Breaking Benjamin - So Cold Lyrics Meaning

A lot of folks are saying it's likely war, but it has to at least be about conflict in general.

"Crowded streets all cleared away
One by one
Hollow heroes separate
As they run"

New take, but this could be about genocide. Eliminating dissidents and undesirables, either through shooting them in the open (hence the leaders: "hollow heroes separate as they run"), or rounding them up and emptying the streets, bringing them to camps and whatnot. In the latter, "hollow heroes" could be a reference to people being divided and conquered, split and purged.

"You're so cold
Keep your hand in mine"

Like the singer/POV is trying to comfort someone else that is also being made a victim of this genocide.

"Wise men wonder while
Strong men die"

'Intellectuals' far removed from the situation scratch their heads at the source of the conflict, (likely having missed/ignored all of the cues leading up to it, though this is purely personal speculation), while soldiers fight out the combat that results from the genocide/warmaking.

"Show me how it ends
It's alright"

This sounds like it's being said to the oppressor/genocidal executioner, expressing a desire to end this suffering, this nightmare, accepting the situation.

"Show me how defenseless
You really are
Satisfied and empty inside"

I first heard this as "Satisfy an empty inside," however I think both work within the context I've put forth. It challenges the sickness and depravity of this oppressor. You must be defenseless, and empty inside if you're going to kill vulnerable people.

"That's alright
Let's give this another try"

Either this overall conflict is going to play out again and again, or the oppressor in this instance hesitates about executing the POV, and the POV doubles down on counter-interrogating their motives/convictions.

"If you find your family
Don't you cry
In this land of make believe
Dead and dry"

The POV is once again talking to their fellow victim, informing/instructing them quite literally that they may find their family among the dead in this fantastical land of unimaginable horrors, and that they must try to keep going, try to survive. Alternatively, they could also be close to death, and this may be intended to be meant to posthumously.

"You're so cold
But you feel alive
Lay your hands on me
One last time"

Still talking to the POV, the end is drawing near, they are about to die or be killed.

"It's alright" x9

Death comes.