So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
God bless the daylight, the sugary smell of springtime
Remembering when you were mine in a still suburban town
When every Thursday, I'd brave those mountain passes
And you'd skip your early classes and we'd learn how our bodies worked
God damn the black night, with all its foul temptations
I've become what I always hated when I was with you then
We looked like giants in the back of my grey subcompact
Fumbling to make contact as the others slept inside
And together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
Began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
And I held you closer than anyone would ever get
Do you remember the J-A-M-C and reading aloud from magazines
I don't know about you but I swear on my name they could smell it on me
I've never been to good with secrets, no
Oh, together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
Began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
And I held you closer
Remembering when you were mine in a still suburban town
When every Thursday, I'd brave those mountain passes
And you'd skip your early classes and we'd learn how our bodies worked
God damn the black night, with all its foul temptations
I've become what I always hated when I was with you then
We looked like giants in the back of my grey subcompact
Fumbling to make contact as the others slept inside
And together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
Began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
And I held you closer than anyone would ever get
Do you remember the J-A-M-C and reading aloud from magazines
I don't know about you but I swear on my name they could smell it on me
I've never been to good with secrets, no
Oh, together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
Began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
And I held you closer
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In my interpretation of the song, the meaning revolves around the line "I've become what I've always hated"–which means that he's turned into another person who is taking sex as entertainment, as a means of putting himself higher on the social totem pole–where a relationship is reduced to an aspect of being a functional member of society. After, he regrets what he's done and hopes to hide it, but he soon realizes he's been found out.