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.
Just one more night
One more score
Another question in my mind,
can't take no more
Kissing the tears form my face as
they fall
To the ground in silence
in twilight and faded time
Spirits cold, with no love
Bells ring a lonely chime
Candle fires
These lit dreams can't burn alone
Winds of change bring songs
upon my memory
An empty heart and soul
intoxicates me
This darkened page orchestrates
my final destiny
Not knowing what,
what tomorrow will bring
From within the mirrors eyes
I'm forced to run away and hide
I feel those mystic eyes subside
And leave my blind
Through passages in time
A prisoner locked behind the door
Lonely roses slowly wither and die
I can't escape this captive misery
Heart stone cold, under supremacy
Thrown into a raging sea of tyranny
Life's vile walls have tangled me in threads
Eternally caught in my futures threads
Play the violent strings of my symphony
Transcend the absence of this fantasy
Just another vision
Washed away with the tide
No place for forgotten ones
I cannot deny
What lies beyond, beyond this fantasy
From within the mirrors eyes
I'm forced to run away and hide
I feel those mystic eyes subside
And leave my blind
Through passages in time
A prisoner locked behind the door
Lonely roses slowly wither and die
One more score
Another question in my mind,
can't take no more
Kissing the tears form my face as
they fall
To the ground in silence
in twilight and faded time
Spirits cold, with no love
Bells ring a lonely chime
Candle fires
These lit dreams can't burn alone
Winds of change bring songs
upon my memory
An empty heart and soul
intoxicates me
This darkened page orchestrates
my final destiny
Not knowing what,
what tomorrow will bring
From within the mirrors eyes
I'm forced to run away and hide
I feel those mystic eyes subside
And leave my blind
Through passages in time
A prisoner locked behind the door
Lonely roses slowly wither and die
I can't escape this captive misery
Heart stone cold, under supremacy
Thrown into a raging sea of tyranny
Life's vile walls have tangled me in threads
Eternally caught in my futures threads
Play the violent strings of my symphony
Transcend the absence of this fantasy
Just another vision
Washed away with the tide
No place for forgotten ones
I cannot deny
What lies beyond, beyond this fantasy
From within the mirrors eyes
I'm forced to run away and hide
I feel those mystic eyes subside
And leave my blind
Through passages in time
A prisoner locked behind the door
Lonely roses slowly wither and die
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I took bits and pieces of a few peoples interpretations to summarize it into one interpretation here:
Candlelight Fantasia is about a composer of music who lives in a world that doesn’t relate to or appreciate his art. This song tells the story of how many artists like painters, musicians & poets (ie - Mozart, Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, etc.) often live in solitude and aren't truly appreciated till after they have died. The song describes how these talented souls face lives of emptiness & vanity; prisoners to a life in which they die with no real glory or recognition (till after they have passed on). This song could also describe anyone in general who feels like they will undoubtedly die with no real accomplishment or glory.