From the recording Revolution Hymns
During my time in Italy, we went to visit a guy in a city called Settimo. On the way back to our apartment in Pavia, a woman stopped us and, in what I can only describe as an eerie voice, told us that we should not have come and that there was no hope for anyone in the city. Maybe she was crazy, but even still her warning stuck with me.
I started picturing this city where people go to give up; a veritable emotional black hole that sucks up all the light you have left in you. We can get chained to these ideas of self-doubt and auto-victimization, and in a way we construct this City of Hopelessness around us and become the black hole ourselves. When we look in a mirror and see a monster, we can become prisoners of this false image and believe that there really is something coming after us, when in reality we are both prisoner and prison guard.
Lyrics
Go away Mr. Green Monsterif you stay things could get right out of handBut you say “it won’t be long nowbefore we reclaim your innocence.” I had some friends down in SettimoThere’s nothing left for them to take anymoreIt’s all the rage down in Settimoand all at once you look andeveryone is gone Save the day Mr. Kirt Mosierdo you drink liquid passion from the vinejust to say that you climbed higherthan the one who you call Magnificence? I will not be silentI will not be still andI will unshackle my footsteps andkeep running up that hillI must believe in something can I believe in you