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Are lyrics important to you at all? Do you prefer to listen to lyrics covering everyday`s issues and events or rather to those that try to stay clear from the real world?
I personally prefer themes not related to social issues and the stuff - heavy metal is sort of escapism to me and I prefer it be so with metallic lyrics.
Other thing is the bands that suddenly started trying to concentrate on real life in their songs often sound much less interesting to me than on their previous albums (I am talking especially the evolution of thrash in the late 80`s).
Needless to say, non-preferrable lyrics do not equal bad album at all. Music itself is first and foremost in the hierarchy.

''Love and personal feelings'' is the one that I woudn't vote even though personal feelings is a bit general. All others are fine.

Some of my favourites lyrics cover almost all the aforementioned issues.

BATHORY - A fine day to die (fantasy)
RAZOR - Fast and loud (praise of metal/metal lifestyle)
EXHORDER - Desecrator (perversion)
and so on.

To cut it short because we have discussed this issue several times over the years: Music comes first, but lyrics are also very important to me. Can't say that I will not listen to a good track in case it does not have well-written/inspired lyrics, however when I can identify in one way or another with what the lyrics are dealing with then the track elevates to even higher levels, penetrates deep into my skin and stays within me forever.

Really extreme (sick) political views bother me in songs, otherwise I really don't care what the song is about as long as it's a great tune.

I chose Satan and Occult stuff, especially when written in crappy English.

Although I'm an atheist myself, I always loved over the top blasphemous lyrics.

I'm personnaly really not into personal/emotional lyrics (one BIG exception 'I came for you' from Battering Ram).
I hate pirate and alcohol related lyrics.

Satan occult/ stuff.

I love to throw the horns \m/ when giving the poser the middle finger \I /.

Black/ thrash/ speed /death and Satan go hand-in-hand. The cheesier/tasteless the better, Venom, Mercyful Fate.

Can a band be too heavy? NO !!

Can a band be too fast? NO !!

I perfer bands that are "dangerous" over the "classy", ones.

Good metal does not only has a savage factor, but has to have a Over the top factor. I also perfer bands with "off the wall" riffing and songwriting. And being out in left-field is not such a band thing, when trying to break up the montony of boring/ mundane/ passe/ out-dated cliche' (paint-by-numbers) metal.

I really do not care about the lyrical stance of bands. I can throw on Trouble's "Psalm 9" and then throw on Mercyful Fate's "Melissa".

I like the other subject matters to, variety is good.

But I like good snicker from tasteless extra-ordinare stuff like Piledriver "Sex With Satan" and "Sodomize the Dead"....and "Metal Inquisition"..." and if your not a metal head you might as well be dead".

Thanks for the shopping list/ want list..Tipper Gore and P.M.R.C fuckers.

God bless the and filthy 50 !!!!

Voted for Satan. But it really doesn't matter much to me. Vocal delivery is much more important than the actual lyrical content, and the music is course the main factor.

I agree that music is more important. If you were to look at all my favorite songs, the majority of the lyrics would probably be about fantasy and science fiction but that is more because they tend to go along with the kind of music I like. The few times that I feel a song's lyrics really grab me it tends to be ones that fall under "personal feelings" so that is what I picked. Those types of lyrics are often the worst, but every once in a while (usually when it deals with feelings of pride, optimism, or self-betterment) they rise above the rest and those times are when the lyrics really count.

I abstained. It depends on the lyricist for me.

Ernest Thesiger wrote:I abstained. It depends on the lyricist for me.

Yeah, me too. I can enjoy any type of lyrics if they are written well and invoke shouting along. But I don't like extreme right wing lyrics. I just can't identify with that, and avoid bands that are into these kind of politics. I sometimes make an exception if they are used out of naivety or ignorance, like some 80's South American/Eastern Bloc-bands did. But mostly those aren't written well haha... Everyone his guilty pleasure huh...

both fantasy and sci-fi and historical , voted for the latter though.

I tend not to give a crap about lyrics. I'm doing a major on literature on college and I can't help but notice how shitty lyrics are most of the time. The only thing I really care about is that the lyrics fit the music: if I'm listening to Death Metal I'd rather have an extreme theme either gore, occultism or whatever, if I'm listening to classic Heavy Metal or Speed, I don't mind a bunch of cliches, etc. Something that I hate though is when the rhymes are too stupid (like rhyming the same word over and over again, or shit like "monday, yesterday, holiday") or too obvious (I always say that the rhyme "fire/desire" should be banned from the English language). I also find kinda annoying the overtly Christian lyrics because I don't think they fit into Metal, but it never stopped me from listening to bands like Black Death for instance.

Bottom line: just like there isn't one single Metal subgenre, I don't think there's one single theme that's better than the other. Every person's favorite will probably fit with their favorite kind of Metal.

Cochino wrote:I always say that the rhyme "fire/desire" should be banned from the English language

if there were a glam maffia , you would have been in some serious trouble right now.

"Sex, Drugs And Rocknroll" is missing so I voted for "Fantasy and science fiction" which is as good.

Voted for "Fantasy and science fiction", I've always loved scy-fy lyrics ,but occult stuff comes close !

Fantasy, no contest.