The Carcass Lung, by Jacob Dring

The Carcass Lung

by Jacob Dring

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1.	Greensky (Intro) 01:11	lyrics	buy track
The trees speak to me, I am sure of this much. They pine to be set free, their deciduous limbs reaching higher every decade in hopes of an escape, perhaps to claw through the ether, to a grand destination where forever really means forever. Here, I can feel their ache resonate and reverberate as if using Morse code. As I proceed deeper into their seclusive abode, I realize that I am blinded by my own ill perception. These verdant entities do not groan in agony; it is my own heart, grown in envy, at their stillness - their absence of discontent, steadfast and gracious. They are where they were meant to be; it is I who finds my roots struggling for traction through concrete boots. Like dew trickling down my brainstem, I mutely plead for their wisdom. Just as silently, they tell me not focus on my roots, but my leaves and my limbs. My leaves and limbs.
2.	Flotsam 00:56	lyrics	buy track
A vessel stuck in the mud, feeling hollow but far from empty, I contemplate oblivion and if it awaits me at the end. Burdened by curiosity and the sanity of apprehension, I find myself lost in a perpetual corridor of uncertainty and horror. Face washed white, I face life-shattering questions that cannot be answered, while struggling with issues of deeper and darker hues. Pain has become an extension of this dubious existence, but who am I to question but who am I to ask for a little bit of lenience? For I am but a vessel, hull splintered and awaiting disembowelment, mired in a sea of mud. Resonating hollow, but I cannot ignore the echo. Far from empty, I contemplate oblivion and if it awaits me at the end. Supposing there is even an end.
3.	Kindling (ft. Anita Huang) 00:59	lyrics	buy track
There are embers performing ballet in the layers of air between this life, this world, and the next. Sequence has no meaning, placement is insignificant. "Open your eyes, one-two-three, and trust in the Trinity of your magma core" to be led down the path draped in black yet dappled with amber. For the darkness is alive, and although not warless, this planet still strives - in its very nature - to provide hope in sight. "Elemental from the beginning," we think we created fire but truth be told it was here all along. Unearth our minds to its existence, and we call ourselves ingenious. The genuine brilliance would be to sit back and enjoy this kaleidoscopic gift that Mother has offered us. With the wind bridging them, these embers tango no matter the crimes of the soul.
4.	The Hell Out Of Dodge 01:10	lyrics	buy track
Like the iridescent blood of some ancient creature, taillights illuminate the night, scarring darkness with their bleak red glow. There is no rhythm, no cadence to their presence. It is a roboticism without the eroticism. Metallic abominations resurrected from fossils dug up from the Earth, made to bleed lustless luster into midnight metropolises. Each one no less a necropolis than the former, nothing but poor replicas of a dying breath trying its hardest to ignore the concept of death. Instead I seek the dull whites and cerulean lights that precede those scarlet tail feathers. It is in their stark embrace that I become a bedazzled deer and accept my fate; take me away from this place, remind me what it's like to be unbound by physicality. Give me life again, faceless and without form. Bury me not in the ground, let me finally know peace free from the shackles of this materialistic world. Faceless and without form.
5.	The One That God Away 00:35	lyrics	buy track
Absconded on the wings of prayer, she fled my clutches, but to be fair we weren't really meant for each other. My heart didn't know that, though, and it still roots itself from time to time in the river Nile, but for what it's worth she taught me the true weight of genuine love. None of us are above that, not even religion, but that's just what I believe. Clearly it was where we differed; you show me someone who doesn't let the Unproven dictate who they can be with and I'll show you unconditional love. Fucking unconditional.
6.	Monochromatic 01:36	lyrics	buy track
Look into my eyes, tell me what you see. If it's anything but despair, you're lying to yourself or falling for my own mask. Truth is, hopelessness has taken up residence and ignores the eviction notice. It's there to stay, like a disease, swelling and waiting to spread to the rest of my body. Like a cancer, as if my zodiac was some kind of sign that surpasses stars and sets into the bones of my failing system. The pallet has gone dry, its pluvial source ransacked of shades that used to brighten my day. Now it is left in ruins, drab residue dripping betwixt fleeting bouts of verve. I am not all colorless; but the flecks are amassing and their assembly might soon have tyrannical leadership. In the thick of this drought, this masquerade I tout like a ball and chain, my options are running out. The ice beneath me groans as it grows thin, just as pale and callous as I have gradually become. 'Tread lightly,' I cannot. All I've ever known is hard motion; lately I've been crawling closer and closer to a watery grave. If I can just pick myself up to run, then maybe I'll be gifted with a few AWOL colors. And only then might I chance breaking into dance; should the floor give way in my wake, so be it... The depths are much more vibrant than this downward spiral.
7.	Stockholm Syndrom (ft. A.D. Galatis) 01:11	lyrics	buy track
My tomb appears to have legs, six feet deep with an extra inch, walking and talking breathing and seething loving and coveting I stroll through thickets of teeming shadow, swearing that I hear them chatter not unlike the voices churning in my skull. What they say is irrelevant, it's that they speak to begin with. Frankly, there is comfort in that pressing insanity. When the light fails me, be it our dying star or a flicker of waxen flame, I have the shifting chasms of sable phantoms whose company I am grateful. For even when their eyes glow and sear, for even when their talons protract and rake across my mind, I am reminded of the balance. And more often than not, it's the contents of the stygian scale for which my soul yearns. "Just because the darkness burns doesn't mean it can't heal." Cauterize me with your abyss, remind the flesh of my subconscious that even the night can be soothingly bright. That even a sharp edge can be refreshingly smooth. Take me as one of your own; beneath your claws, I can never be alone.
8.	Quarantine 01:06	lyrics	buy track
I gasp for breath in this dying world of excess. I'm downtrodden by the pressure of walking a path of self-destruction with no apparent end. Even at our best, we struggle with the concept of triumph and success, confusing the opinions of others and quote-unquote "stardom" with actual progress. The more I've tried to achieve profit, the deeper the sinkhole takes me, like quicksand laced with deceit. I'm beginning to think that while my personal plights seem horrendously unique, my problems of avarice and conceit relay that I am not alone. It is a bittersweet reassurance; while I find comfort that this tomb is instead a catacombs, I am also haunted of its populace. In this day and age, I'm starting to wish more for isolation and loneliness... How awful has humanity become, that so many of us share the same virus?
9.	Ataractic (ft. Siddharth Rajkumar) 01:43	lyrics	buy track
I close my eyes and set aside life. There are grander aspects offered by this existence. It's hard to ignore the decadence and how its wretchedness has taken us hostage as a confused species. Yet, eyelids like garage doors stuck shut, I can open up to cross that threshold into a more open universe. The walls no longer close around me, instead they expand and I'm freed. "I steer the cadence, I sever the chords, I savor the chaos," and I recognize that nothing has to make sense, it just has to feel right, if even for a few seconds. My heart skips a beat only to land with percussion. My voice is monotonous to some, even to myself. But its truth is no less genuine. I take authenticity to heart. Create insanity or art, in all honesty aren't they the same? I cannot tame my thoughts, nor should I be forced to. The doors are opening and I am no longer blinded. I take everything in iotas; wallow not, the waters aren't shallow. I tread depths with a smile, but I am not oblivious to the world disastrous. We are an organism of coalescence. Why butt heads when we can hug instead? Catharsis has no terminus, but pain and hatred should not be conclusive. Their opposites are far less corrosive. I will set my sights higher, I will finally take flight. I will...take flight.
10.	Blacksky (Outro) 01:06	lyrics	buy track
The night speaks to me, I am sure of this much. It conducts a voice from somewhere deep inside, my bones sing even when the marrow is mute. The darkness lilts despite an absence of sound. Its witnesses observe and I wonder if I am worthy of their scrutiny. As I proceed deeper into the night's endless abode, I realize that I am worth every hidden eye that watches. I am worth the shadows and their graceful touch; as much as I deserve the starkness of any light that pierces. For what are they but reversions of my own perception? They likely wonder the same, or perhaps they are above such meaningless contemplation. They just know love and existence, synonymous. Silently, they tell me not to worry about everything else. Just focus on love and self, reflective upon others like the whisper of light and the caress of night.

credits

released August 27, 2018

voice by Jacob Russell Dring
words/lyrics written by Jacob Russell Dring
all sounds recorded and mixed by Jacob Russell Dring
cover of Jacob Russell Dring, digital painting by Srish Raina