Lyrical Subject Matter

[soundave]

Do songs that are musically brutal need to have brutal lyrics?

I have to admit that I've heard enough satanic/slasher lyrics to last me a lifetime (even if I can't understand 90% of them without the lyric sheet in front of me). I've been considering this more and more since my 2 year old daughter has begun to understand more and more. Just yesterday, when I joked with her about singing like "Opef", as she calls them, she told me they were scary and made her sad. This is new, and I don't know if she's trying out calling stuff scary (a recent Dora the Explorer has been about not being scared, and she's been talking a lot about what is and isn't scary) or whether she's actually scared. This from a kid who bounced around the room while Ghost of Perdition was playing last month....

Anyhow, I've been writing some music, and as usual, I'm stuck on the lyrics. It strikes me that the EASY way out is for them to be brutal. It's harder to write convincing, thought-provoking lyrics that aren't necessarily evil.

So, what do you think are good, non-brutal lyrical subjects? Any really heavy bands that write great, non-brutal lyrics? I have some ideas, of course, but I'm curious about what you all will have to contribute.

 

[biggsy]

Personally I find writing simple and through provoking lyrics to be more effective than complex and brutal ones. I enjoy lyrics that put an idea in front of me, but give me the job of interpreting them in a way that is relevant to me. Some of my favourite lyrics would probably be from Isis... even though, really, I've heard more complex, better structured etc. lyrics, they mostly have a great balance in that they sound great, convey an idea, and also let me interpret them as I see fit.

In case you want to check some out, see Carry and The Beginning and the End.

 

[i aint play this]

Lyrics have to fit the music. It would be very awkward to hear Mike singing about easter bunnies or ''ya beautifuuul it is troo'', etc. Voivod sings about sci-fi stuff, and that kind of shit fits their music perfectly. KSE sings about recovery, faith and other gay shit, and well...it suits them nicely!. Isis is a ''heady'' band so they sing about Michel Foucault's theories of prison systems or smth.
My point is: music is the hand, lyrics are the glove.

 

[stefan86]

it's all about the mood of the music IMO. ultra brutal music usually suits well with very hateful lyrical imagery. just try to feel your riffs/songs out and try to find what you personally think of when you're playing. that's the way to go methinks

 

[Alex78]

what about Nile? they sing about egyptian stuff afaik. or do they have some gorey stuff too?

your daughter must be awesome though!

 

[stefan86]

well Nile's egyptian stuff is actually pretty gory in it's own way I reckon It's really cool how they found their own identity though.

 

[Scourge of God]

Do songs that are musically brutal need to have brutal lyrics?

I have to admit that I've heard enough satanic/slasher lyrics to last me a lifetime (even if I can't understand 90% of them without the lyric sheet in front of me). I've been considering this more and more since my 2 year old daughter has begun to understand more and more. Just yesterday, when I joked with her about singing like "Opef", as she calls them, she told me they were scary and made her sad. This is new, and I don't know if she's trying out calling stuff scary (a recent Dora the Explorer has been about not being scared, and she's been talking a lot about what is and isn't scary) or whether she's actually scared. This from a kid who bounced around the room while Ghost of Perdition was playing last month....

Anyhow, I've been writing some music, and as usual, I'm stuck on the lyrics. It strikes me that the EASY way out is for them to be brutal. It's harder to write convincing, thought-provoking lyrics that aren't necessarily evil.

So, what do you think are good, non-brutal lyrical subjects? Any really heavy bands that write great, non-brutal lyrics? I have some ideas, of course, but I'm curious about what you all will have to contribute.

Basically, all of the really intelligent bands in metal have lyrical content that is 'brutal' in one sense or another. Bands that aim at 'intelligence' in a conventional sense tend to end up like late period Death (i.e. writing moronically literal screeds validating political liberalism and popular morality).

 

[Alex78]

so what are some reeeeaaaallly intelligent metal bands, dude?

 

[Scourge of God]

so what are some reeeeaaaallly intelligent metal bands, dude?

Burzum, early At the Gates, early Deicide, early Enslaved, classic era Slayer - all bands with brilliant lyrical content to go with brilliant music.

 

[derbeder]

oh yeaaah!!!....
This is War
I Lie Wounded on Wintery Ground
With Hundred of Corpses around
Many Wounded Crawl Helplessly around
On the Blood Red Snowy Ground
War
Cries of the (ha, ha) Suffering Sound
Cries for Help to All Their Dear Moms
War
Many Hours of Music
Many Drops of Blood
Many Shiverings and Now I Am Dead
And Still We Must Never Give up
War

 

[MegaMoose]

It doesn't get much more intelligent than that.

 

[Scourge of God]

oh yeaaah!!!....
This is War
I Lie Wounded on Wintery Ground
With Hundred of Corpses around
Many Wounded Crawl Helplessly around
On the Blood Red Snowy Ground
War
Cries of the (ha, ha) Suffering Sound
Cries for Help to All Their Dear Moms
War
Many Hours of Music
Many Drops of Blood
Many Shiverings and Now I Am Dead
And Still We Must Never Give up
War

Considering the fact that English was his FOURTH language, not bad at all. His Norwegian lyrics were, not surprisingly, much stronger. "Det som engang var" achieves what only a handful of metal songs ever managed - actual poetry.

 

[Selkie]

sure!


Heimdallr

Heimdall is the name of an Old Norse God;
he is called the Old White Norse God;
he is great and holy;
his teeth are made of gold;
his horse is named Goldtop.
He lives where it's called the mountain in the sky besides
Bifrost.
He needs less sleep than a bird;
he sees night as clear as day
one thousand miles away from where he is;
he also hear the grass grow from the soil,
or the wool on the sheep and everything that can be heard.
He possess the horn that is called the Gjallarhorn,
and they can hear him blowing the horn in all the homes.

 

[Selkie]

"Det som engang var" achieves what only a handful of metal songs ever managed - actual poetry.

the kind that be-grimmed greasy haired bedwetting virgins post on their myspaces, right?

 

[Alex78]

sure!


Heimdallr

Heimdall is the name of an Old Norse God;
he is called the Old White Norse God;
he is great and holy;
his teeth are made of gold;
his horse is named Goldtop.
He lives where it's called the mountain in the sky besides
Bifrost.
He needs less sleep than a bird;
he sees night as clear as day
one thousand miles away from where he is;
he also hear the grass grow from the soil,
or the wool on the sheep and everything that can be heard.
He possess the horn that is called the Gjallarhorn,
and they can hear him blowing the horn in all the homes.

 

[in_absentia]

Hands down, Cradle of Filth's Damnation And a Day

even though Dani Filth is a cunt, his lyrics are very well thought, and indeed very well put, like how he based the whole Damnation And A Day album concept around Milton's Paradise Lost, and interpreted it in his own poetic techniques etc.

[Part 1]

So adept was unspoken Man
At dusting ledgers of the seraphim
That Lilith swept across the broken land
In a whirl of lust to pleasure him

This bland Adam, a reaper of the sun
In bone dry season, for Eve was busy sucking thumbs
Pricked in rosy gardens as he spattered into shells
And ran with morning fauna; His mastiffs and gazelle

Breathless as the wind
Adam, prowled, fell foul to Sin
But not before She spread Her grin
Across His silent lips
At crack of day, though what was shame?
The raptor's nest wherein they lay
Bore witness to Her soft parade
Of fingers come to grips

His undivine attention won
She deftly spun
From 'neath His thrusts to writhe above
In ecstasy
Pendulous She swung
As if her limbs imbibed His tongue
To spill, as with His rod
The secret name of God

But no seed passed those fruitful lips
(Serpent Tongue)
For fearing Her who grasped, He slit
(Serpent Tongue)
Her throat from ear to where She fled
(Serpent Tongue)
With tail and blood between Her legsss...

[Part II]

So very kept was the virgin hand
That brushed the treasures of Utopia
And how the greed swept across the desert sands
In late August just to measure Her

This hallowed Eve, a creature of the moon
A simple dish born with a silver spoon
Giddy sniffing orchids that opened after dusk
Incubus and Prudence, two such swoon to touch Her

Restless as the skies
Temptation, bloomed, found room to rise
And snatching breaths between Her thighs
He crawled to Eve...
At dead of night, the sticky clime
Smelt perfect to this serpentine
This shining Angel
Palled in mysteries...

Her undivine attention won
He deftly spun
A web of for the one
Great sacred tree
Bejewelled and lit
As if a thousand shades did flit
About boughs of forbidden lore
Hidden for the want of more

And when seeds passed those fruitful lips
And Mankind basked in vast eclipse
A Devil shot of thin disguise
Surmised to better paradise

 

[Don Corleone]

Considering the fact that English was his FOURTH language, not bad at all. His Norwegian lyrics were, not surprisingly, much stronger. "Det som engang var" achieves what only a handful of metal songs ever managed - actual poetry.

puhahahhahahahahhahahahahahhaah get out you stupid cunt. you got owned by derbeder and you know it. vikernes has good lyrics? hahaha yeah whatever

 

[Don Corleone]

and cheers for in_absentia for mentioning dani filth...such an excellent lyricist on topics including all kinds of occult, mythology, esoteric literature, religion and history (hell, even architecture!).

 

[stefan86]

I guess I'm being a mongrel metalhead here but I've actually never payed too much attention to lyrics. The only one's I generally like are usually doomy, depressive stuff in the vein of Katatonia, Anathema, Daylight Dies, Antimatter etc.

 

[in_absentia]

Antimatter have amazing lyrics. I had to mention Dani Filth, he is just so good at what he does. I hope he never quits writing.

edit- and whoever thought Varg wrote good lyrics.. needs to get another opinion