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.
A Retinue Of Moons
A retinue if moons, of icy moons
They illuminate the land
And they make me thing of you
What sunk silently
To the depths of a mystery
A clue that only
one scientist knew
Who knew that the sky is now found to contain
Benzene and methane and chalk
And bloody mud, muddy blood from the sky
From the sickly sweet wings of Edith’s Checkerspot Butterfly?
They die in the ocean
Their legs are broken
The rain slows their flight as it soaks their wings
A microphone will listen for thunder
The telephone will dial the number
To deliver a, a clearer picture
Of weird wet weather
This puts all previous discoveries in doubt
These are things we have theories about
Overhead two sky titans
They collide in slow motion
While over the Ice Tongue, fluid flows
A 1000-foot thick chunk of sediment is exposed
Your own special home
A choking, vapor-laced haze
Obscured by acid rain
Enveloping everything
On the edge of the Milky Way
The Infidel Is Me
Am I the infidel?
I thought it was supposed to be someone else
But I see now it’s me
I am my own worst enemy
Just think of it
The sequence of the incidents was intricate
So brilliant yet illegitimate
Not disastrously but triumphantly
When we met in the secret facility
I said, (you remember what I said)
“It’ll be easy for you to recognize me
By the coils of concentina wire
surrounding my head in a shiny halo
of sharp blades.”
“There are people here
That would do you great harm
So please, just try to stay calm
And I’ll get you through this,”
You whisper
And with that, my illegance had shifted
The betrayal, the delusions
My Quantico rejection
The isolation, the breakdowns
And mysterious injections
Ah, the infidel is me
Then it was I
The lone futurist leading scores of resistors
Armed with tridents
But you’re not there
Why can’t you come in from the cold?
Why can’t you come in from the cold
To make an unlikely alliance with me?
Why don’t you come in from the cold?
Why don’t you come in from the cold
To make an unlikely alliance with me
Ay, the Infidel is me
And in defiance of our alliance
I say, go away and lick your wounds
And when you get them really clean again
You can dream away your dark dream
Ay, the Infidel is me.
A retinue if moons, of icy moons
They illuminate the land
And they make me thing of you
What sunk silently
To the depths of a mystery
A clue that only
one scientist knew
Who knew that the sky is now found to contain
Benzene and methane and chalk
And bloody mud, muddy blood from the sky
From the sickly sweet wings of Edith’s Checkerspot Butterfly?
They die in the ocean
Their legs are broken
The rain slows their flight as it soaks their wings
A microphone will listen for thunder
The telephone will dial the number
To deliver a, a clearer picture
Of weird wet weather
This puts all previous discoveries in doubt
These are things we have theories about
Overhead two sky titans
They collide in slow motion
While over the Ice Tongue, fluid flows
A 1000-foot thick chunk of sediment is exposed
Your own special home
A choking, vapor-laced haze
Obscured by acid rain
Enveloping everything
On the edge of the Milky Way
The Infidel Is Me
Am I the infidel?
I thought it was supposed to be someone else
But I see now it’s me
I am my own worst enemy
Just think of it
The sequence of the incidents was intricate
So brilliant yet illegitimate
Not disastrously but triumphantly
When we met in the secret facility
I said, (you remember what I said)
“It’ll be easy for you to recognize me
By the coils of concentina wire
surrounding my head in a shiny halo
of sharp blades.”
“There are people here
That would do you great harm
So please, just try to stay calm
And I’ll get you through this,”
You whisper
And with that, my illegance had shifted
The betrayal, the delusions
My Quantico rejection
The isolation, the breakdowns
And mysterious injections
Ah, the infidel is me
Then it was I
The lone futurist leading scores of resistors
Armed with tridents
But you’re not there
Why can’t you come in from the cold?
Why can’t you come in from the cold
To make an unlikely alliance with me?
Why don’t you come in from the cold?
Why don’t you come in from the cold
To make an unlikely alliance with me
Ay, the Infidel is me
And in defiance of our alliance
I say, go away and lick your wounds
And when you get them really clean again
You can dream away your dark dream
Ay, the Infidel is me.
Lyrics submitted by boneyardsorceress
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How do we correct the lyrics?
1st line: Of moons line 3: make me thinK last of retinue: AT the edge line 3 of infidel: but NOW I SEE it's me line 6: HOW the sequence line 14: SMALL, sharp, blades line 20: my ALlegiance line 22: quanticAL line 39:IF you get them really clean
They're minor, I know, but they shouldn't be there.