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.
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
The darkness in 24
Former guests who live no more
So many hands to hold you down
My mind is awake
I open my eyes but it's so hard to breathe
Something is in here to silence my screams
The darkness in 24
Steal your breath away once more
Oh it's happening again yeah
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
Sadness is falling tear
Turning into liquid fear
Who killed who we'll never know
Oh we'll never know
Never tell, never tell, never tell, never tell
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
The darkness in 24
Former guests who live no more
So many hands to hold you down
My mind is awake
I open my eyes but it's so hard to breathe
Something is in here to silence my screams
The darkness in 24
Steal your breath away once more
Oh it's happening again yeah
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
Sadness is falling tear
Turning into liquid fear
Who killed who we'll never know
Oh we'll never know
Never tell, never tell, never tell, never tell
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Room 24 Lyrics as written by Michael Poulsen
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Fintage House Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
To build on Runezor's comment above, here's a possible historical reference: concordscolonialinn.com/haunted-inn Basically, it talks about a pair of newlyweds being given Room 24 and the bride seeing a ghost in the room that night. Apparently, there's enough paranormal activity in this place that it's been investigated by Ghost Hunters. I knew I'd heard of room 24 somewhere when I first listened to this song; it took some digging to actually remember where.