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.
Intro
Come forth destruction
Pull down the pillars of theocracy
A system of hatred traditions
Spewed forth from crooked smiles
Demanding atop unscrupulous towers
Preaching servitude
Verse 1
The tyrant powers that be are the enemy
Lay waste to the faithful flock
Purge the world of pietism
Excorticate the husk
Unshroud, display the symphony of ruin
Bonds of enslavement must be broken
All the years spent in a grand phantasm
Ascend and eclipse the light
Ascend and eclipse the light
Chorus
Hand in hand, rupture the divine
Lay bare, unearth all the shame
Hidden in plain sight
Ascend and eclipse the light
Verse 2
Dig up the foundations stained in rot
Nullify and obliterate
Swallow up all that's left of the cultus
Rise, rise, rise
Defy the vade mecum
Ascend and eclipse the light
Chorus
Hand in hand, rupture the divine
Lay bare, unearth all the shame
Hidden in plain sight
Ascend and eclipse the light
Breakdown
Procure the bones of the Christ
Incite the desecration
Let them bear witness to the end of everything they've known for their lives
And now they see it die
For every persecuted heretic
Vengeance, ill will, hatred
Vengeance, eye for an eye
Come forth destruction
Pull down the pillars of theocracy
A system of hatred traditions
Spewed forth from crooked smiles
Demanding atop unscrupulous towers
Preaching servitude
Verse 1
The tyrant powers that be are the enemy
Lay waste to the faithful flock
Purge the world of pietism
Excorticate the husk
Unshroud, display the symphony of ruin
Bonds of enslavement must be broken
All the years spent in a grand phantasm
Ascend and eclipse the light
Ascend and eclipse the light
Chorus
Hand in hand, rupture the divine
Lay bare, unearth all the shame
Hidden in plain sight
Ascend and eclipse the light
Verse 2
Dig up the foundations stained in rot
Nullify and obliterate
Swallow up all that's left of the cultus
Rise, rise, rise
Defy the vade mecum
Ascend and eclipse the light
Chorus
Hand in hand, rupture the divine
Lay bare, unearth all the shame
Hidden in plain sight
Ascend and eclipse the light
Breakdown
Procure the bones of the Christ
Incite the desecration
Let them bear witness to the end of everything they've known for their lives
And now they see it die
For every persecuted heretic
Vengeance, ill will, hatred
Vengeance, eye for an eye
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
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Vocalist Ricky Hoover says of this track: “‘Stained In Rot’ is the heaviest song I’ve been a part of vocally and lyrically. It’s about bringing to light the fact that religion and government are constantly trying to become one and change the world into a theocracy. It’s about showing the horrors that have happened under that way of thinking and control. It’s about pulling out the truth and shoving it back in the faces of religionists while the “truth” they’re forced to believe crumbles around them.”