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've read all these words that are lies about you
Waiting for worlds to die without you
And I will wait no more
Heaping virgins around me
I summon the Oberammergau
The hell-mouth
And I command this maw
To split
And Moloch spit
This cumbersome concept that men call the beast
I require its head on my wall
My brothers desire a feast
Oberammergau
Black Pope now!
The Anti-Christ
Spawn of Satan, the Anti-Christ
Or maybe it's nothing at all
Lost prophecy of the peasant whore
So much lost
So much forgotten
So what...
I choose to be a blasphemer
To bring your kind to heel
Bring forth the beast, cleave him with my steel
Your gilded domes mask perversions
Your mildewed tomes beg for inversion
Black Pope. the hell-mouth spoke
To me, it's all the same
Religion is for the weak
A haven for the lame
I will crush your Anti-Christ
Kill him and his kind
Crucify the crippled
The Devil is a lie
Awake, awake deep Thanetos!
The sea becomes the sky
Divided with the Sword of Khoz
To purge the Oberammergau
Chronicles defame me
Chemicals inflame me
I was born to rule your world
And no you shall never tame me
Waiting for worlds to die without you
And I will wait no more
Heaping virgins around me
I summon the Oberammergau
The hell-mouth
And I command this maw
To split
And Moloch spit
This cumbersome concept that men call the beast
I require its head on my wall
My brothers desire a feast
Oberammergau
Black Pope now!
The Anti-Christ
Spawn of Satan, the Anti-Christ
Or maybe it's nothing at all
Lost prophecy of the peasant whore
So much lost
So much forgotten
So what...
I choose to be a blasphemer
To bring your kind to heel
Bring forth the beast, cleave him with my steel
Your gilded domes mask perversions
Your mildewed tomes beg for inversion
Black Pope. the hell-mouth spoke
To me, it's all the same
Religion is for the weak
A haven for the lame
I will crush your Anti-Christ
Kill him and his kind
Crucify the crippled
The Devil is a lie
Awake, awake deep Thanetos!
The sea becomes the sky
Divided with the Sword of Khoz
To purge the Oberammergau
Chronicles defame me
Chemicals inflame me
I was born to rule your world
And no you shall never tame me
Lyrics submitted by cassius
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Abraxus, I think you had it right. Also I didn't get the virgin mary reference at first, but thanks to you it's blatantly clear. And very valid :)