with some metal bands it is difficult to understand what they're saying. so i turn to lyrics so i can understand. though most of the time i don't need to or don't care to. does anyone else have this problem?

I used to do that with death metal bands when I first got the album. But, over the years, a lot of lyrics have been kind of boring(ahem, Deicide). One of the worst ones for me is Malignancy. The lyrics have so much thought put into them, yet I cant even understand them even while reading along. Last album I read along to was Six Feet Under- Undead, which got old fast. Before that, Cannibal Corpse Torture, which has it's moments.

yes Deicide are one of those terrible bands. i was into them for a while, but i got sick of them fast.

Art in Exile is unlike anything i've heard before. the style changes verse to verse and even line to line on some of the songs. but it's so addictive! and i don't know how she still has a voice with all that screaming...

It has never been an issue for me, but then again most of the metal I listen to is in languages I don't speak. I think of the voice as an instrument. In metal, lyrics are not a big deal for me. It is actually distracting to me when I can understand the lyrics and they happen to be poorly written or trite (like on Wintersun's new album).

I have this problem with many genres, and if you've ever spent an evening laughing at these 'misunderstood lyrics' videos, you see it's very easy to misunderstand singers across a myriad of singing styles. As for metal, only marginally more than other genres.

More often than not lyrical content isn't much of a concern of mine. I've always cared more about how the voice or vocal melody sounded with the music. That isn't to say I don't appreciate good lyrics, but not understanding them has never hindered my enjoyment of a band. Basically, what samekh said above.

To me good lyrics are a bonus. I usually don't pay much attention to lyrics, especially considering around half of what I listen to is in a language I don't understand. For me it's enough to know in general the sort of topics the are singing about, and let my imagination run with that. I've noticed that even with English lyrics I tend to hear and enjoy the vocalisations but without actually registering what they are saying. Certain words will pop out of me but without comprehending the sentence they are apart of.

This 100%. Whilst interesting and thought-provoking lyrics are awesome and I appreciate them, it's not why I listen to music. The instrumentation of the music and the sound of the vocals are far more important to me than what they're actually saying. Take Ulver's Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr I 5 Capitler for example, I do not speak Norwegian so I don't have the faintest idea what they're singing about, but this doesn't take away from the fact I find the vocals really nice to listen to.

In saying that I do like to know what inspires a band because it gives some context to the music and often thinking about the themes of the music can enhance your listening experience.

This thread has been done several times before, even recently. In brief, there's 3 camps, the "I don't care about lyrics" camp and the "the lyrics are as important as the music" and the "it depends, maaaaaan" camp.