Wage I of 3 · Ninth Circle Records

The Seven Wages

1994 · Ninth Circle Records · 7 tracks

The debut. Seven single-word titles, one per deadly sin, one tuning, one intention. The band said they would stop after this record. They did not, but they never denied that they had planned to. Reviewers who counted called it "long." Reviewers who listened called it "long, and about something."

1. 01Sloth5:20
   Words as entered

   (single tremolo-picked low note, drums enter half-time on the fourth measure, everything crushing slow)
   
   The first vice they teach you
   Is the vice of doing less
   Sit down, they said, we'll hand you the bread
   Sit down, they said, we'll settle the mess
   And a man who sits long enough
   Cannot always tell if he stood before
   And a town that sits long enough
   Won't remember what it stood for
   
   Sloth is not tired
   Sloth is not tired
   Sloth is the vice that dresses like rest
   While the muscles atrophy inside your chest
   Sloth is the peace they sell you
   When the fight has been won
   On the other side of a door you didn't know was closed
   
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven
   
   A vice becomes a system
   When enough of us agree
   To trade the harder thing we could do
   For the softer thing we get
   
   For the softer thing we get
   
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven

2. 02Wrath4:50
3. 03Pride6:10
4. 04Envy5:40
5. 05Greed6:45
6. 06Gluttony7:20
7. 07Lust8:30
   Words as entered

   (feedback swell, single low note held, bass enters at 0:20, drums at 0:35, one hit per measure, slowest tempo on the record)
   
   The seventh was the one he preached the shortest
   Every year, the seventh Sunday, and then he moved on
   He said the body is a house
   And a house that opens every door
   Will not know who is sitting at the table
   When the table has been set
   
   He was talking about a man
   He was talking about a woman
   He was talking about a Tuesday and a mistake
   He never once thought to ask
   What happens to a vice
   When somebody learns to sell it
   
   Lust is not the wanting
   Lust is not the wanting
   Lust is what they build around the wanting
   A room, a rate, a reason to return
   Lust is the vice they taught to keep a ledger
   Lust is the only sin that turned a profit
   And then turned respectable
   
   Lust
   Lust
   Lust is the last of seven
   Lust
   Lust
   Lust is the last of seven
   
   They will let you name the other six
   They will let you stand in the street and name them
   Name greed and they will nod
   Name wrath and they will nod
   Name this one plainly
   And they will ask you what year you think it is
   
   That is how you know which vice is running
   That is how you know which one has grown
   The one you cannot say out loud in daylight
   Is not the one they are ashamed of
   It is the one they are selling
   
   Lust
   Lust
   Lust is the last of seven
   Lust
   Lust
   Lust is the last of seven
   
   A vice becomes a system
   When enough of us agree
   To trade the harder thing we could do
   For the softer thing we get
   
   For the softer thing we get
   
   The last of seven
   The last of seven
   And the first one we forgave
   And the first one we forgave