Metal Reviews

I don't think musicians need to do any of that stuff at all. They don't have any obligation to be active. Music is their way of expressing themselves and they only need to do that and nothing else. If musicians need to practice what they preach then Cannibal Corpse needs to slaughter babies, Varg needs to become the next Hitler, and a lot of bm bands need to sacrifice themselves to Satan. All of these are stupid and will never happen.

Artists may point out the flaws in society, it is other people's job to do something to fix it.

May be join or start a political rally? Try bringing their music and political views to a wider audience? Volunteer? Start a non-profit? Do something I haven't even thought of? If Sepultura and Testament can be socially active, so can Lamb of God, Slayer, Phil Anselmo and Exodus (Lord bless them, I love all four bands - three if you don't count Phil Anselmo, who's basically a solo artist for all intents and purposes).

I know a lot of metal bands probably don't have the money, respect or resources to do all these things. But it's a little hypocritical of them to rant about how society's going to pot, and then spend their non-music time just sitting around watching TV or goofing off, rather than at least attempting to do something about what they're complaing about. Even if they're just starting a local non-profit to deal with, say, a corrupt mayor or Urban Apathy. It's better than nothing at all. But if you front a metal band and don't even have the incentive/wish to better society, then may be you shouldn't be ranting about it so much in your music. Otherwise, you're not really accomplishing anything other than may be gaining a few anti-social adolescent fans.

CC and the like aren't preaching, you can't compare them to, say, Napalm Death.

as for the second paragraph i disagree, it's everyone's job to at least do their part in fixing.

what i was trying to say is that it's one thing for a band to approach political or social issues and another thing to sing about crushing maggots. it's likely that the 1st kind of lyrics reflect the artist's own opinions and that they're practiceable things, on the other hand no one really wants to fuck someone with a knife.

and by "their part in fixing" i meant generally being a good person and being at least minimally politically active (you know, by voting), obviously i don't expect everyone to form their own political party.

Exactly. It doesn't have to be anything really big or elaborate. But it should at least be something to show honest concern about these issues, and that these musicians aren't just "rebelling for rebelliousness's sake." For example, voting.

This annoys me

Honestly, I don't want musicians to talk about politics. I don't want to be preached to while I'm listening to music.

Having political lyrics = preaching? Whatever.

I completely disagree with you. I prefer music to have some substance beyond just being a bunch of notes in succession. I'm not denying that a lot of bands fail at political lyrics, though.

I never said I don't want substance in a song. It's just hard to sing along to Megadeth with Mustaine being a Christian conservative douche. I would rather a band not have political lyrics then to fail at them. Singing about religion or war is fine but when it come to politics, it just seems the band is trying to press their views on the audience especially with mainstream bands like Greed Day, SOAD or RATM. Most of the time, fans like Green Day's aren't intelligent enough to think differently from what they are spoon fed so they fucken eat it up like an absolute truth.

I never said I don't want substance in a song. It's just hard to sing along to Megadeth with Mustaine being a Christian conservative douche. I would rather a band not have political lyrics then to fail at them. Singing about religion or war is fine but when it come to politics, it just seems the band is trying to press their views on the audience especially with mainstream bands like Greed Day, SOAD or RATM. Most of the time, fans like Green Day's aren't intelligent enough to think differently from what they are spoon fed so they fucken eat it up like an absolute truth.

I think it's better for these kids to be blindly following a lefty agenda like Green Day's rather than, say, Graveland. At the end of the day, you just have to learn to deal with politics in music the same way you do for goregrind lyrics.