Smell the fear, the coming decay of all Rites of spring gone rotten High priests, lords of artifice Lead their flocks into harm's way ♪ Welcome all to the new inquisition The last shriek from the tomb Nothing left but to burn it all down And rub the salt into the open wound Destroy, delete, rebuild, repeat Another name carved into stone Falsify then pretend As we cut the cord and wait for the end With a concrete stare, rituals of power The dead eyes of the past, rituals of power Up to the gates of Armageddon, rituals of power Until we're all one with the dust, rituals of power ♪ Still they cling to the old superstitions The elders, they speak in tongues They spit words their words and they wither and wait As Cronus eats the young Destroy, delete, rebuild, repeat Another name carved into stone As they rot away 200 years, straight into the grave With a concrete stare, rituals of power The dead eyes of the past, rituals of power Up to the gates of Armageddon, rituals of power Until we're all one with the dust, rituals of power ♪ No ones cares who lives or dies No empathy, no compromise The crows descend, the children mourn The ichor spills and the crosses burn ♪ Like Visigoths at the gates of Rome A great decline into a great unknown Marble eyes, obelisks, cenotaphs, Bolsheviks Cities burn and ashes rain, no one speaks of us again Each and all, swept away Like grains of sand on the shore of time ♪ Greed shrines, halls of emptiness Blight and shame rewarded Cowardice with no consequence Thieves-as-gods exalted Parasites, endless appetites Drag them to oblivion Subjects fill the empty nest Mouths open, waiting for worms