Spent years looking up while they laughed at us
The scientists called it a game
Said we were chasing ghosts in the dark
That the silence would always stay the same
Billions of galaxies, trillions of worlds
Surely something was looking back
We caught faint whispers that vanished and faded
And we learned to live with the black

It was a signal, a frequency, heavy and clear
Pulsing through the static, every hour drawing near
A signal that knows where we are
Cold and unhurried, it has found us from afar
No one can tell what is coming our way
The signal gets stronger, it won’t turn away

End of the shift in the cool evening air
Black coffee going cold in the chair
Listening to static to drift off to sleep
Finding a comfort in the silence so deep
Funds ran dry but we didn’t care
We’d have worked for free just to hear what was there
A thousand nights on a dish in a field
Begging the sky for something to be revealed

It was a signal, a frequency, heavy and clear
Pulsing through the static, every hour drawing near
A signal that knows where we are
Cold and unhurried, it has found us from afar
No one can tell what is coming our way
The signal gets stronger, it won’t turn away

One night me and Jennie lay under the sky
Sharing a bottle as the hours crawled by
Radio humming, the stars burning bright
It was to be Earth’s last quiet night
Then the static cut out and a rhythm broke through
Wrong in a way that no sound ever knew
It crawled up our spines, the whole field went still
And the sky turned dark against our will.

It was a signal, a frequency, heavy and clear
Pulsing through the static, every hour drawing near
A signal that knows where we are
Cold and unhurried, it has found us from afar
No one can tell what is coming our way
The signal gets stronger, it won’t turn away

We turned the dial and the pulse was there
Changed the station, it was everywhere
Every voice across the land
Gone, the signal now in command
By dawn they said it was coming straight down
A day away, maybe less, no turning around
Jennie whispered, “Turn it off”
I tried but there was no turning back

It was a signal, a frequency, heavy and clear
Pulsing through the static, every hour drawing near
A signal that knows where we are
Cold and unhurried, it has found us from afar
No one can tell what is coming our way
The signal gets stronger, it won’t turn away

It was a signal, a frequency, heavy and clear
It was a signal, first contact draws near.
The signal…
The signal…
The signal…

Flashing lights, a midnight spark
In the water, through the dark
Closer now, their shadows tall
Every second beckons our fall

Watch the steel begin to rise,
Panic swallows all our cries,
Feel the tension, feel the heat,
Where the edge and darkness meet.

Catch a breath, try to hold our nerve
Silenced cities we subserve
As the shadows colonise
The panic opens up our eyes!

And there it is
You can hear it, it’s getting louder
And louder, and louder!
And there it is
You can feel it?
It’s getting stronger
And stronger, and stronger!

Can you feel it?
Can you hear it?

Metal bleeding through the gray
Wash this quiet world away
Feel the tension, feel the fire
Wires pulling higher, higher

Catch a breath, we hold our nerve
Silenced cities we subserve
As the shadows colonise
The panic opens up our eyes!

And there it is
You can hear it, it’s getting louder
And louder, and louder!
And there it is
You can feel it?
It’s getting stronger
And stronger, and stronger!

Louder!
Stronger!

Grey winter evening, the rain lashing down
Over McMinnville fields, till the beams hit the town
Through the mist and the lightning, the war machines rise
Total eradication falling straight from the skies

The displaced are running through the metal and the mud
But the vineyards are painted in debris and blood
Darkness is closing, the traps are all set
Invasion lights burning a cold silhouette

Stand up, listen now! The warnings were there
This all happened before, and we found a way
We stand on the edge, but we won’t fade away
A resistance must rise to see a new day!

Highways obliterated, armies go down
Sinister precision has shattered the ground
Birds and planes falling like hailstones of death
The world order collapses in one final breath

Down in the shadows, beneath the debris
We crawl through the bunkers where they cannot see
No signals are broadcasting, radios dead
But the fire of vengeance is starting to spread

An army is built in the shadows
A resistance is rising from the shadows
An army is built in the shadows
A resistance is rising from the shadows!

Stand up, listen now! The warnings were there
This all happened before, and we found a way
We stand on the edge, but we won’t fade away
A resistance must rise to see a new day!

Stand up, listen now…
A resistance must rise…
Stand up, listen now…
A resistance must rise…

Thousands of us breathing in the dark below the church
The steeple on its side but the cross still raised in the air
A candle on the shelf and a static radio
And children asleep in police and firemen’s coats
Look at us now, all equal in the deep
The debts and the deeds don’t matter when you sleep
Time after time, we don’t learn a damn thing
Deaf to the sirens and the warnings they bring

The horrors of the past keep getting repeated
Wars and greed while the weak get defeated
The poor starve while the rich get richer
Paying the masses just to paint a fake picture
Just enough crumbs to keep the control
Tear down the veil, let the truth unfold

Before the lights came, Portland was under a cloud
Letters on the table that we never read aloud
The mill shut down and the fields went to seed
They sold us the answer and they sold us the need
It followed our shadows, latched onto our blood
Drowning our families in a financial flood
Counting out the pennies, never making ends meet
Just enough scraps to keep us off the streets

The horrors of the past keep getting repeated
Wars and greed while the weak get defeated
The poor starve while the rich get richer
Paying the masses just to paint a fake picture
Just enough crumbs to keep the control
Tear down the veil, let the truth unfold

The machines came, cold and precise
Taking humans as their harvest without thinking twice
But nothing was different, nothing was new
We were feeding machines long before they came through
Counting out hours, losing our souls
Battle-weary, paying the system its tolls
So what could they conquer, what did they take?
A city that was sleeping, but soon to wake

But here in Portland, we don’t lie down
They didn’t break us, we’re just getting started
So bring it on…

The horrors of the past keep getting repeated
Wars and greed while the weak get defeated
The poor starve while the rich get richer
Paying the masses just to paint a fake picture
Just enough crumbs to keep the control
Tear down the veil, let the truth unfold

Knocked back
Stepped on
Abused
Control
We were machines…
We were machines…
We were machines.

Control… we’ll take this city back

The horror came first.
Millions vacuumed up into the motherships.
Then the buildings rose, all over the world.
Like data centres. Vast. Silent. Behemoths
Each one sealed inside a field nothing could touch.

On the radio static, the news came in pieces.
Yellowstone was covered in a force field.
The ice caps were melting. Greenland, falling into the sea.
And the tsunamis took everything in their path.

Under Portland, under the rain
We’re stitching the city together again
They’re watching the sky and they’re watching the ground
But they never look under Portland town

There was nothing alive in them. No faces. No voices.
Just machines, under command, from somewhere far away.
And the beams… they turned everything to dust.
We went underground. But the iron moles were everywhere.
Nowhere was safe.

Except, for some reason, the church on the hill.
They levelled it to the ground… but the cross still stood.
And beneath it, thousands of us.
Finding our way in the dark

Under Portland, under the rain
We’re stitching the city together again
They’re watching the sky and they’re watching the ground
But they never look under Portland town

Under the church we found the old caverns, from the days of the mills.
They ran all over Portland. To the fields. The city. The sewers.
We built up supplies and Patrols went out at night.
Special forces. Marines. Navy. The CIA, the FBI, the Oregon State Police.
People who’d never worked together… working together.
And hope began to grow.

Under Portland, under the rain
We’re stitching the city together again
They’re watching the sky and they’re watching the ground
But they never look under Portland town

An arsenal grew in the shadows. M60s by the box load.
But the force fields held strong. No one knew how to bring them down.
There was talk of nukes.
One night the marines ran a patrol to the Portland data centre.
Claymores on timers. We were two miles clear when it blew.
It barely left a mark.
But every site in the world… flickered.
They were all connected.

Under Portland, under the rain
We’re stitching the city together again
They’re watching the sky and they’re watching the ground
But they never look under Portland town

Flashing lights, a midnight spark
I catch your gaze, through the dark
Closer now, your knowing smile
It’s always been you, all this time

We watch each other from afar,
Under the moon and the stars,
Where the edge and darkness meet,
We feel the tension, bittersweet.

Catch a breath, the music’s loud,
All our friends in the crowd.
Stealing glances, worlds apart,
Now together in the dark.

And here we are, lost in the music,
Dancing in a Forest.
And here we are, lost in the shadows,
Dancing to a Forest.

The stage goes dark, the night air’s cold,
With so many words left untold.
The crowd thins out through the trees,
Frozen secrets in the breeze.

And here we are, lost in the music,
Dancing in a Forest.
And here we are, lost in the shadows,
Dancing to a Forest.

Through the trees…
Lost in the shadows….
Dancing in a Forest.

The orders went out over radio and wire
By Morse Code and C-B, passed from fire to fire
From Portland to Moscow, from Beijing to Maine
Every clock in the world was set to the same

We crawled through the caverns right under their towers
With the mines on the timers all set to one hour
Then the missiles came screaming from hillside and shore
And the ground shook in Portland like never before

On the eleventh of May, when the clock struck H-Hour
We came up from the dark and we broke down their power
The same day we first saw them, so long ago
Was the night we rose up and struck our blow

Old rivals flew wing-tip to wing-tip that night
Eagles and Dragons and Flankers in flight
And out of the mountains came every last one
Every woman and man who could carry a gun

Their shields started flickering, then they were gone
Their machines stood in silence, the lights barely on
We hunted them down through the days and the nights
Till the last of the giants went dark in our sights

On the eleventh of May, when the clock struck H-Hour
We came up from the dark and we broke down their power
The same day we first saw them, so long ago
Was the night we rose up and struck our blow

Now Portland is sweeping the glass from its streets
And slowly it’s finding its way to its feet
We honour our dead, and we’ll build again
We lost the best of us, but the best remain

On the eleventh of May, when the clock struck H-Hour
We came up from the dark and we broke down their power
The same day we first saw them, so long ago
Was the night we rose up and struck our blow

The morning came in over Astoria’s shore
Past Portland’s steel bridges where the iron ships roar
The long night was over, the sky had gone still
Smoke on the river and light on the hill

Rain on the cedars, salt on the breeze
Sun coming gold through the Douglas fir trees
The dark times tested us night and day
But we held the line, and we found our way

This is Oregon, wild and free
From the Cascade peaks to the Pacific sea
Mount Hood standing in the morning light
And Crater Lake shining, so deep and bright
This is Oregon, where the tall firs grow
Where the salmon run wild and rivers flow
We stand like mountains through fire and rain
We gave the best of us, the best of us remain

The Native tribes walked this hallowed ground
Long before the pioneers put their roots down
We raised up the mills and we laid down the track
Now we stand as one, and we never look back

The loggers and fishermen out in the rain
The smokejumpers walking through fire again
When the sky turned orange and the valleys burned
We fought it together till the tide was turned

This is Oregon, wild and free
From the Cascade peaks to the Pacific sea
Mount Hood standing in the morning light
And Crater Lake shining, so deep and bright
This is Oregon, where the tall firs grow
Where the salmon run wild and rivers flow
We stand like mountains through fire and rain
We gave the best of us, the best of us remain

We’ve weathered the storms, we’ve weathered the cold
This land is our children’s, it’s not ours to hold
You can take our cities, you can choke our sky
But we’re still standing, we never say die

This is Oregon, wild and free
From the Cascade peaks to the Pacific sea
Mount Hood standing in the morning light
And Crater Lake shining, so deep and bright
This is Oregon, where the tall firs grow
Where the salmon run wild and rivers flow
We stand like mountains through fire and rain
We gave the best of us, the best of us remain