Morph is about Tyler’s relationship with God and Science
I’m sure most of you may have caught onto this by now, but I needed to type it out since it’s on my mind. Morph has been a favorite of mine because of the vocabulary Tyler uses (i.e. blind belief, ones and zeroes, and scientific miracle). I found that after listening to Morph, I interpreted the track as Tyler sharing with the audience his struggle when it comes to accepting both theological and scientific answers into his life.
He begins the song by talking about how “‘if’ and ‘when’ he dies” and how it is a major conflict for him. Since Tyler identifies as a Christian, the theological answer is that Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross and died for the sin of man and that Tyler will be given the gift of eternal life once he dies. However, Tyler is notorious for questioning his faith and has done it numerous times throughout his musical career (i.e. Implicit Demand for Proof’s entirety, begging to be saved in Save, Anathema and Blasphemy’s theological questioning, and many more).
“For above is blind belief” is one option that backs the theological way of looking at death and why we suffer from mental illness. Tyler can choose to believe ‘blindly’ in Christ which would lead to eternal salvation and peace of mind. Or, he can choose another alternative: “And under is sword to sleeve”. I am not quite sure what it means, but I can guess that it is about self-harm (i.e. this also relates to the repetition of “going low” and “high road” found in Bandito). The last alternative, “around is scientific miracle” shows me Tyler’s other option: believe in science and contemporary ideas that can teach him how to manage his struggles or cure him of them altogether (a miracle).
The chorus is really spectacular to me: “I’ll morph to someone else, a defense mechanism mode.” I interpreted this as a solution of sorts that he has come up with. Rather than believing solely in Scripture or solely in scholarly text/insight, Tyler bounces back and forth between the two creating a ‘defense mechanism’ for peace of mind and to help him to not ‘go under/low’.
As for the “above” option Tyler mentions it again, “For if and when we go above the question still remains: are we still in love and is it possible we feel the same?” I found that this particular line relates directly back to Prove Me Wrong, which I believe he released when he was either seventeen or eighteen on No Phun Intended. Many people in the clique believe that to be a romantic love song (which is totally valid) but I have always believed it to be a song about spiritual baptism. The word “love” appears only in Tyler’s theological songs and does not ever once appear in his songs for his wife, Jenna. This is an important factor in this theory because I found the question of Morph’s “are we still in love and is it possible we feel the same?” is a decade long follow up to Prove Me Wrong’s “I don’t believe love’s for me” (i.e. ‘I don’t believe (His) love’s for me’).
Tyler then continues by saying “And that’s when going under starts to take my wonder” which tells me that he still yearns for God even if he believes in science as well and until he finds a more concrete solution, he will continue to Morph in terms of spirituality and irreligious belief to keep himself afloat.