I have to think that they are NOT familiar with the genre (nor was I).

That was the most vile excuse for a "lyric" I have ever, ever read. These guys must be to music what "snuff movies" are to film.

I'm always amused by the number of sub-genres in metal music.

A list.

Death metal is about finding a space of originality and community by creating and appreciating something that most people, especially parents, find shocking and disgusting. These lyrics are a part of that.

I'm no fan, but in college I lived with some folks who were way in to it.

Some were pretty disturbed, some just wanted a taste of rebellion. Many went on to become doctors and lawyers and computer programmers. One overdosed on heroin and died. One got kicked out of school for stealing.

I think its a reaction to the social and material anesthesia that some of us have slipped into...living in subdivisions where no one really knows each other and where the problems of the world are kept very far away, where the chasm between parents and kids has grown so wide that neither want's to relate to the other, but both resent each other for the coldness in their lives.

-Sugarfatpie (AKA Alex Pulsipher)

"X-Rays are a hoax."-Lord Kelvin

This is a silly question. Death metal's appeal is pretty much the same as early rock 'n' roll, punk, some avant-garde jazz, and all sorts of other underground musical subcultures. The fact that it's loud, aggressive, relatively obscure, and technically difficult—the precise reasons that a lot of people don't like it—is a large part of the reason that a lot of people do like it. That said, though, the reasons people listen to death metal are no more or less sociological than why anybody listens to anything—loud, amplified guitars played really fast can be fun.

For me, its appeal is largely formal—how do you work inside such a rigidly defined format and still make it interesting? What do you do to make it more extreme—louder, faster, heavier? Can you make it catchy and still be considered death metal? But it also has a visceral impact.

(The linked lyric is pretty gross. I like Whitechapel, but the lyrics from the first album are problematic. I'm glad they expanded the scope a bit on the second disc.)

I thought it had nothing to do with music and everything to do with whose kids these are.

Sin's a Good Man's Brother - lyrics "It's a Satanic drug thing, you wouldn't understand." Youtube Monster Magnet cover of 1970 Grand Funk song.

You don't even have to get "dysphagia" to rhyme.

Metal is a bit clownish to me, especially when it comes to clinical descriptions of bodily processes. Instead of saying "swallow" they crack out the thesaurus. Might as well be using Acme(r) song writing dice, Death Metal edition.

Although as an aging aficionado of thrash, there's something to be said for the technique required to rip scales of 32nd notes at 200bpm.

To do thrash properly, though, you need to be Bad Brains. There is Bad Brains, and then there is everyone else. Period.

____________________________

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap! Special holidays, Sundays and rates!

By the way, I think the Daily Times can easily justify the coverage just by how big Whitechapel has become in the last couple of years. Would anybody bat an eye at Superdrag or the Tenderhooks getting a big feature in any local daily around here? Whitechapel's probably outsold Superdrag and the V-Roys put together; they get twice as many people at local shows as either of those bands ever did. In album sales and concert attendance, never mind something as ephemeral and hard to measure as national name recognition, Whitechapel's the single biggest local act right now, by far. They're one of the biggest bands to ever come out of Knoxville.

The metal shredders are indeed proficient technicians, generally. So is Kenny G.

Really, Tim LaHaye's apocalyptic fantasies are far more horrifying to me than Whitechapel. Yet, I bet thousands of Blount Countians consume "Left Behind" and think nothing of it. "Just good stories. And, well, ya never know..."

Hehe. Some of us are getting old. Happens to the best of us. Death metal's appeal is more rage and pain release than anything else. Once you're past a certain point in your life it can seem silly or disgusting but when you're young and think you're misunderstood or if you've had terrible things happen to you that you can't control, it's a release. You can't scream in your room and not get committed but if you've got music playing or you're at a concert you can scream as loud as you want without anyone blinking.

There is not likely to be any parent that would approve of such lyrics - which makes death metal the ultimate for of music rebellion for teenagers.

I like Whitechapel. I've been a headbanger since I was 14. My mom got me my first Black Sabbath album that year. I don't see a problem with the music. People used to rag on Judas Priest and accused them of fomenting teen suicide and stuff...it was not true then and it's not true now.

This music is a healthier expression of rage than a physical assault on someone. If you can get your rage out by banging your head and leaving other people the hell alone then it's all to the good.

I guess how people use this music and how they are influenced by it has more to do with how you were raised and what kind of coping mechanisms you learned growing up. If you learned that violence was acceptable you will probably be violent. If you learned that you can deal with bad stuff by closing the door, turning up the music and screaming a while...

_________________________________________________
"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

I'm 45 and grew up listening to what would be considered extreme music in the early 80's, so I can understand the appeal. You had some pretty brutal lyrics from bands like the Crucifucks and Fear,but both those were exceptions. Violent death themes were uncommon in Punk/Hardcore. however it seems like in Death Metal
these lyrical themes are a neccessary trait for almost all Death Metal.
I am the kind of person who gravitates to most things extreme, so I'm enjoying listening to bands like Devourment and Dying Fetus on Youtube. I'll read the lyrics online and often laugh. It seems like much of these bands are just competing to see how gross and shocking they can be in order to get recognition. The song titles like "Brutal Hacksaw Dismemberment" give you a good idea on the subject matter, and
the fact the the deep vocals are indeciferable make this music more palitable. I'll never buy a CD or go to a show, because I dont want to support such a subculture, but remain a bystander witnessing just another new form of youth rebelion.

the fact that the deep vocals are indeciferable make this music more palitable

This is sometimes called "cookie monster music" for that very reason.

This vid is a f-ing hilarious take on death metal.
(link...)

Thanks for the link , SFP , It would also be funny if somebody
replaced the cookies with human body parts , did a similar upload!

I'm kind of facinated by DM in that there does appear to be alot of conformancy involved. Many of the band names are rendered in some twisted vinelike logo that makes it as hard to read as the lyrics are to deciper. It represents the nature of evil itself, often subtle and vieled.

Interesting point about conformity.

It represents the nature of evil itself, often subtle and vieled.

I'd say it better represents the nature of youth to push the extremes, whatever they may be, so as to define a community of sorts.

the appeal is that it is not a bunch of conformist left wing sheep singing about "anarchy" and "fighting the system" and all the bullshit p.c. crap that ruined punk and hardcore. plus death metal/grindcore is much faster and violent sounding

wow that's crazy. i didn't read all the post till just now. i lived in blount county(green back)and i use to work for the daily times.

....first off, Whitechapel is Deathcore (and pretty generic, at that). Trust me, Death Metal is much, much better than them.

So the appeal of Death Metal? Insane drumming (especially if you get into Technical Death Metal), fairly heavy guitar and bass work (Doom Metal is where the real heaviness is, and guttural vocals that become essentially another instrument. So, as I mentioned before, Whitechapel is Deathcore. Seeing as it appears that most of you don't appear too familiar with the differences between subgenres, I'll explain a few things first. Deathcore is largely made to "shock" people and appear tough, which is one reason why the vast majority of the metal community looks down on it (plus, most of the bands sound pretty generic). If you do some research, you'll see quite a bit of people complaining about -core bands (Deathcore, Metalcore, etc) being featured at Wacken, one of the most revered metal concerts.

Now that we've determined that Deathcore and Death Metal are two different genres, I'll go into some lyrical differences, since you seem focused on that point. First off, both of them deal with death (as is obvious from the name). However, the way in which they do is different. You saw the Whitechapel lyric you posted, now let's look at the Death Metal band Jungle Rot lyrics (which, by and large, deal with corrupt war and politics)....
(link...)

Or some Fleshgod Apocalypse (which is a Technical Brutal Death Metal band)....
(link...)

Yes, I concede that there are "worse" lyrics in Death Metal than this (Cannibal Corpse was pretty gruesome back in the day), but on average Deathcore attempts to appear as "brutal" as possible, whereas Death Metal has much wider lyrical themes (from politics to religion and all sorts of stuff in between).

So the two points that I'm trying to make here are....
1) Deathcore bands like Whitechapel are not the same as Death Metal and should not be categorized as so.
2) Death Metal's appeal is the aggression and/or technical sound. No idea about Deathcore, though, it pretty much fails as a genre.

Oh, and on a side note, if you want to hear the appeal of Death Metal without vocals, check out Blotted Science. They're an instrumental Death Metal band. (you won't find something like that in Deathcore, for sure)

What's your problem with metalheads? ;) (You're not going to get the joke, I bet.)

In answer to your question, most metal fans don't give half a damn about the lyrics. Honestly, if you listen to most of the lyrics they're either "shock jock" stupid or some lame attempt at making something resembling a political statement.

The music, on the other hand, is very powerful, very primal. It strikes a chord (no pun intended, really) with a lot of people, particularly bitter individuals who have had to struggle in their lives. (Or, in the cases of teenagers, are under the impression they've had to struggle.) If you ever get a chance, try giving "Canto 34" from Five Finger Death Punch a listen. It's absolutely lyric-less, so you'll be able to pay attention to the melody and arrangement without having to worry about hearing how Round 2 is "something you just don't want to do" and why.

Done well, most varieties of the metal genre can be deeply moving - much like the flow of the aptly-named "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi or the lyrical juxtapositions of early DMX.

As far as the lyrics go - well, they're just lyrics. Sorry they're so offensive to some, I guess, but words are just words. Personally, I've never understood why certain pseudo-intellectuals boo-hoo about shock lyrics, but then again I don't understand a lot of the stupid that humanity pulls on a daily basis anyway and said lack of understanding is decidedly a "low-priority" worry.

But damned if it isn't fun to blast some surprise Dethklok in their earshot. ;)

I think some of y'all are missing the entire point of the original, nearly one year old post.

It's that an ultra-conservative newspaper in an ultra-conservative community where there are more churches than restaurants and schools combined would feature this band just because they are local homegrown boys done good.

If the editors and publishers of the paper and most of their readers were aware of the lyrics they would be apoplectic.