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.
In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
Forget what's said
And hear me sing to you
How I've set out to kill my soul
The nightward ways
The labor it brings
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song
Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come you will
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth
Times ablaze
Under the flags we chose
Denied my step and froze my heart
Yet I stare
With nothing left to do
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song
Take your well deserved step
Into darkness
I'll become your eyes
You have no other
We have to walk along this wire
Trust the one that never trusted you
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
Forget what's said
And hear me sing to you
How I've set out to kill my soul
The nightward ways
The labor it brings
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song
Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come you will
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth
Times ablaze
Under the flags we chose
Denied my step and froze my heart
Yet I stare
With nothing left to do
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song
Take your well deserved step
Into darkness
I'll become your eyes
You have no other
We have to walk along this wire
Trust the one that never trusted you
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It's about the change and evolution of a relationship in which the person who was so deeply invested realizes they must move on and part from this other person but they had been do deeply rooted into the whole experience that it's so difficult (How I've set out to kill my soul) to commit to end it but they know it's for the best. Infact they are realizing it'd be easier to stay in the relationship as damaging as it is, then to end it but they know it's their only logical choice.
Take your well deserved step Into darkness I'll become your eyes You have no other We have to walk along this wire Trust the one that never trusted you
This is the him finally coming to grasps with it being completely over and telling that person that although it's over, he'll continue to be with them in some way or another, he'll never completely abandon them. Even though trust was never established fully, they can trust that that person will never totally abandon them.
@EternalTearsOfSorrow i like what you wrote, but I think it's more complex than that. Why would this other person, stepping into darkness, trust someone who never trusted them? He is saying that he's trustworthy, but this other person isn't. However, that leaves the well deserved question as to why he would bother guiding this person forward; why do they 'have to walk along this wire'? Perhaps he sees something in them that can be developed, or perhaps must be developed from his point of view. Nonetheless, the lyrics leave so many questions unanswered that the listener can barely know the story, or who to trust---nonetheless it is clearly urgent, intriguing, and a brilliant song.