Memorial Day. So a meme. Or instead sung with poignance and (semi-softer?) power by the likes of Sabaton and Lemmy, the prominently new and older storytellers of history via music. With a new tack from a new track. Honor the soldier, if not the politician. And cry your eyes out.

Here are two WWI-tuned tearjerkers for you too, from YouTube, that aren’t simply anti-war rants, and come from metalheads when they tone down the guitar and ramp up the emotion along the lines of what soldiers are thinking while their collective lives are on the line. And do a tribute to those who faced the unfaceable.
“Paschendale” by Iron Maiden is lyrically superb, verse after verse. They get at the guts of horrible trench warfare and spill it out in front of you. And after the ’80s, their war themes became lyrics fodder for so many other bands.
Then of course there’s “1916,” and the brand new Sabaton version (and they have so many vital historical lessons like this one that focus on the little known) is impossible to view without being touched, but I like better the far-earlier one of the late Lemmy of Motorhead, who normally is a rather raspy screamer, engagingly a bit hoarse, but still has soul. This track is just beautiful, even the strains of Lemmy’s toned-down vocals.
At first I thought that this song, like some war epics, was too romanticed with the soft lilt in their otherwise strong voices, as war is just plain ugly. But it gets into the psychology of the soldier’s mind, and what they need and invariably don’t get, then tells the tale of the horrors of war in a way that’s not really graphic, but in its simplicity still has powerful lines. And Iron Maiden’s many anti-war anthems are more palatable because of their theatric and operatic, high-energy nature, making them seem almost like advocacy. But people still say such songs just make them inexplicably joyful.
These are, first and foremost, a call to not only pay tribute to the fallen warriors, and the loved ones left behind, but make sure their stories will forever be told. And coax others, listeners and artists, to do the same. Never forget.
Not since Metallica’s masterpiece video, One, has there been such an overwhelmingly strong case made for a cause and belief (euthanasia). One that will turn you into a blubbering mess of tears. And you might not last a minute.
I recognize that chiseled-chin, slightly turned-up look. I’ve seen it when saying goodbye to friends. Trying to be stoic only moments before completely falling apart. So here is an exercise: Look at 1916 all the way through, to see if you can identify the musical reactor in a transition period, and squirming and fidgeting with things like fingers touching face and even forehead — at the moments when the singer delivers an especially poignant line.
As I wrote earlier, every generation has its own strengths, and moreso challenges, some more trying then others. But here’s been nothing like this, and its ilk.
Adding to it are the motions of the singer with his arms, and the occasional fist, closed or extended, that seem to be just pleading for a better way, honoring the dead as demonstrated by leading a filmed march through a street of one of the England towns that literally lost all its men of service age in just a day or two.
Even bad-ass metal guys, like reactor David Heretic, can have an emotional meltdown.
How’d it play out?
At the second word of the second line into the song, Heretic is tearing up already.
A few minutes later, eyes at length not dry, he noted there’s 3:41 still left, even if mostly credits. But it is cool to give length credit to those other than creditors.
This reaction became a well-chosen rant, among the three types of analysis he cites during intros.
As a fitting counterpoint, the cello as soft lead is maxed out, again, in a still minimum way.
In the depths of the evening, I looked at more reactions to 1916. The reactor was so touched that she wasn’t just misty-eyed, she was sobbing. And even a GERMAN couple was left speechless, and in the final minutes of analysis had a meltdown. I’d never seen a European with eyes so bloodshot from tears. The same for a “Viking,” even though he comes from a culture that formerly practiced cruel war and raiding methods.
I’m sorry, said some of these reactors, especially the Germans, when their eyes grew moist. Sorry for what? Being human?
It’s powerful with a cathartic subpoint that gets you revved up, but at the same time it leave you disgusted and angry and even a bit sick to your gut, not the norm of such songs which usually are oddly inspirational.
A reactor’s takeaway on why to view: Do it for me. And do it for you.
Just looked at the “1916” video and historical commentary again, multiple times. Interesting just how spot-on it is as far as historical fact. Also, although a tribute to fallen soldiers, it is tinged with sarcasm. And it turns out that part of the song is a criticism of enforced conscription — “we added two years to our ages.” When those 16-year-olds did that so they could sign-up, rules were bent and they were accepted. Regarding their race to take up arms, even though not yet men, their piss and vinegar just took them in, but not like a mother’s arms.
Until you look at history, you more fully understand the line, “we were food for the gun.” To start the battle, 10,000 untrained volunteer soldiers were marched for strategic reasons — I hate that — into a barrage of machine gun bullets. “Plunging on into certain death,” to again bring in Maiden lyrics and Up the Irons.
Noteworthy, too, is that in the cover art for Motorhead’s version, there are almost a dozen flags, the biggest a British, but also even Chinese and Russian. Also noteworthy is the absence of a U.S. flag, only one for Lemmy’s Motorhead.
Shown were a slowly marching Muslim, laid-flat black man with scarred and scared face looking skyward, helmeted Roman soldier/Centurian, four men on horses, young women bucking the trend with very short hair, and Orientals, but not a ninja. There also were shown twice, when it comes to those Japanese, and even a British fighter pilot who is a woman and looking dapper in her uniform to get a Madonna vibe as she emerges from a bombed out building. (Lemmy as such, has been accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, but in truth he just collects their attire and related items because he thinks that many military uniforms present a striking, how should I say this, professionalism. He is a complex man.) Air and ground elements brought together. And there’s a guitar guy decked out in, theme here, Revolutionary War garb.
At times a score of 11 is given by a reactor, maxing out beyond the top ten. When: Let Vin and Sori tell you: Only when the song is required listening for all human beings.
Over a million lives were lost, in total, in this battle and the 1916 video clip gives a breakdown of when and how fast. One startling figure was that more than 300,000 were killed in short order just to gain a few miles of turf. I think it was only the equivalent of five kilometers. One soldier died every 4.4 seconds.
I sent a message to a friend, about her father, and said while getting ahead of myself that he was killed in battle. But still, a set of war injuries sent him on a long and slow, downward spiral that led to death, even if not directly or immediately. Our takeaway: If he had fallen right away, she never would have been born.
What is a life worth? Apparently in this case, one-50,000th of a mile, Heretic said.
Or it might be asked, of all oppressors, what cost is a person’s soul worth?
No form of music has more power to transform than metal. Even if done in ballad form.