Song
Truth Cannot Perish (VHS Power Mix)
From the release: Truth Cannot Perish (VHS Power Mix) – Single
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
If the world should fall away,
Stars consumed, the night will stay,
Still one voice will never die—
Truth remains beyond the sky.
[Pre-Chorus]
Every shadow, every flame,
Fades, but Truth is still the same.
[Chorus]
Truth cannot perish, it will endure,
Even when all else is unsure.
Truth cannot perish, forever it stands,
Written eternal by unseen hands.
[Verse 2]
If the frame of things should break,
Still the soul its stand will take.
Every science, every line,
Holds the mark of the divine.
[Pre-Chorus]
Every doubt the night has cast,
Falls before the light at last.
[Chorus]
Truth cannot perish, it will endure,
Even when all else is unsure.
Truth cannot perish, forever it stands,
Written eternal by unseen hands.
[Breakdown]
Reason said, “What do you want?”
I said, “God and the soul.”
Nothing more in my hands,
That is all I need to know.
I was searching through myself,
Through the smoke inside my mind,
Looking for the doorway
I had somehow left behind.
Memory can’t carry
Every fire that I find,
So I write down the sparks
Before they fall out of time.
My eyes want the sunlight,
But my sight is still weak,
Heal what is wounded
Before I try to see.
Faith wakes the vision,
Hope lifts my head,
Love holds me steady
Where the old self bled.
I know that I am,
I know that I live,
I know that I think,
What more can Truth give?
If the whole world ended,
It would still be true
That the whole world ended—
Truth comes breaking through.
False lights flash,
But they borrow their flame,
Every shadow survives
By pretending a name.
The mirror is not me,
The dream cannot heal,
The picture wears a face,
But the face is not real.
Truth is not dust,
Truth is not breath,
Truth does not bow
To the empire of death.
So Reason, keep pressing,
Let the old fear burn,
If Truth lives within me,
Then my soul can return.
Bang bang—
The shadows fall.
Bang bang—
Truth outlives all.
Bang bang—
The night is gone.
Bang bang—
The light goes on.
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus]
Truth cannot perish, it will endure,
Even when all else is unsure.
Truth cannot perish, forever it stands,
Written eternal by unseen hands.
[Final Chorus]
Truth cannot perish, it will endure,
Higher than fire, deeper than the storm.
Truth cannot perish, forever it stands,
Alive in the soul where the light is born.
[Outro]
Truth cannot perish.
Truth cannot perish.
Truth cannot perish.
The light goes on.
Song Meaning
“Truth Cannot Perish (VHS Power Mix)” revisits the central argument of Soliloquies as a louder, more immediate declaration of faith and reason. The song still begins from Augustine’s insight that truth cannot cease to exist: even if the world were to perish, it would remain true that it had perished. But this version pushes that conviction through doubt, memory, wounded vision, and the struggle to find the soul’s way home. Its spoken breakdown places Augustine’s search in direct conversation with Reason, moving from the desire to know God and the soul toward the realization that false lights, appearances, and fear cannot overcome truth. The repeated “bang bang” refrain turns the argument into a confrontation: shadows fall, the night passes, and truth outlives all that claims to extinguish it. The final movement is not merely philosophical certainty, but return and renewal—the soul discovers that truth remains alive within it, and the light goes on.
Song Inspiration
Inspired by Saint Augustine’s Soliloquies, especially the argument that truth cannot perish because even the claim that truth had perished would require truth. This VHS Power Mix also draws on Augustine’s dialogue with Reason, his desire to know “God and the soul,” and his account of the mind’s need for healing, faith, hope, and love before it can fully see.
From the Source
Supporting passages from the Augustinus Vox Standard Version (AVSV). Select a source to read it in context.
As far as I remember, we concluded that truth cannot perish because, not only if the entire world perishes, but even if truth itself perishes, it will be true that both the world and truth have perished.
But nothing is true without truth; therefore truth in no way perishes.
I desire to know God and the soul.
Additional Details
Song Style: 1980s glam metal, arena rock, rap-rock breakdown, hip-hop spoken-word flow, bang-bang drums, huge gated snare, heavy palm-muted guitars, bright synth stabs, soaring countertenor male vocals, gang-vocal chorus, theatrical Augustine-versus-Reason energy, glossy 80s production, explosive guitar harmonies, triumphant final key lift, big emotional outro
Suno Model: v5.5