Little gems in AtWB?

[BM]

Hi all, after giving the disc a few spins, I began to see certain connections between songs, that give the individual songs deeper meaning and make the album as a whole even more awesome. But maybe I'm just seeing things...

Anyway, here we go:

I Am
The second verse of I AM refers to art in general, but the Masterpiece is explained extra in The Gift of Music.
I Am the hand that pulls you back into the boat before you drown: seems to refer Drown, apart from being pulled into the boat and not just out of the water.
I Am the light of the world: duh...
More on this one later.

The Master Storyteller
The sermon that was the inspiration for this song talks about seeing glimpses of God in everything. In nature, but also in art. This is also clealy present in I Am.
Further, this sermon mentions not doing the things you want to do, but the things you do not want to do (Laying the Demon to Rest), I Am the light of the world, Paul on the Areopagus (twice, Altar to the Unknown God) and mankind not needing God, but only blaming God when something bad happens (As the World Bleeds).

Hide in the Fairytale
This song seems to give another view on the story of Mirror of Souls, the natural man being an Adam born man, Mr. Hyde, the monster in the mirror, and the other the newborn man.
Also, the explicit mentioning of people being sinful from birth reminds me of the start of The Serpent's Kiss.
Speaking of tributes...

Altar to the Unknown God
Paul gives this unknown god a name: I Am. I can't help but seeing parallels in Paul mentioning aspects of God that the Athenians could interpret or see, and the song I Am also using interpretable imagery.

Any thoughts on this? Did I just see things that aren't there, is this just because it all tells the story of salvation? Or would this be intentional?

 

[Arkatox]

I actually noticed several of these, though definitely not all.

Hide in the Fairytale
This song seems to give another view on the story of Mirror of Souls, the natural man being an Adam born man, Mr. Hyde, the monster in the mirror, and the other the newborn man.

Eh... I don't know about this one. My brother tells me that reading the classic makes everything come into a new light when listening to the song again. I need to do that...

 

[Aish!]

Nicely spotted.

I also noticed in the song As the World Bleeds:

"There’s a way that seems right unto men,
but we’ll die with the wages of sin"

A reference to the song Wages of Sin which was originally intended for AtWB before it became the bonus track on MoS.

 

[I Rock 4 God]

Theocracy should have put Wages of Sin on AtWB anyway, cuz it is just a Japanese bonus track on MoS.

And Yes, I have noticed tributes.

@Arkatox Reading Jekyll and Hyde clears up a lot! you should read it. It is a good book, too. (duh, it's a classic)

 

[BM]

One of the coolest lines in I Am is (IMHO) the fourth man you see in the midst of the fire. Also it is one that doesn't get any further explaination on the albums. As there seem to be cross-album references all over the place, one might wonder if this one would point to some of the already written material that might come out on Thecracy IV. Would be an awesome theme for a song.

 

[Follow The Wolves]

Well, I always thought that "the forth man you see in the midst of the fire" refers to Daniel 3:25 where king Nebuchadnezzar sees an angel/Jesus Himself walking through the fire together with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, while he was convinced he just threw three men into the furnace. TBH, I love that reference.:Spin:

However, if you're right and this is indeed a reference to Theocracy IV, (which I'm pretty sure is not, sorry BM) the album would be very likely to be called 'In The Midst Of The Fire'.

Actually, I made that last thing up...

 

[BM]

Hah, that was exactly what I thought, actually. It would be an awesome theme for a song and the first (? any other? haven't looked in that direction) forward reference.

 

[Arkatox]

Nicely spotted.

I also noticed in the song As the World Bleeds:

"There’s a way that seems right unto men,
but we’ll die with the wages of sin"

A reference to the song Wages of Sin which was originally intended for AtWB before it became the bonus track on MoS.

Actually, I've noticed that several times, but for some reason I didn't remember to mention it in my other post in the thread...

 

[NAAARF]

Maybe the first hint on a future Theocracy song is found in Mountain

"And when it seems I've given up
On eagle's wings you life me up again" (Mountain)

But I don't think Matt already had his Masterplan for MOS at the time he wrote Mountain...

 

[Rawshik]

^ I had put that connection together a long time ago but didn't think much of it. Probably because at the time, I was listening to both the first two albums (probably on shuffle) at the same time for the first times.

 

[Aish!]

Theocracy should have put Wages of Sin on AtWB anyway, cuz it is just a Japanese bonus track on MoS.

Nice idea, but it would have seriously messed up the Japanese release of AtWB.
Releasing Wages of Sin as a single means you can put it with MoS or AtWB or anywhere you like.

 

[Aish!]

Also:

"If the key to life is right here in my hand
Why would I trade it for an hourglass of sand?
…Blood money and the serpent winding…"

Two references in 30 Pieces of Silver to the cover of the album Theocracy.