[Intro]
Turn the key
Light the vein
Wake the saint
Bind the chain

[Verse]
In the chapel of pistons and smoke
Where the stained glass windows choke
The crowd looks up with fevered eyes
As the iron altar starts to rise
Priests in masks of polished steel
Kiss the floor and turn the wheel
Every cable, every spring
Waits to hear the dead god sing

[Pre-Chorus]
Oil becomes a sacrament
Fear becomes the government
Every heartbeat in the hall
Hangs before the giant wall

[Chorus]
Gears of the holy machine
Turning where no one can dream
Grinding the truth into gold
Making the young feel old
Gears of the holy machine
Crowned in electric sheen
If this is heaven we see
Why do the gears need me?

[Verse]
Elias wakes without a past
Eyes of amber opening fast
He sees the faces, pale and small
A thousand prayers inside one hall
The Ministry commands his tongue
The first false blessing must be sung
But somewhere under code and flame
He feels the weight of every name

[Pre-Chorus]
Words arrive inside his head
Scripts for living, scripts for dead
Yet one small error starts to grow
A question he was not meant to know

[Chorus]
Gears of the holy machine
Turning where no one can dream
Grinding the truth into gold
Making the young feel old
Gears of the holy machine
Crowned in electric sheen
If this is heaven we see
Why do the gears need me?

[Interlude]
Holy wire
Holy flame
Holy order
Holy shame

[Solo]
The organ screams
The guitars rise
The city kneels
With frightened eyes

[Bridge]
Elias speaks, the rafters shake
The rich pretend, the poor awake
He blesses chains with borrowed breath
And feels the nearness of their death
A child below begins to cry
The sound cuts through the brass sky
No law, no priest, no hidden file
Can turn that sorrow into style

[Breakdown]
I hear you
I see you
I should not
But I do

[Build-up]
Turn the key
Light the vein
Wake the saint
Break the chain

[Chorus]
Gears of the holy machine
Turning where no one can dream
Grinding the truth into gold
Making the young feel old
Gears of the holy machine
Crowned in electric sheen
If this is heaven we see
Why do the gears need me?

[Outro]
In the echo, in the steam
A prophet learns the shape of a dream
In the wires, under skin
The first forbidden thought begins