History LyricalDissonance / Metal

* Music/JudasPriest's "Painkiller" is an immensely heavy metal song which could rival the very dark "Master of Puppets"... and it talks about a savior who helps mankind survive and basically ensures a happy ending. Halford screaming the vocals in a pretty insane tone probably doesn't help.

** One of the reasons Music/NumberOfTheBeast, their SignatureSong got so much flack from MoralGuardians was simply because the loud music and the words "hell" and "fire" were so predominant in the lyrics. Which actually follow the passage in the Bible rather faithfully, ending with the forces of Heaven striking Evil down. Steve Harris has since commented that such reviews were "mad. [[TakeThatCritics They completely got the wrong end of the stick.]] They obviously [[DiscussedTrope hadn't read the lyrics.]]"

** Also The Last Winged Unicorn from Dawn of Victory. It's a catchy, happy-sounding tune with an awesome, dreamy riff... about the main character being Main/ForcedToWatch as his lover his raped by demons and his best friend is tortured before they are both horribly killed.

* The Swedish band ''{{Music/Ghost}}'' lives this trope. They play catchy, melodious '70s rock... with over-the-top Satanic lyrics.

** "Cliffs of Gallipoli" is a badass, upbeat song about the senseless death of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. {{Justified}} in that it takes its tone from the Turkish Gallipoli battlefield monument, which formerly[[note]]It was chiseled off by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ultranationalist regime.[[/note]] included a conciliatory quotation by Ottoman commander Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to those grieving the Entente Powers' dead from the campaign.

** In fact, a fair bit of Black Sabbath's output has an underlying positive message. "Children of the Grave" and "Never Say Die" also suit the trope.

* In This Moment are known for Maria Brink's {{Metal Scream}}s, and although she usually adopts clean vocals and softer tunes for her more upbeat songs, sometimes she doesn't. "He Said Eternity" sounds [[CrazyAwesome decidedly odd]] sung in a death growl.

* DoomMetal band Music/{{Sentenced}} is practically the embodiment of this trope. The music is very upbeat, catchy and joyful yet the lyrics are almost always about suicide. 'Excuse me while I kill myself' for example is about blowing your brains out, yet the song is quite catchy.

* Theocracy's "Light Of The World" has a very triumphant sound (complete with epic key change near the end) but the chorus "We are the light of the world, we say, but we've blown out our candles and left men for dead singing 'we are the light of the world today' as the darkness descends on us all" pretty much go to show how people of the Christian religion have cowered away from showing their faith.
* "The Charioteer" by {{Crystal Eyes}} sounds [[RatedMforManly downright badass]] and inspiring, but it's about [[Myth/NorseMythology the battle between Thor and Jormungandr at Ragnarok]], in which [[DownerEnding Thor ultimately ends up dying]].
* ''Music/{{Sabaton}}'''s love of HorribleHistoryMetal produces a lot of this:
** ''Price of a Mile'' and ''Cliffs of Gallipoli'' are both badass, upbeat songs about the senseless death of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
** The champion example is ''The Final Solution'', a ballad about the Holocaust, that the band now refuses to play because they found it unsettling to see the audience cheer and headbang along to it.
** Since ''Lion From the North'' was apparently written in English first, the Swedish version which is more about the effects of war and the populace often have lyrics that go completely against the melody. Examples include "1648" being a song about the atrocities the Swedes committed in Bohemia set to a heroic tune originally written for the Bohemians ''fighting back'' against them, and the epic power metal anthem "Ett slag färgat rött" (originally "Killing Ground") being about Caroleans murdering prisoners of war.
* ''Music/OrdenOgan'''s song "The Things We Believe In" sounds like a heroic anthem. It's about people freezing to death in a nuclear winter having lost all hope.
* ''{{Music/Gloryhammer}}'': "Masters of the Galaxy" is a fun, upbeat track on "Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex". The lyrics are about how the once noble Knights of Crail were corrupted by [[EvilSorcerer Zargothrax]] and are now dedicated to spreading entropy and decay, and how their Grand Master, Proletius, went from one of [[TheHero Angus']] closest and most dedicated allies to a willing servant of Evil.

* The hardcore punk band 25 ta Life ''love'' this trope. Not only do their heavy and aggressive sound and hip-hoppish bravado conflict with their lyrics, but ''their lyrics conflict with their lyrics''. The band intersperses hip-hoppish use of "motherfucker" while extolling the virtues of friendship, brotherhood, etc.

** "One" is this way as well, or at least at the beginning. It starts out so light and, to someone, even soothing. [[WarIsHell Guess what]] [[AndIMustScream it's about?]]. A soldier that loses all of his limbs, his eyesight, his hearing, and his speech due to a landmine. His mind still functions perfectly which means [[AFateWorseThanDeath he is literally a prisoner in his own brain.]] At least it gets heavy near the end but the beginning can be misleading.

* Horribly violent Music/CannibalCorpse lyrics have been subjected to hilarious musical rearrangements/resettings in styles such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYqgH04h-pM lounge song]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8u1IpUPo-A acoustic song with guitar]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9cLkoUHcrs soulful piano-accompanied ballad]].

* Horribly violent Music/CannibalCorpse lyrics have been subjected to hilarious musical rearrangements/resettings in styles such as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYqgH04h-pM lounge song], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8u1IpUPo-A acoustic song with guitar] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9cLkoUHcrs soulful piano-accompanied ballad].

* Music/{{Helloween}} has "Star Invasion". It sounds like a near-epic and entirely serious ballad, with cool solo, not unlike e.g. "Why?". Even after [[spoiler:1008 {{Screwy Squirrel}}s teleport in]].

* ''{{Music/Gloryhammer}}'': "Masters of the Galaxy" is a fun, upbeat track on "Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex". The lyrics are about how the once noble Knights of Clare were corrupted by [[EvilSorcerer Zargothrax]] and are now dedicated to spreading entropy and decay, and how their Grand Master, Proletius, went from one of [[TheHero Angus']] closest and most dedicated allies to a willing servant of Evil.

* ''{{Music/Gloryhammer}}'': "Masters of the Galaxy" is a fun, upbeat track on "Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex"... which describes, in excruciating detail, how the once noble Knights of Clare were corrupted by [[EvilSorcerer Zargothrax]] and are now dedicated to spreading entropy and decay. It also describes how Grandmaster Proletius, once one of [[TheHero Angus']] closest and most dedicated allies, was transformed into TheBrute, and now wholeheartedly serves Evil.

** "Enter Sandman" is a Thrash Metal song with the lyrics of a lullaby... And it's one of the most famous Metallica songs of all time.

* Eluveitie's "Inis Mona". Very heavy track that sounds like it's going to be about something negative -- and they're singing about a Welsh island, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglesey Anglesey]]! Understandable if one knows that the Welsh for Anglesey is "Ynys Mon"

* Discordance Axis's lyrics are usually very abstract and thought provoking, but their music is extremely brutal and cathartic, not to mention the lyrics are pretty much intelligible because the vocals are all inhuman shrieks.

* Used "Play With Me" by Extreme. Rather than being upbeat with dark lyrics, it gives us some of the most ridiculously dark riffs in history, and puts it to lyrics like:

* DoomMetal band Music/{{Sentenced}} are practically the embodiment of this trope. The music is very upbeat, catchy and joyful yet the lyrics are almost always about suicide. 'Excuse me while I kill myself' for example is about blowing your brains out, yet the song is quite catchy.

** One of the reasons Music/NumberOfTheBeast, their SignatureSong got so much flack from MoralGuardians was simply because the loud music and the words "hell" and "fire" were so predominant in the lyrics. Which actually follow the passage in the Bible rather faithfully, ending with the forces of Heaven striking Evil down. Steve Harris has since commented that the such reviews were "mad. [[TakeThatCritics They completely got the wrong end of the stick.]] They obviously [[DiscussedTrope hadn't read the lyrics.]]"

** ''Flight of Icarus'' at first seems like an uplifting song about flying. However the title actually refers to a tragedy.

* A very jarring example comes from the German band Music/{{JBO}}, which specializes in parodies and metallized covers of songs. Their song "Gänseblümchen", translates as "''Daisy''", is about a guy singing a love song to a girl. This includes writing poetry and picking up flowers, done in Heavy Metal. In the third verse the music abruptly switches to a softer style and the singer goes on how he will torture the girl if she leaves him. Since it is sung in German it sounds doubly menacing. Can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE here]]
** Another hilarious example from J.B.O. is their cover of Nicole's "Ein bisschen Frieden" (a bit of peace). Nicole's song is a lighthearted song about a girl dreaming of worldpeace. J.B.O.'s cover uses exactly the same lyrics, but is a extra heavy and edgy song that [[InTheStyleOf sounds similar to]] the harder songs of Music/{{Rammstein}}[[note]] so similar that the song is often credited to Rammstein and Rammstein's manager even sued them[[/note]]. It contains further some samples of shrieking children and machine-gun fire. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIzchPg6ts here]] a link.

** "With a little help from my friends" is a Black Metal parody, but if you can make out the words its actually a motivational song about friendship and true love. On the other hand, their "Christmas Rant" sounds like an actual christmas song but is probably the most angry and frustrated of their songs, which doesn't really seem to be for laughs but meant in earnest.

* Witchfynde's "Heartbeat" sounds like a typical 80's power ballad if you aren't listening too hard; the chorus is "(she said) Can you feel my heart beat? It's beating for you..." However if you pay attention to the lyrics, the song is actually about a female vampire that preys on lonely men.

* Music/{{Megadeth}}'s Chosen Ones is a very technical thrash song, but is about the killer rabbit from Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail. "For death surely awaits you with sharp and pointy teeth!"
* Dog Fashion Disco did this a bunch, most memorably on "Pogo the Clown," a jazzy rock song about serial killer John Wayne Gacy. DFD's singer later wrote "Chloroform Girl," and acoustic song about a kidnapped sex slave who's "only alive because I like you," and is working on a solo project dedicated exclusively to these kinds of songs.
* One of the most popular songs of the german band "Die Apokalyptischen Reiter", "Die Sonne Scheint" has probably the most upbeat lyrics ever heared in Metal. Neither the melody nor the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE the video]] suggests this.

* "Vide Infra" by Music/KillswitchEngage is a loud aggressive metalcore song that is filled with harshly screamed vocals and thick and pounding guitars. But lyrically the song is about preaching equality, tolerance and respect to people different then you.

* The hardcore punk band 25 ta Life ''love'' this trope. Not only do their heavy and aggressive sound and hip hoppish bravado conflict with their lyrics, but ''their lyrics conflict with their lyrics''. The band intersperses hip hoppish use of "motherfucker" while extolling the virtues of friendship, brotherhood, etc.

* Music/{{Rhapsody|OfFire}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-9C8HnuH0U "Rain of a Thousand Flames"]] has one of the most uplifting tunes one the band's repertory, it actually sounds like ThemeMusicPowerUp material. Then along cames the chorus...

* ''Music/{{Alestorm}}'''s cover of the Stan Rogers song ''Barrett's Privateers'' falls under this. It's a lively, energetic, incredibly fun song to listen to...until you actually start listening to lyrics like "Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs, and the main trunk carried off both my legs". And let's not forget the last verse, and the chorus:

** The champion example is ''The Final Solution'', a ballad about the Holocaust, that the band now refuses to play, because they found it unsettling to see the audience cheer and headbang along to it.

* ''Music/OrdenOgan'''s song "The Things We Belive In" sounds like a heroic anthem. It's about people freezing to death in a nuclear winter having lost all hope.

** Justified, in that it's about tearing down our society's entrenched unfairness and creating a world of true gender equality, but still pretty jarring the first time you hear it, when you haven't had a chance to figure that out.

** Don't forget Solitary Shell and About to Crash, both of which are movements in the song "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". The entire song is about mental illness, and these two movements are uplifting and happy. Like this little dity, set to perfectly happy sounding music:

-->And she tried everyday

* Music/BringMeTheHorizon's "Happy Song" is quite possibly the heaviest song from ''That's the Spirit'', the album that saw them abandoning metalcore for lighter styles. It's one of the few songs were Oli angrily screams, not just sings throughout. It's theme, as the title suggests, is about being happy, ThePowerOfFriendship, and joining hands together to sing a "happy song".

* The Finnish band Music/{{Finntroll}}. Several of their songs have a rather upbeat tune, yet the lyrics are always about trolls devouring humans and burning churches, how great it is to live in a dark icy land with no "human-pest" around, or generally filled with dark imagery of cursed forests and evil spirits. One of their best known songs, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXKwVe1SBTA "Trollhammaren"]], tells about how Christians will be murdered by a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysontheTin hammer-wielding troll]], while catchy accordion tunes play in the background.

** And "Shy," which is sung in an ''adorably'' well... [[CaptainObvious shy]] voice but is basically about the singer stalking his crush.

* A very jarring example comes from the German band ''J.B.O.'', which specializes in parodies and metallized covers of songs. Their song "Gänseblümchen", translates as "''Daisy''", is about a guy singing a love song to a girl. This includes writing poetry and picking up flowers, done in Heavy Metal. In the third verse the music abruptly switches to a softer style and the singer goes on how he will torture the girl if she leaves him. Since it is sung in German it sounds doubly menacing. Can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE here]]
** Another hilarious example from J.B.O. is their cover of Nicole's "Ein bisschen Frieden" (a bit of peace). Nicole's song is a lighthearted song about a girl dreaming of worldpeace. J.B.O.'s cover uses exactly the same lyrics, but is a extra heavy and edgy song that sounds similar to the harder songs of Rammstein[[note]] so similar that the song is often credited to Rammstein and Rammstein's manager even sued them[[/note]]. It contains further some samples of shrieking children and machine-gun fire. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIzchPg6ts here]] a link.

* Music/PigDestroyer's music embodies this trope. Imagine a guy screaming and wailing uncontrollably over sickening guitar tones, singing lyrics such as "She frolics through the rain whispering love insane, her kisses exit through heart-shaped exit wounds". They call themselves "pornographers of sound".

* [[RhapsodyOfFire Rhapsody's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-9C8HnuH0U "Rain of a Thousand Flames"]] has one of the most uplifting tunes one the band's repertory, it actually sounds like ThemeMusicPowerUp material. Then along cames the chorus...

* Alestorm's cover of the Stan Rogers song ''Barrett's Privateers'' falls under this. It's a lively, energetic, incredibly fun song to listen to...until you actually start listening to lyrics like "Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs, and the main trunk carried off both my legs". And let's not forget the last verse, and the chorus:

* ''Orden Ogan'''s song "The Things We Belive In" sounds like a heroic anthem. It's about people freezing to death in a nuclear winter having lost all hope.

* "Vide Infra" by KillswitchEngage is a loud aggressive metalcore song that is filled with harshly screamed vocals and thick and pounding guitars. But lyrically the song is about preaching equality, tolerance and respect to people different then you.