Brad introduced me to ThouShaltNot several months ago. I found myself very much enjoying their musical style – a gorgeous variant of goth music, with influences from EBM, industrial, classical, and more – but I hadn’t listened closely to the lyrics. So when, a few weeks ago, he mentioned “You know they’re Christian, right?”, I was . . . surprised, to say the least. I started reading their lyrics and listening more closely, and with lines like “At the bottom of the sea, I was bathed in your forgiveness” and “Is it better to reign in a world of pain than to serve a cause divine?“, I have to wonder how I hadn’t noticed.
Granted, they don’t have the explicit references to Christianity that Sufjan Stevens has, let alone the “I love Jesus! Jesus is awesome!” of a lot of Christian contemporary music. But it’s everywhere implicitly, and I can only assume that the careful lack of self-identification as Christian is a result of the fact that the goth music market, already small, includes many people frustrated with or embittered to religion. By letting their beliefs permeate their songs but remain superficially unspoken, ThouShaltNot can reach far more people with their powerful lyrics. I’m impressed. And I still think their music is gorgeous. ::grins::
Embrace the Sun (mp3 download here)
Feel the grass within my dream -
A million years it’s grown.
Unconscious lies the human form,
Now no longer alone.
This, this is the end of darkness;
This is the gift of the wise.
A silent breath cuts through and
Squalls the sand from off my eyes.
chorus:
Waking from eternal sleep,
I’m waking from eternal sleep -
Beyond the night so infinite
And through the gulf where no man stirs.
I’m waking from eternal sleep;
The stars will fade, though I will keep
Their memory, as I embrace the sun.
Like breathing thoughtlessly in time
The cycles of the moon now pass;
Alive again, I witness who will slumber on
And who, like me, shall wake at last.
All the dreamers quiet as the rays
That served as herald to the days -
As now I see the path I trod
Seal off its entryway.
(repeat chorus 3x)
