Metal Reviews

Does music have a message? Always? Should it? Should we judge music on a basis of what message they promote?

Sometimes. No. If the message is what drives the band to make music. No.

My guess is most music has a message, it's not always easy to hear as a listener. For me the music comes in first place, if a great song has a good message thats just a bonus.

I dont usually like it when music has a message. For example, Pain of Salvation is pretty much my favorite band but I just cant get into the new album. its too political.

Rage against the Machine and U2 can shut the fuck up about what they have to say as well.

On the other hand a message like a Manowar album would have about brotherhood and shit it doesnt bother me. I actually enjoy it.

I just dont like opinions, especially political, even if I agree, put in my face during my music.

ALL music has a message, and that message is different for everyone.

Except instrumental music, I guess. Haha.

Godspeed You Black Emperor are an instrumental band and they have a strong political message to some of their songs

Its safe to say all music has a topic, but not necessarily a message.

And music can have a meaning that can be different to everyone, but if the music has a message that is the artist putting his opinion or agenda into the music. In some cases the song can just be a vehicle to get an opinion across.

Yeah I think some lyricists' lyrics are way too open ended to actually be considered a message

I don't think a message has to be deep or insightful or anything like that. Like, I think (such as in the case of GWAR) "We want to make you laugh" still counts as a message.

I also think that music that has a message doesn't always require that the message be perceived. Like, someone can write an instrumental trying to capture the sound of something that doesn't actually have a sound (Vivaldi's Four Seasons comes to mind).

Some music has a message. Whether or not its very profound or accurate and whether or not its meant to be very profound or accurate is a different matter.

Music doesn't need to have a message. If it does, cool. I mean "Rock You Like a Hurricane" may touch someone on seem deep plane of thought, but it probably just rocks because it sounds cool, right?

couldn't have said it better.

I always have a very hard time defending death metal lyrics and the message they convey. I know that 99.9% of the lyricists aren't sadomachoistic killers that hate women, but damn....how do you explain that to someone who isn't a regular metalhead? Either the band is

A) doing it for money. I.E. if Cannibal Corpse ( I just like to use them as the archetype for death metal ) stopped screaming about rape, murder, genetaliac mutilation, their fans would stop spending money on them, and then they would be out of a job.

B) is doing it just cause of all the bands before and around them have had gore-infused lyrical themes, and they are either too unoriginal or too lazy to come up with a new lyrical spin on their music.

or

C) They are really sick fucks and need to be arrested before they carry out the actions described in one of their songs.

Either option is not really a very meaningful reality.






The riffs still kick fucking ass though,

I just say that the music sounds like it should be about killing babies so they sing about killing babies.

NSBM. The one time i wish music did not have a message. i hate it when im listening to some awesome bm then look at the lyrics and its all "Triumph of the aryan blood" etc. Which leaves me with three choices.

1- try and ignore the message and just listen to the music
2- not listen to it at all
3- become a racist fuck and really get into it

Yeah. I think the early death metal bands just wanted to be as brutal as they possibly could, and that meant lyrics as well.

I prefer music to have something more to it than just a sequence of notes.

I listen to a lot of ideological music, from NSBM to extreme leftist stuff and everything in between. For me, it's not about if i agree with the message, i just like to have some food for thought.

I think message plays a big part in making you identify with a band and a music style. Also, message isn't only found in the lyrics but obviously in the music too. Attitude in all it's forms could also be said to be all about conveying message.

Differen't music seem to represent different ways to live life, different ways to look at life etc. Everyone has had a different upbringing and different experiences in life and i think that might contribute a lot to what music style they will start to listen to and identify themselves with. Something to keep in mind maybe.

There's an art to implementing message into music. Specifically, implementing a morally sound message into rock music is difficult to do without being too cheesy and preachy about it (*cough* About 95% of all Christian bands out there *cough*). If you're playing metal, and you want to have a positive message in your music, make sure it's appropriate for the tone of the music. Unless parody is your intent, don't try to play an aggressive grindcore song with lyrics about your love of God.

Helloween, among other power metal bands, manages to implement positive messages into their music without coming off as cheesy or preachy. The reasons why are because the music itself suits these messages, and the band is fairly subtle about them, so you can listen to the music without feeling like you're being proselytized.

That's it, more or less. Of course criticism can be levelled at the later DM bands that went for either:
-kills babies
-kill Jesus
-my intellect is being killed
because that's all that went before.

I only ever listen to music made by vegan socialist hippies.