I first had the idea to write this song years ago in a Harris Teeter parking lot in North Carolina. I was still a standup comic at the time, so I don't know if it was when I was performing at a comedy club, at a convention, or one of the rare times I did both in the same weekend. I just remember wanting to write an epic Iron Maiden style song about Fallout, that I would call it The Overseer, and that it would have the line "For the glory and survival of the vault." That was the entirety of it...

Then there was the unofficial " #whenIwas14 challenge where you try to write a song that would appear on an album that you loved at 14 years old. Around that time, outside of KISS (which had been my primary music provider through most of my early life) I was really starting to get into Anthrax and Iron Maiden… Probably the album from either that I listened to most was Live After Death." So I wrote this and recorded a version of it (on an acoustic guitar...)

After I wrote it I collaborated with @corwyn to make it sound like an Iron Maiden. Which is where we are today. This is the result of a couple of weeks of writing and recording. If it appears as an official release anywhere, it might be changed somehow. Or maybe not. We'll see.

#whenIwas14 #collaboration #metal #80s #80smetal #ironmaiden

The klaxon screams a hollow cry, beneath a leaden, graveyard sky A thousand lives within my hand, the master of this sunken land

The rad-counts rise, the seals are weak, the future that the dwellers seek Is bought in blood and sweat and fear, despite the price, we persevere

I am the lock, I am the key, the voice of your security The weight of ages on my back, I hold the line against attack No mercy shown, I lead the charge, My dwellers scavenge near and far We trade our souls to prove our salt, for the glory and survival of the Vault!

The water glows, the air is thin, radroaches clawing to get in My Pip-Boy chirps a dying tone, a signal from the Great Unknown I send the scouts beyond the gate, to scavenge in the hands of fate Through glowing storms and scorched remains, I bleed the few to break our chains!

I am the lock, I am the key, the voice of your security The weight of ages on my back, I hold the line, no turning back No mercy shown, I lead the charge, My dwellers scavenge near and far We trade our souls to prove our salt, for the glory and survival of the Vault!

Is there a heart beneath these Vault-Tec clothes? Or just a king upon a rusted throne? I steel my heart, I close the door, the wasteland ravening for more… But—NO! The numbers never lie. To save us all, the few must die!

I am the lock, I am the key, the voice of your security The weight of ages on my back, I hold the line against attack No mercy shown, I lead the charge, My dwellers scavenge near and far We trade our souls to prove our salt, for the glory and survival of the Vault!

Shut the door!