Within that niche genre I do find Thomas Gabriel Fischer to be quite captivating, an eerie elegance especially when we consider the emotions he prod. Hellhammer songs may not exactly fit the bill but Celtic Frost takes the song writing skills to another world altogether, they are abstract and concise but still graphic and strangely poetic too. Beyond any doubt its difficult to pick the best among such an exceptional set but then "Jewel Throne", "(Beyond The) North Winds", "Circle Of The Tyrants" & "Procreation (Of The Wicked)" all come racing to my mind.

Fischer's style expresses a never seen before refinement, they are surreal in a lot of ways, specific about details yet largely vague in its direction. The abstract style places very little limit on the range of thoughts he can spur but of course they are all grim, they are far from being ramblings but essentially feels like poetic descriptions of images his nightmares are made of.

The old man's dream now has ended much too soon
Forgotten rests the wisdom that brought them once so far
Vanished until rebirth, we sleep the endless sleep
For one who knows never tries to reappear ...

I don't know whether anyone's mentioned Silenoz yet but I believe he definitely deserves a mention. Love Dimmu or hate Dimmu, those lyrics are undeniably brilliant and well constructed, unlike a lot of directionless, filler-track swill in popular SBM, much like Abrahadabra was actually, lol. In fact, most of the song lyrics on In Sorte Diaboli (2007) were constructed around a narrative of his creation which earns him my respect.
This is my favourite Dimmu Borgir line from Hybrid Stigmata: (Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia) 2001

Agree with Dani, and Carach Angren, that song, The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist is pure gold. The whole album is, but that's my favourite track, actually.

Kakko wrote this? then, he is up there, I think.

The walls around me, eyes surround me, feed my fear again.
I must be freed or I will die before the harvest moon, my friend.
I do not have another year in me, you've gotta set me free.

The dream is alive, I can run up the hills every night,
go around and see another side of the tree.
All I want is to be unlamed and free, howl and (dream).

Paid in Full too, maybe it's wimpy for metal, but whatever.

It hard for me to hate myself right now
Finally I understand me
One day we may have a new me and you
But first I need to learn to love me too....

As the fanboy I am, I need to mention David Defeis. He is maybe too pretentious at times, but he has some killer lyrics here and there.

Wow, I'm surprised I've reached two pages with this thread so far, didn't think it would get this popular.

One lyricist that I feel like doesn't get mentioned enough is Lemmy Kilmister. There is such a great flow to his lyrics, and always presents them from an interesting point of view.



Also, a bit off topic, but I was playing "Deaf Forever" to my mom (who is an English major) a couple months ago. She wasn't all too impressed with the song (she likes R&B), but she thought that it was cool that the chorus contained a not-too-oftenly-used word ('rictus grin'). So yeah, if an English teacher thinks he's good, then I say he's pretty fucking good.

Krzysztof Azarewicz. He writes amazing lyrics for Behemoth and I'm surprised that he hasn't been mentioned yet.

sounds more like headache than anything

I'll elaborate a little more my response:

One of my fav lyrics and songs ever:

Melancholy - still my desire for thy precious tragedian wine...
Sweep me away, into the vale of thine!
Where sorrow's strong and so is joy.

Melancholy - still my desire, O let my heart by thee inspire...
O fill the air with thy sweet scent,
Let thy light, thy star crescent.

Wherever she dwells I will bid a farewell sigh
For she dwells with beauty - beauty that must die
And deep inside me I will wait for her return
To her enchanting, awe-inspiring flame I'll yearn

O lust and rueful thought be mine,
My soul enhanced, desires...
Melancholy.
My heart is thine.

This one goes right thru the heart. The message is clear and perfectly portrayed by the lyrics and the music.

Another excellent one from Draconian:

Filled with sorrow...
Bleak inner self touched by pride,
devoured by solitude, still wrapped in time.
I'm flowing with pain!

Holding myself back in suspicion...
and lingering in the dust...
the dust of my abandoned remains.
Killed with the dagger of life...!

Such an exquisite pride in my suffering...
alone, all alone with the emotional
streams of my soul...
So real, so pure... yet I'm left aside
entangled in fear... without hope.

I am truly left alone,
but somehow... just somehow
it feels like my loneliness is a victory
over the self-delusion of joy... and happiness.

My heart beats faster,
the anguish becomes clearer
and my misanthropic view gets stronger.
Living in the shadows...
so proud of being the one,
but desperate...
so desperate for a helping hand.
Do I really want to live this life?

I have a thousand reasons to die,
and many millions of tears to cry... in silence.
The human plague has emptied my life,
and I curse the day I was born... to this world!

Still, no-one else I ever want to be...
and no-one else I intend to be...
'cause no-one else I was meant to be!

I need, I want, I long for my retribution...
I need, I want, I yearn for my retribution...
I want my retribution... I want it now!

Unity; a gathering of open wounds,
of dark... of dark clean spirits...
what a dream... what a dream so distant!
Why should I... why should I be alone
when I love... when I love my brotherhood?
Shall I die... shall I die to be free
when I cry... when I cry in silence...
so please let me die in silence...
oh my god, let me die in silence!

You can see that this is not a simple 'I'm so miserable' kind of lyric; a lot of thought was put into it and you can see hoy many subjects there are.

From Saturnus:

Here strolls the blackened sky
With me, myself and I

Let's pretend well meet again
Pretend you knew me
Pretend you cared
Lets pretend we once kissed
With compassion
With heartfelt affection

Let's pretend well meet again
Let's just, lets just pretend
Pretend you're still... you're still my friend

Let's pretend well meet again
Pretend you knew me
Pretend you cared
Let's pretend we once kissed
With compassion

This one is more simple, yes, but real enough to feel identified with. It's a certain feeling so hard to explain for most of us, but here is perfectly written.

From Deinonychus:

A faint taste of my blood hangs heavy in the
air
And of Chrysanthemums in bloom
In honour of the long dead souls at rest
The shadows cast an eerie light upon the stone

Heavy is my heart from the loss
Weeping I lay down upon the ground
The cool night air sets the mood so distant
Hours and hours I pray, do my cries fall upon
deaf ears
Dawn is so far, I cannot hold on

Staid am I, I fell nothing, nothing
How long can I hold onto this dream of ours
Long suffered in melancholy
Forever is a mere second in dead tongue
For the light has dimmed and hours passed

My dress is torn from my constant madness
This life is too cruel and unbearable
Why wait to be spirited to death
I kiss at your feet to stay with me
I hear the beating of my own heart

Can you feel my love for you
I've long tired of the lies
And thrust me into the arms of dead lovers
The throes of ecstasy will not last
So as the grave fades, so does life eternal

Dawn is creeping into the night's sullen
incandescence
Time has come to say our last goodbye
And do not weep for me, I shall not weep for
you
Then how is your face stained with tears
For the night has passed

If you must leave me now, tell me your heart
The truth will haunt us
And I no longer wish to remember the hurt
Then kiss me goodbye and be on your way
And free from your guilt, never...

Oh, and Mick Moss! is a genius:

And there it is, as pure as snow
I couldn't see it for my head was too low
And prying eyes, they stoop too low
Poisoning my soul, as sanity waits in the gallows
Defeated I, fighting for a lost cause
Depleted I, dying for the wrong cause
These are the hours on the range
The more you show them
The more they choose to take away
Some things never change in the wings
And as it's your war,
There'll be no escape at all

This is really deep in terms of significance. It's simply amazing how accurate can relate those feelings that, when you feel them, are so confusing.

Queensrÿche had decent lyrics on "Promised Land", "Empire" and "Rage for Order".

The rebellion themes used on "Operation: Mindcrime" were developed in a few songs on "Rage for Order", in a sci-fi context. "Mindcrime" took them to a political conspiracy context. "The Warning" has lyrical sci-fi and dystopian elements.

My votes:
1. Walkyier
2. Mgła
3. King Diamond
4. Tom G. Warrior
5. Goat of Von

.

This awful, and extremely amateurish, like a highschooler wrote it. There is no depth, no wisdom, just whining while pointing out the fucking obvious (for both the author and the subject matter), and having no flow or poetical sense. Utter dreck.

Alan from Primordial definitely gets a vote from me with his heartfelt, strong-willed lyricism. A perfect coupling with the powerful and evocative music.

The Calling:
Brothers and sisters
Descendants of gods
Forge a new destiny
In accordance with your will

Fan the flames of change
Sweep away stagnation
Purge what went before
And claim
What is rightfully yours...

Tom G Warrior is also another great lyricist, especially on Into The Pandemonium. There are some wonderfully imagery used in these darkly woven tales - like a luadanum experience.

Sorrows Of The Moon:
This evening the moon dreams more lazily
As some fair woman, lost in cushions deep
With gentle hand caresses listlessly
The contour of her breasts before she sleeps
On velvet backs of avalanches soft
She often lies enraptured as she dies
And gazes on white visions aloft
Which like a blossoming to heaven rise
When sometimes on this globe, in indolence
She lets a secret tear drop down, by chance
A poet, set against oblivion
Takes in his hand this pale and furtive tear
This opal drop where rainbow hues appear
And hides it in his breast far from the sun

I find it hard to dig any lyrics since I'm no longer 15, honestly

I lean to like unintentional comedy lyrics the most. And the king of lyrics is Joey DeMaio, together with Great Kat.

Immolation usually have exceptional lyrics. Probably because they spend a lot of time and effort on making them good and flow well with each song. I saw an interview where they discussed this and the importance of lyrics also being of high quality, nearly as important as the music. I agree with them. Immolation probably possesses my favorite lyrics in death metal.

Now my vote for shitty lyrics goes to: Strapping Young Lad and Devin Townsend in general.

This is foolish. What does age have to do at all with putting emphasis on lyrics?

Agreed. What kind of ridiculous logic is that?

If we're gonna be talking about shittiest lyricists ever, then we can be here all night, but just for shits and giggles, here are a few of my most detested.

Alexi Laiho - Look, I know, for the most part he improvised in the studio, but I still feel like I lose an I.Q point or 30 whenever I hear/read lyrics like this shit.



Ugh, dreadful.

Whoever writes lyrics for The Sword - Totally awful fantasy/mythological wannabes, The Sword are the definition of incompetent not only musically, but lyrically as well.



Jon Anderson - I know that Yes isn't a metal band, but Anderson's in a new league of incomprehension.



Jeez, and they say The Beatles were high writing their lyrics.

Just because you don't understand Jon Anderson's lyrics does not mean they are shitty. And I can't help but be a bit offended by you mentioning him in the same breath as Alexi Laiho. A lot of people have commented on the obscurantist nature of Yes' lyricism and these were mostly critics of the whole Progressive movement who dubbed it excessive and unnecessarily esoteric.
The thing that can be said about Jon was that he was consistent! He didn't just pen one weird little song, he ALWAYS wrote like that and when he sang those words, he sounded sincere and that really gave those words lift.

Agree on what Dreamer said regarding Anderson. I'm not a big Yes fan, but saying he is as much of a shitty lyricist as Alexi Laiho or the hacks who play in The Sword is preposterous. He might be esoteric, but he isn't nearly as incoherent nor as cliché as the people you mentioned, Metalhead1995.

Yeah, I love those Yes lyrics...


A few bands' lyrics that I really like. Let's see.

Tomer Pink from Subterranean Masquerade
This guy's got some wacky lyrics, but they also hold deeper meaning. The song itself takes me on a fuckin' journey-- everytime, and anytime.
No Place Like Home

Spoiler: show

I'm digging myself, a small hole, will call it home
We'll get a dark purple carpet so I will never fall, will never sink inside this hole
and make it be a part of me, a part of you, a part of us...
So join me in my home

I'm digging a tunnel to another world
To when civilizations were controlled by big gray animals
Survival is the key for life, the hunter - Allah on his side
And no one really knows his right from wrong.
So what changed? Still feels like home!

Running from the horror of civil depression
from the time before the time
Claiming the remains of a glorious presence
A chapter that slowly dies
Birthmark represents an unspeakable rage
Can you see, my forehead burning?
Pretentious fairies counting heads
Mortal Inventory, roots to collect

But there is no other place....

I will be digging you a small hole, to call home
So you will always feel welcome, all on your own
But when you need a break from it all
Pack a few bones to accompany the road
And remember that there is no place to come back to
There was never a home

Mark Shelton from Manilla Road
I love Mark's use of fantasy, history, and mythology all woven to create his own narratives. This song in particular though, I love the lyrics because they start with such innocent sincerity. Then the song takes off into high gear, the lyrics follow.
Dreams Of Eschaton

Spoiler: show

I laid myself down into bed
To sleep away the night
A vision from inside my head
A sun with no sunlight
Death would grip humanity
A new Solar Ice Age
An Earth that no science could save

I woke sweat running down my face
I never felt so strange
To think that this could be our fate
To freeze in darkened pain
Then sleep brought back the dreams to me
Of wars to turn the tide
The world committing nuclear suicide

Inside this hazy world of dreams I've never known
I've seen the wrath come down and turn mankind to stone
And then I realized that this be Eschatus
A holocaust of flames to burn Midgard to dust

It has been called by many names throughout the years
Still they all mean the same, man burning in his fears
The Anti-Christ will come and rise up through the sea
The Dreams of Eschaton have shown this all to me

Before the Gods of Hell sentence you to die
Remember well my friend a warlord never cries
These are the words that I've heard inside my mind
When Ragnarok comes down we'll all run out of time

I hope that you can see that this is not a game
We don't just sing to thee to win fortune and fame
The souls of all of us are priceless to the last
These dreams could be our fate of living life too fast

And so I say to thee watch the skies above
For when the darkness falls and rivers turn to blood
Then Arthur shall return to fight for peace and truth
To slay the beast of hell and save the righteous few

Before the Gods of Hell sentence you to die
Remember well my friend a warlord never cries
These are the words that I've heard inside my mind
When Ragnarok comes down we'll all run out of time

Daniel Gildenlow of Pain Of Salvation
This dude has a way with words. He tends to write very emotionally-charged lyrics. This song is no exception.
Morning On Earth

Spoiler: show

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to
Silence every beating heart; every sound of breathing
Now there is something inside of me that aches as I hear you
Breathing here when you sleep between these morning sheets

I am the tears in your mouth
I am the weight on your shoulder
I am the scream that wants out
And my heart just couldn't grow colder
Now this rusty heart is my gift
This fallen love is my gift

Morning arrives on an Earth I've never seen before
Revealing a life that I never really understood
Strange, the way beauty can hurt the unopened eye
Much more than all of the filth and pain
That we're soaked in ever could

I am the tears in your mouth
I am the weight on your shoulder
I am the scream that wants out
And my heart just couldn't grow colder

Hear this voice, see this man standing before you
I'm just a child trapped inside the body of a man

"A relation, so oddly old - bred not to love
Suffers the beaten grounds of Idioglossia
We talk but we do not speak
Together only in our incapability to leave this fallen playground
We rule this Empire merely with these few crippled toys
Rust in our faces
This is what we can share - this is all we can lose
Still
Furiously we will linger to it with our lives
Cling to its rust and pains
Barefoot and torn
Bred not but born to love"

Hear this voice, see this man standing before you
I'm just a child trapped inside this fallen man
See this child

Ok, Anderson isn't as bad as Alexi Laiho or The Sword, my apologies for over-exaggerating. But I still think he's a bad lyricist, nevertheless, sorry.

I do like Yes, though.

The lyricist for Deathspell Omega. I find a lot of their lyrics quite profound and well thought out, on a whole.

I'm surprised that there isn't more David Gray in here.

Now I realise, that I almost only know German or French lyrics. I mean read them attentive and so on.
My absolute favourite lyrics are from Alcest (French) -> Neige and Dornenreich (German) -> Eviga.
If someone can this languages or one of them:
Alcest

Dornenreich

Mike Scalzi and/or Slough Feg.

Yes rules! Anderson's words might not mean a whole lot to everyone but personally, I find them beautiful. There is something to be said about making words appealing on an aesthetic level even when there isn't much literal sense to be gleaned from them. No one accomplished it quite like the Yes man!

I fully agree on all mentions of Shelton, Nemetheanga and Scalzi.

I worship pretty much everything that John Haughm of Agalloch writes. I'm not sure there is a lyricist who has affected me more profoundly at any point in my life. The accompanying music, of course, does not detract from the experience.

I believe that the lyrics of songs by Ne Obliviscaris are the stuff of mastery. Mikael Stanne's lyrics in Dark Tranquillity have similar qualities, but more on the grim side.

Dani Filth. I understand how some may be turned off by his vocals and Cradle's music in general but if you can't acknowledge him as a master of the pen then you're blind.

Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids:

Maleficent in dusky rose
Gathered satin lapped Her breasts
Like blood upon the snow
A tourniquet of Topaz

Glistened at Her throat
Awakening, pulled from the tomb
Her spirit freed eclipsed the moon
That She outshone as a fallen star
A regal ornament from a far flung nebular

Her likeness hung in the black gallery
Commanding unease
Demanding of Death to breathe...

Midst the whirl and daylight fauna
Of society at court
Elizabeth bedazzled, Her presence sought applause
Though Her torchlit shadow
Thrown upon damp cellar walls
Greeted nothing but despair from slaves Her nights enthralled

Thirteen Winter solstices had shown
Her path, that the dark
Had marked its dominion
Spaying the confessor

Whose caresses she'd known,
As whipcord in the House of Dog
Her cold cunt meat on holy bone

Raped of faith, She now embraced
The narcissistic unrest frozen on the mirror's face
With this disdain, inside these veins
(Highborn wanton that She was)

She sought to keep what age would claim
Her soul was sold and for this toll
Reeking pyres ever smouldered
On the whims of one so in control

Elizabeth, mysterious.
Cruelty brought thee orchids
From the bowels of the abyss

Once upon atrocity when midwitches stifled cries
And carved abortive runes in reddened wombs
Exhumed by scrying eyes
Madness came upon

Her like an amourous lover's seed
Lifesblood splashed upon Her skin
In gouts torture unleashed

And to Her dead reflection
Twas as if Her pallor gleamed
Like an angel's warmed by candles
Where erotic stains had cleaved

So demons dragged this libertine
Lusts screaming for release
Upon the flesh of maidens preened
As canvas for caprice

Exacting obeisance
Her gaze held a seance
Of spirits too trapped under glass to commune
A sleeter mistress than Luna
Whose threats to consume Her
Met with torments giving vent to Her swoon

Flat on Her back
Pack-prey for the reams
Of verses and curses
That haunted Her dreams

Midnightmare chimed
Thirteen in Her mind
A disciple of scars
Branded years hissed behind

Ridden split-thighed
By the Father of lies
An ovation of wolves
Blushed the skies as they writhed

But Heaven is never forever
She came, a spent storm
From the clouds...

Leaving serpents in office
Inside every gate
To lick righteous holes
Blinding Lords to the fate

Of virgins forced naked
To defile on rent knees
Hacked and racked backwards
Menses choking their pleas

"More. Whore. More.
Twitching make me wet with thee
Carcass rub me raw"

Sounds like something a 16 year old would say.

I agree. I used to sit and stare and an album, and pour over the lyrics word for word when I was a teenager. As an old man, I find myself into lyrics more than ever now. Especially lyrics that have the power to create a picture, or story in your head.

My favourite lyrics in metal are probably that of Neurosis, Agalloch, Tool and Emperor. There are tons that are great, but those really stick out.

Also Darkthrone have written some great lyrics over their career too. 2 of my personal favourites

Deathspell Omega also has some really good ones too. Especially the Si Monumentum album, while I'm not too big on satanic lyrics (since most of them are totally generic), Deathspell Omega are very clever with their writing, so much that you read it, think for a second and then realize "Holy shit, that's satanic"

Well, I agree with you on Tool. Their lyrics are well written and often very thoughtful and observant. I especially like the lyrics of "Vicarious" and "Right in Two".

I never cared about lyrics as a teenager but now it's rare for me to like a band if I don't like their lyrics in some decent capacity. Lyrics turn something from just sounding "cool" to giving it personal meaning.

Anyway, I am with the people who said Deathspell Omega and Behemoth (Krzysztof Azarewicz). I also really like Totalscorn's lyrics that he did for IXXI, especially on Elect Darkness.

Oh man Right In Two is a beautiful song

I can see what you mean, but if you want something that's easier to read try the Fas album. They kinda dropped the whole satanic theme on that album and went pure philosophy. It literally has full sentence structure and is like reading a philosophical essay. There's some thinking involved to wrap your head around what they mean, but it's still quite interesting.

I don't think intelligent lyrics are necessarily good. There's also elements such as flow and the poetical aspect: saying something that transcends the literal meaning of each word. Not saying that this necessarily applies to Deathspell Omega, as I don't listen to them and am not familiar with their lyrics or music, but when someone tells me that this or that band has lyrics that read like essays and allegedly require doctorate degrees to be deciphered, that doesn't exactly tell me they have good lyrics. And vice versa: lyrics can be pretty mundane yet still be functional or have poetic merit. See Absurd's lyrics on Blutgericht.

Aaaanyway, moving on to my favourite lyricists, this is a difficult question. Not to sound like a pretentious blowhard, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to lyrics. That has more to do with the fact that us Dutch people are especially sensitive to pretense. This is why there are barely any successful Dutch poets; and those that are successful usually need to constantly use jokes or ironic self-reflection to prevent giving the impression that they are taking themselves too seriously. Though I try to distance myself from this obviously protestant mentality, I still can't help but cringe at how seriously some lyricists seem to take themselves.

As such, it is perhaps not surprising that one of my favourite lyricists is Famine of Peste Noire. He has everything that it takes to be a great lyricist. His great intelligence shines through his lyrics without giving the impression that he's trying too hard. That's not too say he can't use 'big words' (look at the title of PN's debut album, for instance), but he can also write something absolutely retarded to get a point across. The lyrics and overall performance of "Cochon Carotte et les Sœurs Crotte" are an excellent example, though of course they went over the heads of a lot of people, no doubt leading them to conclude that PN had pulled a Morbid Angel. But even those unfortunately souls will be able to recognise the poetic merit of some of his less ambiguous lyrics, if you will. They combine a sense of elevatedness with light-hearted rudeness, kind of like decadentist poetry in a way.

(sorry, I really can't be arsed to translate the following, and my translations would probably suck ass anyway)

From "Casse, Pêches, Fractures et Traditions":



From: "Des Médecins Malades Et Des Saints Séquestrés"



And, probably my favourite, the first segments of "L'Envol du Grabataire (Ode à Famine)"



More recently, I've also grown very fond of the lyrics of Akitsa, especially those written by Néant. They are a bit more straightforward, as the political connotation is more explicitly formulated, which fortunately does not mean that they're on the level of hilarious RAC lyrics. Take the lyrics to "Les Sentinelles", for example.



Maybe it's because I'm well, "politically disappointed" with the modern world to say the least, that I can appreciate this lyrics more than your usual smiley-faced Amnesty International donator, but in any case I thought the lyrics were rather touching, in lack of a less feminine word.

From "Loyauté":


Though not necessarily the most spectacular thing they've ever written, it's uplifting, militaristic, almost kitschy lyrics such as these that help give Akitsa their aggressive, radical sound.

In all fairness, lyrics in French and other non-English languages that I somewhat understand may 'gel' better with me because I'm less familiar with the countless clichés that plague the English song-writing tradition. I used to play a game where I would listen to random songs on the radio and guess the rhyme word of every second line based on the last word of the first line. Needless to say, I had a pretty high success rate. Granted, this was mostly disposable pop, but quite a few metal lyricists "sin" in this way, as well. If I see one more asshole rhyme "way" with "today", I'm going to start punching my wall.

Sorry for the essay. Maybe I should turn it into a lyric for a groovy concept-album.

I understand what you mean about that. What I meant is that if you read the lyrics on Fas with no regard to the music it reads like a philosophical essay a little. When they incorporate it to the music there is a very decent sense of flow. It's a bit more narrative than poetic, but it's a different feel, I think it's pretty cool. I'm personally more for the poetic side of lyrics as well - you can see the examples I posted from Neurosis, Emperor, Tool, Agalloch and Darkthrone.

I think intelligence in lyrics is a big plus though. You have so much more in your arsenal when you know a lot more. Plus if you're good enough, you can incorporate it in very clever ways that don't sound too wordy but can really wow people and make them think and reflect.

Fenriz maybe?? Darkthrone's lyrics are awesome