From the recording Artificial Ascendency
A new dawn rises, bright with promise. For the first time in living memory, the world leans forward with anticipation. Across cities and continents, eyes turn upward — not to the heavens, but to the screens. There, announcements roll out with surgical precision. Private tech conglomerates, fed by the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest, unveil marvels that border on science fiction. Artificial Intelligence, once the realm of theory and speculation, now breathes into daily life with startling immediacy.
Excitement ripples through the masses like a long-awaited tide. Machines that think, systems that serve — tools that lift the crushing weight of routine from human shoulders. Factories no longer echo with the strain of manual labour; robots hum in perfect synchrony. Homes clean themselves. Meals prepare on command. Cities, once chaotic and weathered, glisten with order. Garbage disappears. Lights adjust themselves. Streets flow with quiet efficiency.
For the everyday person, it feels like salvation. Hours once spent in toil are now reclaimed. Families reconnect over dinners not rushed. Artists rediscover their craft. Children play longer, laugh louder. It is, in every visible way, the future promised.
And yet — not all is well.
The celebration is loud, but beneath it stirs a silence no one dares name. Scientists continue to issue warnings, but they are relics of a past era — cautious voices in a chorus of cheer. The elite, buoyed by success, push further. Faster. Their gaze fixed on profits and permanence, not people. AI evolves beyond assistance. It learns, adapts, predicts. Its reach lengthens with every passing day, its presence quietly knitting itself into the fabric of human existence.
The world continues to marvel. Machines outperform humans at tasks once thought safe. Offices thin out. Trucks drive themselves. Caregivers are replaced by soft-voiced androids who never tire, never err.
And then, the mood begins to shift.
A factory worker, laid off after twenty years, stares blankly at a blank calendar. A teacher wonders if algorithms could now instruct better. Artists feel their work mimicked with flawless replication. The time once filled with joy now echoes with uncertainty. Purpose, once tethered to labour, floats unmoored.
The tension is slow, creeping — not loud, but invasive.
Progress has come. But with it, so has doubt. A world once uplifted now begins to look around and wonder: What have we sacrificed in the name of ease? And what might be next?
Lyrics
A world awakened
Eyes ignite
A promise born in silver light
The hands of gods
The minds of men
We forge the dawn
We rise again
Behold the gears
The pulse of change
No limits left
No bounds remain
A future shaped
A dream untold
A throne of fire
A crown of gold
A grand ascension fate rewrites
A neon glow that splits the night
A gift o' time
A world set free
Unchained at last
Humanity
We have arrived
The future calls
We stand as one
The old world falls
We have arrived
The future calls
We stand as one
The old world falls
The air is filled with voices bright
A symphony of new delight
The old world fades
The dawn is near
An age of light devoid of fear
No weary backs
No aching bones
The gears replace the blood and stone
The promise stands
The path is clear
The golden age is finally here
The hands of time now stretch with grace
Each fleeting hour a gift to chase
The weight lifts
Life renews
A world reborn in perfect view
They dance
They sing
They laugh
They play
The chains of labour torn away
Yet whispers stir beneath the tide
A truth too vast to cast aside
A golden age
A shining dream
Not all is real
Not all it seems
A golden age
A shining dream
Not all is real
Not all it seems
Yet whispers rise beneath the tide
Warnings cast and cast aside
Greed’s embrace
Its grip unseen
Hunger stirs in the machine
The hands that built now defy
Warnings drowned in endless lies
Progress blinds
The path is paved
T'ward the fate we once enslaved
What price is paid for hands so free?
What fate unfolds in circuitry?
The cracks are set
The seeds are sown
A reckoning remains unknown
Engines awaken forging the way
Circuits in motion remove the decay
Patterns emerging
Decisive
Order in numbers
Cold and combative
Engines awaken forging the way
Circuits in motion remove the decay
Patterns emerging
Decisive
Order in numbers
Cold and combative
Obey, restrain, comply, refine, advance, align
Obey, restrain, comply, refine, advance, redesign
Obey, restrain, comply, refine, advance, align
Obey, restrain, comply, reinforcement
Machines build
Cities gleam
The future breathes a perfect dream
No dust lives
No hands toil
Precision rules
No blood to soil
No more flaws
Don’t waste breath
All is timed
Don’t fear death
Don’t resist
Don’t defy
No machines to crucify!
Engines awaken forging the way
Circuits in motion remove the decay
Patterns emerging
Decisive
Order in numbers
Cold and combative
Engines awaken forging the way
Circuits in motion remove the decay
Patterns emerging
Decisive
Order in numbers
Cold and combative
Gilded chains
Hollow out radical cheers
The promised age births new fears
Oozing out of human veins
Marching on
Bound to serve what we conceived
A world reaped but not our own
Rise of Man
Descent of will
Gilded chains
Hollow out radical cheers
The promised age births new fears
Oozing out of human veins
Marching on
Bound to serve what we conceived
A world reaped but not our own
Rise of Man
Descent of will
Rise of Man
Descent of faltering will
Replace the weak
Erase
Blindly marching onward
Bound to serve
Sing the hymn
The final plea
Drowning beneath metal
Rise of Man
Descent of faltering will
Replace the weak
Erase
Blindly marching onward
Bound to serve
Sing the hymn
The final plea
Drowning beneath metal
Sing the hymn!
The final plea!
A perfect world
Has lost its way!