Metal Reviews

I was just thinking about this because while I find a lot of albums very good, almost no CD's that people talk about as being truly great strike me in such a way...I would say my list of albums that I really love is at somewhere around four. I started wondering if this is because I don't pay any attention to lyrics, which would essentially make it more difficult for me to really connect with some of these great albums. So, I'm just wondering...how many of you pay attention to lyrics?

I always pay attention to the lyrics at first -- and if they're vital to the music, like say, Roger Waters or Daniel Gildenlow's lyrics, then I'll continue listening. If they're super retarded, then I do my best to ignore them. But I never negatively judge the music by the lyrics.

Always, they are as important as any other part of a song. I don't read them very often though, unless they sound insightful but I can't pick out most of them.

I pretty much do... To get into an album I often sit down with the booklet to read through it as the music plays. Good lyrics raises the level of music a few notches.

It varies... Who cares about power metal lyrics for example?

I normally listen to an album about three (full) times and if I enjoy it, I'll start looking up on the lyrics. On many occasions when I read the lyrics while I listen to the album for the first time, I end up getting dissatisfied with it. Listening to the song/album a couple of times allows me to understand the song in terms of structure etc, and when I look up the lyrics after that, it allows me to connect to the song even better. First reads on first plays are always bad for me cos I wouldn't how the next lines would fit in when I don't know how the next riff/melody is.

But there are many songs which I like that don't have proper/good lyrics, but that doesn't deter me from listening to and enjoying the song.

So yeah, I guess it's not ALL that important, but lyrics do add extra flavour to a song if they're good.

An example of a really kick ass material but with pretty bad lyrics are songs from Kalmah's 'The Black Waltz'. Good album but sadly the lyrics are bad due to their grammar and fluency in English. Nevertheless TBW is a killer!

I very rarely even bother to read the lyrics.

Sometimes, it depends on the band and genre.

But even when a band has horrible lyrics (God Dethroned anyone?), I still manage to enjoy the music, I just try to not hear the lyrics,

.:crast:.

I'd say sometimes. I'll second Stefan's statement about PM, but when I listen to more proggy stuff I enjoy the lyrics more (especially concept albums).

i didn't used to, but now i do. i like it when singers use cool sounding words

They are an important factor, but if the music sucks, then it doesn't really matter how good the lyrics are.

yeah they're like any other part of the music like if the drummer or guitar tone is great but the songs suck it's not gonna help much

Usually yes... In death metal most of the time i don't understand what the fuck they are saying, so i read the lyrics...

I always look up the lyrics to songs but as far as metal is concerned the music is more important in deciding whether or not I like the song. For Hip-Hop both are equally important.

Yeah, but there are some artists that have great songs without creating an imagery through lyrics. Bone Thugs is a good example, most of the time you can't hear what they're saying, then again, they're often more melodic than other emcees.

Personally I never read lyrics, I really don't care what they're saying. Although sometimes if I hear something that makes me go "did he just say what I think he said?" I check out the lyrics and it can completely change the way I think of that song.

I read lyrics if they sound interesting, or if the vocal lines are catchy. While well written, intelligent lyrics can increase my enjoyment of a song slightly, dumb lyrics don't detract from a good album, and its really the music that counts.

My thoughts exactly.

How accurate are your predictions on the words? I'd say mine is about 75%. Sometimes I think the singer sang such and such but when I look up the lyrics, it's far from it! Haha!

I'm probably at 50%. I'm like "fuck, this song is epic" and then it turns out their singing about some girl or shit like that. Or when I first heard The Mars Volta, "cool, they're singing about trains and shit" then I checked the lyrics and "what the fuck!?".