Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Metal Goes Political -- Again

Left, Right or Center?



Heavy metal music is often accused of being apolitical. Yet many of the genre's biggest names have released albums that owed a heavy lyrical debt to political themes. With Megadeth prepping the overtly political United Abominations for a February 7 release, the venom and vitriol is set to fly again. So we'd like to ask you the following question:

Which politically minded album is your favorite?

1) Warrior Soul's Last Decade Dead Century
2) Metallica's . . . And Justice For All
3) Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime
4) Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy
5) Megadeth's Rust in Peace
6) Write in with your own selection not mentioned here!

10 comments:

David Amulet said...

I don't really love the lyrics to ANY of these albums, although I'd have to give the nod to Justice and Mindcrime.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I'll suggest that metal fans have a higher I-listen-to-music-for-the-music-and-not-the-lyrics ratio than mainstream pop fans. At least i reocgnize some of that in myself--I care about the sound of the voice, but I usually don't give a crap what the guy (and it's almost always a guy) is saying.

-- david

Metal Mark said...

I really don't care much about lyrics. If something is pushed about it being poilitical than it's more likely to turn me off than draw me in. I just hope the new Megadeth is better than the last album which was just like an okay mish-mash of previous styles.

T-_Bone said...

I tend to agree here. I am not a fan of political stuff. Megadeth is about as far as I go. (ie Holy Wars)

Anonymous said...

Well, since I'm a huge Queensryche fan, I have to go with Operation: Mindcrime. I'm one of those fans who really gets into the lyrics.

Mike said...

I'd have to go with Mindcrime also.

Anonymous said...

Has anybody seen the Mindcrime I and II concert yet?

José Carlos Santos said...

ministry's last two records, all of dead kennedy's records.

Anonymous said...

i can't beleive what some of the guys are saying , for me it's the lyrics that got me into heavy metal in the first place , and there's alot of good bands that i don't like becasue of their lyrics . well , anyways , i go with operation mindcrime I and II , they both are great . and there's savatage's dead winter dead , and there's alot more but i don't remember any right now

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Mohammad. Lyrics are really important to me, just as important as the guitar work. I forgot about the Savatage album, but that's a good one too. And it boasts the distinction of having launched the Trans Siberian Orchestra with the "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24" track.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the last two comments. Lyrics were one of the main reasons I got into metal also- who cares about about sappy pop lyrics anyway? Out of the albums above, my favorite is Warrior Soul's "Last Decade Dead Century". Their third album "Salutations from the Ghetto Nation" is another excellent political album. I'd also like to mention Testament's "Practice What You Preach" as having a lot of political content in addition to being a superb record.