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.
Take this love
I will make you
I will starve the pain within
I will crave you
I will learn to hate again
I will drain you
I will make you whole again
I will blame you
I will lay beside the dead
'Cause I don't want to live inside this hell
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
I won't save you
I won't starve the hope within
I won't change you
I won't fight the pain within
I won't fail you
I won't let your light descend
I won't play you
I won't face your fate again
'Cause I am born to live inside this hell
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Tame the fire from within
You won't take me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Let the calm rise up
So graceful
Every wasted word
So faithful
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Tame the fire from within
You won't take me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Suffocate me
Suffocate me
I will make you
I will starve the pain within
I will crave you
I will learn to hate again
I will drain you
I will make you whole again
I will blame you
I will lay beside the dead
'Cause I don't want to live inside this hell
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
I won't save you
I won't starve the hope within
I won't change you
I won't fight the pain within
I won't fail you
I won't let your light descend
I won't play you
I won't face your fate again
'Cause I am born to live inside this hell
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Tame the fire from within
You won't take me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Let the calm rise up
So graceful
Every wasted word
So faithful
Tame the fire from within
You won't break me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Tame the fire from within
You won't take me
Love will tie the tourniquet
And suffocate me
Suffocate me
Suffocate me
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Tourniquet Lyrics as written by Benjamin Burnley Aaron Bruch
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think it's about love, especially a failed love. The lyrics saying 'tame the fire from within' means that you should tame that anger of losing love & when they say 'you wont break me', it means that you can't let a failed love bring you down.