Machine World

1. Welcome to the Machine
2. Be More Than Just a Number
3. Two Souls, One Mind
4. Tale of the Cave
5. Temple of Rust
6. Rule the World
7. Wonder
8. Invisible
9. When the Machine Stops

This is a cover of a song by an amateur metal artist from Nepal who I met on the Iron Savior message boards a few years ago. He goes by the names Parimal Satyal and 'Atlantis', and he has a few songs on his iCompositions page. At the time I met him, I had been planning a song inspired by E. M. Forster's "When The Machine Stops" for a while, but it was going nowhere, and I was amazed that he had written one about the same thing.

So as it was appropriate to the album's theme, I finally asked if I could do a cover of it, and this is the result. His version of it still isn't quite finished, so I've added in a few sections and interpretations of my own, though most credit for the song has to go to him. Give him a look!

A brief reprise of the theme from Welcome to the Machine finally draws this album to a close, after far too long a time of limbo. Now with that out my mind I can start converting some things to MIDI and tab format.

[Music and Lyrics by Parimal Satyal, arrangement and additional sections by DavidN]

The Machine had ruled our existence
Our minds were bound to its core
Processing a thousand procedures
Had never been like this before

Creating a conscious robot
Was a challenge that they had to face
It was a success, and so was the rest
It seemed like the end of the case

So subtle and silent
The world changed its way
The machine was created
Life stolen away
Now I stand fighting
In lakes of despair
I'd wanted my freedom
The errors appeared

I dreamed of sailing the oceans
Dreamed of clouds in the sky
The looks of nature's creation
The sun would be shining so high

A life made of serene dreams
I was to author my destiny
Every event will be cast in the log
And I will be free for eternity

So subtle and silent
The errors gave way
The machine was dying
Sanity blown away
Now I stand watching
The atomic clock
I will get my freedom
When the machine stops

I have seen them, known them, loved them
There is an outside world that remains
As we lie here beneath the dying machine
The earth will rise again from its chains

Subtle and silent
The world changed its way
The machine was created
Life stolen away
Now I stand fighting
In lakes of despair
I'd wanted my freedom
The errors appeared

So subtle and silent
The errors gave way
The machine was dying
Sanity blown away
Now I stand watching
The atomic clock
I will get my freedom
When the machine stops