How important are lyrics to you?

[Demiurge]

Shitty music with interesting lyrical themes is not aesthetically adequate. Few bands seem to fit into this mold, though. The ones that do should write literature because they're clearly better at the concept part of the equation as opposed to the form. On the other hand, bands with bad lyrics are irritating and generally avoided. A band should have some concept or essence they're communicating. Otherwise, it's just onanism.

 

[CF87]

Acid Bath has great fucking lyics.

"Dying felt so goddamn good today
If I was ever alive well it's hard to say
It was kissing my eyelids and burning my face away
Dying felt so goddamn good today
We dance the electric Pagan Love Song
We hunt with the children paling in the catacombs
Eating dead flowers bleeding in a strange daze
I was cutting throats and eating tears
Smiling in a ruined age
Douse my love everything with gasoline
Grave flower blooms at your red light death scene
We dance the electric Pagan Love Song
We hunt with the children paling in the catacombs
Trippin' on real blood in strange sunshine
Have you felt such weight upon your eyes
Sister I been trippin' in your sky
I woke up adrift in a Technicolor bliss
Ten million miles high
I'm a Christian zombie by daylight
Satan, he come trippin' 'round midnight
Circle jerkin' redneck truckers' dream
You scream, I scream
Everybody screams for morphine
I won't love you, mama, I just fiend your morphine... your morphine
We send, the love, to the skull
I am the mother, the father, the killer
Forever and ever all right
I am the shapeless, the deathless, remorseless
Forever and ever tonight
I'm feelin' hollow again
I am the mother, the father, the killer of light
I'm gonna cut you motherfucker, God's cocksucker
all right

 

[Honest]

I hate stupid lyrics.

Worst Lyrics Ever = Cannibal Corpse

 

[BikerMiceFromMars]

Massacra's lyrics are in engrish and are very dumb.

But their music shits on just about any band.

"IN A LAND OF DARKNESS
ONLY WAR MAKES THEM LIVE
NO ONE KNOWS WHO THEY ARE
IT'S TOO LATE TO KNOW IT
DEATH WARRIORS WITHOUT FEAR
DESTROYING ALL AROUND
THEY ARE BACK, BACK TO KILL
WITH VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED

ONLY DEATH IN THEIR SOULS
JUST MADNESS IN THEIR BRAINS
NO ESCAPE YOU WILL DIE
NOBODY WILL SURVIVE
DEATH WARRIOR WITHOUT FEAR
DESTROYING ALL AROUND
THEY ARE BACK, BACK TO KILL
WITH VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED

THEY'RE SLAVES OF DEATH, RAVAGING WITH DEATH IN THEIR SIDES

STAND IN THEIR WAY
OR RUN AWAY
THEY'RE BACK TO SLAY
KEEP OUT OF THEIR WAY
IT'S TIME TO PRAY
THEY'RE HERE TO STAY

IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT
THEY ARE BACK TO ATTACK
HEAR THEIR SCREAMS HEAR YOUR CRIES
NO PITY PEOPLE DIE

DEATH WARRIORS WITHOUT FEAR
DESTROYING ALL AROUND
NOW YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE
ETERNAL GHOSTS OF WAR

THEY SLAVES

STAND IN THEIR WAY"

 

[CAIRATH]

What I never understood about Cannibal Corpse is how they went through so much trouble writing disturbing lyrics (Necropedophile, the song about having sex with dead children, for instance) but then when you listen to the song you can't make out a single word, not even if you have the lyrics sheet in front of you. I don't think Chris Barnes is even making an effort to try and actually pronounce any of the words on that album. Seems kind of pointless to me.

Anyway, I agree with what most people said I think. Good lyrics can make music better, but bad lyrics don't necessarily make it worse. Especially not when it comes to extreme metal where it's generally pretty easy to ignore the lyrics since they're kind of hard to understand to begin with. But on bare-bones music the lyrics better be good or there won't be much left to appreciate (examples of good lyrics in music like that: Steve von Till's solo work, Nick Drake, etc.).

 

[ProjectedBlack]

What I never understood about Cannibal Corpse is how they went through so much trouble writing disturbing lyrics (Necropedophile, the song about having sex with dead children, for instance) but then when you listen to the song you can't make out a single word, not even if you have the lyrics sheet in front of you. I don't think Chris Barnes is even making an effort to try and actually pronounce any of the words on that album. Seems kind of pointless to me.

I seriously doubt Chris Barnes went through trouble writing Cannibal Corpse's lyrics. He probably went back in time to when he was 4 with some knowledge on gory topics and wrote them. They (and almost all other "goregrind) bands are bands I simply do not listen to because they make the most uninspired and childish music.

 

[Life Sucks]

what about these lyrics "you see me playing guitar, and you feel what my fingers can do, and you wish you were the one, I was doin it to"

Or how about "baby the way you move, I'm gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove." I refuse to listen to any band with such horrible lyrics, no matter what the music sounds like.

 

[LoboUivante]

from very to beary important

 

[Christie_fell]

Lyrics dealing with women in the context of relationships really suck, but lyrics aren't the ESSENCE of the music, no. They don't matter all that much.

A poor vocal style would bother me more than a poor batch of lyrics.

 

[Varg Vikernes]

Worst Lyrics Ever = Cannibal Corpse

their music is on par with their lyrics

 

[BlackMetalTyrant]

I think their music is decent just a little sloppy.

 

[CAIRATH]

The only album I've heard by them that is vaguely musically interesting is Gallery of Suicide because you can actually tell the songs apart on that album. But albums like Tomb of the Mutilated just sound like one continuous boring song to me.

 

[BlackMetalTyrant]

Napalm Death is like that, I get their songs mixed up all the time.

 

[cfh]

It depends on what kind of metal we are talking about, I don't really give a flying fuck about black metal lyrics cause they don't really have any bigger meanning.. ok, it's cool to sing about satanworshipping but still.. Political bands like Kreator or System of a down have really good lyrics. But Metallica takes victory on this class.

 

[CAIRATH]

My lifestyle determines my death style?
I'm madly in anger with you?

 

[Nico]

Political bands like Kreator or System of a down have really good lyrics.

My fucking god, people actually lump these bands together?

 

[BlackMetalTyrant]

Kreator sucks too so whats wrong with lumping them with system?

 

[cfh]

Kreator is one of the best thrash metal bands.. That's just the way it is. And System of a down has one good reccord, Mezmerize, I've gotta say that I was surprised when I heard it cause I also thought that it's just normal bullshit that they have done before.

 

[Nico]

Kreator sucks too so whats wrong with lumping them with system?

Wow, for a black guy, you sure are dumb.

 

[hollowgod]

I've got two words for you "Devil Driver". First time I heard them I threw up in my mouth a little.

Knee deep in the shit
All together in the pit
All foreever in the shit for this