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.
See my scars
They come from the other half
The drowning god
My words are bouncing off the ground
I see them all around
But your back was turned
My heart had to learn
These years, what a theft
I'm forty-six now
How many left?
Recall the red sun burning
Over the avenues and into our view
Radiance that signified
Magnified divergent hue
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
Opaline, saw the trail of the fleeting twin
Through last years grass
With the curtain closing in a bit
I will go where I see fit
Love me not
For I was never one to pass the test, no
All for the best, you're heading east
If you go now, I go west
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
Gliding weightless
Through the vapor
Off the map and into loss
No more wisdom here to gather
No more boundaries to cross
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
I had a futile dream
It rose from loving you
But the debt has broken my back
There's no need to retaliate
As your train has left our track
They come from the other half
The drowning god
My words are bouncing off the ground
I see them all around
But your back was turned
My heart had to learn
These years, what a theft
I'm forty-six now
How many left?
Recall the red sun burning
Over the avenues and into our view
Radiance that signified
Magnified divergent hue
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
Opaline, saw the trail of the fleeting twin
Through last years grass
With the curtain closing in a bit
I will go where I see fit
Love me not
For I was never one to pass the test, no
All for the best, you're heading east
If you go now, I go west
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
Gliding weightless
Through the vapor
Off the map and into loss
No more wisdom here to gather
No more boundaries to cross
I see the last day turning
Straight into emptiness
How did it get so late?
Your little voice is shadow now
Sowing the seeds to segregate
I had a futile dream
It rose from loving you
But the debt has broken my back
There's no need to retaliate
As your train has left our track
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
Opaline Lyrics as written by Jonas Renkse
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think this is about loss & moving on from that dark place where someone has departed from you but still the memory of them registers somewhere, always within your subconscious rattling around.