Ember After • Band on Ember After

Always Be

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Orren Merton

Produced by Don Gunn and Orren Merton

Mixed by Don Gunn

Orren Merton: vocals, guitars, synthesizers, programming
Don Gunn: drums
Arash Shahangian: synthesizers, programming
Barry Wood: bass, synthesizers

For Zimri

Cover by Orren Merton

Always Be:

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lyrics

I wish I could shelter you
As the storm threatens our home
I wish I could hide you
From the stones that break our bones

Hopesong

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Orren Merton

Produced by Don Gunn and Orren Merton

Mixed by Don Gunn

Mastered by Barry Wood

Orren Merton: vocals, guitars, synthesizers, programming
Don Gunn: drums
Arash Shahangian: synthesizers, programming
Barry Wood: bass

For Shira

Art by Jen Gray

Hopesong:

lyrics

Smoldering skies
No compromise
Cynical lies
Breeding despise

News of the day
Plague and decay
Anger holds sway
No shades of grey

Forever or Better

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Orren Merton
Produced by Orren Merton
Mixed by Orren Merton
Mastered by Orren Merton

Orren Merton: Vocals, guitars, synthesizers, programming
Barry Wood: Bass

Art by Jen Gray

Forever or Better:

lyrics

Corrosion of the very core
Up is not above anymore
Naked truth gets dressed in lies
No lining in this cloud of despise

This is now or this is ever
Lost my compass in the never
Still can feel the sun and rain
Is there nothing left but pain

Gone

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Pledges and promises bound with intention
Depending on faith, fate, and intervention
Failing, succeeding, or drifting astray
Day by day or all gone away

All gone away

She said what she said he said what he said
Intention or no but the promise is dead
I spy with my little I cry with my little
You cry with your little eye for an eye

All gone away

Making the best of the dim passages
Recesses, crevasses over again
Nothing is always always anew
Seek new hope in the will to be true

Keep Dreaming

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Darkening and narrow skies
Filled with horror and despise
Demons lick their teeth and crow
Nothing that once craved will grow

Warmth and color doomed to fade
All that’s left eternal shade
Nature, nurture doesn’t matter
Everything destined to scatter

Always keep hanging on
Always keep dreaming on

Voices filling up my head
Same old lies same old dread
Doubt is constant, cold, consistent
Ever present and persistent

Off

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Off-kilter
Off-center
Off-balance
Everything just feels a little

Off-putting
Off-season
Off-message
Everything just feels a little off

Everything’s a little off

I’m not sure how
Everything seemed
To shift a little bit
Away from me

I’m not sure why
No matter what I try
Everything I touch
Feels just a little bit off

Everything’s a little off.

Something Else

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Guild the cage with little trinkets
Shiny fears and anxious dreamings
Manicured contentment
Substituting joy

Take for granted haunted whispers
What comes easy if at all
Precious little out of reach
Hunger unfulfilled

Always need something else
Everything compared to something else

Counting blessings counting days
Crossing fingers wish on stars
Praying to anyone
With power to conceive

If only if only
Never meant more sincerely
If only if only
Never ask again

Strange Moves

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

All these days are strange
Completely familiar
All these moves are strange
Everything feels nothing feels the same

Barriers
Catacombs
Through the dark
I glide

Familiar
Discomforting
Exhilarating
Annihilating

All these days are strange
Completely familiar
All these moves are strange
Everything feels nothing feels the same

Change is all around me
And everything’s the same

I’ll find my way

Into The After

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Except In Every Dream Home A Heartache By Brian Ferry Copyright Universal Music-Careers o/b/o E.G. Music Ltd.

Recorded by: Orren Merton @ Ember Studios, Orange, CA Don Gunn @ The Office, Seattle, WA Barry Wood @ The Other Room Mike Ashcroft @ Musicego Studios, Huntington Beach, CA Eli Krantzberg @ Montreal, Canada

Produced by Orren Merton, Don Gunn & Barry Wood

Privacy Policy

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is our privacy policy, short and sweet:

We like privacy. You like privacy. We don’t ask for any personal information. However, we do use Google Analytics to keep track of how many visitors come to our site. Google Analytics logs anonymized technical info (IP address, operating system, browser, etc) to generate aggregated visitor stats.

That’s it. If you have any questions, please leave us a message.

Meet Ember After

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Do you like your frustration and anguish served with a side of tasty synthesizers and a heap of muscular guitars? Then Ember After has just the right sound for you. Ember After offers smart words, punchy rhythms, dark themes, catchy melodies, and lots and lots of fuzz. Call it industrial, metal, goth, alternative, whatever. Call it calypso and salsa music ground together in the devil’s blender, if that’s what you want. It’s fine with us. We’re less concerned with labels than with writing the most intense and interesting songs we can. Enjoy!

Resist

Fri, 17 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Orren Merton
Produced by Don Gunn and Orren Merton
Mixed by Don Gunn
Mastered by Barry Wood

Orren Merton: Vocals, guitars, synthesizers
Don Gunn: Drums, programming
Barry Wood: Bass, synthesizers

Resist:

lyrics

Narcissistic jingoist
Jack boots made from solid gold
Kleptocratic plutocrats
Stealing more than they can hold

Politburo proclamations
Doublespeak and disavow
Legitimize disinformation
Keep them down until they bow

Front and Center

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Front and center all around
Fear mistrust and hate abound
Blood and fire rule the day
Won’t conceive another way

Empathy on life support
Turning nations into forts
Spiteful words to panicked ear
Can’t be all we want to hear

We’ve got to got to got to make it right
We’ve got to light our way through darkest night
It’s not as hopeless as it seems
If we remember brightest dreams
We’ve got to got to got to make it right

Into the Sea

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Living crystal dreams breathe
Until they come crashing down

Fly my hopes into the sky
Watch them crash into the sea
Comb the deserts for an answer
And the wind sings to me:

It all comes crashing down

Beauty always in decay
Into the sea where all will drown
Darkness and loathing dull the pain
Hold my hand as we come crashing down

It all comes crashing down

Outrage

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Settled into cold comfort
Inertia to impotence
Disappointed disaffected
Bitter and numb
A Tower of Babel
Built on the bruised
Look around look around
Outrage

(Cannot stay this way)

Polarized
Fanaticized
Apathy and anger
Curate the nightmare
Seductive righteous
Keeping us helpless
Look around look around
Outrage

(Cannot stay this way)

The clockworks shatter
On a million broken promises
Drives me to distraction
Fills me with distraction
Demonize and sanctify
But never move the needle
Why try to rectify
When the easy answer
Outrage

World Spins

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Songs 1-6: Produced by Orren Merton & Don Gunn Mixed by Don Gunn

Songs 7-8: Remixed by Barry Wood credits released April 15, 2016

Recorded by: Orren Merton @ Ember Studios, Orange County, CA Don Gunn @ The Office, Seattle, WA Barry Wood @ The Other Room

World Spins

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The world spins so fast it makes me dizzy
To fall down is to fade away
Hallowed today but gone tomorrow
Try to find the future, lost yesterday

Everybody’s got a dream they live for
Everybody wants the life they choose
But it only happens for the high and mighty
You can’t join the club but you can pay the dues

And the world spins around…

Nobody looks nobody listens
Apathy is king when you look outside
Brain dead propaganda leaves few impressions
Just passing interest quick to subside

Misery

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Red light pulses to a shadow beat
Painted faces intimate torment underneath
Inner scars on display…lipstick…lingerie
Shuffle over to me I can hear her say

Come on baby
Close your eyes with me
Come on baby
Dance the Misery

Come on baby
Look…but don’t see
Come on baby
Dance the Misery

Blacklight girl with apathetic pout
I don’t care what you’re all about
Check your melodrama at the door
It’s your pale flesh that I’m coming for

Shallow

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Make it shiny make it new
Clean and pretty through and through
Make it stylish make it pop
Make us think it never stops
Doesn’t matter if its real
What’s the point—we don’t feel
Only matters if it’s now
We’ll discard it anyhow

We’ll discard it anyhow…

Why must everything seem shallow?
Why does everything seem shallow?

Help me deviate my course
This empty joy and remorse
Herald me a truer true
Something beyond the newest new
There is a light upon the hill
Ageless golden holy still
Can we find our way to thee
Not be seduced by what we see?

Sick Of It

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Blue and red and blazing lies
Buzz like conniving flies
Blasting any hope of peace
No surrender no release

Waiting still for something true
What I thought I always knew
Ripped away with all my dreams
Mundane and fantastic schemes

And I’m left

Sick of it all
I’m sick of it
Sick of it all
I’m sick of it

Once the young boy trusted
Expectations unadjusted
Everything to fall in place
Life unfurl with practiced grace

The Misery EP

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The Misery EP
Words and Music by Orren Merton

Produced by Orren Merton and Don Gunn
Mixed by Don Gunn

Except:
Misery mixed and produced by Alan Branch
Misery Mayhem mixed and produced by Alan Branch, Don Gunn, and Orren Merton
Shallow (otheroom mix) mixed and produced by Barry Wood

Cover art and graphic design: Michelle Merton

Mastered by Barry Wood at Otheroom Studios (otheroom.com)

Change

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Clock is ticking, clock is ticking—time drips so slowly
Dissatisfaction turns to disaffection turns to madness
Hoping something extraordinary will somehow happen
Wondering if anything will ever change

But change only comes to those who bring it
Change doesn’t happen on its own
Change is only found by those who seek it out
Not those listlessly waiting around

The mirror reflects someone I often dislike
And who often dislikes me
I look around me and see nothing to move me
I look around me and see nothing move

Disconnected

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Late at night
When the demons come
How can I tell
Here from gone?
From an empty place
A charcoal veil
Where all my colors
Have run…

Did I fail
When it came to shove?
Did apathy
Cloud my resolve?
Am I not
Who they think I am?
Or am I too
Disconnected?

Am I too disconnected?
Distant and self-protected?
Can I be reconnected?
Feel human, self-respected…

Sometimes I need absolution
Just a shred of dispensation
Can you see me as who I wish I were
And who I still want to be…

Grasping At Straws

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Have you found anything sacred?
Have you found anything pure?
I’ve been swallowed up by compromises
Failed enterprises
I can’t see past the next disappointment
Anymore
Can’t feel past the self-loathing
Anymore

I still believe in God
But does God believe in me?
I still believe in love
But how can I love anyone
If I only feel right
When I hurt?

A symphony of disillusion
Begs my final curtain call
My reasons for persisting
Wearing thin
Deep inside know I don’t want to end the show
But I know I can’t go on in this role

Hellblau

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

That which we envision
To be Damascus steel
Given one hard blow
Fragile as porcelain

Everyone we dearly need
To remain right by our side
Hanging by a slender thread
One desperate beat from the end

Everything that we conceive
We understand we believe
One sharp shock from deepest doubt
Our temple walls come crumbling down

We insist we see it there
Our eyes do not deceive
We close our eyes it disappears
Left with nothing but our fears

Link

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a link in a chain
From before Moses walked
I’m a link in a chain
From a time before the cross

Others take their strength from the chain
But I cannot feel how
How can I keep myself?
And still remain a link in the chain?

Have others also felt this black?
Perhaps despised their very part?
Does that validate my doubt?
Did they find…what did they find?

Every weak link
Can bring down a chain….
Every weak link
Can bring down a chain….

Lost

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

When I was a young boy
I felt so very old
Now that I’m older
I’m trying to hang on to my youth
Every time I reminisce
I see a boy I’d rather forget
I’m left yearning for a past
A past I never had

I am lost

Always wanting to fit in
To a world I despise
Always trying to belong
Then disowning what I see
Looking for a place to hide
But hoping I’ll be found
Looking for a way inside
While trying to get out

Only You Remain

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Strip away the failures
Strip away the broken dreams
Strip away the empty bodies
Strip away what might have been

And only you remain

Strip away the fear and doubt
Strip away the expectations
Strip away the cold wind blowing
Strip away the endless waiting

And only you remain

Strip away the growing darkness
Strip away the gloom inside
Strip away the desolation
Strip away all that chains me…

Paradise

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’m going to hell again
Not waiting for a friend
I’m going to hell again
I’ve found a means to an end

All I have found is pain
Why wait for it again
They’ve pushed me down so far
Won’t try to rise anymore

I’ll make my own place
Here in this darkest space
All that I’m left is decay
So in decay I’ll stay

I’ll make the gloom my paradise
I’ll make the darkness my paradise
You can’t touch me here
In my paradise…

The Faker

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I need in concrete
I want in plastic
I dream in colors
None of which you know

Society demands
Docile thoughtless little drones
I’ll portray what they expect to see
Always know it’s not me

I’ll be The Faker
Pretend I share their world
I’ll be The Faker
Theirs is not my world

This homogeneity
Makes me sick inside
Everything glistens
Like lemmings packed in metal boxes

Always do what we’re told
Claw for scraps sell our soul
Cling to hate to fight despair
Soak in disgust to feel at all…

Twenty Feet

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Creeping out the back door
Of the five story glass prison
–lunch in a paper bag–
Walks across the concrete
To take refuge from his
Meager cubicle
Inside his Subaru

As he locks himself in
He turns to see a pensive lady
Hiding in her Camaro
Staring disaffectedly
Lips curled and forlorn
–Soft, moist lips–
And he knows how she feels
Could tell her how she feels

But he’s twenty feet
And three
Wheeled iron cages away

Grasping At Straws

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Produced by Orren Merton and Don Gunn
Mixed by Don Gunn (www.dongunn.com)

Mixed by Orren Merton
** Mixed by Eldad Guetta
Mastered at Panic Studios by John McCaig (www.panicstudios.com)

Recorded in:
Orange County, California, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Tel Aviv, Israel
London, England

Music and lyrics written by Orren Merton
(except Paranoid by Iommi, Ward, Buttler, Osborne)

All songs © O My Aching Soul Music (ASCAP) except
Paranoid © TRO-Andover Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
This recording © 2007 Darkling Ventures