is an arc of flame
Machine guns fire in hysteria
Thousands of soldiers die every day
The wounded scream in agony
Witness the last attack of the cavalry
Gunned down and shot to pieces
The artillery created a landscape equal to the moon

Through a storm of steel
Through no man's land
Bullets blow you to kingdom come
No man's land

Only the rats grew fat on attrition
Glutted with the flesh of dead soldiers
Loathsome, bloated creatures
Half blind and big as cats
The morale of the army
Was sinking in the swamps of the salient
Vicious in victory
We're out for war, war to the death

Through a storm of steel
Through no man's land
Bullets blow you to kingdom come
No man's land

Stuck on a bayonet, or shot at dawn
Life expectancy, there is none

Men slipped and slithered
Through bloody soil on the battleground
Divisions were going across like terriers intent on flushing rats from a hole

Through a storm of steel
Through no man's land
Bullets blow you to kingdom come
No man's land

Dominate, new technologies dominate the war
Exterminate, overthrow the enemy
Asphyxiate, the call for retribution

Vicious death creeping across the fields
Mustard gas, a deadly hellish fiend
A choking grip is locked around your neck
Vomit blood. Your face turns grey. You are dead

Nauseate. Malicious pain ripping through your lungs
Degenerate. The weary crucifixion
Hallucinate. Inhale, exhale

Feel the wind blow in your direction
Breath of death. Fog thickens the air
No code of honor, you dogs of war
1917, we're gasping for air

I cannot breathe, I cannot see
Poison fog. Poison fog
Inhaling mustard gas. It kills me in my sleep
Poison fog. Poison fog.

Exhaustion, dehydration
The water is foul with decay and excrement and something dead
It's covered with sour mustard gas

As I watched them in bright daylight
When crawling through the poison clouds, I saw them burn away
My name should have been written between theirs on stones
In dreams I still see, hear and smell them every single night

Dominate, new technologies dominate the war
Exterminate, overthrow the enemy
Asphyxiate, the call for retribution

Feel the wind blow in your direction
Breath of death. Fog thickens the air
No code of honor, you dogs of war
1917, we're gasping for air

I cannot breathe, I cannot see
Poison fog. Poison fog
Inhaling mustard gas. It kills me in my sleep
Poison fog. Poison fog.

Exhaustion, dehydration
The water is foul with decay and excrement and something dead
It's covered with sour mustard gas

Your country needs you, so come and join our war
It's fun and takes you places you've never seen before

Dying races colliding on battlefields
Bodies lying around you and rotting in pools
Drowning in mud, your army is stuck
As far as my eyes can see there's misery

Trench wars caused by stalemate
Digging a hole, now it's your home
You wanna leave but you're stuck in the mud
Then there's the rat. He becomes your best friend

Don't stick your head out. The sniper never sleeps
Cannons roar as you storm the enemy

Dying races colliding on battlefields
Bodies lying around you and rotting in pools
Drowning in mud, your army is stuck
As far as my eyes can see there's misery

Drowning in mud

Trying to stay alive
Drowning in mud and die

Trench wars caused by stalemate
Digging a hole, now it's your home
You wanna leave but you're stuck in the mud
Then there's the rat. He becomes your best friend

Don't stick your head out. The sniper never sleeps
Cannons roar as you storm the enemy

Dying races colliding on battlefields
Bodies lying around you and rotting in pools
Drowning in mud, your army is stuck
As far as my eyes can see there's misery

Take a shot at glory on the hills of Passiondale
Prepare the artillery to blow away the troops on the other side

Traumatized, entrenched for life
Cannons point at the enemy
Under siege for years and years
We're swept away from the earth

A serenade in lead
For all those who died
Wartime atrocities
No sign of life

No escape from Passiondale

Grenades rain down on our fortress day and night
My brain is numb
I lost all my friends
Will it ever stop
There's no escape, it seems too late
For god and country, we try to endure this living hell

Take a shot at glory on the hills of Passiondale
Prepare the artillery to blow away the troops on the other side

A serenade in lead
For all those who died
Wartime atrocities
No sign of life

The sun is dawning on another sea of blood and mud
March against machine guns like lambs being driven to the slaughter
Tornadoes of shrapnel
The wounded sinking in three feet of mud
Dying grotesquely
Wading through the swamp among the carnage

No!!!!!

-Our last assault for victory
-Shattered by machine gun fire
-Bombs rain down in cataracts
-Carnival of death

Shellshocked, paralyzed, staring into the gloom
Penalties for desertion
Death the reward for cowardice
Salvos, cannonades, unleashing hysteria of rage
The senselessness of it all grew like a cancer in the minds of the troops

No!!!!

-Our last assault for victory
-Shattered by machine gun fire
-Bombs rain down in cataracts
-Carnival of death

No survivors

For weeks I have waited in this mud
I'm shaking, I'm wet
The stench of my dead friends
Relieved when we finally march in
This waiting is killing me
Traumatized eyes, as we go in
Bodies everywhere, the bullets scream
We can't survive but we march in
Nothing to win but I go in
Don't care if this killing is a sin
I just want to end this hell I'm in
I hit the bottom, we did not win

No!!!!

-Our last assault for victory
-Shattered by machine gun fire
-Bombs rain down in cataracts
-Carnival of death

No survivors

The march has come to a hold
From victory to disaster
Massive assault but your enemy runs faster
Attacking in waves, still no one returns
Battalions die in demise
It's time to get behind enemy lines

Behind enemy lines

A battalion on top of the hill
With a grand view it's an easy kill
A big dense cloud of smoke fills the sky
Blown into oblivion
The effort was big, the tunnel was long
It was worth the work and the enemy's gone
We finally marched on, then the first tanks came rolling in

Fear is in your eyes
Another bloody curse
Crushed by a fucking tank

Chaos in your mind
Running out of luck
Down the muddy road of extinction

Nothing you can do
Nowhere left to hide
The bloody thing spitting hell fire

You want to stay alive
You keep your head low
But the time has come to meet your maker

The march has come to a hold
From victory to disaster
Massive assault but your enemy runs faster
Attacking in waves, still no one returns
Battalions die in demise
It's time to get behind enemy lines

Behind enemy lines

Tales of disaster traveled fast
The ruins of nature, debris of man
The war is over, the cause is lost
Nine million dead

Shellshocked and wounded
Legs lost, arms shattered
False promises, false hopes
Nine million dead

Prisoners of war convoyed to the camps
Now the war is over, you're not going home
Another cold winter lies ahead of you
Death is your reward, prisoner of war

Architects of war
Weary of battle
Fragile alliance
Fallen empires

Prisoners of war convoyed to the camps
Now the war is over, you're not going home
Another cold winter lies ahead of you
Death is your reward, prisoner of war

Architects of war
Weary of battle
Fragile alliance
Fallen empires

Tales of disaster traveled fast
The ruins of nature, debris of man
The war is over, the cause is lost
Nine million dead

Architects of war
Weary of battle
Fragile alliance
Fallen empires

[instrumental]