Favourite metal poetry

[Umbrage]

You are blind - Deny the sun and light
Whose are the objections - From where come the doubts

Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked

Serenades of opposition - Absurdity, humans fate and hope
True reflections of community - Procreation of the gods and lords

Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked

Cain and Abel's love and death - Love and hate is what we are
Dagger and grail are- Fallen of the altar

Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked

"Mysteries of perversity"
"I've killed this old man, because he limped
I've done it because he shouldn't have to do it"

If god raised the abyss - you'd procreate your own
Abolism of death is - Abolism of life

Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked

Pathetic lives, every second someone dies
Delightful is the sight of repention
No destiny, just a certainty of death
In pain inducing lies of salvation
Never repent.....

Born to be dead
Repent to die
Ignorance looms in the unconscious mind
Born to be dead
Repent to die
Waste your last breath on the lord Jesus Christ

Repent to die

Afraid of what lies after death
Your screams are unheard to Him
Resisting your wake of adorn
Your pleading falls deaf on your lord

"Go fuck your god" will be my final words
To die is just the concept of living
To be Forgave, salvation blessed with pain
Endeavored is the blame of creation

Pathetic lives, every second someone dies
Delightful is the sight of repention
No destiny, just a certainty of death
In pain inducing lies of salvation
Never repent.....

I can understand why English professors would ridicule you if you'd suggest these lyrics are poetic. But I also think it's their loss... Lyrics are far more popular than poetry and as such influence more lives than those English professors do. Yet when lyrics are paid attention to in a classroom it's usually rap or some top 40 hit because then suddenly popularity is all that matters. What it really comes down to is that even if you had content such as the lyrics above written in a purely poetic form several hundreds of years ago, the average English teacher still wouldn't want to pay attention to them simply because of their content.

[Dinaric Leather]

NUCLEAR WAR GODS OF WAR, NUCLEAR WAR GODS OF WAR  x5

When my Metal naive friends ask me what my favorite Black Metal, I tell them it's all about the 3 B's: Blasphemy, Burzum, and Beherit. This is a poem from a Beherit piece close to my heart called "Metal of Death"

METAL OF DEATH
METAL OF DEATH
METAL OF DEATH
METAL OF DEATH
METAL OF DEATH
BLAAARRGH

[istaros]

^Congratulations, you got an actual hearty laugh from me.

Lyrics don't generally matter in (death & black) metal, certainly not to the extent that they do in most other forms of music. But that is one of the genre's primary strengths. It both moves focus onto the music itself, which discourages fans from liking shitty songs just because they have emotive words embedded among the notes, AND drives what lyrical focus there is onto the core concepts being expressed - as opposed to focusing on the expression itself. At its best, this makes for some statements that derive power from their almost-retarded simplicity (RAPE THE HOLY ASSHOLE) and prevents those who DO ENTRY from trying to be "original" - no ideas are new, although dumbfuck parasites will always try to gain peer cred by painting old ideas in ways that make them look new. Which of course gets reflected in the music itself eventually.

All that being said, there are rare examples of lyrics that approach more standard conceptions of poetic beauty:

In a land of clouded dreams I travel,
riding winds over ancient paths.
Soft melancholy voices whisper
over places where no one ever laughed.
Cold icewinds sweeps my weightless body
over the bridge to unknown lands.
The fog was thick before me,
As I felt in to the unknown realms
the darkness had fallen before me,
as I saw my body fall into the ground
I am far away, I am far away from the sun..

[Dedrater]

Summoning - Farewell

Who can find you clear springs of waters, but I can
Who can tell you the age of the moon, but I can
Who can call the fish from the depths of the sea, yes I can
Who can change the shapes of the hills and the headlands, I can

I have been a sword in the hand, and
I have been a shield in a fight, and
I have been the string of a harp, and
I can shift my shape like a god

Farewell, leave the shore to an ocean wide and untamed
Hold your shield high, let the wind bring your enemy your nightmare
By the bane of my blade, a mighty spell is made and
Far beyond the battle blood shall fall like a hard rain


Skepticism - The Rising of the Flames

The flames - waves are our path
The wind - blows away the fear
Calm - and strong are our minds

Joy on the fields is eternal
Pain beyond view
The flames raise us

In the cold the flames glow
Blue
Under the flood
Blood

The waves - flames are our path
The last one
We die - we never fall
The flames in our veins

Storm behind, storm ahead
Oar strokes are our way
Away and back again
The flames are rising


Emperor - The Majesty of the Night Sky

Like the tide, shadows flow towards the shore of light
The night comes whirling like a maelstrom
Warring waves of crackling clouds embrace this nightside landscape
The heavens bleed, through open wounds, the dim light of the Moon
The winds are crying mournfully and tears fly with the gusts
They whip my clenched face's freezing skin with ice-cold burning cuts

Too long I have suffered the desert sands of time
But as I drown in darkness it will release the sign
My soul will leave this mortal coil of flesh and earthly life,
To fly into the mist of night, into the nightside eclipse,
And experience existence on the other side

As a stone of scorching enthusiasm
I refract the reflecting surface of this unfathomable sea
Growing circles of grief and pain slide across the land
As an omen of the horror yet to come

The strength of a thousand fire-breathing demons
Breeds in my infernal, sinking soul
And as I reach the surface once again
These powers are under my control
Now I am one with the night sky majesty


Burzum - Han Som Reiste

(instrumental)

[aquarius]

Lyrics don't generally matter in (death & black) metal, certainly not to the extent that they do in most other forms of music. But that is one of the genre's primary strengths. It both moves focus onto the music itself, which discourages fans from liking shitty songs just because they have emotive words embedded among the notes, AND drives what lyrical focus there is onto the core concepts being expressed - as opposed to focusing on the expression itself. At its best, this makes for some statements that derive power from their almost-retarded simplicity (RAPE THE HOLY ASSHOLE) and prevents those who DO ENTRY from trying to be "original" - no ideas are new, although dumbfuck parasites will always try to gain peer cred by painting old ideas in ways that make them look new. Which of course gets reflected in the music itself eventually.

Lyrics/vocals cannot be seperated from the rest of the composition and this generally follows through both conceptually and musically. I find metal lyrics are like narration of an epic/abstract journey but the style of singing is rhythmic/tonal as oppose to melodic which makes it perceptually innaccessible for most non-metal listners, indeed vocals are their most frequent criticism. I'm particularly interested when lyrics project what they mean fluently within a given work without compromizing the esoteric nature.

[Annihilation]

Like all metal lyrics, these suffer from poor English and poetic inconsistency. But, there are some really beautiful lines (waxing Vedic, in fact) taken in isolation, which mesh effectively in concept with Svensson's composition.

--

At the Gates

the fate of my immortal soul
through the gates the journey goes on and on...
all I crave is to sleep

I am all as as I am as you and me
I am everything and will forever be
a part of you throughout eternity
when you die you too will be

All Life Ends

I remember an old man
gripping my wrist, he was dying
"imagine", he said
"looking into the eyes of a nova,
the bursting flames, the roar of it's energy
faintly echoing down the corridors of time,
whispering: all life ends
"death, he said "is like a bolt of lightning,
Light cast upon every secret,
just for a moment, till the last spark of life fades
and all is dark..."
then he breathed out his last breath into my ear
his gaze already way out among the stars...
among the ruins of the past

I am leaving now, my body stiff
just watching for a while
that rigid shell, so small and weak
a corpse on a broken cliff
the stars are calling me now
with distant, speechless voices
and caught by a wind I drift away
and nothing calls me to stay...
I am riding the wind that has no name,
the fire that burns without a flame
caught by the spell on which all depends,
all life ends
the answer is written in my bones

[nothingnowhere]

*Yawn* Here you go:

I'm the dictates of your guilty conscience
You must comply to my evil influence

You'd like to throw your boss out of the window
Show no mercy and cut him up with a chainsaw

You can't bear this rep bothering your wife
So rip him open with a carving knife
You wonder how to kill your enemy
Smash his head until it's gravy

You take pleasure
In using violence
It's in your nature
Psychopathic sense

Psychological conflict
You're under my influence
You can't repress your instinct
I incite you to violence

Enjoy
The violence

I control your inward rage
You can't suppress your anger
I possess you, I'm your cage
You feel an urge to murder

I'm the dictates of your guilty conscience
You must not comply to my evil influence

Your neighbour is always fucking you around
Put your fingers in his eyes and scratch them out

You hate the collector and the income tax
Keep your money and cut him to pieces with an axe

You've had enough of cops and parking tickets
Take your gun and riddle them with bullets

Prompted my brutal force
You commit crimes in cold blood
With no feeling of remorse
You're always thirsting for some more

Enjoy the violence

[Dedrater]

Can't forget this part from Mayhem's Life Eternal:

What'll be left of me when I'm dead?
There was nothing when I lived
What you found was eternal death
No one will ever miss you

...and from Det Som Engang Var:

We are not dead
We have never lived

[Nimbostratus]

None of this is poetry. Or at least very mediocre poetry full of abstractions that would get you ridiculed by your English professors.

High degree poetry:

I believe in tragedies

Ok, that's all. I now agree with you

[istaros]

Lyrics/vocals cannot be seperated from the rest of the composition and this generally follows through both conceptually and musically.

Vocals can be separated from the rest of the composition just as easily as any other instrument can - which is to say, entirely. Lyrics on the other hand are simply not composition at all. They are words. They are not music.

[aquarius]

Lyrics/vocals cannot be seperated from the rest of the composition and this generally follows through both conceptually and musically.

Vocals can be separated from the rest of the composition just as easily as any other instrument can - which is to say, entirely.

Well to clarify, I mean the function of vocals generally can't be removed. It is interdependant with every other aspect of the composition.

Lyrics on the other hand are simply not composition at all. They are words. They are not music.

To some extent the vocals depend on the shape/sound/projection of the word, so in that way the lyrics do effect the sound of the composition. But moreso the themes should be congruent i.e. you couldn't swap ARE YOU TALKIN TO ME? lyrics with morbid angel and expect it to fit the music.

I try to view composition in a holistic sense where lyrics, poems, artwork etc are all included.

[Dedrater]

Well to clarify, I mean the function of vocals generally can't be removed. It is interdependant with every other aspect of the composition.

This ultimately depends on the composition in question. There are plenty of death metal songs that would still work without vocals (the ones where vocal phrasing doesn't determine riff structure absolutely), and much of the best black metal is in the form of either succinct, instrumental "poems," or 7+ minute pieces where 60-70% of the composition is already instrumental. Plenty of composers over the centuries have rearranged and transcribed pieces for entirely different instrument sets, moods, etc. without damaging the intent of the music; in fact, if we were to decompose a piece of music into a small handful of effects, we would see that, in some cases, a transcription increases the potency of one effect while decreasing another, occasionally for the better. It depends on the purpose of the change in arrangement, so some are detrimental, while others have their place.

I try to view composition in a holistic sense where lyrics, poems, artwork etc are all included.

Sure, but stating that lyrics are separable from musical content is no different from stating that aesthetically pleasing wall adornments, no matter how thematically complementary they are to the function of a building, are separable from that building's support structures; you can remove good lyrics and replace them with really stupid ones without affecting the support structures of the music. Furthermore, you don't even need wall adornments or lyrics in the first place; emotion can be conveyed vocally without the aid of symbolic language.

If something is a failure in one respect, that doesn't prevent us from taking a granular approach to the thing as a whole. Granularity may seem antithetical to holism on some level, but it isn't if you use it as a tool for building a new whole out of the parts of other wholes.

[Cargést]

If something is a failure in one respect, that doesn't prevent us from taking a granular approach to the thing as a whole. Granularity may seem antithetical to holism on some level, but it isn't if you use it as a tool for building a new whole out of the parts of other wholes.

In other words: find what works, scrap what doesn't.  Applies to pretty much everything.

[lost_wanderer]

Burzum - Feeble Screams from Forests Unknown

Drifting
In the Air
Above a Cold Lake
Is a Soul
From an Early
Better Age
Grasping for
A Mystic Thought
In Vain...but Who's to Know
Further on Lies Eternal Search
For Theories to Lift the Gate
Only Locks Are Made Stronger
And More Keys Lost as Logic Fades
In the Pool of Dreams the Water Darkens
For the Soul That's Tired of Search
As Years Pass by
The Aura Drops
As Less and Less
Feelings Touch
Stupidity
Has Won too Much
The Hopeless Soul Keeps Mating

I Shalt Become - Fragments

The fragments of glass lay shattered on the floor,
Children walk on them so innocently...

[aquarius]

Well to clarify, I mean the function of vocals generally can't be removed. It is interdependant with every other aspect of the composition.

This ultimately depends on the composition in question. There are plenty of death metal songs that would still work without vocals (the ones where vocal phrasing doesn't determine riff structure absolutely), and much of the best black metal is in the form of either succinct, instrumental "poems," or 7+ minute pieces where 60-70% of the composition is already instrumental. Plenty of composers over the centuries have rearranged and transcribed pieces for entirely different instrument sets, moods, etc. without damaging the intent of the music; in fact, if we were to decompose a piece of music into a small handful of effects, we would see that, in some cases, a transcription increases the potency of one effect while decreasing another, occasionally for the better. It depends on the purpose of the change in arrangement, so some are detrimental, while others have their place.

I try to view composition in a holistic sense where lyrics, poems, artwork etc are all included.

Sure, but stating that lyrics are separable from musical content is no different from stating that aesthetically pleasing wall adornments, no matter how thematically complementary they are to the function of a building, are separable from that building's support structures; you can remove good lyrics and replace them with really stupid ones without affecting the support structures of the music. Furthermore, you don't even need wall adornments or lyrics in the first place; emotion can be conveyed vocally without the aid of symbolic language.

I can see your point but surely lyrics are more than just aesthetic. In a holistic view the lyrics wouldn't be seen out of context of the vocal style.

If something is a failure in one respect, that doesn't prevent us from taking a granular approach to the thing as a whole. Granularity may seem antithetical to holism on some level, but it isn't if you use it as a tool for building a new whole out of the parts of other wholes.

This is like "don't judge a book by its cover" vs "a good book should be well represented by an appropriate cover". I have to use both approaches when appreciating Darkthrone's Goatlord, it's core ideas are brilliant but with some developmental flaws; the vocals and lyrics are mostly inconsistent with the rest of the material.