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.
Dear love,
There’s something too dear for us to sacrifice
I know the price for such egregious cries
but my mindsets failed to accept these lies
We’ve bowed to unholy men,
now they hear me as they kneel
One hand wondering why,
the other one sailing ships to the sky.
Breeding out. God, why even try?
The world is blind to your deafening cries
Our thoughts were picked from a hive
Another free thought left out to die
rip off the veils and open your eyes
We’ve sent our children off to a lie.
Strangers return to see what I’ve wrote,
I'll plead out with every tear down my throat
Are we the outcasts of society?
Or are there others who think like me?
Remembering it's only skin
They break through the clouds
Flee with me, insanity is staying here on your damn knees
Psycho cybernetic lies
we’re all gunna die
(I'm down here)
Pay no mind! Not this time.
your world will now accept the line
I revoke, through cannon smoke
The ends are justified.
I'm through giving up, through giving up
I'll never give up again
these memories of you die with me
I'm through giving up, through giving up
I'll never give up again
these memories of you die with me
Impossible is just a word small men throw around
Who find it easier to live in a world that they've been given
than to explore the power they have to change it
Impossible is not a fact, it is an option
Look it straight in the eye.
Grab it.
Now we must decide
Do we have the strength and the bravery of society to release this demon trapped in me?
We haven’t begun to understand
Like cybernetic beings
torn worlds away
let's open up design and misery
show me what's there to become one
illuminate your room just like the Sun
Love, have we forgotten
That his eyes are kin
From nowhere to now here
I am only justifying lies
For I am, that I am
We have never witnessed my life
Idle hands, devil's land
Ego so embarrassed by death
Death and life are undone by tongue.
There’s something too dear for us to sacrifice
I know the price for such egregious cries
but my mindsets failed to accept these lies
We’ve bowed to unholy men,
now they hear me as they kneel
One hand wondering why,
the other one sailing ships to the sky.
Breeding out. God, why even try?
The world is blind to your deafening cries
Our thoughts were picked from a hive
Another free thought left out to die
rip off the veils and open your eyes
We’ve sent our children off to a lie.
Strangers return to see what I’ve wrote,
I'll plead out with every tear down my throat
Are we the outcasts of society?
Or are there others who think like me?
Remembering it's only skin
They break through the clouds
Flee with me, insanity is staying here on your damn knees
Psycho cybernetic lies
we’re all gunna die
(I'm down here)
Pay no mind! Not this time.
your world will now accept the line
I revoke, through cannon smoke
The ends are justified.
I'm through giving up, through giving up
I'll never give up again
these memories of you die with me
I'm through giving up, through giving up
I'll never give up again
these memories of you die with me
Impossible is just a word small men throw around
Who find it easier to live in a world that they've been given
than to explore the power they have to change it
Impossible is not a fact, it is an option
Look it straight in the eye.
Grab it.
Now we must decide
Do we have the strength and the bravery of society to release this demon trapped in me?
We haven’t begun to understand
Like cybernetic beings
torn worlds away
let's open up design and misery
show me what's there to become one
illuminate your room just like the Sun
Love, have we forgotten
That his eyes are kin
From nowhere to now here
I am only justifying lies
For I am, that I am
We have never witnessed my life
Idle hands, devil's land
Ego so embarrassed by death
Death and life are undone by tongue.
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
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I think this is about those who live in direct opposition to tradional religious views and persuasions.