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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:53 pm 
 

I'm interested in metal songs that criticize soldiers. Judas Priest's "Dying to Meet You" is a good example because the lyrics directly criticize a soldier for their hypocritical willingness to murder while declaiming violence in other circumstances, and it criticizes the soldier for the coping methods they use to avoid feeling guilty over what they do.

Judas Priest wrote:
You make me sick,
getting paid for murder.
But you wouldn't lay a finger on your mother
No, you'll never ever dream to hurt her.

Hero, hero,
you have done so well.
So sit back and lick your wounds,
because you won't go to Hell.

Take your medal,
wear it now with pride.
Consolation for the pain
and sin you feel inside.


Obviously most songs that criticize soldiers are going to be anti-war and criticize political leaders and other elites who start wars, but I'm not looking for general anti-war songs. I want songs that specifically criticize or mock the soldiers who do the fighting and killing.

Many of you undoubtedly come from societies where soldier worship is a social expectation (as I do), so looking up some anti-soldier songs should provide some nice antidote to the steady steam of pro-soldier propaganda. :)

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Human Crouton
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:47 pm
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:31 am 
 

Good luck with finding American bands who have done this. Criticizing the troops in this country is a taboo second only to criticizing the rich.

I guess Megadeth - Take No Prisoners is a really mild criticism? Maybe not.

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Temple Of Blood
Old Man Yells at Cloud

Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:16 am
Posts: 3118
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:28 pm 
 

Maybe Fates Warning "Soldier Boy"? or Artillery "Bombfood".
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kalervon
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:43 pm
Posts: 991
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 8:08 pm 
 

Disposable Heroes?

Deep Purple, Under the Gun.. mildly

Gorefest - The Glorious Dead

War Pigs criticizes generals, mostly
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Metal_Guderian
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:59 pm
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:24 pm 
 

kalervon wrote:
Disposable Heroes?

Deep Purple, Under the Gun.. mildly

Gorefest - The Glorious Dead

War Pigs criticizes generals, mostly


I'd go with the notion that "Heroes" is not a criticism of the individual soldier-more of a running commentary of the development of that person, and their experience from beginning to end.

To add to this, I think that "Bell Tolls" was relatively ambigious, and it could be about ww1, ww2, or Vietnam, whereas, "Heroes" sounds lyrically closer to a conflict like Vietnam. Now, I say Vietnam because when the average combat soldier was trained during ww1 and ww2, they weren't subjected to the same "you're a killer" mentality. During Vietnam training, candidates were becoming "made of clay (Gods good children, maybe), now an empty shell (conditioned)" and "Bred to kill, not to care", just like in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

And, during the '70s and '80s, the average American, like Hetfield, would of had a relative or known someone who had served in Vietnam-and that war, rightly or wrongly, is a difficult chapter in America's modern history.

Thoughts?

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IamDBR
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 2:58 am
Posts: 1462
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:59 pm 
 

Now you've got something to die for - Lamb of God

Come to think of it there should be alot more given the incessant genocidal shitshow the world has become (always has been?).

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Sepulchrave
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 7:29 pm
Posts: 1994
PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 5:49 pm 
 

This one comes to mind

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Red_Death
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:51 pm
Posts: 1035
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:42 am 
 

Temple Of Blood wrote:
...or Artillery "Bombfood".

Definitely "Bombfood". It's explicitly about volunteers (the line "It's not out of lust, not even need" and the first stanza show that beyond doubt I'd say), and does present a criticism of sorts even though it's not really presented in a harsh manner. The song is fantastic.
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