Appeal to Reason

Rise Against

2008 Released

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Digging into Appeal to Reason - what's your favorite track or standout moment? 🤘

Collapse (Post‐Amerika)

03 : 19

Long Forgotten Sons

04 : 01

Re‐Education (Through Labor)

03 : 42

The Dirt Whispered

03 : 09

Kotov Syndrome

03 : 04

From Heads Unworthy

03 : 42

The Strength to Go On

03 : 27

Audience of One

04 : 05

Entertainment

03 : 34

Hero of War

04 : 13

Savior

04 : 02

Hairline Fracture

04 : 02

Whereabouts Unknown

04 : 01

Historia calamitatum

03 : 22

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Track Lyrics

Collapse (Post‐Amerika) Lyrics

[Verse 1]

When our rivers run dry and our crops cease to grow

When our summers grow longer and winters won't snow

From the banks of the ocean and the ice in the hills

To the fight in the desert where progress stands still

When we've lost our will

[Chorus]

That's how we'll know

This is not a test, we'll know

This is cardiac arrest

Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes

We're crashing into the ground as we all fall from grace

[Verse 2]

When the air that we breathe becomes air that we choke

When the marsh fever spreads from the swamps to our homes

When your home on the range has been torn down and paved

And the buffalo roam to a slaughterhouse grave

What more will it take

[Chorus]

For us to know

This is not a test, oh no

This is cardiac arrest

Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes

Kissing the ground as we all fall from grace

[Verse 3]

This is a chance to set things straight

To bend or break the rules back into place

There is no middle ground, no compromise

We've drawn the line

With perfect aim, we stand back and throw

Glass windows break and it's all about to blow

Lights go out as we pass the torch again

In hope that it stays lit

Neutrality means that you don't really care

Cause the struggle goes on even when you're not there

Blind and unaware

[Chorus]

That's how we'll know

This is not a test, oh no

This is cardiac arrest

Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes

We're crashing into the ground as we all, yeah we all, all fall from grace

Long Forgotten Sons Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Far from home on a road unknown

Where the vultures circle on winds that blow

From northern skies that haunt these waking moments

On shadows cast by the mountain range

On calloused soles, we find our way

Through desperate eyes, we long for the horizon

While this sun is rising

[Chorus]

We are the long forgotten sons

And daughters that don't belong to anyone

And we are alone under this sun

And we want to fix the work that you've undone

[Verse 2]

When cries for help go unanswered

And signal fires just burn and burn

We wonder if we're waiting here for nothing

Cause our lips are sewn our ears are filled

With the constant drone of the unfulfilled

But we'll never fall if we stand for something

We stand for something

[Chorus]

We are the long forgotten sons

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And daughters that don't belong to anyone

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And we are alone under this sun

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And we want to fix the work that you've undone

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

[Bridge]

Don't fall, I see lights in the distance

They're not far away

Stand up cause the sky is turning gray

There's hope in these footsteps of persistence

So don't go astray

These lights get closer everyday

We are the long forgotten sons

Yeah we are the long forgotten sons

[Chorus]

We are the long forgotten sons

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And daughters that don't belong to anyone

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And we are alone under this sun

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

And we want to fix the work that you've undone

(what happens now, we don't know, just hold on tight now here we go...)

What you've undone...

Re‐Education (Through Labor) Lyrics

6 ContributorsRe-Education LyricsTo the sound of a heartbeat pounding away

To the rhythm of the awful rusted machines

We toss and turn but don't sleep

Each breath we take makes us thieves

Like causes without rebels

Just talk but promise nothing else

We crawl on our knees for you

Under a sky no longer blue

We sweat all day long for you

But we sow the seeds to see us through

Cause sometimes dreams just don't come true

We wait to reap what we are due

To the rhythm of a time bomb ticking away

And the blare of a siren's combing the streets

Chased down like dogs we run from

Your grasp until the sun comes up

We crawl on our knees for you

Under a sky no longer blue

We sweat all day long for you

But we sow the seeds to see us through

Cause sometimes dreams just don't come true

Look now at what they've done to you

White needles buried in the red

The engine roars and then it gives

But never dies cause we don't live, we just survive

On the scraps that you throw away

I won't crawl on my knees for you

I won't believe the lies that hide the truth

I won't sweat one more drop for you

Cause we are the rust upon your gears

We are the insect in your ears

We crawl, we crawl

We crawl all over you!

We sow the seeds to see us through

Our days are precious and so few

We all reap what we are due

Under this sky no longer blue

We bring a dawn long overdue

We crawl, we crawl

We crawl all over you!

The Dirt Whispered Lyrics

[Verse 1]

She got down on hands and knees

One ear against the ground

Holding her breath to hear something

But the dirt made not a sound tonight

Echoes of songs still lurk on distant foreign shores

Where we danced just to please the gods that only ask for more

And so it goes

But still we give ourselves to this

We can't spend our lives waiting to live

[Chorus]

On cold nights in a prayer for dawn

But the daylight isn't what she wants

The concrete calls my name again

I'm falling, through the cracks I slip

[Verse 2]

The postcard says wish you were here but I'd rather I was there

Holding on to the simple things before they disappear

That's what I meant

But that was then and this is now

I'll make it up to you somehow

[Chorus]

On cold nights in a prayer for dawn

But the daylight isn't what she wants

The concrete calls my name again

I'm falling, through the cracks I slip

[Bridge]

A destination, a fading smile

Another station, another mile

Another day gone, I swore that I will

Be there before dawn

So be there, I will

She got down on hands and knees

One ear against the ground

Holding her breath to hear something, anything at all

The dirt whispered, "Child, I'm coming home"

[Chorus]

On cold nights in a prayer for dawn

But the daylight isn't what she wants

The concrete calls my name again

I'm falling, through the cracks I slip

Kotov Syndrome Lyrics

[Verse 1]

They're high on the watchtower, keeping the peace

Whatever that means

Cause you see the world through

Crosshairs and TVs, don't you?

Ten foot walls built around us, white picket death

So quiet, so safe

If we fall there'll be nothing and no one to catch us

Sit back and watch as we

[Chorus]

Spin out of control

Try to recover but collide with each other we

Spin out of control

[Verse 2]

Something I cannot change

I was born in a place that lives by the sword

And thus to its blade we're condemned

Don't you understand why we scream "no more"?

My dreams are of children orphaned by blood

Spilled at these hands

And here on the graves of the innocent

We raise our flag

[Chorus]

Spin out of control

Try to recover but collide with each other we

Spin out of control

[Bridge]

Some things you don't forgive, some things you don't forget

Sometimes the fate you suffer is so much worse than death

But we're off course now and we're drifting out to sea

So cut the anchor on your heart to be set free

Set free

[Outro]

Spin out of control

Try to recover, we have to recover

We fall and crash, one after the other

Spin out of control

From Heads Unworthy Lyrics

[Verse 1]

We are the children you reject and disregard

These aching cries come from the bottom of our hearts

You can't disown us now, we are our own flesh and blood

And we don't disappear just because your eyes are shut

[Pre-Chorus]

Now tell me

Love, loss, like a bullets path

Tear through the cavity of my chest

Lights out because the fuse has blown

[Chorus]

As their castles crumble slowly

We watch them fall

The crown slips from heads unworthy

As we gain control

[Verse 2]

This is the family that we crossed or never had

This is a war that was lost the day that it began

'Cause it's the race we run, but it keeps us at the start

And it's the song I sung from the bottom of my heart

[Pre-Chorus]

That's how we

Read you like a polygraph

Not one single bone in your back

Own up to how you let us down

[Chorus]

As their castles crumble slowly

We watch them fall

The crown slips from heads unworthy

As we gain control

[Bridge]

Except for you and me, love

Everyone's the same

We know, we know, we know, we know

But if to live, we have to be numb

I'd rather know the pain

I'd rather know, I'd rather know

This happens almost never

But it happened once to me

And this will never be same

The ends we seam together

[Bridge]

I'm not after fame and fortune

I'm after you

When I've served my time I swear I

Will come back for you

[Chorus]

As their castles crumble slowly

We watch them fall

The crown slips from heads unworthy

Right on to ours, but I'm after you

The Strength to Go On Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Welcome home

While away

They have tampered with the locks

And your things they rearranged

"We propose a better way"

Said the note they left behind

In their wake of disarray

You fell in place

Don't fall asleep

They'll find us here

I know a place to disappear

As a voice proclaimed

[Chorus]

What we are is the sum of a thousand lies

What we know is almost nothing at all

But we are what we are till the day we die

Or till we don't have the strength to go on

Till we don't have the strength to go on

[Verse 2]

Let us cry

Let us be

Let us open up our hearts

Without fear of anything

Faith alone

Is all we need

To traverse this burning bridge

Now before it gets too late you claim "it's fine"

But the heart reveals

What smiles betray

Your sad sad eyes gave you away

And don't you know?

[Chorus]

What we are is the sum of a thousand lies

What we know is almost nothing at all

But we are what we are till the day we die

Or till we don't have the strength to go on

Till we don't have the strength to go on

[Bridge]

Our shoulders bear an awful weight

But still we trudge on just the same

Our colors run then leave a stain

They blacken our once honest name

But how can we argue? Tell me

Over the fury and the fire

How many times can we tell you that we

Are not like you, we see right through

Your poor disguise that fails to fool

The wary eye that's trained on you

[Chorus]

What we are is the sum of a thousand lies

What we know is almost nothing at all

But we are what we are till the day we die

Or till we don't have the strength to go on

Till we don't have the strength to go on

What we are is the sum of a thousand lies

What we know is almost nothing at all

But we are what we are till the day we die

Or till we don't have the strength to go on

Till we don't have the strength to go on

Yeah, we don't have the strength to go on

Audience of One Lyrics

[Verse 1]

I can still remember the words and what they meant

As we etched them with our fingers in years of wet cement

The days blurred into each other, though everything seemed clear

We cruised along at half speed, but then we shifted gears

[Pre-Chorus]

We ran like vampires from a thousand burning suns

But even then, we should have stayed

[Chorus]

But we ran away, now all my friends are gone

Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved

Run away, but what are we running from?

A show of hands from those in this audience of one

[Post-Chorus]

Where have they gone?

[Verse 2]

Identities assume us as nine and five add up

Synchronizing watches to the seconds that we lost

I looked up and saw you, I know that you saw me

We froze but for a moment in empathy

[Pre-Chorus]

I brought down the sky for you, but all you did was shrug

You gave my emptiness a name

[Chorus]

And you ran away, now all my friends are gone

Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved

Run away, but what are we running from?

A show of hands from those in this audience of one

[Post-Chorus]

Where have they gone?

[Bridge]

We're all okay, until the day we're not

The surface shines, while the inside rots

We raced the sunset and we almost won

We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on

[Chorus]

We ran away, now all my friends are gone

Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved

Runaway but what are we running from?

A show of hands from those in this audience of one

[Post-Chorus]

Where have they gone?

Entertainment Lyrics

[Verse 1]

All we are is entertainment caught up in our own derangement

Tell us what to say and what to do

All we are are pretty faces, picture perfect bottled rage

Packaged, synthesized versions of you

[Chorus]

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life

Confined to pull out quotes in hotel rooms

They all scream California and it's toppling empire

But can't you see the end is coming soon?

[Verse 2]

Come one, come all, the new sensation guarantees then obligations

Spotlights follow every single move

Basking here on ten foot stages, pouty lips and oh so jaded

All as if we have something to prove

[Chorus 2]

Despite these petty fortunes we still can't afford a life

Confined to pull out quotes in hotel rooms

They all scream California and it's toppling empire

But can't you see the end is here?

[Bridge]

And if we cared at all about this unknown plight

Then we'd do something more to finally make this right

[Verse 3]

Is this only entertainment? Pull the curtains, places please

We've learned to sing and dance and cry on cue

But this is more than entertainment in a world so sick with pain

This is the only thing that's real or true

[Chorus 3]

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life

Confined to pull out quotes in hotel rooms

They all scream bloody murder over graves already dug

But can't you see the end!?

Hero of War Lyrics

[Verse 1]

He said, "Son, have you seen the world?

Well, what would you say, if I said that you could?

Just carry this gun, you'll even get paid"

I said, "That sounds pretty good"

Black leather boots, spit-shined so bright

They cut off my hair, but it looks alright

We marched and we sang, we all became friends

As we learned how to fight

[Chorus 1]

A hero of war

Yeah, that's what I'll be

And when I come home

They'll be damn proud of me

I'll carry this flag

To the grave if I must

'Cause it's a flag that I love

And a flag that I trust

[Verse 2]

I kicked in the door, I yelled my commands

The children, they cried, but I got my man

We took him away, a bag over his face

From his family and his friends

They took off his clothes, they pissed in his hands

I told them to stop, but then I joined in

We beat him with guns, and batons not just once

But again and again

[Chorus 1]

A hero of war

Yeah, that's what I'll be

And when I come home

They'll be damn proud of me

I'll carry this flag

To the grave if I must

'Cause it's a flag that I love

And a flag that I trust

[Verse 3]

She walked through bullets and haze

I asked her to stop, I begged her to stay

But she pressed on, so I lifted my gun

And I fired away

And the shells jumped through the smoke

And into the sand that the blood now had soaked

She collapsed with a flag in her hand

A flag white as snow

[Chorus 2]

A hero of war

Is that what they see?

Just medals and scars

So damn proud of me

And I brought home that flag

Now it gathers dust

But it's a flag that I love

It's the only flag I trust

[Outro]

He said, "Son

Have you seen the world?

Well, what would you say

If I said that you could?"

Savior Lyrics

[Intro]

It kills me not to know this, but I've all but just forgotten

What the color of her eyes were and her scars or how she got them

As the telling signs of age rain down, a single tear is droppin'

Through the valleys of an aging face, that this world has forgotten

[Verse 1]

There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place

And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds

But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you

Walls that we just can't break through until we disappear

[Pre-Chorus]

So, tell me now

If this ain't love, then how do we get out?

’Cause I don't know

[Chorus]

That's when she said, "I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you

While there's still something left to save!"

(Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!)

That's when I told her, "I love you, girl, but I'm not the answer

For the questions that you still have!"

Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!

[Verse 2]

And the day pressed on like crushing weights, for no man does it ever wait

Like memories of dying days that deafen us like hurricanes

Bathed in flames we held the brand, uncurled the fingers in your hand

Pressed into the flesh like sand, now do you understand?

[Pre-Chorus]

So, tell me now

If this ain't love, then how do we get out?

’Cause I don't know

[Chorus]

That's when she said, "I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you

While there's still something left to save!"

(Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!)

That's when I told her, "I love you, girl, but I'm not the answer

For the questions that you still have!"

Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!

[Bridge]

One thousand miles away, there's nothing left to say

But so much left that I don't know

We never had a choice, this world is too much noise

It takes me under, it takes me under once again...

[Interlude]

I don't hate you...

I don't hate you, no...

[Pre-Chorus]

So, tell me now, if this ain't love

Then how do we get out? ’Cause I don't know

[Chorus]

That's when she said, "I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you

While there's still something left to save!"

(Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!)

That's when I told her, "I love you, girl, but I'm not the answer

For the questions that you still have!"

Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!

[Outro]

I don't hate you

(Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!)

I don't hate you

I don't hate you, no

Whoa-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh!

Hairline Fracture Lyrics

[Verse 1]

A sinking ship, an awkward kiss

A chance to set things straight

The kind of hurt that burns and burns

Like fires we can't contain

We hole up in a shelter made of bones and ice and there we'll wait

To start again with steady hands

This time nothing gets in our way

But as we peer a little closer what do we see?

[Chorus]

A crack in the surface

A flaw in the plan

(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)

A cadence imperfect

Like a building condemned

(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against?)

[Verse 2]

A promise kept

The dirt unswept

A poorly worn disguise

A child unloved that then grows up

To love what we despise

We're broken but still breathing

We are wounded but we are healing

We pick up right where we left off

Breathe on the ashes that remain

So that these coals may become fire

To guide our way

[Chorus]

A crack in the surface

A flaw in the plan

(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)

A cadence imperfect

Like a building condemned

(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against?)

[Bridge]

I walk on wounds

That seldom prove to slow me down

I laugh this constant pain away

So you can't tell

But there it lies under the smiles

It drains me mile after mile

But seldom proves to slow me down

Here I go, here I go, here I go

Should we just hold on

To what remains of

What we thought was lost

[Chorus]

But it's just a crack in the surface

A flaw in the plan

(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)

A cadence imperfect

Like a building condemned

(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against?)

Whereabouts Unknown Lyrics

[Verse 1]

To the ends of this lost world

You have marched and you have sworn

To a tainted crown of thorns

As the hungry sails unfurl

We are thrusted from the shore

And it's you that we search for

[Pre-Chorus]

The blackest night

The midnight sun

The covered tracks and days spent on the run

The strangers we've become

[Chorus]

These whereabouts unknown

Please know you can come home

It's alright

I long for the moment

Our silence is broken

It's all right

[Verse 2]

Another place, another time

We toed the same side of the line

Yeah we saw eye to eye

Even then the saddest sounds

Were nothing laughter could not drown

But we are not laughing now

[Pre-Chorus]

I see your face

In my sights

I hesitate

And then look for a sign

Somewhere in the sky

[Chorus]

These whereabouts unknown

Please know you can come home

It's alright

I long for the moment

Our silence is broken

It's all right

[Bridge]

Even together, we stand apart

Swallow the sun, erase the sky

An invitation that's been declined

Where did you go?

[Chorus]

Your whereabouts unknown

Please know you can come home

It's alright

I long for the moment

Our silence is broken

It's all right

[Outro]

It's alright now

'Cause all is forgiven

If you could just listen

It's all right

Historia calamitatum Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Even though we know, yeah

We know

Our time has almost come

We're all overdue

Can there be a place to call our own?

Can there be a road that takes us home?

[Pre-Chorus]

We toe the line (toe the line)

We go along (we go along)

We don't belong

To you now

[Chorus]

When it rains it pours

Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves

The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets

But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore

The city piece by piece

And then the clouds gave way as if to agree

When it rains it pours

[Verse 2]

The mystery unknown now unfolds

The life that we once owned, first bought, then sold

Like messengers of war, we've no control

To oceans unexplored

This ship sails through

[Pre-Chorus]

We toe the line (toe the line)

We go along (we go along)

We don't belong

To you now

[Chorus]

When it rains it pours

Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves

The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets

But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore

The city piece by piece

And then the clouds gave way as if to agree

When it rains it pours

It pours

(It pours)

[Bridge]

When it rains it pours

When they die we mourn

When it hit, we swore

Now we want not more

Like a saint re-born

Like a rose in a storm

Like a child un-born

A child un-born...

It's the coin we're tossing into the well

It's misfortune that we could not foretell

It's the dry spell

[Chorus]

When it rains it pours

Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves

The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets

But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore

The city piece by piece

And then the clouds gave way as if to agree

When it rains it pours

It pours

When it rains it pours

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Upvote Your Favorite Album Today!

Digging into Appeal to Reason - what's your favorite track or standout moment? 🤘

Track Lyrics

Collapse (Post‐Amerika) Lyrics

Long Forgotten Sons Lyrics

Re‐Education (Through Labor) Lyrics

The Dirt Whispered Lyrics

Kotov Syndrome Lyrics

From Heads Unworthy Lyrics

The Strength to Go On Lyrics

Audience of One Lyrics

Entertainment Lyrics

Hero of War Lyrics

Savior Lyrics

Hairline Fracture Lyrics

Whereabouts Unknown Lyrics

Historia calamitatum Lyrics