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.
Words of distrust
falling off every tongue
tensions rising to a boil
hostile glances
cast over every shoulder
in expectation of betrayal
knives are sharpened
in every darkened corner
withering façades, shaken
rising tides
of madness overwhelm us
paranoia penetrates
long-suppressed savagery
intruding furtively
penetrating empty spaces
corridors of the human psyche
castes wrought in stone stifle their dreams,
carve out their tongues unworthy flock, ascension denied
crippled and mute, they stagger
with knives drawn in search of a mark
obdurate boundaries of complacent servility
established from their birth
too late came the epiphany for
the meek never to inherit the earth
destitute and mocked by platitudes
fear and frustration overtakes
grasping at straws in want of salvation
abject grief sublimated through rage
Conflict spreads exponentially
long-dormant leviathans stir
in every man, roused by the scent of this..
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death...
falling off every tongue
tensions rising to a boil
hostile glances
cast over every shoulder
in expectation of betrayal
knives are sharpened
in every darkened corner
withering façades, shaken
rising tides
of madness overwhelm us
paranoia penetrates
long-suppressed savagery
intruding furtively
penetrating empty spaces
corridors of the human psyche
castes wrought in stone stifle their dreams,
carve out their tongues unworthy flock, ascension denied
crippled and mute, they stagger
with knives drawn in search of a mark
obdurate boundaries of complacent servility
established from their birth
too late came the epiphany for
the meek never to inherit the earth
destitute and mocked by platitudes
fear and frustration overtakes
grasping at straws in want of salvation
abject grief sublimated through rage
Conflict spreads exponentially
long-dormant leviathans stir
in every man, roused by the scent of this..
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death begets
crisis begets panic begets violence begets death...
Lyrics submitted by sokorny
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