Metal Lyrics

This is a question for all you guys.

When your listening to music are you listening to the lyrics? Do the way the vocals sound make more of an impact then what the lyrics actually say?

I've been wondering this stuff because lately I've been thinking of cool lyrics.... Sure some of my stuff is just straight forward "blood n gore" lyrics but sometimes that gets boring.

I like writing things about my actual life. But I write metal shit. If I want a kick ass Death Metal song I have to go to a dark place in my mind and think of fucked up shit... If I want a classic Thrash song I could just drink a mickey off Smirnoff and write all the things about headbanging, and bein' in a moshpit.

Sometimes I wanna incorporate more serious lyrics into my music but it's hard because none of my friends want that shit. They want the same old "Kill, blood, and guts" lyrics over and over again.

It's almost as if my friends are too stupid to understand the things I write about... And it makes me wonder if anybody would ever "get" my lyrics.

Then my friends will go and say something like "it's metal, your not supposed to understand lyrics anyway". Which just makes me shake my head in disgust becuause they're all just so dumb.

So back to the original quesition, do lyrics mean anything to you when your first hearing a song? Or do you have to like the song to be able to "get in" to the lyrics.

 

When I first start getting into metal it was more about the guitar (being a guitar player) and that was about it.....later on i decide to know what COB was talking about out of curiosity. Well as i started read the lyrics they where by far the stupidest lyrics i read! I mean facking Cannibal Corpse puts more efford in to writing then these guys but then again vice versa COB puts more technicality to their music unlike CC.

Now after about seven years of being into Metal lyrics have become important me I guess its an inspiration to write good songs "if" I ever start a band myself.
I think the first band I ever tried to understand was Sonata Arctica a few songs off their Reckoning Night CD i can understand but others I cant. Later on Iced Earth became a great influence because of their main man Jon Schaffer. Jon writes the music and the LYRICS!! like Harrison from Maiden!

Now I like alot of song lyrics the Jon wrote in Days of Purgatory and in Burnt Offering! oh dont make me forget their cd with the Ripper I think its The Reckoning? Wow loved those lyrics about history of war.

Now I think the next big inspiration for me is Kai Hansen from Helloween/Gamma Ray.

I know anyone can like early Helloween stuff up to 88.

I mean who of us regular "heavy metal" posters can related to the song "I WANT OUT" by Helloween? were theirs day were we just want to escape life and the shit its given us??

"From our lives' beginning on
we are pushed in little forms
no one asks us how we like to be
in school they teach you what to think
but everyone says different things
but they're all convinced that
they're the ones to see


So they keep talking and they never stop
and at a certain point you give it up
so the only thing that's left to think is this


I want out--to live my life alone
I want out--leave me be
I want out--to do things on my own
I want out--to live my life and to be free

People tell me A and B
they tell me how I have to see
things that I have seen already clear
so they push me then from side to side
they're pushing me from black to white
they're pushing 'til there's nothing more to hear"


who cant related to that??



Now continuing about Kai Hansen he also writes about fighting Aliens and shit for example the song "solid":

"Leaving the planet, we're coming to burn
Fight for the nation, we know there will be no return
Interstellarian, galactical wars
Now we are feeling we got no...
We got no remorse

Stellarian fighters are ready to strike
She alien vessels are burning tonight

So glorious we'll fly like the eagle in the sky
And I know it's gonna be victory

We're solid - erasing the alien planet
We're solid - erasing the alien planet

The alien tyrants will knock at your door
They come for a reason and they will be coming for more
- yes, they will -
No conversation, agreements to make
Eyes that are gleaming are twisting and sealing your fate
Now it's the time for us all to strike back
All systems prepare for the final attack"


now tell me those arent bad ass lyrics!?!!

 

BTW about your friends and them taking your lyrics or lyrics as a joke in general maybe its time to break off and start your own band with serious musicians....



I honeslty love lyrics with deep meaning! I mean who doesnt?!

 

most metal lyrics are terrible, but since the focus of a metal song is typically not on the vocals, it is not too hard to overlook. Of course, when the vocals / lyrics are good, it's just that much better. IMO metal has too many "rules" as evidenced by your band mate's reactions to your attempt to broaden the band's lyrical themes. IMO, nothing would be more metal than saying fuck you and writing about what you want.

 

Yeah, I need to find people who are actually serious about music.... I mean my friends are awesome for jammin' and drinkin' and gettin' stoned with... But they know nothing about metal....

Sure, sometimes I like writing about murders and evil shit. But then other times I like writing about life. And I don't like showing my "real" songs too my friends.

Like look at this piece of shit, I showed them this and they almost shit their god damn pants in amazement.

http://www.hipforums.com/modules/Journal/viewentry.php?journalid=2395

I wrote that in 5 minutes. Sure it sounds all evil and shit but it's just a bunch of random shit. Anybody could have wrote that song. My friends like it because it's very straightforward. It's about death and other bad things, any idiot could get the point of that song... And there's nothing wrong with that, sometimes a song like that fits the mood when your pissed or something.

But I have some other shit (maybe I'll post it one day) that I actually take seriously...

 

Lyrics aren't as important to me, but I can't like a song with bad lyrics and I can't like a bad song with good lyrics. I think the beauty of metal (like black and death metal specifically) is hearing the sick shreads and someone screaming at you.

Meaningfull lyrics are good too, but every once in awhile they get too heavy and sometimes that puts me off...

 

Those aren't too bad. These are the lyrics I wrote for my short lived death metal band's sole original song.

You can still have fun with the generic metal themes, but it's a bullshit little box that you don't need to confine yourself too.

 

I dont know if its me but it reminds me of a song off Kill em all

 

so true. although your friends sound like they would rather stay in the box.

personally i don't really care about the lyrics the first couple times i'll listen to a track, but if i start listening to the song more then i'll start noticing. honestly, alot of metal lyrics are pretty simpistic. maybe the screaming vocals are meant to enhance the lyrics?

 

maybe the band you listen to suck?

 

Nah, no lyrics bother me much in metal. MOST, but not all all indeed shit.

But I can't relate to the lyrics either way because of the delivery. Screaming like most bands do just makes it hard to understand what they are saying, let alone care.

The guitar is stellar however. And the drumming quite often. Shame the bass gets lost in the mix.

 

"Why the hell are you gettin' in everyone's face."

 

I listen to all of It, but mainly the lyrics. The way the instruments are being played, the speed, the depth all of It. But the lyrics are what stand out to me

 

Warmen - Spark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGK1b-eODI


LOL! I like these lyrics! easy to understand!

 

nah the bass doessn't really get lost, just people don't notice it in there. even if you're looking for it, it just blends in with the guitar

 

I really like how (even rather simple) lyrics can really add to the atmosphere to a metal song. It depends on the band though, of some you expect and appreciate the lyrics more and of others you just appreciate how their short lines about blood on altars and the coming of satan adds to the music.
I also love lyrics in black metal even though it's a genre where you generally can't hear what they're about hehe. Once you read them out of curiosity when you dig a song it can really add to the greatness of the music.

For me Summoning - The rotting horse on the deadly ground is a good example hehe:

Wars of great kings and clash of armouries Whose
swords no man could tell, whose spears Were
numerous as wheat field's ears Rolled over all the
great lands, and seas
Were loud with navies, their devouring fires
Behind the armies burned both fields and towns And
sacked and crumbled or to flaming pyres Were
cities made, where treasuries and crowns
Kings and their folk, their wives and tender maids
Were all consumed. Now silent are those courts
Ruined the towers, whose old shape slowly fades
And no feet pass beneath their broken ports

I need no call of clamant bell that rings
Iron tongued in the towers of earthly kings

Take a ride on, ride on,
on your rotting horse
on that deadly ground
Take a ride, ride on,
on your rotting horse
with a pounding sound.

Here on the stones and trees there lies a spell
Of unforgotten loss, of memories more blest
than mortal wealth.

 

^ sounds black metal!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hso5QuzsmM

TANKARD - Zombie Attack - Fat, Ugly And Still (A)Live 03

:cheers2:

 

In the heat and rain
With whips and chains
To see him fly
So many die
We built a tower of stone
With out flesh and bone
To see him fly
But why, it don't rain
With all our chains,
Did so many die
Just to see him fly
Look at my flesh and bone
Now look, look, look, look
Look at this tower of stone
I see a rainbow rising
Look there on the horizon
And I'm coming home
Coming home, I'm coming home

Time is standing still
He gave me back my will
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Going home
I'm going home
My eyes are bleeding
And my heart is weeping
We still hope, we still hope, oh
Take me back
He gave me back my will
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Going home
I'm going home
My eyes are bleeding
And my heart is weeping
We still hope, we still hope, oh

Take me back, take me back
Back to my home, oh, oh...

Greatest outro of all time

 

Nah, with todays production the bass is so "up front" that you can't even notice it... Really, if there was no bass in a track it would sound like complete shit.