I personally find obituary to be heavier and more crushing than most grindcore/deathcore or "brutal" death.

I liked at the currently ongoing nocturnus tour i was approached by some guy in the 40's saying that i was too young for this kind of music. I responded with i had to start sometime no? I guess my looks dont really help either, i dont really look like a 20 year old.

I am not saying that all genres are defined by lyrics.

Yeah Morbid Angel's lyrics are often about Ancient Gods and Obituary's are more just like dying and gruesome stuff but they can be encompassed under an umbrella category that is (almost) always the focus of death metal, call it morbid fantasy or evil or whatever you want. Regardless, that category is not one thing-- mundane. Politics are mundane.

No that doesn't meet "anybody else's" semantic standards. That statement is far more egregiously inaccurate than my use of "highly specific." I only rephrased it to try to circumvent the pointless semantic complaints, which was apparently, in turn, pointless.

In regard to your real question, I am saying that lyrical content is one of the defining features of death metal. Similarly, electric guitar playing is one of the defining features of rock music in general. Yet there are rock bands without guitars... but they meet most other criteria so they are still counted. It is impossible to list criteria for a genre that will cover all aberrations. It is only possible to list typical characteristics. Any vocal style, lyrical content, type of drumming, tempo, or any other feature could be deviated from and the band would still be considered part of the genre. But you can't define the genre based on deviations.

If more than a handful of death metal bands had political lyrics the story would be different.

I was unfamiliar with them.

237 out of how many?

Gore lyrics are dumb and I really try to avoid them. I'm very much in Morbid Angel type lyrics though. I like horror type lyrics, but when the lyrics are talking about shitting on a corpse, then you IQ starts to drop as you listen to it.

Does the ratio matter? Some of the most influential bands in the genre are politically oriented.

Not all gore lyrics are that bad but I agree with you. I'd rather listen to someone trying to invoke Enlil or something.

200 out of 20,000 is 1%. I don't know what you consider a handful to be.

More than one out of every hundred Republicans is pro-choice. Some of them are "heavy hitters." Define Republican social policy.

It's not about being fit or unfit. It is about being able to reasonably define something. I would much rather hear the death metal bands that don't fit, personally.

Grindcore has punk influence and sometimes political lyrics. Death metal never has that.

Euthanasia is a political topic, but it is unclear whether "Pull the Plug" is a criticism on current law or simply a story about someone dying.

It is actually pretty clear that the lyrics to Pull the Plug are advocating euthanasia.

You're missing the point. Take another look at your original statement:

Yeah Suicide Machine's look pretty straightforward.

I have said approximately three times that when I made that statement I was not aware of any death metal bands that had those lyrics. I have modified and clarified it since.

Instead of either agreeing or disagreeing with that clarification, you have instead chosen to make tangential and semantic criticisms of unrelated things that have needlessly drawn out the discussion. I think you are very aware of that.

Furthermore when I respond to those tangents you blame me for taking the discussion off topic

The topics discussed on Death's Spiritual Healing album are also an interesting read. Check them out if you haven't.

Kruel, I will just concede the point to you. Death metal lyrics are about whatever.



Yeah I am going to. It looks like that album received a poor allmusic rating but it is one of the highest rated on here. Is it among your favorites?

I like Death but the vocals are not my favorite.

Yeah I am going to. It looks like that album received a poor allmusic rating but it is one of the highest rated on here. Is it among your favorites?

.... I've heard "Scream Bloody Gore sucks because all thrash metal sucks", "Fuck Kreator, Testament were way more technical than Kreator", "Possessed were just a faster less melodic Slayer rip off"