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.
What will you tell your children
When they ask you "What went wrong?"
How can you paint a picture of a paradise lost
To eyes that know only a wasteland?
How will you justify
Justify watching the world die?
The clock is ticking, can't you feel our days are numbered?
Head first into disaster from which there will be no return
With narrow minds we decimate our one true home
Cast into oblivion, judgement is calling
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral
The blind eye can no longer be cast
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn
A forced extinction closes out the age of apathy
The final act, sacrifice the world's ecology
The death of beauty, the death of hope
Cast before the throne of avarice, judgement is calling
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral
The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
Behold the pale horse
The blind
When they ask you "What went wrong?"
How can you paint a picture of a paradise lost
To eyes that know only a wasteland?
How will you justify
Justify watching the world die?
The clock is ticking, can't you feel our days are numbered?
Head first into disaster from which there will be no return
With narrow minds we decimate our one true home
Cast into oblivion, judgement is calling
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral
The blind eye can no longer be cast
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn
A forced extinction closes out the age of apathy
The final act, sacrifice the world's ecology
The death of beauty, the death of hope
Cast before the throne of avarice, judgement is calling
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral of the earth
Behold the pale horse
This is the funeral
The blind eye can no longer be cast
There will be no future, if we can't learn from our mistakes
The clock is ticking, there is no second chance
There will be no future, if we can't learn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
I can't watch it burn
Behold the pale horse
The blind
Lyrics submitted by theDwearsP, edited by jerome1, AlexAsura, BlueDiamondx3
Dark Days Lyrics as written by Jeffrey Cleve Ling Benjamin Michael Gordon
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
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