Chop Suey!: Lyrical questions.

Well, I thought that I might do something different here. I am always interested to know the meaning of the songs which I listen to. Sometimes they are quite simple, I even listen to a few songs in which I am sure they are using nonsense words. But there are a few bands which actually have something to say. I end up liking those bands the best. One particular song that I have been confused about is "Chop Suey" by System of a Down. (By the way, a system of a down is a system which does not function properly anymore.) Here are the lyrics to that song (taken from their website).

Wake up,
Grab a brush and put a little (makeup),
Grab a brush and put a little,
Hide the scars to fade away the (shakeup)
Hide the scars to fade away the,
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable

You wanted to,
Grab a brush and put a little makeup,
You wanted to,
Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup,
You wanted to,
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table,
You wanted to,

I don't think you trust,
In, my, self righteous suicide,
I, cry, when angels deserve to die, Die,

Wake up,
Grab a brush and put a little (makeup),
Grab a brush and put a little,
Hide the scars to fade away the (shakeup)
Hide the scars to fade away the,
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable

You wanted to,
Grab a brush and put a little makeup,
You wanted to,
Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup,
You wanted to,
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table,
You wanted to,

I don't think you trust,
In, my, self righteous suicide,
I, cry, when angels deserve to die
In my, self righteous suicide,
I, cry, when angels deserve to die

Father, Father, Father, Father,
Father/ Into your hands/I/commend my spirit,
Father, into your hands,

Why have you forsaken me,
In your eyes forsaken me,
In your thoughts forsaken me,
In your heart forsaken, me oh,

Trust in my self righteous suicide,
I, cry, when angels deserve to die,
In my self righteous suicide,
I, cry, when angels deserve to die.

It looks awkward as it is, but the song actually flows fairly smoothly. If you go to my myspace account at http://www.myspace.com/forlackofaname you should be able to listen to it.

What always had me curious (and I'm sure you too), was the fact that he quoted Christ during the last half of the song. System of a Down isn't a Christian band (or at least they don't seem to be... at all), and many accounts say that they aren't religious at all. The "Father, why have you forsaken me?" could simply be a desperate depressed outlook on life, but thats not exactly System of a Down's outlook. They put a lot of emphasis on coruption in government, but they don't seem to get explicitly desperate at all.

Another phrase which interested me was "self righteous suicide". Most people seem to have heard the word "suicide" and automatically think they're talking about killing themselves. But "self righteous suicide" isn't quite simple. If one is righteous, then he is "in accord with divine or moral law" and "free from guilt or sin" (Miriam-Webster). So if one is self righteous, one would know "in his heart" that he is guiltless and in the right. Correct? So a self righteous suicide would be if one knew he was right but threw it all away. Please inform me if I'm missing any logic, I really am having a hard time with this one. It does not, however, seem to be so bad a thing. It sounds almost like sacrifice.

Mr. Serj Talakian (the lead singer of System of a Down) says that he cries "when angels deserve to die". This seems like more of a religious question. One might automatically say (and many have) "what does he mean? angels can't die". It seems to be more of a symbolic phrase. An angel who deserves to die might be a person who you think is such a grand creature, but has commited an atrocity. It definatley has an emotional background.

Theres a great ammount of emotion in this song to begin with. A song can have emotion but it needs to have something more there so that it doesn't just fall apart. I'm not entirely sure what it means so I'm not entirely sure if the song holds together. The general idea of the song seems to denote betrayal. Such as a wife having an affair. The affair part justifies the "I cry when angels deserve to die" phrase. The "Father why have you forsaken me?" phrase denotes the pain that is inflicted in that kind of situation. Theres a theory, and it looks like it fits.