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.
Am I love?
Every heart is beating
I'm all love
Can't you feel me feeling?
Take my hand
Cold like a junkie
I'm an ice cold man
(I'm an ice cold)
Why am I crying for you?
All this love I felt for you
Has gone away to another place
I put my faith in a digital world where they've given me
Eyes without a face
I'd steal the moon, on silver nights
Remind myself I am someone
My soul is numb and void tonight
(I'm automaton)
I'm so tough
Can't you see me running
See I can touch
Can you feel me coming?
I see the world
And cry for freedom
These metal eyes, they can't disguise
The fact that I
(I need something to believe in)
But then I'm dying for you
I said goodbye to the world I knew
And took off into inner space
Weren't you the ones who promised me
A very different place
I've powered up, get my program set
And tilt my head toward the sun
Inside I know, I'm null and void
(I'm automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
Hey, you got me down underground
Getting holed up in my cyber lounge
As if I had time to break that down
(Automaton)
Whatever you can do I can override it
Got a million ways to synthesize it
Digital android, I can fight it
(Fi-fi-fi-fight it out)
(Automaton, automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
Feel like a man, who fell to earth
That this is not where I belong
They rule my life from a metal box, that's windowless
And I wonder, where it all goes wrong
Maybe this dream will stay alive
But can the madness be undone?
Am I the new intelligence?
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton)
You know I need something
I can hold on to
Hold on to
You were all I knew
(I'm automaton)
I need something
I can hold on to
Hold on to
This was all I knew
(I'm automaton)
Every heart is beating
I'm all love
Can't you feel me feeling?
Take my hand
Cold like a junkie
I'm an ice cold man
(I'm an ice cold)
Why am I crying for you?
All this love I felt for you
Has gone away to another place
I put my faith in a digital world where they've given me
Eyes without a face
I'd steal the moon, on silver nights
Remind myself I am someone
My soul is numb and void tonight
(I'm automaton)
I'm so tough
Can't you see me running
See I can touch
Can you feel me coming?
I see the world
And cry for freedom
These metal eyes, they can't disguise
The fact that I
(I need something to believe in)
But then I'm dying for you
I said goodbye to the world I knew
And took off into inner space
Weren't you the ones who promised me
A very different place
I've powered up, get my program set
And tilt my head toward the sun
Inside I know, I'm null and void
(I'm automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
Hey, you got me down underground
Getting holed up in my cyber lounge
As if I had time to break that down
(Automaton)
Whatever you can do I can override it
Got a million ways to synthesize it
Digital android, I can fight it
(Fi-fi-fi-fight it out)
(Automaton, automaton)
(Automaton, automaton)
Feel like a man, who fell to earth
That this is not where I belong
They rule my life from a metal box, that's windowless
And I wonder, where it all goes wrong
Maybe this dream will stay alive
But can the madness be undone?
Am I the new intelligence?
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton, I'm automaton)
(I'm automaton)
You know I need something
I can hold on to
Hold on to
You were all I knew
(I'm automaton)
I need something
I can hold on to
Hold on to
This was all I knew
(I'm automaton)
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I think this song is about someone who's, after a relationship, spending all his time online where he pursues his emotional and erotic needs. But gradually he feels that it all becomes less human.