VIRGIN STEELE-Metal and Literature
By: Craig Wisnom
"In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around &
melting the metals
into living
fluids."
William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell"
Perhaps these days it is pass to defend and celebrate the intellect of
heavy metal's lyrics against the back drop of ignorant criticism and
stereotype. For today, heavy metal does not even have the minimal
cultural visibility to be worthy of such libel. Nevertheless,
considering that the spirit of thought and passion so prevalent in
metallic lyrics is so high above the lyrics of any other genre that, I
believe it is worth a second look. I would hope metal fans, despite a
natural bitterness at the ultimate injustice to which noble metal is
subject, would arise above the tendencies to dismiss the lyrics of any
other musical genre. Thus, this article is not to imply that there is no
thought, no poetry, no power in the lyrics of any other genre. But
rather, if you look at 60 years of popular music where 80-90% of all
lyrics are on the subject of love, sex, or relationships, the
transcendent power of metal is startling. And this is also not to say
the powerful emotions of love and romantic pain are not worthy of any
thought, feeling, and expression, but rather when they are merely a
default topic, their impact is lessened to a general flaccidity. But
when heavy metal gleans most of it lyrics from other, more obscure
subjects, it not only empowers the mind and spirit with lyrics that have
real thought and emotion to them, it makes any romantic songs more
powerful by their contrast.
Metal lyrics come on all different levels. Almost all metal bands at
least address a basic set of thoughtful issues in their lyrics, life,
pain, war, death, insanity, and religion. While these lyrics may not be
on the highest intellectual level, they offer far more thought than the
musical norm, as the lyricists reflect genuine thought, at least by
their topics. Though such subjects in their basic form may be trite in
the realm of metal, they are still far above the general lyrical anemia
of music in general. Many other metal bands offer an even more
intellectual approach, taking more challenging lyrical subjects in their
approach, and often integrating literature in their lyrics. Offering
songs based upon the works of Shakespeare (Manilla Road's "Throne of
Blood", Hades' "The Aftermath of Betrayal"); Poe (Manilla Road, Crimson
Glory, and Hades' "Masque of the Red Death", Flying Skull's "Red Death",
Iron Maiden's "Murders in the Rue Morgue", Annihilator's "Ligeia",
Manilla Road's "Mystification", etc.); Dante (Iced Earth's "Dante's
Inferno"), John Osbourne [the existential British playwright, not Ozzy's
real name!] (Black Sabbath's "Junior's Eyes"); Charles Baudelaire
(Celtic Frost's "Tristesses De La Lune"); Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Iron
Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Rush's "Xanadu"), Homer
(Manowar, "Achilles"), and many more.
Metal lyricists also skillfully and unobtrusively weave in allusions to
songs so subtly and natural you would have never noticed without
knowledge of the literary works. Compare the following references:
Dream Theater, "Pull Me Under":
Watch the sparrow falling
Gives new meaning to it all
If not today nor yet tomorrow then some other day
W. Shakespeare, Hamlet:
[T]here's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis
not to come', if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now,
yet it
will come: the readiness is all.
Dark Angel, "The Death of Innocence"
More sinned than sinning
W. Shakespeare, King Lear:
I am a man, More sinn'd against than sinning.
Virgin Steele, "We Rule the Night"
It's the tale of a Fool
Designed to weaken you
Full of sound and fury
And jealous lies
W. Shakespeare, Macbeth:
It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Or just one quote by Skyclad, "The Wickedest Man in the World":
All the world is a stage
So I aim to upstage you
("By the pricking of my thumbs")
Kill me off - but like Banquo
I'll come back to plague you
("Something wicked this way comes")
W.Shakespeare, As You Like It:
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They
have
their exits and their entrances
W. Shakespeare, Macbeth:
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
W. Shakespeare, Macbeth:
Bloody instructions, which being taught return
To plague the inventor.
[Macbeth's prescient comment before he murders
his
King, and later Banquo, who returns as a ghost.]
It is not surprising so many bands pay homage to the bard this way, for
Shakespeare and metal have so much in common. Most people would find
this completely ridiculous, but not those who understand even a little
of either. While I do not to raise metal lyrics to Shakespeare's level,
as only a few reach the highest realm of poetic expression, they have
many similarities. Both are intelligent, both deal with powerful, but
often negative and difficult issues, and both often face the world in
its darkest and most unpleasant realities.
Metal even more frequently plays upon the vigorous intellectual themes
of such classic literature, without specific references: the pointed
question of man's existence (Queensryche, "Eyes of a Stranger": "All I
want is the same as everyone, why am I here, and for how long?"); the
central question of classical tragedy, why man is made to suffer, from
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex to King Lear's primordial metaphor of "What is
the cause of thunder?" (Savatage, "St. Patrick's); the existential
elements of time examined in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
(Anthrax, "Persistence of Time", Fates Warning, "Traveler in Time",
Mercyful Fate, "Time", etc.) , on and on, in a panoply of meat for the
mind and soul for those who truly hear the power in such work. And I
challenge, what other genre offers lyrical depth of this scope?
In this article, I would like to point out the brilliance of metal
through a specific examination of the lyrics of one of the greatest
metal works, and one only recently come to my attention, Virgin Steele's
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Part I and Part II. Although the album
title shares the name of a work by rebellious poet William Blake, the
title was not specifically based upon that poem. David Defeis, an avid
reader, had been a fan of Blake's work prior to the album, but was not
aware of the same-titled work until well-read and newly joined drummer
Frank Gilchrist pointed out the connection after the first album had
already been released.
After that information, it appears that David then took some influences
from the work, as the end of the poem ("For every thing that lives is
Holy ") is reflected and expanded in the glorious "Crown of Glory
(Unscarred)": "All that's forbidden now is open/The golden apples of the
sun/All that's alive considered holy, body and earth are reconciled", as
well as reflecting the message of freedom from religious oppression in
the poem:
Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black, with
hoarse note curse the sons of joy.
Nor his accepted brethren whom, tyrant, he calls free; lay the bound or
build thereof. Nor pale religious
lechery call that virginity, that wishes but acts not!
In the song "Devil/Angel"
Devil/Angel, You ride with the Ravens of Dawn
Devil/Angel, virtue acts from impulse not from rules
Devil/Angel, we're free from Tyrannical Law
Devil/Angel, the lightning is all that you need
Aside from drawing from more general mythologies and cultures as
hereinafter discussed, the work also specifically adapts E.A. Poe's "The
Raven":
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!
In "The Raven Song"
From the Dawn of all Creation
To the pain of Nevermore
Can you hear me in your slumber
As I Haunt the Nightly shore
Unleash the Raven, fly to me
The albums also pay homage to J.R.R. Tolkien with an allusion in "Blood
of the Kings", and there are other literary references, including many
which I am sure I simply do not recognize.
The lyrics for these albums are, if not quite unparalleled, up with the
greatest metal lyrical albums of all time, such as Sabbat's Dreamweaver:
Reflection of Our Yesterdays, the brilliant concept album of meticulous
rhyme, meter, literary meaning and allusion, and ultimate philosophical
and soul searching threnody based on a historical novel by Brian Bates;
and Fates Warning's Awaken the Guardian, still my favorite album of all
time, whose lyrics combine not only folklore and mythology, but enmesh
the human experience into a paradoxical glory unequaled before or since.
How to begin discussing the Virgin Steele album? Part of its grandeur is
the interrelated cycles of meaning, so many songs working on several
different levels, both within the grand theme of the story, the power of
each individual line, and the larger themes both impart. It is a
swirling poetry of microcosmic and macrocosmic symbiosis, each song
strengthening a greater meaning of several grand themes, and each theme
further enriching songs already brilliant in their individuality.
Suffice it to say the ultimate glory of this album does not make it well
suited for linear analysis, and all this article can supply is a few,
far too brief examples. To really experience it, buy these CD's, and
indulge yourself in them endlessly!
Let me begin on one of the album's grand themes, religion. As I spoke
with David Defeis, he discussed how different religions were in a way
like different languages, using different names, symbols of stories, to
express the same universal beliefs, hopes, fears, and needs. (His theory
is certainly played out in many examples, from the flood myth which
endured from the Sumerian figure of Utnapishtim, to the similar flood
and survivor imagery in Greek mythology, to the Judeo-Christian Noah and
his ark.) Marriage integrates many different beliefs, neither discarding
any, nor embracing to the exclusion of all others. In "The Last Supper"
Christian beliefs are powerfully presented in the drama of the story,
while in "Rising Unchained" and "Twilight of the Gods" Norse beliefs and
Gods are explored, in cunning detail. "In Prometheus the Fallen One" the
Greek myth of the titan who delivered the sacred secret of fire to
humans, and was tortured as a result, is used to explore both the
relationship of man with his gods, as well as the danger, glory, and
drive for forbidden knowledge, and the end of innocence. All three
mythologies are used to explore the ideal of exalting change, whether it
is the cleansing war of the gods of Gottadamerung in "Twilight of the
Gods", the betrayal of Christ leading to a sacrifice of salvation in
"The Last Supper", or the age when man becomes his own gods in
"Prometheus..." So in this way the album reflects the macrocosm, the
universal as viewed by man's gods.
The album also deals with the intensely personal, and combines it with
the universal in magnificent rapture. "Crown of Glory (Unscarred)" is an
unsurpassed requiem, paying homage to a fallen warrior with an
evisceration of ultimate triumph:
Open your eyes and see me, running faster, running far
Open your heart and feel me, catch the light beyond the stars
Flesh and blood affirm the freedoms gain
Are we born to live again?
And although more vigorous, and in the spirit of a warrior, it is
reminiscent of Falstaff's last words as recounted in Shakespeare's Henry
V:
[A]fter I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers,
and smile
upon his fingers' end, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as
sharp as a pen, and 'a babbl'd of green fields. 'How now, Sir John!'
quoth I
'What, man, be o' good cheer.' So 'a cried out 'God, God, God!' three or
four
times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God; I
hop'd
there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So 'a
bade
me lay more clothes on his feet; I put my hand into the bed and felt
them,
and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so
upward
and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.
As the album touches the most personal elements of life, death, and
love, it brings them together, in a never ending circle of existence's
cycle and musical and emotional power. Although it is difficult to
choose, my favorite song off these albums is "Emalaith", a magnificent
tour de force, musically, lyrically, and emotionally, which brings
together all in a pinnacle of glory. The song is a sequel to the grand
romance of "I Will Come for You", and "Victory is Mine", a dark battle
reflection, ends with a call back to Emalaith. "Emalaith" is a mythical
character, representing the eternal love we are all seeking (or have
found), and that spirit which is the breath of life itself. In a tale of
darkened war, and the death of an eternal lover, it is an image of hope
which springs from darkest night, and it simply is the birth of all,
from nothing.
From death and darkness love was born
And love survived and created light
Behold the kingdom of the fearless
Who holds the seven points of night?
Where is the hope of absolution
Beyond the shadow of my sight?
I hear the weeping of the Spirits
Dark wings of hatred rule the world
But I will rise again, pierced by the thorns of death
Beyond the shadow of their eyes
EMALAITH's mine, a soul infinite
The promise of peace is never
The Secret of Death is ours to possess
Ours will endure forever
I see the answer burn in your eyes, across the wasteland
Death into life
The mighty spirits crystallize, The crown of glory
Onward we ride!!!
This imagery reflects both the pantheon of creation mythos, whether it
is the "Let there be light" God of the Judeo-Christian tradition, or the
birth from the formless void present in Greek and Norse mythologies. It
also reflects the hope in our own lives, when all is darkest, when hope
and love seems non existent, and impossible, that the thin tendrils of
belief can call forth a miracle of personal salvation.
Thus, this album represents the best and highest of metal's fully
emotional and intellectual tradition, at once thrilling the mind, while
tearing and pushing the soul in its most puissant evocation. Metal is
not dead, not because it cannot be purchased in U.S. stores, but while
fans hold the true flame of love and hope in their heart; and while
bands like Virgin Steele, Cauldron Born, New Eden, Gothic Knights, push
on in the U.S. with the purest metal heart, despite the odds against
them, and we have access to the glory that still exists overseas, it
cannot be. And hopefully, as it is told in "Emalaith", one day metal
will arise from the nothingness of the U.S. scene, and give true glory a
chance to prosper again.
For metal offers a blend never before known before, somehow the ultimate
blend of passion, heart, soul, rebellion, thought, and noble
aspirations, that strengthens the soul through hard times, and offers
joyful and exuberant triumph at life's highest moments. And whether it
is the general anemia of spirit reflected in the trite and typical
lyrics of most popular music, or the endless, whining angst that
permeates all the modern trends in U.S. music, the American scene needs
it. Today's MTV caters to teenagers who find themselves with every
advantage and opportunity, and luckier than most of the people in the
world who know true daily struggle to get through the days, and lets
them feel sorry for themselves rather than accepting their bounty and
seeking higher aspiration.
Metal is alive in the heart of the true, and its mind is also
alive, vibrant, and
passionate. Keep the faith!