As we’ve learned (maybe to the surprise of many), heavy metal and literature have a rather intimate relationship. To review: We’ve rocked out with a first installment of heavy metal lyrics as book blurbs. Then we mixed the world of heavy metal and books with some of Rioter Peter’s favorite epic metal/lit combos. And finally, we were surprised to discover a class at small Texas college focusing on literary heavy metal lyrics. ROCK!
And now, sleep with one eye open and grip your pillow tightly, ’cause we’re back with another edition of heavy metal lyrics as book blurbs!
Night Film, by Marisha Pessl
Have you ever been alone at night / Thought you heard footsteps behind / And turned around and no one’s there?
Watching horror films the night before / Debating witches and folklore / The unknown troubles on your mind
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark / I have a constant fear that something’s always near Fear of the dark, fear of the dark / I have a phobia that someone’s always there.
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
Is there no standard anymore? What it takes, who I am, where I’ve been, belong You can’t be something you’re not / Be yourself, by yourself / Stay away from me A lesson learned in life / Known from the dawn of time
The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green
Trust I seek and I find in you / Every day for us something new Open mind for a different view / And nothing else matters
Americanah, by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
Never badder than bad ’cause the brother is madder than mad At the fact that’s corrupt like a senator Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope Cause the beats and the lines are so dope
The Martian, by Andy Weir
I flew beyond the sun before it was time Burning all the gold that held me inside my shell Waiting for you to pull me back in I almost had the world in my sight
Now I’m lost in oblivion
Inferno, by Dan Brown
This place is evil / Is there an answer? This world is vile / We are the answer
How long until we die? / Die from the inside out How much is enough for us to see the light? How much blood must be spilled?
Tampa, by Alissa Nutting
I can feel your fever, taking over / Can you see your fever, taking over me? I can feel your fever, taking over / Got a dirty feeling that you’re the remedy
********Bust out your devil’s horns and prepare to shred! Normally, there isn’t too much overlap between books and ball-busting, face-melting metal, but if you’re a fan of both (like I am), today’s your lucky day! These lyrics-as-book blurbs will get you headbangin’ with the best of ‘em. (Song links are to Spotify, when available, should you have the urge to ROCK!)
Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
You’re making us….whooooaaaaaa….f$@cking HOSTILE!
Pantera, F$@cking Hostile
Or, if you prefer:
Drain you of your sanity / Face the thing that should not be
Metallica, The Thing That Should Not Be
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan
Howling in shadows / Living in a lunar spell He finds his heaven / Spewing from the mouth of hell
Ozzy Osbourne, Bark at the Moon
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
And you’ve broken the notion of trust / Cause you’re lying and denying
Justifying all the actions you take / It’s pathetic and poetic
Caught in the web of your self-serving plan. Don’t force my hand when my eyes are wide open.
Staind, Eyes Wide Open
State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
Welcome to the jungle it gets worse here every day Ya learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play
Guns N’ Roses, Welcome to the Jungle
Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Don’t tell me how to do my job / There’s the door, your name’s on the knob You’re always in the way, like a beast on my back / Were you dropped as a baby, cause brains you lack
Anthrax, Caught In a Mosh
On The Road, by Jack Kerouac
And the road becomes my bride / I have stripped of all but pride So in her I do confide / And she keeps me satisfied
Metallica, Wherever I May Roam
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
All the pain in this world won’t stop us now / For we have each other All the hate in this world can’t tear us apart / This love is forever
Trivium, This World Can’t Tear Us Apart
Lamb, by Christopher Moore
If I worship the ground that he walks on / And it winds up that he has two left feet Will he be walking on water? / ‘Cause, you should know, we never liked to get our feet wet
Fair To Midland, Musical Chairs
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, by Jonathan Evison
I want you to lead me / Take me somewhere / Don’t want to live in a dream one more day
In Flames, Come Clarity
Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
Hello me, it’s me again / You can subdue, but never tame me It gives me a migraine headache / Thinking down to your level
Megadeth, Sweating Bullets
********
Like mixing chocolate and peanut butter together to produce a delicious new combination (seriously, someone should market it), mixing the world of books with heavy metal also produces some fantastic combinations. It’s a strangely bookish field of music. Geezer Butler once said that Black Sabbath’s “Wizard” was about Gandalf. All of Ronnie James Dio’s career feels like a shelf of cheesy-but-wonderful high fantasy novels, with a side of Dungeons & Dragons. There are some more specific examples you might not have heard of, out of my own personal music library, and I thought I’d share them.
ALICE COOPER: The Last Temptation
Alice Cooper has had a gigantic career that has gone all over the map. The man who made Billion Dollar Babies is also the man who made DaDa is also the man who made Trash is also the man who made Brutal Planet. Not all of his albums are successful, but he’s so prodigious that it almost doesn’t matter. The next one will be along in a minute, and it’ll be totally different.
For The Last Temptation, which came out in 1994, Alice Cooper hooked up with Neil Gaiman, who hadn’t written many of his breathtaking and award-sweeping novels quite yet and was merely known for a small comic called Sandman (and if you have not read that, I’m going to report you). Quite how they built the album, I haven’t figured out in all my years of hardcore Alice Cooper fanship, but Neil Gaiman was thoroughly involved. Moreover, the album was released alongside The Last Temptation, a comic expounding on the album’s story, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by the astonishing Michael Zulli. And to further the literary connection here, Dave McKean, a god of an artist, did the album for the cover.
(The music video for Lost in America isn’t particularly literary and has zilch to do with the rest of the album…but it is a fun song, and I love the shots of a kid reading a Neil Gaiman comic. The kid looks like she’s never seen a comic book before and is overloading because of a book having words but also pictures how can this even be!)IRON MAIDEN: Brave New World
There’s always been a lot of genre in Iron Maiden’s music. Whether we’re looking at the horror of Fear of the Dark, or the pure science fiction of their latest album The Final Frontier, you can kind of feel the reading of bassist-and-writer Steve Harris bleeding into each album. With Brave New World, their 2001 album (a return after a lot of years of doing very little), the literary roots are right there in the title. There’s not just the title song Brave New World, but further on in the album is an excellent song called Out of the Silent Planet, which is from a trilogy of science books by C.S. Lewis, perhaps lesser-known now than his more famous Chronicles of Narnia.
NIGHTWISH: Imaginaerum
It’s not possible to talk to me for five consecutive minutes without hearing me talk about Nightwish, and that is why I never get invited to any of the really good parties. They blend a range of elements together in a way that resonates perfectly with me. From the blending of male and female vocals, orchestras and choirs and heavy metal instruments, the power of the lyrics, I’ll spend ages and ages with the albums on repeat. I’ve written and published whole stories based off of their songs percolating in my brain for a long time.
Their latest album Imaginaerum doesn’t have overt songs I can point to that come specifically from certain books, as with the other albums on this list (although the last song on the album is called Song of Myself, which shares a name with a famous Walt Whitman poem, an oft-mentioned influence on the band). When they were working on the album, they described it as “a theme park, designed by Neil Gaiman, Tim Burton, and Salvidor Dali,” and indeed, the whole album feels very much like that. So does the Imaginaerum movie, which is coming out to accompany the album (the trailer for which, I have put above).
(This song isn’t from Imaginaerum, so I’m cheating a little. It is from the current tour, I really like what their new singer does with it, and it gives me goosebumps at the end. Look, this is my article, dammit…)
RHAPSODY: The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream
This song is so cheesy. Oh man, is it cheesy. I mean, the cheese starts in the title and goes on from there. But, look, it’s a heavy metal ballad song featuring guest vocals from Christopher Lee. And Christopher Lee played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings movies which were based on books which is definitely why I’ve put it on this list. I haven’t just done it because it’s wonderfully dorky and I want everyone to see it.
(I started out watching it to laugh at it. But I’ve come back to it so many times, I suppose I have to admit I like it, dorkiness and all. I’m not ashamed.)
There you have it. A small glimpse of heavy-metal with bookish leanings. I didn’t even scratch on all the bands who have pulled from The Lord of the Rings (and I mean besides a member of the cast). Remember, listening to any of these songs is equal to reading one whole book. Tell your teachers.
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