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.
From the realms of past
My demon's howl
Beyond bridges I lit
They learned to fly
Apparitions, these ghosts of distant memory
Specters, remnants
That just will not die
All my wrongs
My indiscretions, they carry
From across
The boundaries of time
The burdens I had left
For them to hold
Presented, laid out before my eyes
In their frozen gaze
The blame, the questions to my lies
How hard I have tried to bury this
Yet, here they stand before me, phantoms
My demon's howl
Beyond bridges I lit
They learned to fly
Apparitions, these ghosts of distant memory
Specters, remnants
That just will not die
All my wrongs
My indiscretions, they carry
From across
The boundaries of time
The burdens I had left
For them to hold
Presented, laid out before my eyes
In their frozen gaze
The blame, the questions to my lies
How hard I have tried to bury this
Yet, here they stand before me, phantoms
Lyrics submitted by furyroad97
Phantoms Lyrics as written by Marten Hans Hagstrom Tomas Nils Haake
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake says of this track that it’s about regrets as you go through life – things you’ve said or done you kind of regret, they stay with you & haunt you – like ghosts or phantoms.