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.
I keep the dogs at bay
With conscience free from sin
My eyes beyond the great cold absence
It's where my farthest love lies and waits
I feel the oceans coil
Feel the chemicals burn
I rest in the long arms of torpor
It's for the closing sky
That I yearn
Thoughts like vapor
Views of nothingness appear
Echo the labor
Await the unforgiving years
Can I have a change in my perspective now
(Blue moves out of my range)
A shift in this asperity
(Love drifts away)
A change of colors through my eyes
(I had to let you go)
The token of a strategy
Into the ultra void
In the sleeper's white nest
I dream in a damaged sequence
Of where my oldest love lies at rest
I feel the oceans coil
Feel the chemicals burn
I rest in the long arms of torpor
It's for the closing sky
That I yearn
Thoughts like vapor
Views of nothingness appear
Echo the labor
Await the unforgiving years
Do I ever change
Blue moves out of my range
And love drifts away
I had to let you go
Dissolving our analogy
Can I have a change in my perspective now
(Blue moves out of my range)
A shift in this asperity
(Love drifts away)
A change of colors through my eyes
(I had to let you go)
The token of a strategy
With conscience free from sin
My eyes beyond the great cold absence
It's where my farthest love lies and waits
I feel the oceans coil
Feel the chemicals burn
I rest in the long arms of torpor
It's for the closing sky
That I yearn
Thoughts like vapor
Views of nothingness appear
Echo the labor
Await the unforgiving years
Can I have a change in my perspective now
(Blue moves out of my range)
A shift in this asperity
(Love drifts away)
A change of colors through my eyes
(I had to let you go)
The token of a strategy
Into the ultra void
In the sleeper's white nest
I dream in a damaged sequence
Of where my oldest love lies at rest
I feel the oceans coil
Feel the chemicals burn
I rest in the long arms of torpor
It's for the closing sky
That I yearn
Thoughts like vapor
Views of nothingness appear
Echo the labor
Await the unforgiving years
Do I ever change
Blue moves out of my range
And love drifts away
I had to let you go
Dissolving our analogy
Can I have a change in my perspective now
(Blue moves out of my range)
A shift in this asperity
(Love drifts away)
A change of colors through my eyes
(I had to let you go)
The token of a strategy
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
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I think this has to do with the need to move on, to put the past in the rearview mirror but how difficult this can be when it seemingly radiates at the very core of you.