Bands MOST enhanced by their lyrics?

[Metaguitarist]

I find some bands to be quite boring without knowing what the lyrics are. In metal this can be rather frequent, as it is hard to know what is being said through the wall of sound and guttural vocals. I'll start off with a couple of my favorites, whom, without knowing the lyrics I find to be a lot less interesting.

Gojira. I can get bored of their music at times, but fuck do I love them. I first heard them years ago and didn't really listen to them much. I gave them another go after learning of their connection to Devin Townsend and decided to read their lyrics. Man. Now I feel a passionate connection with their material, and love the imagery they paint with their words.

Devin Townsend. Once I listened to the album commentaries he posted to youtube, I started to really get the picture. His lyrics are rather interpretive, so I didn't know what to think just looking them up and singing along. The man's a genius, and I love everything he's done, although I certainly don't envy the life he experienced in the SYL years.

 

[simonXsludge]

To me Will Haven is one of those bands where the lyrics really add to the already super bleak, yet desperate sound. The song 'Dolph Lundgren' is a good example for that. It seems so much more intense when you're reading along those lyrics.

 

[mgh]

oh i agree lyrics can help to enhance your listening pleasure, Bal-Sagoth being my prime example...also can i add Wolves of Avalon

 

[PettyThief]

Devin Townsend
Behemoth
Watain
Avantasia

And of course

Wintersun

 

[Dayn]

Do you mean solely lyrics, or can it include vocal delivery? Because if it includes vocal delivery, then Meshuggah. Everything is so harsh and mechanical, including the lyrics and vocal delivery. If we're still on this aspect, then SikTh as well.

If you mean lyrics only... that's a tough one. I appreciate poetry, but I'm not the best at understanding what's being sung, honestly, even in pop songs. So I'm going to do a complete one-eighty from my previous remarks... and say most things power metal-related. Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Rhapsody... even DragonForce. It's just so fantastical, it gets me up and racing every time. It often may be meaningless nonsense... but even that makes them sound awesome.

 

[Pablo Zuta]

Tool

 

[PettyThief]

But seriously, Watain. Lawless Darkness is insane.

 

[Metaguitarist]

Do you mean solely lyrics, or can it include vocal delivery? Because if it includes vocal delivery, then Meshuggah. Everything is so harsh and mechanical, including the lyrics and vocal delivery. If we're still on this aspect, then SikTh as well.

If you mean lyrics only... that's a tough one. I appreciate poetry, but I'm not the best at understanding what's being sung, honestly, even in pop songs. So I'm going to do a complete one-eighty from my previous remarks... and say most things power metal-related. Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Rhapsody... even DragonForce. It's just so fantastical, it gets me up and racing every time. It often may be meaningless nonsense... but even that makes them sound awesome.

I enjoyed your comment on power metal. God I hate that shit. I can enjoy Judas Priest despite the goofy lyrics (Turbo Lover anyone?) But Power-metal...ugh lol. Good shit.

And yes I did mean specifically the lyrics only, but its great to hear anyone's additional opinions considering vocal delivery!

 

[Netherhound]

I'm a pretty big fan of Warrel Dane lyrics in Nevermore...

 

[Rayaus]

I'd have to say Sybreed, Gojira, Nevermore and Deals Death.

 

[AxeHappy]

Clearly Manowar and DragonForce.

If you don't feel the urge to rape every virgin and slay every Dragon after listening to them you're listening wrong.

 

[Kroaton]

Porcupine Tree. Reading them is pure comedy gold.

 

[Metaguitarist]

Porcupine Tree. Reading them is pure comedy gold.

Definitely agree with you there!

 

[wankerness]

Porcupine Tree. Reading them is pure comedy gold.

They're not that bad on In Absentia, but yeah, they're a rare example of a band I like where their lyrics actively ruin some songs. Ex the one about xbox is like a god to me, all the ones where MTV is mentioned by name, the one about how he hated every minute when he waited for your email, etc. 99% of the music I listen to I just ignore their lyrics but PT sometimes manages to break through my barrier in a negative manner. I guess some Katatonia and Dream Theater songs also fall into this category since their singers are understandable. Extreme metal very rarely gets ruined by terrible lyrics since it's so much easier to just think of the vocals as noise/an instrument instead of words when they're hard to understand.

Pain of Salvation's "Remedy Lane" and "The Perfect Element" are the only prog/metal albums I can think of offhand where the lyrics made me like them a lot more. Plenty of albums I like have decent lyrics but they very rarely add anything for me. It's usually like I'll look them up afterwards and go "oh, good, they're sorta smart" and then I just will keep in mind what songs are about in the future but it's never like "wow all the music seems to have been written around the lyrics instead of around the time signature changes/the chords/the chorus melody" like it was with Remedy Lane/TPE.

 

[Hollowway]

Nothing to contribute in terms of actual band names, but I will say that lyrics are at least as important as every other instrument in the band, if not more. And yet they're weak waaaay too much of the time. A former bandmate once said, "I'm not going to get caught up in the actual lyrics." And of course the song sucked. Crappy lyrics, crappy rhymes = I IV V over and over again. If you've got something to say, say it well, whether it's lyrics or notes.

 

[Mordacain]

Porcupine Tree. Reading them is pure comedy gold.

Pre- In Absentia PT or post? I personally think post In Absentia PT lyric get pretty fantastic and peak on Fear of a Blank Planet. For the most part Fear of a Blank Planet is all about the misdiagnosis of ADD and the affect of essentially drugging a generation of children. It's pretty heavy stuff and lyrically it all fits.

Granted, I suppose this is all opinion based on what you like. Personally, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler are lyrical gods in my opinion so I measure everything against those standards. Very little metal / hard rock measures up, though Tool comes very close.

 

[wankerness]

Nothing to contribute in terms of actual band names, but I will say that lyrics are at least as important as every other instrument in the band, if not more. And yet they're weak waaaay too much of the time. A former bandmate once said, "I'm not going to get caught up in the actual lyrics." And of course the song sucked. Crappy lyrics, crappy rhymes = I IV V over and over again. If you've got something to say, say it well, whether it's lyrics or notes.

Listening to prog/metal for years caused me to no longer agree that lyrics are important, cause if I did I'd have to stop listening to nearly everything I like

 

[teamSKDM]

Lyrics on the faceless new autotheism ate awesome, same with the contortionists intrinsic. In protest the Heros kezia album, the lyrics are an artform to say the least. Born of Osiris has good lyrics on the discovery. Shot, motionless in whore has some great lyrics too (most underrated band soley because of image ) and also periphery. Jetpacks was yes is a very personal song to me due to lyrics.

 

[PettyThief]

add Frank Zappa to my list too.

 

[The Reverend]

Since this band is fresh on the brain, Misery Signals first two albums contain really poetic lyrics. They're personal as fuck, in some cases, which I actually tend to dislike in most cases since I can't identify with them. The music is pretty good metalcore, but listening to the songs while reading the lyrics can really make the soundscape they create come alive with emotional intensity.

I would also include Whitechapel's first album, though almost on a song-by-song basis. The songs where they stick to the concept of Jack The Ripper shit are really intense. You get a bit of characterization, even, with the narrator wanting to know why he's so fucked up, instead of the standard deathcore/death metal "Chop up the pussy, slippery meat for my blasphemous dinner."

I'm mainly a deathcore fan, though, so thinking of bands of their ilk with meaningful lyrics that enhance the music is hard. For quite a few years it was just about having the most shocking, violent, or quotable line over a breakdown. I remember this band called We Are The End having a song by the name of "Skies Most Wanted Goodbye" that was a great love song, believe it or not. Straight deathcore, too.