Don’t Tread On Me

[Verse 1]
Boot prints in the dust
Your flag in my face
You carve your little slogans
Like chains on my veins

You smile with a warning
"Know your place
Be still"
You dress that threat as freedom
You call that mercy
I call it kill

[Chorus]
Don’t tread on me
I’ve bled enough on your concrete dreams
Don’t tread on me
Your poison crown means nothing to me
Don’t tread on me
I’m teeth and wire
I’m breaking free
Don’t tread on me
Don’t tread on me

[Verse 2]
You weld your silver shackles
Around my rusted throat
You sell me gloss and glory
But the fine print’s soaked in smoke

You aim your laws like rifles
At every shaking hand
You chant that word
“Obedience”
I grind it into sand

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
My scars are all receipts
For every time I bowed
You thought my silence weakness
It was thunder in a shroud

Step close
You’ll hear it cracking
This mask you stapled on
Your boot comes down in triumph
It hits the ground
I’m gone

[Bridge]
I am the nail in your steel-toe boot
I am the glitch in your perfect route
I am the spark in your gasoline truth
I am the end of you

[low vocal register]
You want my fear
You want my knees
You want my voice
Signed to your leash

[Pre-Chorus]
But every mark you left
Became my battle creed
Every push you gave
Just sharpened what I bleed

[Chorus]

[Outro Solo]
[guitar solo over pounding drums and rising synths]
[spoken
Filtered]
You dug my grave in your machine
But I’ve grown claws in every gear
Step one inch closer to my skin
And feel your empire disappear

[guitar solo – faster
Screaming bends
Dive bombs
Delay trails]
[crescendo
Synths swell
Drums stutter]
[final sustained note
Feedback fading into mechanical hum]