I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Every step that we tread
The dead are behind us
Throwing shadows out over our heads
And they land far in front of us
No oceans left to cross
No mountains left to climb
'Cause that's what I've been told
And it's got so hard to look around
And see just who can save you if
You don't have a pot of gold
Was there ever a time like this?
As the noise of the past
Builds up into a crescendo
The layers of rubbish, wastes, accrue
Are amplified a billion times or more
But our heads just can't cope, as we fall
Into the arms of the waiting mystics
Books burning, barrels turning
A billion wasted futures light
Up the night sky
Small hopes flash past then wave
While foreign forces wait and pray
And a fear of the future beats
So deep in our hearts
That they'll all but destroy ourselves
Like the centuries-old feuds
Being upgraded with high-tech weapons
In the end it's not the future
But the past that'll get us
I always believed that ideas
Like this cost lives
That's why I was always in
Line for the sacrifice
But now my eyes point ahead
Away from the ghosts of the dead
The dead are behind us
Throwing shadows out over our heads
And they land far in front of us
No oceans left to cross
No mountains left to climb
'Cause that's what I've been told
And it's got so hard to look around
And see just who can save you if
You don't have a pot of gold
Was there ever a time like this?
As the noise of the past
Builds up into a crescendo
The layers of rubbish, wastes, accrue
Are amplified a billion times or more
But our heads just can't cope, as we fall
Into the arms of the waiting mystics
Books burning, barrels turning
A billion wasted futures light
Up the night sky
Small hopes flash past then wave
While foreign forces wait and pray
And a fear of the future beats
So deep in our hearts
That they'll all but destroy ourselves
Like the centuries-old feuds
Being upgraded with high-tech weapons
In the end it's not the future
But the past that'll get us
I always believed that ideas
Like this cost lives
That's why I was always in
Line for the sacrifice
But now my eyes point ahead
Away from the ghosts of the dead
Lyrics submitted by owennnnnnnnnn, edited by MarkKozelek
The Last Dance Lyrics as written by Paul Wilmott Ian Crause
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Pretty sure it's "The layers of rubbish and wasted dreams are amplified a million times or more."