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Bands that do not release their lyrics.


Balor

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What do you all think of bands that do not put out the lyrics to their songs?  It certainly makes interpreting the true meaning of songs/band's music more difficult to know.  However, it could also be that the lyrics either secondary to the music, or perhaps not even meant for the listener at all.

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Personally, I'm totally fine with not having lyrics available. I care more about lyrics than I used to; I like "good" lyrics, and I feel like they enhance songs; I kind of roll my eyes at "bad" lyrics and feel like they drag songs down; but I find most lyrics pretty run-of-the-mill and I'm largely indifferent to that. Isis comes to mind as a band who enhanced their mystique (for me) by not printing lyrics.

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Depends on the band/project. Some of my favourite albums and songs are entirely in another language, so the lyrics missing are immaterial. However, there are definitely times that I wish the lyrics were printed. A band like Black Sun Aeon's 'Routa' album springs to mind. I would really like to know what the lyrics for Taake's albums are too. What makes Taake even more infuriating is that the lyrics seem to be written in a version of runes which are just sitting there in the booklet. I think knowing the lyrics to Taake's music would make a difference overall. 

Lyrics play a huge role in the degree to which I go from really liking a band to loving them. Examples include Septicflesh, Cradle of Filth, Dissection. Bands that have brilliant music but when you read the lyrics it suddenly adds a new layer of meaning.

Take the new Wintersun album 'The Forest Seasons'. The first few times I listened to that album I really liked it, but once I finally sat down a read the booklet I was amazed. The lyrics are brilliant and really add relish to the listening experience. If they weren't printed in the booklet, or I only downloaded the album, I would have missed out on that great contextualising and scene-setting that takes place. 

 

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10 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

I am more drawn to bands like Bell Witch who use minimal lyrics because I find the instrumentation does the job of the lyrics.  I get more sense of feeling from the bass on “Mirror Reaper” than I do from any of the lyrical accompaniment.

I take it that you look more for an appealing overall atmosphere of a song over meaning found in the lyrics.

10 hours ago, Requiem said:

Depends on the band/project. Some of my favourite albums and songs are entirely in another language, so the lyrics missing are immaterial. However, there are definitely times that I wish the lyrics were printed. A band like Black Sun Aeon's 'Routa' album springs to mind. I would really like to know what the lyrics for Taake's albums are too. What makes Taake even more infuriating is that the lyrics seem to be written in a version of runes which are just sitting there in the booklet. I think knowing the lyrics to Taake's music would make a difference overall. 

Lyrics play a huge role in the degree to which I go from really liking a band to loving them. Examples include Septicflesh, Cradle of Filth, Dissection. Bands that have brilliant music but when you read the lyrics it suddenly adds a new layer of meaning.

Take the new Wintersun album 'The Forest Seasons'. The first few times I listened to that album I really liked it, but once I finally sat down a read the booklet I was amazed. The lyrics are brilliant and really add relish to the listening experience. If they weren't printed in the booklet, or I only downloaded the album, I would have missed out on that great contextualising and scene-setting that takes place. 

 

I see what you mean.  It makes me think of album convers, as they often "set the scene" for the music as well.

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1 minute ago, Balor said:

I take it that you look more for an appealing overall atmosphere of a song over meaning found in the lyrics.

That's the thing about music. You can just listen to a song and get the vibe from it, or you can listen to it, get the vibe, and pick up more from the lyrics. That's why I don't really understand when people say they never listen to or care about lyrics unless - and I really don't want to disparage any particular genres here - they only listen to standard death and thrash metal where I don't think the lyrics usually have much to say. Some do of course, but you know what I mean. There's lyrics, then there's lyrics. 

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1 minute ago, Requiem said:

That's the thing about music. You can just listen to a song and get the vibe from it, or you can listen to it, get the vibe, and pick up more from the lyrics. That's why I don't really understand when people say they never listen to or care about lyrics unless - and I really don't want to disparage any particular genres here - they only listen to standard death and thrash metal where I don't think the lyrics usually have much to say. Some do of course, but you know what I mean. There's lyrics, then there's lyrics. 

True, and I agree with your death and thrash metal comment (just look at Cannibal Corpse).  I am trying to really understand the meaning of the music that I listen to and have found that I appreciate it even more as a result.

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1 minute ago, Balor said:

True, and I agree with your death and thrash metal comment (just look at Cannibal Corpse).  I am trying to really understand the meaning of the music that I listen to and have found that I appreciate it even more as a result.

I think about this quite a bit.

As much as I love Moonsorrow, Taake and Finntroll etc I feel like they could never truly be my favourite bands because I just don’t know what they’re taking about. I can love them dearly for what they are, and I do, but they can’t possibly speak to me on the same level as the magical words in Burzum’s ‘Dunkelheit’ or Katatonia’s ‘Brave’, for instance.

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1 minute ago, Requiem said:

I think about this quite a bit.

As much as I love Moonsorrow, Taake and Finntroll etc I feel like they could never truly be my favourite bands because I just don’t know what they’re taking about. I can love them dearly for what they are, and I do, but they can’t possibly speak to me on the same level as the magical words in Burzum’s ‘Dunkelheit’ or Katatonia’s ‘Brave’, for instance.

That's my problem with Drudkh (which inspired me to start this topic).  I know they mostly use poetry, but it seems to only represent a part of their philosophy rather than present it explicitly.  Then again, they might just prefer to remain mysterious. 

The lyrics on the entire Filosofem album are amongst the best in metal.  They are so simple, but very powerful.

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I'm not really a fan of mysticism of lyrics or whatever since it sound pretentious to me. Like, they are talking about some transcendental subjects that should be kept as a secret. I think that's BS, lyrics are just lyrics and they should give a listener any kind of connection and give him the clear idea, not to confuse him with some abstract shit where you have to analyize everything. Come on, man, it's just popular music, it's not an artistic super timeless poetry.  

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15 hours ago, Kristiko said:

I'm not really a fan of mysticism of lyrics or whatever since it sound pretentious to me. Like, they are talking about some transcendental subjects that should be kept as a secret. I think that's BS, lyrics are just lyrics and they should give a listener any kind of connection and give him the clear idea, not to confuse him with some abstract shit where you have to analyize everything. Come on, man, it's just popular music, it's not an artistic super timeless poetry.  

It can be poetry though, and many songs do have deep meaning.  I definitely agree that some keep their lyrics secret just to create an image, though.

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  • 4 years later...

Nokturnal Mortum has never released more than half of their lyrics and that kind of annoys me because I'd like to cover some of their older material if I could get a band together these days. Having said that, usually I do not read lyrics. I don't care what the lyrics are in most cases and in many cases, cannot follow along with them anyway (this is especially true with crust bands that I listen to like Iskra and Agnosy, whom I don't want to know their lyrics anyway because then I would probably not want to listen to them anymore).

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