Do you care about lyrics in a song?

[Murmel]

How much do you listen to the lyrics in a song? I personally don't do it all that much. But there are some songs that just become much more epic or emotional if you know the lyrics.

For instance, Into The Mouth Of Hell We March by Trivium, I thought it was a good tune. Then I was bored one day and looked up the lyrics, and they made the song so much more epic.
The verse and pre-chorus in that song is awesome if you ask me, music-wise and lyric-wise.
So it went from being good to being awesome

Share your thoughts.

 

[josh pelican]

I've mentioned it in another thread, but if you know a lot of Converge lyrics, it makes their music more intense (in a somewhat depressing way).

 

[Skyblue]

I don't really mind the lyrics usually, but I would like them to be serious- I have a friend that listens to something he calls "part metal" I think- pretty generic metal with cheesy pop lyrics ("fuck yeah let's party" and so on). That, I can't stand.

having great lyrics always add much to a song. For example, APC's lyrics are always awesome, and there are some songs that always give me the creeps when I listen to, because of the lyrics (in a good way )

 

[guitareben]

I generally don't care about lyrics, more about how the vocals sound (unless i am listening to instrumental music which is most of the time). However, Btbam lyrics .....

 

[ArtDecade]

I grew up listening to Zappa. So for me, lyrics are always part of the greater whole. I don't care if they are serious or funny, but as long as they are interesting.

 

[eric86]

I just tend to think that if their is a strong lyrical content that it can help to add another element to the music. Mainly i am just concerned with having a good vocalist, but if the lyrics are good then its definately a bonus.

 

[Edika]

My mentality towards lyrics has changed a lot since I started listening to metal (a loooong time ago). I used to try and understand the lyrics in English and could not stand songs in my native tongue that had awful lyrics. Having good lyrics in a song was always a must for me.

When I started listening to the more extreme genres it was quite difficult to understand what the singer was saying and when I was reading the lyrics I was really disappointed and actually could not listen to that band anymore even though I liked the music. Then I decided since I like the music and aesthetics of the vocals and don't understand what the guy is talking about to just enjoy the music and don't mind what they are saying to much.

But I will agree with the OP and the rest of the guys that when the lyrics are good it takes the song to a different level and stops being just music anymore.

 

[Andrewsonfire]

after reading black dahlia murders lyrics i started to care. trevor is a awesome lyricist

 

[liamh]

Yes.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Yes.

This.

 

[cwhitey2]

depending on the mood im in and the music im listening dictates whether or not i listen to the lyrics

 

[s_k_mullins]

They matter to an extent. I like songs about serious topics (politics, war, death, drugs).
But sometimes I like songs with ridiculous dumb lyrics, like Primus

 

[AxeHappy]

Not in the slightest. Good music is good music regardless of any poetic accompaniment or lack thereof.

That said, when some lyrics hit you just right in can make a song better.

 

[troyguitar]

If I can't understand what they're saying anyway then I don't care at all.

If I can understand it, then I don't care as long as they're not too vulgar/profane. Which is why I hate most modern radio rock, i.e. Crazy Bitch is the stupidest song ever. Why on earth any woman likes it is beyond me. I prefer the less direct dirty songs of the old days like The Jack, Slide It In, Cherry Pie, etc. to the modern stuff.

 

[Rick]

Not really. Plus, I can't understand half of what I listen to anyway.

 

[SargeantVomit]

I feel that music has lost touch with itself as of recently in that respect, especially in the underground genres that pride themselves on having more substance than pop-culture music. I can name maybe two bands other than my own in my immediate area that sing about something they believe in, think or feel. To me that is the difference between having a good band and having a memorable good band that will start a real fanbase instead of being flavour of the week.

I'm sick of bro-downs and porno grind lately, although I've been in bands like that and I think they are fun. I just have realized that most music isn't portraying anything of substance anymore, and I'm not cool with that.

From the heart lyrics transcend into the music, and it's a make or break point in composing.

 

[Evil7]

For me I love to be able to hear most of what a metal vocalist is saying... Thus lyrics are important to me... If you connect with the lyrics then you remember the song!!!!! If your song is about something, then its just not sounds. Its an idea, a point made, or a story told. I enjoy vocalist like... Randy - Lamb of god , Dez - Devildriver, Phil - Whitechapel ect..... A vocalist that can get as heavy as possible and still get the idea/lyrics across to the listener. I listen to and enjoy more extreme vocals... just dont connect with the music as much as a clear vocalist... The lyrics are important!

 

[asher]

Yes, absolutely. There any many situations in which a variety of kinds of lyrics are acceptable (say, Dethklok's intense silliness vs. Mastodon's penchant for being loopy, vs. the fun cheese factor of Iron Maiden) right down to almost-pop stuff - thinking of a post-rock band called Hail Social here. I'm no longer nearly as attached to lyrics as I used to be, and am getting much better at hearing vocals as another instrument, but they absolutely have a place.

 

[Cyntex]

Yes, I grew up on a lot of hardcore and without the lyrics there is not that much left . That being said I care more about the singing that the lyrics nowadays.

 

[groph]

Not really, I only care about the lyrics if they're really bad and don't seem to flow at all, like most of the lyrics on the new Fear Factory album.

I mostly listen to death metal so you can't really understand most of the lyrics anyway, but good death metal lyrics exist.

An example of shitty death metal lyrics

Four Legged Whore by Torsofuck:

Few days ago I bought a cat
It is so cute, I want to fuck it hard
Walking on four legs, shaking that little ass
Dirty fucking slut who deserves to suffer
I place my cock in the center of tis asshole
Hard push, damn its tight but feels so good
I fuck like a rabbid, cat screams in agony
Faster adn faster, cat is unconscious
I cut off its tail and shove it up my ass
Innards ripped out, head cut off, cat is fucked up
Squirting my sperm allover the mess
Tomorrow Im gonna buy a dog (my favorite line)

Good death metal lyrics

Necropedophile by Cannibal Corpse

I was once a man before I transformed
into this molester, freshly deceased children
You have born, torn by my rape
The dead are not safe, the lifeless child corpse
I will violate

Pleasure from the dead, complete satisfaction
I open the coffin
Sick thoughts run through my head as I stare
At the dead, over and over, I can't escape
I begin the dead sex, licking her young, rotted orifice
I cum in her cold cunt, shivering with ecstasy
for nine days straight I do the same
She becomes by dead, decayed child sex slave
her neck I hack, cutting through the back
I use her mouth to eject

Here I cum, blood gushes from
bleeding black blood
her head disconnected
As I came, viciously I cut, through her jugular vein
She's already dead, I masturbate with her severed head
My lubrication, her decomposition
Spending my life molesting dead children

Intercourse with infants
Curing heads on top of spikes
boiling skulls
Skin sliding off of bones

Voices
The voices call
Voices
The voices are calling me
Buried dead I've spiritually infected
Call to me from beyond their graves

Bleed
I now bleed pus
I bleed, the blood of the dead
I bleed on her livid skin
Thrusting myself within
Beginning to chop through her hairless crotch
Beyond what we know as death
It haunts me everyday
I hear the voice of every child
That lies next to me decayed
A fresh corpse, to fill with my infection
Tortured before death, no orifice left unfilled

Violated after death
Virgin hole I infest
Anal pore spewing cess
The sacred juice I injest
Your dead child I defile
Necropedophile


Torsofuck is just tasteless, and Cannibal Corpse is dark as hell. The lyrics to Necropedophile are probably the most disgusting words I've ever read yet they don't sound cheesy