Metal Breakup Songs?

QUICK NOTE: The subject matter of this post is not meant to be taken as any sort of clue into what is going on in my personal life.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  My wife and I have our first wedding anniversary coming up in June, and I could not be happier.  This post was inspired by a song that has been stuck in my head for some time.

Metal frequently depicts the darker side of the human experience.  It is stereotypically about the negative parts in life.  Anger, sadness, and all the other nasty stuff that happens to us all.  So of course there are a few breakup songs in the heavy metal canon, despite the emotional nature of the event.


WOODS OF YPRES: "SHARDS OF LOVE (HURT FOREVER)"
This is the song that influenced this post.  I have no idea why, but this song really gets to me.  The song is about the narrator (possibly even the singer, I am not sure how personal this song is) finding his significant other in the process of packing all of her things and moving out.  An argument ensues with the narrator pleading with her to stay.  It's heart-wrenching really.  The song culminates with the woman telling him "No, I have to go.  It's too late, I'm going away and there's nothing in the world you could say to make me stay."  The music is extremely somber with some very impressive horn lines.  Unfortunately, singer David Gold recently passed away.


MEGADETH: "1,000 TIMES GOODBYE"
Megadeth wrote a breakup song?  Yes they did.  The song deals with the pain of moving on and finding peace in the breakup.  But it is kind of funny in a way because the song incorporates some samples or recordings of a woman explaining the reasons for the breakup, which run the gamut from "I don't feel the same way about" to "I met someone else" to "I still want to be friends" and culminating with the hilarious "I love you like you're my brother".  Someone has been friendzoned.


BLEEDING THROUGH: "LOVE IN SLOW MOTION"
This is a bit of a guilty pleasure album for me.  Bleeding Through is a metalcore band with some black and death metal influences.  This track is also for the most part about the lead character finding peace in moving on with his life.  Obviously a lot of the typical emo tropes are present in this song, complete with faux-deep lyrics about pain and suffering.  Nevertheless, for some reason, I really like this song.  Sue me.


SONATA ARCTICA: "TALLULAH"
I first heard this one at a time when I was dealing with a breakup of sorts.  It starts out with the closing moments of the breakup.  The last embrace, when there is one, is often very painful and that pain is exhibited here.  The song continues and finds the narrator seeing his former lover with a new flame and all of the pain that comes with that.


DAYLIGHT DIES: "ALL WE HAD"
In a song with very few words, Daylight Dies still manages to pen an absolutely devastating song.  As I said, there are not a lot of lyrics here but the pain of a lost relationship is clearly evident here.

So there's a few songs.  Obviously there are more, but I feel pretty good naming off five.  It all makes me very happy to be in the stable relationship I currently have.

In Honor of Halloween: Metal Horror Music Videos

Here are some fun music videos to watch in honor of Halloween tomorrow.

KREATOR: ENEMY OF GOD

CRADLE OF FILTH: SCORCHED EARTH EROTICA

MORBID ANGEL: GOD OF EMPTINESS

WHITE ZOMBIE: BLUR THE TECHNICOLOR

CANNIBAL CORPSE: MAKE THEM SUFFER

BLEEDING THROUGH: LOVE IN SLOW MOTION

Strange Album Covers Pt. 2: The Bloodier the Better

In today's installment of Strange Album Covers, we are going to look at some truly grotesque covers.

Up first is Impaled on their album "The Last Gasp". Impaled has been mentioned before as being one of many bands featuring members that are also in Ghoul. Impaled plays a form of death/grind. I could be wrong, but I don't think that the person on the cover is gasping. Impaled said they used sausages to represent the internal organs that this person apparently had ripped out through their mouth or puked up. Very tasty.

Bleeding Through is not well-received in most metal circles due to their metalcore leanings, but this album cover is fucking brutal. I happen to like this album, the band blends metalcore with blackened death metal and some interesting keyboard parts. I haven't like much of the rest of their stuff though. I bought this when I worked at Target and my boss happened to see it. The next day he told me he had nightmares about it. Apparently this fellow has had his lower jaw ripped off. Tough to eat when that happens. This again is fake, it is done through CGI.

We come now to the band Blood Red Throne and their album "Affiliated with the Suffering". Blood Red Throne is a decent death metal outfit from Norway. This cover features some maniac standing over a pool of blood in the snow with a bit of a shit-eating grin on his face. I would not want to meet this gentleman, particularly not in the snow.

We come next to Autopsy, one of the first bigger death metal bands and their classic album "Severed Survival". This album had two covers. The one on the right was deemed too bloody for many stores to carry and seems to feature an individual getting the Hellraiser treatment, i.e. being torn apart by chains. The one on the left is potentially creepier as we get a patient's eye view of some maniacal doctors that are committing acts of unnecessary and painful surgery. I actually prefer the censored version better, which is weird.

Last, but not least, no bloody album covers exhibit would be complete without SOMETHING from the great Cannibal Corpse. This one is disturbing on many levels. I will leave it at that and not comment further. Wow.