Fake

***Fake*** is the last single by the Aztec-based nu metal band Burnward, released in 2001 from their third album Freedom: A Division. The track found considerable radio play in the western region of the United States and a two different music videos were made for it. To date, it's their best known single. It features lyrical nodes to Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas and December by Collective Soul.

## Background

Fake began life as an aborted track made for the band's self-titled album. Compared to the current version, little has been altered beyond the addition of a second verse and an expansion on the chorus.

The song centers on the negative side behind freedom movements, while also serving as a critique for more political bands, decrying them for willingly doing work for major labels while preaching anti-establishment messages. Supposedly the song was inspired by an argument one of the frontmen had with Serj Tankian, where the latter accused the former of upstaging his band while mocking his beliefs between numbers, though this was quickly debunked by Tankian.

## Music Videos

Two different videos were made for the song. The original video drew criticism for attacking high-profile musicians, while the second one was given a warmer reception. The former aired on MTV while the latter aired on MTV2, MTVX and Muchmusic. Both versions feature the same footage of the band performing in High Desert, but the timeframes for each are different, where the first was shot late at night while the latter was shot at dusk.

The first video centers on various political bands preaching against the establishment, but we see that the establishment not only controls them, but are profiting off their words and those who're willing to listen. It also features depictions of bands like Rage Against the Machine as monkeys, Karl Marx as a gibbon trapped in a bird cage and cuts to a card decrying Faith No More and Mr. Bungle vocalist Mike Patton as a hypocrite; bringing up his critical opinion of nu metal while also bringing up his involvement with Korn's Jonathan Davis, Sepultura and DJ Lethal (who had involvement with Limp Bizkit at the time.) Throughout the video, the monkeys vandalize the area their in and defecating (the few shots that showcase the monkeys throwing their fecal matter replace it with a copy of Lifer's eponymous album getting thrown.) The video culminates on the monkeys wandering out into the city and seeing their work paraded by their record label, later running to the desert and seeing the band playing.

The second video features a woman channel surfing, switching through footage of rooms laid out within a boarding house, with each revealing the activities of the boarders; cuts are also made to the band performing. One features a dysfunctional couple arguing, with their fights becoming more violent as the video goes on, a short man torturing and killing chickens while forcing another border to watch, a Vietnamese man frantically pacing around his room, a woman who develops a pedophilic interest in a young boy and an elderly couple who're oblivious and seemingly anxious As the footage plays, the woman writes notes, summing up the drive behind the borders' issues. The video concludes with the woman relaying information to the elderly couple; what happened to them was an experiment in psychological torment to punish them for failing to pay their rent.

## Lyrics

One dose of freedom will burn

And back to me you'll certainly return

For everyone you'll rise to fight

Forever cursed by hubris and hindsight

Something turning, and it's you away

Somehow, they go your way

Evolution, evolution, never did us any good

One more pawn lining the shelf

How much more can anybody take?

You tell us to learn respect but how can we ever learn through your mistakes?

[chorus]Listen up my wayward son

You're deaf to me

Blinded by a chosen one

You said you'd be

Just tilting on the sun towards

Your domain

Some kind of chosen one

You turned out to be[chorus]

Establishment's not your forte

But you feed it regardless

Commie's in the sky again

Tripping on his hubris

[chorus] x2