Diatribes
(Napalm Death - 1996)







1. Greed Killing
2. Glimpse Into Genocide
3. Ripe For The Breaking
4. Cursed To Crawl
5. Cold Forgiveness
6. My Own Worst Enemy
7. Just Rewards
8. Dogma
9. Take The Strain
10. Diatribes
11. Placate, Sedate, Eradicate
12. Corrosive Elements






1. Greed Killing

[Music: Harris; lyrics: Embury, Harris]

The wrong time, the wrong place,
Our smiling face of distruct.
Buried, the seed deep in all our heads.
Prepared ourselves for the fall.

The greed killing!

Instinct to mistruct,
Instinct - the lust.
Their butchery of feelings,
geared for the greed killing.

The greed killing!

The lust denied is need [x5]

Existence is a steady flow,
the moulded image grows.
No core, no faith in what you are,
the pressure builds right from the start.

The lust denied the need [x5]

Could it be just sour grapes?
Or have we failed to fit their shape?
It's always give, and never take.
How much can we give?
How much can we take?

The lust denied the need [x5]






2. Glimpse Into Genocide

[Music: Pintado; lyrics: Embury]

Blindness leading.
Which one of me is real?
Through corridors of uncertainity
A force without form.

I've dug a hole so deep,
full of the shit of compromise.
For once can't I keep
pain on the outside.

Adapt.
Take on release.
Others.
Thoughts infringed.
Adapt.
Take on release.
A life -
On pause syringed.
[x2]

A glimpse into genocide.
My own emotionsm a million strong.
A heart so full of emptiness -






3. Ripe For The Breaking

[Music: Harris, Embury; lyrics: Greenway]

...you weren't born with the world falling at your feet-
The path is long and agonizing being dragged on your knees.
...and the silver spoon in your mouth tastes spoilt with rust,
when all that glitters isn't gold and fortunes turn to dust.

You're prime for the raping.

[Chorus]
And when you don't pander to meet the agenda,
scavengers start to gather.
Perverse visionaries taste the lather;
The just rewards in controlled rebellion.
Tossed and probed like a gristly piece of meat,
Lock, stock, and barrel slave.
You just don't contradict big brother.
He's got the right to puch you under.

... and they pledge you the earth, then pull you six feet down.
And you're branded with the stigma: unusable dropouts.
... and with inspiration ravaged, you take the final bow,
the creative demeanor shattered into a million pieces.

You're ripe for the breaking.

[Chorus]






4. Cursed To Crawl

[Music & lyrics: Embury]

A fragile peace that exists inside
A frame so shallow, so narrow-minded.
An open wound - we run inside.
A raging turmoil.
Helplessness confides...

[Chorus:]
Cursed to crawl
for pale and bleeding heart
Cursed to crawl
Pale and bleeding.
Cursed to crawl
for pale and bleeding heart
Cursed to crawl
PAle and bleeding.

Enter this sphere,
commonplace, borderline.
Between my rage,
Between my hate.
Damn our mistakes.
Fixation blinds.
The pain of knowing
the truth beyond...

[Chorus x2]

Unprepared.
A gruesome display,
perhaps a replay -
self-inflicted.
Reduced to nothing,
my piece of mind seduced.
Unworthiness.
The scars never heal...

[Chorus]






5. Cold Forgiveness

[Music: Harris, Pintado; lyrics: Embury]

25 years severed,
Take it and like it,
Feel like there's nothing more,
And your story.

[Chorus]
Thirsty, despised,
Real love destroys.
Hungry for anger.
Hungry for... anger.
The face behind the face [x4]
Cold forgiveness meant not for me [x4]
The face behind the face [x4]
Cold forgiveness meant not for me [x4]

Race against time, collapse.
Fall in line, nothing is sacred.

[Chorus]






6. My Own Worst Enemy

[Music & lyrics: Embury]

Played out, wide off the mark,
Mania develops,
Akin ti fiction,
More than to a world of fact.

[Chorus:]
My own worst enemy.
My own worst enemy.
Lifes foul treachery.
My own worst enemy.

Dams of emotions build
A dull and trubid screen,
Clouding veils of black
In jungles of hopes opressed.

[Chorus]

So many times,
For no reason.
So many promised punches,
For what reason?

Ceaseless decay,
Parallel obscene and flagrant.
Ceaseless decay,
Restrained my mind coils.

So many times,
For no reason.
So many promised punches,
For what reason?

Ceaseless decay,
Parallel obscene and flagrant.
Ceaseless decay,
Restrained my mind coils.

Played out, wide off the mark,
Mania develops,
Akin to fiction,
More than to a world of fact.

My own worst enemy.
My own worst enemy.
Life foul treachery.






7. Just Rewards

[Music: Harris; lyrics: Greenway]

I lived for a moment
I grabbed hold and I didn't relent
Skin of my teeth,
Holds no longer.

And now I come to claim my just rewards.
Face down! Ground down with no recourse.

And now I come to claim my just rewards.
The spoils of the toils are spent.

Where is the right place?
Where is the right place, right time?

If the face fits, wear it
Faces fit while heart and soul slopes on.

Scraping through - Just Rewards!
Dig the dirt - Just Rewards!
Hold your ground - Just Rewards!
Being sucked down -Just Rewards!

Where is the right place?
Where is the right place, right time?

When you lay down on your own law,
You swim against the sanctimonious tides.

When you lay down on your own law,
You swim against the sanctimonious tides.

Down not out - Just Rewards!
Looping tracks - Just Rewards!
Stuned growth - Just Rewards!
Dwindling hope - Just Rewards!

I lived for a moment
I grabbed hold and I didn't relent
Skin of my teeth,
Holds no longer.

And now I come to claim my just rewards.






8. Dogma

[Music & lyrics: Embury]

Innocence -
a painful reminescene
Of what was not
And will never be.
Meant not for me.
An unjust war
On the futile.

[Chorus:]
Bludgeoning my affection wide open
Cries of overkill.
Bludgeoning my affection wide open
Cries of overkill.

Scraps of memories
Flung from our master's table.
A plan I'm sure to disable.
Allegiance to none other.
Allegiance to none other.

[Chorus]

Renegate a healing catharsis
That bursts, meaningless.
Renegate a healing catharsis
That bursts, meaningless.

Graceful - selfish will,
The chilling thrill,
A play on the nerves to end "all serves".

As penance
To a man's drying tear,
My leer but deny ourselves.

Graceful - a selfish will,
The chilling thrill,
A play on the nerves to end "all serves"

As penance
To a man's drying tear,
My leer but deny ourselves.

Renegate a healing catharsis
That bursts, meaningless.
Renegat a healing catharsis
That bursts, meaningless.

[Chorus]






9. Take The Strain

[Music: Embury; lyrics: Greenway]

Take the strain! Can you take it?
Take the strain! Or even fake it?
Take the strain! Aren't we lucky
Take the strain! to be breathing?

Take the strain!

Are you the man in the next bed
Without the tubes, without the life support?
Maybe the man whose pockets weigh you down/

Take the strain! Do you wear strife
Take the strain! like a clown?
Take the strain! Forgiveness
Take the strain! with a frown!

Take the strain!

Are you the animal
That escapes the snares and traps?
Bearing no quarry scars, and the hunter's crown.

We were taught to follow leaders - follow leaders!
NEver to challenge the singular pack.
The goals they set slip the grasp - slip our grasp!
Chaising tails without the basic facts.

Choose full pain, violate, make the grade.
Taut wires fray, electro-brain, take the strain!

We were taught to follow leaders - follow leaders!
Never to challenge the singular pack.
The goals they set slip the grasp - slip our grasp!
Chaising tails without the basic facts.






10. Diatribes

[Music: Embury, Harris; lyrics: Greenway]

Bite the bit, scream till you're blue the face. [x4]

Nice pipe dreams or passive revolution? [x4]

Foot soldiers
With weapons of placarde and banners.
How will they stop the rot?

No standing to reason,
'cause reason is treason -
It doesn't feasible.

No standing to reason,
'cause reason is treason -
It doesn't feasible.

Lie down.
And cry all you can.
The machine rolls over you.

No standing to reason,
'cause reason is treason -
It doesn't feasible.

No standing to reason,
'cause reason is treason -
It doesn't feasible.

It just don't seem feasible - no!

Black to the NAzi - try pleading affinity
Hands up, boot in, shattering the passive dream.
But is it right to tolerate this fucked democratic process? - no!

Shattering the passive dream

Is it 'cause we like to hear the sound of our voice?
Big-hearted diatribes, just like my dilemma.
Time to return compliments, shattering the passive dream?






11. Placate, Sedate, Eradicate

[Music: Pintado; lyrics: Greenway]

Load the burden across my shoulders.
Pour the effluent on thick.

Placate, sedate, eradicate.
Wage a war on my prone feelings.
Anaesthetised and numb.

Placate, sedate, eradicate.
Strangely calm when I should be enranged.

Placate, sedate.
Placate, sedate.
Eradicate.

Don't befriend the silver screen,
As long as others face firing lines.
Recline, relax take it in your stride,
Be the voyeur. [x2]

Tamed by rabid entertainers.
Engrossed in real life hell.

Placate, sedate, eradicate.
Only observing - I'm exempt.






12. Corrosive Elements

[Music: Harris, Embury; lyrics: Greenway]

Staying on an even keel.
Keeping a gauge.
Sanity hags in the balance.
I could go either way.

Celberal half life.
The darkest summer days.
My pressure defences melting away.

'Cause I can't level this brimming, seething dread.
My pressure defences melting away.

With anxiety I'm burning! [x4]

Stripping down to the core. [x4]

Corrosive elements, corrosive elements inducing.
Corrosive elements, corrosive elements that sap being.
Corrosive elements, corrosive elements inducing.
Corrosive elements, corrosive elements that sap being.

Corrosive elements - joy toxin.
Corrosive elements - please cleanse me!
Corrosive elements - joy toxin.
Corrosive elements - please cleanse me! [x5]







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All lyrics provided for educational purposes only