By Aaron Lewis

01 - "Open Your Eyes" The lyrics are very old. Those are from like 10th or 11th grade in high school. For some strange reason while we were in recording I was having a hard time coming up with something for it. Sitting there, listening to it over and over again to have some sort of inspirational moment, these lyrics to this old song from a long time ago came into my head. I don't usually write observationally, I usually write introspectively, and this song is very observational. 02 - "Pressure" "Pressure" is my response to the pressure I was

under to get this record done. It's like a culmination of the pressure that I was under at the time because I was like half way through the record and I was now out of stuff that was readily and easily flowing through me. It was a combination of the pressure of that and a panic attack, which I get.

03 - "Fade"
"Fade" is like my reply, I'll just kind of leave it like that.

04 - "It's Been Awhile"
It's just kind of an introspective song about realizing that it's been awhile since a lot of things. It's been awhile since I could hold my head up high, it's been awhile since I said I was sorry, it's been awhile since I could say that I wasn't addicted, it's been awhile since I could say I love myself. It's kind of an acknowledgement that it's been awhile.

05 - "Change"
"Change" is about trying to deal with what's going on in my life.

06 - "Can't Believe"
"Can't Believe" is a reply to the blatant disrespect for human beings that I see every night at our shows. It's like fucking "Lord Of The Flies" sometimes. I see little 12, 13 year old girls basically getting raped on top of the crowd, getting their clothes torn off them, clutching themselves. Just terrible, terrible shit that I see. Just blatant disrespect for the people around you. You know it's somebody's little sister, it's somebody's daughter. Where the fuck did you come up with the idea that you think it's ok to do that just because you're at a concert? It goes to show that the most important job in the whole world, which is being a parent, has been completely forgotten about. People have forgotten how to be parents. That's like the beginning of the end. You wait. If shit doesn't change, you wait and see what it's like in 20 years.

07 - "Epiphany"
"Epiphany" is just kind of another realization type of song, kind of an explanation. It was an epiphany in the fact that I had heard the whole song in my head and just had to keep doing things until it was complete. I did everything on that song. I programmed the drums, I did the keyboards for the strings of the chorus, played the guitar, played the bass and did the vocals.

08 - "Suffer"
Wake up and look around you and see what the fuck is going on. The more you see, the more you do, the television's feeding you with what you want to hear, anger and fear, because we suffer. One of the many cycles in life that just continue going around in cycles unless they're broken.

09 - "Warm Safe Place"
My song to my wife.

10 - "For You"
"For You" is for the kids. It's totally written for the kids, it's for them to be able to turn up real loud so that their parents can hear what I'm saying. It's basically a song for the kids to sing to their parents. I wrote it in the shoes of these kids who come up and talk to me all the time.

11 - "Outside"
I still don't know what "Outside" is about.

12 - "Waste"
"Waste" is about a kid that killed himself and I guess was a big fan of Staind. His mother came to a show of ours and stood outside the bus crying kind of wanting me to come off the bus and talk to her and give her answers to all the questions she had when I didn't know the kid. It's kind of my reply to the completely uncomfortable situation that I was put into.

13 - "Take It"
"Take It" is like the final song on the record. The chorus to "Take It" is "everything that I can say to you won't help you, everything you need is right in front of you, just take it". It's kind of like my last attempt to s ay that I'm no different than you. Everything is right there in front of you and you just have to take it.