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.
The first night after your release
No one expects you to get much sleep
You're the waking, walking dead
In my case I'm not much better
Run to the kitchen and grab a marker,
trace the path, the blood will flow
Wind a web around my wrist
that's there to prove that I exists
It will be easier to forgive myself
remember her without a guilty head
These nightmare lines, an empty heart
We take for granted all the things
that make us who we are (who we are)
Get up, get dressed, go to work
They all know who you are (who you are)
They cant believe you'd show up here, but that's just who they are (who they are)
Set-up shop at your machine
until the break remember who you are (who you are)
Here lies clarity in a perfect grave
Comprised of perfect steel
The perfect blade was a perfect white
against the perfect lines,
from this perfect night
I'm the perfect picture of complacency
and that's all I feel
slow motion replaces real time
as the horror fills their eyes
these claws will never kill again
the lines i wear around my wrist
are there to prove that i exist
the lines i wear around my wrist
I am a monster, clothed in crimson sleeves
and perforated lines where my wrists should be
A warehouse full of workers scramble like a pack of bewildered wolves
as my world turns black... and i fall.
No one expects you to get much sleep
You're the waking, walking dead
In my case I'm not much better
Run to the kitchen and grab a marker,
trace the path, the blood will flow
Wind a web around my wrist
that's there to prove that I exists
It will be easier to forgive myself
remember her without a guilty head
These nightmare lines, an empty heart
We take for granted all the things
that make us who we are (who we are)
Get up, get dressed, go to work
They all know who you are (who you are)
They cant believe you'd show up here, but that's just who they are (who they are)
Set-up shop at your machine
until the break remember who you are (who you are)
Here lies clarity in a perfect grave
Comprised of perfect steel
The perfect blade was a perfect white
against the perfect lines,
from this perfect night
I'm the perfect picture of complacency
and that's all I feel
slow motion replaces real time
as the horror fills their eyes
these claws will never kill again
the lines i wear around my wrist
are there to prove that i exist
the lines i wear around my wrist
I am a monster, clothed in crimson sleeves
and perforated lines where my wrists should be
A warehouse full of workers scramble like a pack of bewildered wolves
as my world turns black... and i fall.
Lyrics submitted by BrandNew1208, edited by SoBrokenHearted
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At around 2:30 of the song you will hear the sound of a saw and something going through the saw, it happens again at around 2:40 I think...if you listen to it loud and closely you can hear it....yes he does cut his hands off.."with no hands and even less skill " in a different song I belive...but yeah pretty sick cd.