Album: Man Of Straw

They Raped The Land

Music: Matt Jordan
Lyrics: Ron Eriksen

Strip mining was born man's desire
For maximum gain from minimum strain
Using water cannons they washed away
Entire mountainsides that are just desert today

The deluge lasted for too many years
So long ago, but even now it appears
The floods cut the ground like a sacrificial knife
Now just gravel and dust, three can never be life

Mountains that stood, the waves erased
Man disfigured, destroyed the earth's face
Only infertile sand, like the dot from a bleed
Annihilated, taken by greed

(Chorus)
Maceration - the constant erosion
Total immersion - They raped the Land
Massive infusion - man's inclination
Hydraulic destruction - They raped the Land

The unholy baptism
A lymph unstoppable
Mother Nature lies violated
Used against herself
The retrogradation
Soil wearing away
MAnkind is responsible
For mass decay

(Solo: Ron)(Chorus)

Water is lifegiving fluid
It is the cause of revolution
And can recreate
Man, whose instinctive nature is evil
Puts limits on himself
But is always too late
Earth, our only terra firma
Invincibly cnstructed
Both of shale and slate
Together, it seems
That man is weakest
But still he's had the power granted to abate

the debasement of our environment
Continues today in different ways
Two steps too far it seems we've gone
Full circle now, a sick perversion

(Solo: Brett)

Surrounding weakened, a quick decline
Demoralized, the last in line
Now defeated, the earth rebels
The atmosphere a living hell

(Chorus)