Does it matter to you if you can understand lyrics?

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yes that does exist, but it is garbage and certainly doesn't represent the vast majority of black metal.

Fejd are pretty good, thanks. That guy with the gains in the video haha. I would go to see them but from the looks of it they don't seem to have any tour dates for the UK. I hope they come to metal camp in Slovenia, I'll likely be going to that this year.

Wardruna became so popular because of Vikings, I knew them before this through an ex but I've liked them for a long time, good choice of folk to suggest though cause they're so good.

That design is pretty epic, where's he got it? I reckon a circle tat like that would look pretty nice on the shoulder. I may get something with runes going in a circle as I've thought of it previously since I saw someone with an ouroboros circle tat on the top of the shoulder and it looked sweet.

Do you know what your brothers says? I'd probably want some historical quote on mine if I do end up going with that.

Usually it matters.
But not always.

Many of my favorite classic rock songs I have to admit to not knowing what theyre singing about (even after hearing them for decades).

Do like many foreign language recordings in which I dont understand a word. The human voice becomes one more instrument in the sound of the song. Gypsy Kings comes to mind.

Different genres it matters more than others. Country emphasizes the lyrics, and the story telling. Folk, and folk rock and singer-songwriter music is also very lyric driven. Rock doesnt always emphasize the lyrics.

The aforementioned King'smen version of "Louie Louie" is impossible to decifer lyric-wise.

But the original version of the song by R+B artist Richard Berry is perfectly easy to decipher. Its sort of an R+B sea chantay/love song. A Jamaican immigrant tells a bartender named Louie that he misses his girlfriend back home in Jamaica, and then in the subsequent verses he stows away on freighter and makes it back to his girlfriend's arms.

A later rock hit (also associated with the city of Seattle) was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Kurt Cobain, and Nirvanna. Like the Kingsmen version of Louie Louie you can not decipher the words being sung on the hit record. But unlike Louie Louie even after you understand the words, you STILL dont... understand the words. "a mulatto, an albino, my libido...". Over my head. I dont get it! Lol!

No, it doesn't matter. I like the sound of other languages anyways.

Do research then, but there are a lot of black metal bands who don't or won't ever share lyrics.

I wondered about this. Xen from NeO seemed to not part with the lyrics very easily when someone asked for them on Patreon, he's more of a black metal dude even if his band is more prog/tech. He seemed very attached, is there a specific reason for why a lot of them do this?

Maybe they want you to enjoy the atmosphere more. Or they want you to interpret the music your own way with preconceived notions based on the lyrics. Not sure. Black metal can definitely be a genre with zero need for lyrics especially raw black metal. It's a interesting question. I don't think it has a definitive answer though.

Lyrics are the best part of a song if you ask me. I especially like lyrics that I can relate to. I listen to vocaloid but I always read about the song to find out what it's about. I listen to more than vocaloid. I also listen to music other than vocaloid.

When I listen to something regardless of the language I have to like the lyrics.

In most cases, it doesn't matter to me, if I am able to understand the lyrics, per se, as I find the most pleasurable aspects of music, to be the sound/the aural experiences, and the emotional, psychological and physical responses that music can evoke in me.

Yes, it matters. I don't much like music with lyrics I can't make out, and I don't like music with lyrics that are about bad stuff that I don't like. I don't like graphic lyrics, slu*ty lyrics or lots of cuss words as lyrics. There have been times when I've liked music with another language, but I like foreign languages and find learning new words in other languages enjoyable. So other-language music is more enjoyable to me than ugly lyrics in English, or garbled diction that I can't understand.

Ah right. I figure it would be something like that though, yeah. I had Burzum destroyed for me actually as I didn't realise they were like REALLY racist/fascist so I guess it's best to not know some lyrics.

Well he, its just varg vikerness but yes he does have some views like that which are certianly distasteful. I don't think anyone could work with him in a band even if they wanted to. He might get jealous/paranoid of them and stab them to death to like he did that Euronomous(or something like that cant remember spelling) guy from Mayhem.

Ahh I forgot that happened. Varg is such a weird dude.

I recall someone saying that in some black metal bands they literally beat the crap out of you if they suspect you're gay or anything. I guess you don't have to support the band if they're bad though by not buying merch/albums and you can still listen to whatever particular song/albums you like. Then again, it's similar to the whole "don't befriend band people you like" thing cause you'll end up not liking the band as much as you did if they're gonna be crappy to you. I learned this the hard way, Alestorm are really full of themselves. >_>

I refuse to listen to Burzum because of Varg Vikernes' sentiments. I have no time for that nonsense in the music that I listen to. Actually, I've never been all that into black metal partly because of the imagery. Not because I'm religious. I just find it lame. That said, I really like Immortal partly because they're more influenced by Tolkien than satanism or nazism. They also have some really cool riffs with a significant thrash metal influence which I find very appealing (Thrash has always been my favourite type of metal). I also like Satyricon and Emperor's first album. There's also Behemoth but I consider them more of a death metal band really.

Back on-topic, I don't really need to understand lyrics in order to enjoy music. I'm a big fan of Rammstein and almost everything they've written is in German. There's also bands where the vocals are so extreme that I can't make out any of the lyrics but that doesn't matter as long as the music is cool. The first Suffocation album, Effigy Of The Forgotten, is a case in point. I've listened to songs like Liege Of Inveracity and Infecting The Crypts dozens of times and I still have no idea what the vocalist is growling about unless I have the lyrics in front of me. Fortunately, he's quite a bit easier to understand on every album after that simply because his vocals aren't so guttural on those later records.

That's perfectly understandable tbh. I dislike how I ended up getting into Burzum because it was a trend with the metalheads at one point so everyone was pretty much just throwing Burzum/Bathory etc at me. You couldn't walk very far without seeing Bathory/Burzum shirts at one point lol. Hell, even I have a Bathory shirt somewhere in the depths of my wardrobe. But yeah, now I really like a couple of Burzum songs so I'm too attached to let them go even though they're basically pricks.

What BM stuff would you class as lame btw? If it's the whole corpse paint thing then fair enough but that's kind of a joke within a joke at this point rather than for the sake of solely looking brutal/kvlt from what I've been told. Though I wouldn't mind doing a corpse paint thing for a laugh. For me I usually stick to the smart looking BM shirts in black/white. Marduk/Carpathian Forest etccccc.

I do quite like Bathory now you come to mention them. Under The Sign Of The Black Mark is a great album and I do like the two records after that one as well.

I'd say it's more the satanic themes in the music than the corpse paint that I find lame. King Diamond ticked both of those boxes but at least his lyrical themes transitioned to more of a horror movie theme. I guess I like a bit more variety in a band's lyrical content really. I also dislike Deicide for the same reason. And Glen Benton seems to be a bit of a knob too which doesn't help. I actually think some of the more interesting black metal around now is from bands that mix it with other genres particularly black/shoegaze groups such as Deafheaven and Alcest. Try checking them out if you aren't familiar with them.

Last edited by AlanMooresBeard on 12 Mar 2017, 2:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.