Something new, or maybe not, referenced before in cursory form on posts on this channel, or just call it a blog, is how to write lyrics in a heavy metal style that simply transcend. Even spiritually. Epically.
Below is an example of my own composing of such, a bit Iron-Maidenesque. Not everyone rhymes words in a single verse like aristocracy, animosity and atrocity. Or understand the reams of background that got these brilliant lyricists where they are today.
I’d love to show you how to make this your own, and write such lyrics yourself. (With all sorts of variations that I’ll explain at length, and numerous in-depth and specific mental exercises to bring you there, coming from sources used creatively that are unlikely for such applications, until you stop to think about it.) All through a DIY handbook and its followups that I soon will make available on this website. I will likely update this, as there is so much to say, with monthly installments of new tips in the inside departments, such as Killer Metal Lyrics. (You may have seen some of them listed alongside the homepage, and right now they are (unintentional) duplications of other posts but over time will delve into all kinds of new topical stuff).
For this deep stuff, most people need it explained — so here we go. My metalhead friends say I’m taking it to another level. A lot of this style goes deep into theology.
Some easy interpretations
I chose some of the easier-to-understand messiah references down toward the end as examples, only because the thought can be condensed. As some of this stuff is so deep it is almost beyond human comprehension on just one time around. I hope to provide a framework for the numerous references that are even more complex and open to different interpretations. Am I sometimes barking up the wrong tree when I see all these different layers that only a few others have ascertained — but likely the writers themselves? A very learned and successful man I talked to — he got off on U2′s The Joshua Tree — said this about even the basic messiah-mongering stuff that is described down below: “This is way over my head.”
Filth meaning
(But first an aside: Bands like Cradle of Filth, although edgy, are worthy of example because they are in another universe with their songwriting, and many others have copied it in lighter tone. The band title? The frontman is named Dani Filth.
And besides, for a variety of other metaphor reasons, do you think that the Bible’s manger was just all clean straw? Artsy.
I maybe, or may anyway, break from the rest, in how I write lyrics about such things, because I’ll not go to that degree with my symbolism; is there really a need to mention it just because it’s probably true? Or is that why this is truly art.
I’ll just get more poetic instead. A new friend says: By their fruits you will know them. Their points of emphasis are shown by the songs they choose to cover. It might seem odd, but Cradle of Filth is one of many bands to cover Hallowed Be Thy Name, the Iron Maiden prayful classic of a man going to the gallows that got the whole music reaction thing started in the first place.)
Word choice
Like not many others, to re-emphasize, I will rhyme in a single verse words like aristocracy, animosity and atrocity. That will set people apart.
And at times it is not really profound — a very overused word — just artistic word play. They write scapegracing rather than scapegoating, I say analog to make a point versus analogy.
Grand ideas
Some writers just tweak the concept — their combining words to make one is said to be like Paul in the New Testament, and that’s all fine and good but do they bring forth original thought? I think a better route is forming grand ideas, as opposed to simply word play that may just involve a very high vocabulary and use of phrases. Without further ado, see my example below, and I’ll share scores of these types of lyrics over time.
(The backstory of the lyrics that follow, I wrote them in five minutes, is that what if, all those macho men who bed hundreds of women, leave a spiritual piece of themselves behind with each one, and could not just sever the ties clean and go blithely forward. Imagine the cost).
Thoughts and prayers for me
and my betrothed, more than one?
And for most all of us, it will be
as we reach the deepest bowels of our souls
and into them dwell
What if you give away,
so many pieces of yourself
that there are no pieces left
many pieces, big and small,
but in the end, they all … they all
Those who you have actually known
The connection stronger will be shown
and what if that perfect one
was made more perfect, how?
that is the way it is done
Woe to you
who’ve bedded a hundred women
on all of you the wrath
of isolation and eventually ..
scorn will be given
Not a thousand needed
but merely a hundred
it will do, as well, to
a tinged soul plunder
Such seeds are sown in a holy place
But in that space, fell from grace
A thousand warriors I have known
not Perfect, wounded veterans all
and it’s not just in battle that they fall
for the very soul of your Queen awaits
and its absolute longing pervades and spreads
since what is fruitful will multiply
For the need to be complete
in a truly spiritual form
will never go away
once you’ve lorned
regardless of your loins
Though some baggage with women will remain
it’s not too late to change your wonton, wanting ways
But to backtrack, religion intentional?
Is all the theological imagery in metal especially, although overt, actually done on purpose? “The smoke of her burning,” again Dani Filth-written, a song with dozens of very-specific analyzed references — starting with the 70 A.D. Jerusalem siege — to all sorts of views of Revelation, Matthew, Daniel and such, answers the question flat-out, or is that just how I see it? One online explanation to the song goes on close to an hour. Too long for here.
These writers often just play off each others songs, in what early-on was like a closed club, with just a few bands that often mixed and matched members, so there is a body of work to reference and patterns to be seen, using song references few people understand, but love to find out about. This depth is like comparing Michael Jordan to a high school player.
Only Jesus can do
Also, in both metal and I’m sure many forms of literature, there is a metaphor where Jesus is the one who can do what no other can. And because he was part human, he’s also said to be the world’s best lover, and has even brought speculation about being its most well-endowed.
(Will I go into that territory?)
But how about this, by a group with a religion-themed name, Deep Purple, so that gives you a hint: “Sweet Lucy was a dancer, but none of us would chance her, because she was a samurai. She made electric shadows beyond our fingertips, but none of us could reach that high.” There can be many interpretations of “reach that high,” such as the height of a stage, or a lunge heavenward, or a superior spiritual state. But get this last line, a one-word changeup: “ONE of us could reach that high.” Guess who that could be?
Are these things important, or just mental gymnastics? But if they make people more comfortable with God and yes, bring about their understanding of theology and faith …
For grace of God go I
But another topic. There is a frequent metal metaphor, misunderstood, that can be summed up as “but for the Grace of God go I.” So how about this line, in a song about a hit man with a conscience. “Shot in the dark, one step away you. Shot in the dark, nothing you can do.” Meaning? If not for fate and God’s providence, you or I could be that person having to shoot, and then live with the consequences of our actions.
These lyrics writers often play with numbers, mostly three and seven. There’s even a style where one person in the Holy Trinity is being addressed in some songs, more than the other two, since they are in the best position to address the human need being presented.
Two Minutes to it
Some would say all this is a reach. But Iron Maiden has been asked to explain this satirical ending lyric in an antiwar anthem, about the atomic doomsday clock: “The killer’s breed are the demon seed, the clamor the fortune the pain. Go to war again, blood is freedom’s stain, don’t you pray for my soul anymore. Two minutes to midnight, the hands that threaten doom. Two minutes to midnight, to kill the unborn in the womb.” First, there is the Bible verse that says God will visit the father’s sins on the sons. But this is what they said about that last line: In what’s apparently a rather obscure reference, the Bible makes the comparison between the destruction in the final stages of war, and the pain a woman goes through in childbirth.
Dio and whose words
And this from Ronnie James Dio: Once the words of a song leave my lips, I no longer own them. They become yours to interpret however you see fit. So over and over, they give the listener free will to make such choices in meaning. And if there is one takeaway I have about metal lyrics, hundreds of times over as those in the last paragraphs, if you get stumped, think Biblical. Thus, the lyrics have almost exclusively been said, if such singers are pressed in an interview, to be of a “Christ figure.”
I think my handbook would be a perfect way to introde this school of thought, as its just this kind of empathy and intuition and similar subject matter that’s driven so many heavy metal songwriters since their beginnings, (once you really get behind the thick symbolism). They have been just as tormented as I with things like crazy strong emotional connections, shown in the “Easter Eggs” in dozens of songs.
(In the following “theory,” which could also be spun off of into song lyrics, I present what I now see — based in part on a song I just heard — as parallels to the warlike effectiveness shown during the sieges of Jerusalem as described in the Bible, which some of those people brought on themselves by being ungodlike. Do you think the analysis has merit? Or is it overstated? Would you offer another layer or line of reasoning?)
Jesus as uncaring?
As I have gone through excessive ruminations about theology, and the role of God in Three Persons in it, I began thinking about the lack of a Messiah at times, apparently, to protect the very weak, even though that is what He was all about.
Christ on the Cross died the most horrific death a person, even a (half) deity, could imagine. That is a matter of record, to a degree I’ve checked out from theological concern, that only gets worse as you explore further. But what of the hundreds of rotting corpses that the Romans left hanging from crosses as people ventured into Jerusalem, as a method to control the populace through fear the same thing could happen to them.
So why did Jesus not put His money where His mouth is, call all those legions of angels to come and as part of the picture free the Israelites from the tyranny of the Romans? Did Jesus not care so much about all those who befell the same fate as He, although maybe not as torturous? Or was He simply working within the constraints of the culture in which he lived.
But there’s got to be more to this, and I have prayed for answers — something I always default to — that are not angry and aggressive. And now maybe these answers are now here.
If all those angels (check out the metal band Armored Saint) did take down the Romans, there would have been the horrible deaths faced by tens of thousands of their soldiers, and maybe a few innocent angels in the process. Not as bad as being crucified, but the sheer difference in numbers affected has to speak to you. And once a dictator is overthrown in this manner in a given province, other peoples are emboldened to also act, with a domino effect.
And further, and more importantly, such a coup by Jesus would have put the entire ancient world and its long-established-and-still-evolving systems into turmoil. Consider the positioning of these countries in the overall region. Caravans of food and other marketable and very valuable goods across Asia and much of Europe and even Africa, which dealt with more then just newfangled spices of ther Orient, though that’s what you hear about most, would have been disrupted, and with that the meager food sources of the general populace would go asunder. And thus, the barter system so many replied on for an again, meager, sort of income, would be compromised. Or that’s my take on it, Coming From A Land Of Plenty.
Invoke Alexander
So what’s the end run here? I check out not only the Bible but also my Biblical metal music. The logical source of such commentary? An Iron Maiden song I’d long been wanting to check out, Alexander The Great, would be a source of insight.
The rub: Alexander started as a regional leader wanting to overthrow (tyrannical) governments, but he was so skilled he eventually conquered almost all of the known world. And Maiden pointed out what you might not normally hear, all this spread of culture and ideas along a fast track allowed the later establishment of an (enhanced) version of Christianity throughout the land. Certainly, this new religion would not have spread as broadly and as fast.
The politics of Jesus
So when considering that many Jewish leaders viewed Christ as a political failure, I need to revisit the words of rock groups like (very aptly named) Nazareth and Oasis on the politics of being the Christ, and all-in-all they are very much apologists, and I’m thinking more and more that’s OK. My friend who is a (lowkey) metalhead, concurred with my interpretation. Here are the two intros:
– “Heartbreaker, soul shaker, I’ve been told about you … what they are saying must be true … times come to pay your dues. Now you’re messing with …” That’s Nazareth, but later Oasis really got into it:
– “Today is gonna be the day when they throw it all back to you. Somehow you got to realize what you’ve got to do … Nobody feels the way I do about you now … Backbeat the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out. I know you’ve heard it all before, but we never really had a doubt … Today was gonna be the day, but they’ll never throw it back to you … Maybe you’re the one that saves me. So after all, you’re my wonderwall.”
The singer says it’s about a hidden inner and possibly divine voice that guides him. A truism in metal.
Only a messiah, lyrically.
So tell me if I’m wrong, but who else in human history could the following phrases have referred to except Jesus, (the Ozzy lyrics come from Iron Man and what could be seen as its sequel Bark At The Moon). However, the critics, unchurched, have called the main character a killer robot or a vengeful werewolf. The lyrics are not to be taken as literal, and artistic license is taken with numbers, and Jesus can be shown even in the Old Testament to be a vengeful messiah, to prove a point about what we as sinners could be seen as deserving. (I do have this concern, what would Jesus think about such a presentation, after what he is said to have done for humankind. But I do like the idea that the pharisees and other hypocrites are skewered). A sampling of these lyrics:
“He was turned to steel, in the great magnetic field, when he traveled time, for the future of mankind.”
“Vengeance from the grave, kills the people he once saved.”
“They killed and buried him alone in shame, and thought his timeless soul had gone … But he’s returned to prove them wrong, so wrong.”
“Years spent in torment, buried in a nameless grave, now he has risen … Iron Man lives again!”