Metal Lyrical Content

[SeterPellers]

More and more I've been noticing that many bands choose to confront some pretty heavy philosophical issues in their lyrics. I've also noticed quite a few recurring progressive ideas that have been coming up in the lyrics - as a fan I see this as great, because although the music is chaotic and crazy, once you read the lyrics its almost an eye-opener. Has anyone else noticed this?

Check our some of the lyrics off of the new Faceless album, or Awaken the Dreamers by All Shall Perish. (trust me, I'm not advertising these bands...) Really, the things they describe are a part of reality, and real problems that our society has encountered...such as the war in the Middle East (or war in general), human resources exploitation, global climate shift, global industrialization, human suffering, abhorrent neglect of the impoverished, massive unemployment and a failing economy. How many of you are actually aware of these things, as human beings? And as fans do you feel like you have an obligation to listen to the messages that the bands you listen to are putting out there?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I only care about messages in music inasmuch as they're presented in a poetic sense, and compliment the aesthetic of the music. If a band is just trying to be preachy or political, then it's really annoying.

By the way, you do know that social/political messages in music have been around since at least the '60s, right? You make it sound like this is a revolutionary sort of idea.

 

[SeterPellers]

I only care about messages in music inasmuch as they're presented in a poetic sense, and compliment the aesthetic of the music. If a band is just trying to be preachy or political, then it's really annoying.

By the way, you do know that social/political messages in music have been around since at least the '60s, right? You make it sound like this is a revolutionary sort of idea.

Of course. But has it ever occurred to you, as a fan of metal, that since a lot of these bands have anti-materialistic and anti-consumerist messages (which, seeing how things are going in this time period, these ideas still having not taken hold is beyond me...) it would be reasonable to give them a little thought?

Were the world in a sense off on a good foot; if humanity itself were off on a good foot, don't you think artists in general would not need to say these things? There is something wrong. I think we as young people miss the point of the messages that these bands are getting out to us...

 

[Zephyrus]

Yes, Metal is often used as a vehicle for radical philosophical expression. I see Nietzsche in Black Metal all the time. But just because you read Nietzsche doesn't mean you agree with him (though personally I agree with most of his stuff), just so you can listen to any music with extreme lyrics and not subscribe to those ideas, whether even the band itself takes them seriously.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Of course. But has it ever occurred to you, as a fan of metal, that since a lot of these bands have anti-materialistic and anti-consumerist messages (which, seeing how things are going in this time period, these ideas still having not taken hold is beyond me...) it would be reasonable to give them a little thought?

I guess you can look at it that way, but I doubt that metal is a very good vehicle for such messages, especially considering how limited it is in popularity. Personally, I don't need music to make me aware of social issues, and I don't think that's its main purpose.

Were the world in a sense off on a good foot; if humanity itself were off on a good foot, don't you think artists in general would not need to say these things? There is something wrong. I think we as young people miss the point of the messages that these bands are getting out to us...

There's a lot of shit wrong with the world, and tbh most people are going to remain ignorant of this whether or not they have music telling them something's wrong. I think we as a society just need to value education, critical thinking, and political awareness more. Which all pretty much boils down to education anyway.

 

[Death Aflame]

I only care about messages in music inasmuch as they're presented in a poetic sense, and compliment the aesthetic of the music. If a band is just trying to be preachy or political, then it's really annoying.

What if the aesthetic is a political one?

Anyways, some recent bands that have really great, strong messages about the inequity caused by contemporary society and the structures it promotes are Buried Inside and Crimson Massacre.

The former is directly political, and does not attempt to mask its message beneath a typical 'metal' concept (god, satan, dungeons and dragons, etc.).

For instance, just check out these lyrics from Racking the Skulls of American Golgatha:

believing is seeing. the facts will construct themselves: unitary, innate, and linearly rankable. believing is seeng. the facts will perpetuate themselves, under a bankrupt banner of science and dogma: a self-fulfilling prophecy of biological determinism. the essence of every picture is the frame. sewn up at the seams. nailed down dreams. in objectivity we trust. serving numbers like gods, as apostles to iq. but the paths to destruction are often indirect; unlike the last train to auschwitz or the angle of broca's meter stick. history has spoken: science is not neutral. strangle the last reification with the guts of the last quantification. plato was wrong. unbelieving is unseeing. debunk or die.

Or, if you want something even more specific, check out the Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation

the fix is on. fucking dead and gone. because if you're working within the system you are still part of the problem. still sanctifying renewable resources. still anthropomorphizing animal rights. still legitimizing the utilitarian imperative: god-damned unilateral imperialism. it's preservation of wildlife for our sake, and not for it's own sake. and this is the fallacy of resource management; the fallacy of environmental planning; the fallacy of sustainable development; the fallacy of environmental impact assessment; and the tragic flaw in all ecology. and that's all she fucking wrote.

As for the latter band, Crimson Massacre, their approach is less blatant but still quite effective in terms of promoting a highly politicized message about the nature of power and those who wield it. Just look at these lyrics for Sacrifice:

Feast upon the entrails of eternity
Drenched with the molten blood of
stars
The eyes of suns hang lifeless
upon what once was Solaris' throne
A beauty in solitude, tranquil
nothingness
A thousand frozen possibilities
shatter
against the will of the one who
remains
To create from what is not, the anvil
of the void, the hammer of I
And bring forth the thoughts of
Utopia, made
real from the corpse of time.
An empire vomited from the elite mind
purity tarnished by the want of
worship.
A sacrifice made to dispel loneliness
Surreal acknowledgment of shallow
wants
to pay homage to an ego drenched lord.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Who knew metalheads were so concerned with lyrical moral objectivism? Or even that they read lyrics at all?

 

[Death Aflame]

what the hell is moral objectivism? (I assume you are not talking about Ayn Rand's political philosophy)

 

[zabu of nΩd]

What if the aesthetic is a political one?

Not really sure what you mean by this. Are you saying that one could find beauty in serious political messages? I don't think it really works that way. Though you could have a band that deals thematically with something like a real or hypothetical police state, without actually trying to deliver a practical message to listeners.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

what the hell is moral objectivism? (I assume you are not talking about Ayn Rand's political philosophy)

We're throwing around the words 'message' and 'importance' a lot as a topical backbone. If we hugely emphasize the latter, then how else can we categorize it but in that phrasing? Why would such a tone and urgent, movement-oriented idea be rooted in mere uncontested *opinion*?

 

[Death Aflame]

Not really sure what you mean by this. Are you saying that one could find beauty in serious political messages? I don't think it really works that way. Though you could have a band that deals thematically with something like a real or hypothetical police state, without actually trying to deliver a practical message to listeners.

I am using aesthetic more or less as a synonym for the structures of an artwork. For instance, if you are at all familiar with Bertolt Brecht, his works (theatre plays) are often considered by scholars to have a deeply political aesthetic as evidenced by the title of this essay on him, "Brecht's Marxist Aesthetic" (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/brechtsmarxist.pdf). Clearly this use of the term is based primarily on the work itself, rather than purely emotional/impressionistic reactions that are conjured within the audience. I think this is still a valid use of the word (apparently a few books by scholars are titled The Political Aesthetic as well, and though I have not read them the use of aesthetic there seems to be similar to how I have used it).

 

[SeterPellers]

Who knew metalheads were so concerned with lyrical moral objectivism? Or even that they read lyrics at all?

Apparently, more than you give credit for...
Unless that was a rhetorical question.

Thank you for your response, Death Aflame, it's very refreshing seeing that other metalheads are actually looking at lyrics objectively.

Now, do you believe the messages that band, for example, Crimson Massacre, send out to the fans are meant to be taken seriously? Obviously they are trying to make their listeners more aware, but really, how aware is the average fan of music?

 

[Death Aflame]

Thank you for your response, Death Aflame, it's very refreshing seeing that other metalheads are actually looking at lyrics objectively.

No problem, though I don't know how 'objective' one can be in attempting to decipher the message of an artwork.

Now, do you believe the messages that band, for example, Crimson Massacre, send out to the fans are meant to be taken seriously?

Yes. However, the message needs to be deciphered first in this case since it is masked by a conceptual war between heaven and hell (which admittedly is rather generic in terms of surface thematics, but is made interesting, I think, through its broad implications to all power structures in our society).

Obviously they are trying to make their listeners more aware, but really, how aware is the average fan of music?

I can't really answer that last question with any hope of being accurate. My hunch is to say that with something underground and as divorced from the mainstream as metal is, the people that listen to it probably know how to do their homework, so to speak.

The other obvious answer to your question is that the 'average music listener' is only aware of these issues inasmuch as society needs them to be aware (i.e. to appear as a caring, liberal state, its citizens must not lose all of their pity/'charity').

 

[Cythraul]

For instance, just check out these lyrics from Racking the Skulls of American Golgatha:

believing is seeing. the facts will construct themselves: unitary, innate, and linearly rankable. believing is seeng. the facts will perpetuate themselves, under a bankrupt banner of science and dogma: a self-fulfilling prophecy of biological determinism. the essence of every picture is the frame. sewn up at the seams. nailed down dreams. in objectivity we trust. serving numbers like gods, as apostles to iq. but the paths to destruction are often indirect; unlike the last train to auschwitz or the angle of broca's meter stick. history has spoken: science is not neutral. strangle the last reification with the guts of the last quantification. plato was wrong. unbelieving is unseeing. debunk or die.

Or, if you want something even more specific, check out the Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation

the fix is on. fucking dead and gone. because if you're working within the system you are still part of the problem. still sanctifying renewable resources. still anthropomorphizing animal rights. still legitimizing the utilitarian imperative: god-damned unilateral imperialism. it's preservation of wildlife for our sake, and not for it's own sake. and this is the fallacy of resource management; the fallacy of environmental planning; the fallacy of sustainable development; the fallacy of environmental impact assessment; and the tragic flaw in all ecology. and that's all she fucking wrote.

Those lyrics are awful.

 

[Death Aflame]

Those lyrics are awful.

care to explain how you arrived at such a judgment?

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

They just sound like generic diatribe metalcore lyrics. Yawn.

 

[SeterPellers]

Those lyrics are awful.

That is your rightful opinion, friend, but did you read them?

 

[Death Aflame]

They just sound like generic diatribe metalcore lyrics. Yawn.

I suppose that's a fair point, though I am not too familiar with metalcore at all (Buried Inside is about the only band I enjoy from the genre) so I can't really say how accurate your summary is.

Anyways, they are very direct, obviously, but I think they are good since the issues tackled are done so with the required precision to be effective.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

My summary is damned accurate, as most metalcore bands write in that incredibly unintentionally-funny "we're badass because we throw stupid idioms into our 'well-thought-out' lyrics...that's all she fucken' wrote man...breakdown!1!" shit.

 

[Cythraul]

care to explain how you arrived at such a judgment?

They're totally artless and literalistic. I cringe when I read crap like that. I mean, you can't get much cornier than those wildlife conservation lyrics.