Old School War Thrash

I grew up during the trickle-down cold war Reagan bullshit era. Alot of the METAL was aimed towards what was going on at the time. At War, Carnivore, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Powermad, Agent Steel [to a lesser extent], etc. I just listened to INC's [Indestructible Noise Command, for you younger tykes] 2 albums and it made me understand the generation gap a little bit. Do you kids have anything now-days that concerns Real World Decimation? Or is it all about hyper-patriotism and dragons?

I suppose it's not politically correct to write songs about brown-skinned terrorists and ISIS. North Korea isn't a big enough concern either I guess.

Having a big super-power like the USSR was an easy target back then.

People in general (as far as I can tell retroactively, as I was a kid in the 80s and oblivious to everything except cartoons), were more paranoid into the 80s than they are now. Obviously, there are still paranoiacs, but I don't think your average person sits around waiting for WW III any more.

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I don't think your average person sits around waiting for WW III any more.

The paranoia has turned inward now. People are waiting for the Illuminati agents hidden deep within our government to activate and start micro-chipping us and herding us all into FEMA death camps.

...or at least, that's what Dave Mustaine is waiting for.

He's not alone. I see a lot of those type of lyrics in thrash these days.

WARBRINGER, EXPULSION, BONDED BY BLOOD, HAVOK, etc.

Temple of Blood wrote:

He's not alone.  I see a lot of those type of lyrics in thrash these days.

WARBRINGER, EXPULSION, BONDED BY BLOOD, HAVOK, etc.

But are those guys really concerned about nuclear annihilation or are they just aping the lyrical themes of the bands they are influenced by?

Back in the 80's, there was a genuine concern among the populace that 2 super powers could wipe out all of mankind several times over. It made for easy lyrical inspiration for thrash bands. You just don't get that type of feeling with terrorism these days. If you write a song condemning terrorism, you'll somehow get labelled a racist or Ted Nugent.

Like Freddy mentioned, I think the focus has turned inward and general distrust of the government. Lots of material to mine from there if done right. I'm not sure if the current wave of retro-minded thrash bands are going that route though. Maybe they are and I just don't hear it.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

He's not alone.  I see a lot of those type of lyrics in thrash these days.

WARBRINGER, EXPULSION, BONDED BY BLOOD, HAVOK, etc.

But are those guys really concerned about nuclear annihilation or are they just aping the lyrical themes of the bands they are influenced by?

Back in the 80's, there was a genuine concern among the populace that 2 super powers could wipe out all of mankind several times over. It made for easy lyrical inspiration for thrash bands. You just don't get that type of feeling with terrorism these days. If you write a song condemning terrorism, you'll somehow get labelled a racist or Ted Nugent.

Like Freddy mentioned, I think the focus has turned inward and general distrust of the government. Lots of material to mine from there if done right. I'm not sure if the current wave of retro-minded thrash bands are going that route though. Maybe they are and I just don't hear it.

I wasn't listing bands afraid of nuclear war. Sorry for the confusion. Those were folks (like Mustaine) singing about one-world government/prison planet/Alex Jones/loss of privacy/control by the elites/micro-chipped/etc. etc. type of stuff. BTW I think you can add HELSTAR to that list too.

I don't see many bands who sing about nuclear war anymore. Maybe VIOLATOR.

Ah, my bad. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

Plus, modern thrash metal is about zombies, Christopher Walken, The Thing and beer.

I would love to hear more relevant lyrical content in thrash metal. If I hear one more song about hating Christianity, or Countess Bathory, I'm going to lose my shit.

DakotaRogers wrote:

I would love to hear more relevant lyrical content in thrash metal. If I hear one more song about hating Christianity, or Countess Bathory, I'm going to lose my shit.

All of the cold war stuff got equally as played out, particularly with the German bands (hardly surprising with the evil empire on your doorstep!) To be honest, I don't give a crap what thrash bands sing or growl about, I don't listen to it because I think it's poetic, it never has been.

Just that a quick at all the albums with mushroom clouds on the cover. That's crazy! There's thousands of them.

Nothing in metal is more played-out than anti-Christianity.

DakotaRogers wrote:

I would love to hear more relevant lyrical content in thrash metal. If I hear one more song about hating Christianity, or Countess Bathory, I'm going to lose my shit.

Well, damn. Now I'm gonna have to re-think the thrash concept album I was writing, about a church-burning Countess Bathory.

Nocturnal Fear is a cool Thrash band which they all they focus on is about war.

My problem with a band like Havok is that they come off as "your brainwashed by the system, if you don't agree with me!"

The last metal lyrics I really thought were meaningful were on Master of Puppets and I was 15 years old.

I still find it hard to work out how a good lyricist like Hetfield got so utterly awful at it.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Nothing in metal is more played-out than anti-Christianity.

Really? You think that there are more anti christian songs than say, songs about knobbing? I think that Motley Crue alone have written more songs about knobbing than there are anti christian song in the world 

I'm content with the handful of Slayer songs about war.

Boris2008 wrote:

The last metal lyrics I really thought were meaningful were on Master of Puppets and I was 15 years old.

I still find it hard to work out how a good lyricist like Hetfield got so utterly awful at it.

I agree. The lyrics from RTL to AJFA were some of the best ever. Then he lost his touch... although I do like some of the lyrics on The Black Album.

Boris2008 wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Nothing in metal is more played-out than anti-Christianity.

Really? You think that there are more anti christian songs than say, songs about knobbing? I think that Motley Crue alone have written more songs about knobbing than there are anti christian song in the world 

Yeah, because bands that sing about that are primarily hard rock bands, not metal. Including Motley Crue.

In metal, anti-Christianity is definitely more prevalent.

As an adult now, I don't think Metallica's lyrics were all that great. I loved them as a kid, but now I think they're not very meaningful, clever, or well-written.

My favorite lyrics are by WATCHTOWER, DARK ANGEL, and MIND OVER FOUR.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Nothing in metal is more played-out than anti-Christianity.

Ain't that the truth!

Temple of Blood wrote:

As an adult now, I don't think Metallica's lyrics were all that great.  I loved them as a kid, but now I think they're not very meaningful, clever, or well-written.

My favorite lyrics are by WATCHTOWER, DARK ANGEL, and MIND OVER FOUR.

Agreed, that's why I added that I was 15 when those lyrics meant a lot to me. I still think that Disposable Heroes, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets and a few others have lyrics that were way above average for the time but hardly up there with Shane MacGowan or Nick Cave.

And while we're at it, what happened to all those lyrics about how much they hate school?

I've never thought metal had very conscious lyrics until crossover came up, besides random examples here and there. Punk rock has always been politically charged and I think that most of the metal bands mentioned from the 1980s and also now have been influenced by the punk genre for relevant lyrics.

If anyone should be singing about shit like REAL nuclear destruction, class war, or whatever it should be now though.