Line #126 Main/HorribleHistoryMetal


1	[[quoteright:283:[[Music/IronMaiden https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Trooper_5432.jpg]]]]
2	[-[[caption-width-right:283:Are you metal enough for UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar?]]-]
3
4	->''"Who needs ghouls and goblins when the real world provides such terrors on its own, right?"''
5	-->-- '''WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows'''[[labelnote:note]]He expected a straight example of this trope when reviewing the witchcraft themed rock band Coven; [[SubvertedTrope he ended up getting]] [[BlackSheepHit an allegorical folk song instead.]][[/labelnote]]
6
7	So you're writing a HeavyMetal song. You've got a few good riffs and chord progressions down, but now you need lyrics. You don't want to write about [[RockMeAsmodeus Satan]], [[FilkSong existing works of fiction]], [[HeavyMithril elves and orcs]], [[ProtestSong politics]], [[ReligionRantSong the evils of religion]] or even about [[HeavyMeta metal itself]]... so what ''do'' you write about? Well, history, of course!
8
9	Metal, much more so than other genres, has a tendency to be about RealLife history. Since history can be rather gruesome, it appeals to {{Metal Head}}s' love of songs about violence and death; also, writing about history can be an excellent way to [[ShownTheirWork Show Your Work]] and convince the critics [[{{Irony}} you're not just shallow sensationalists who write about violence and death]].
10
11	Note that to fit this trope, the lyrics have to be about a specific historical event. Metal that just evokes the imagery of a more loosely defined historical setting (e.g. [[Music/AmonAmarth Viking]] [[Music/{{Ensiferum}} Metal]] or [[Music/RunningWild Pirate]] [[Music/{{Alestorm}} Metal]]) is not this trope -- that's more of a PeriodPiece. Also note that if the historical events in question were current ''when the song was written'', then that's RippedFromTheHeadlines instead; for example, the Music/DeadKennedys' "HolidayInCambodia" wouldn't be Horrible History PunkRock. Many Horrible History Metal songs are [[HistoricalBiographySong Historical Biography Songs]].
12
13	Has nothing to do with ''Literature/HorribleHistories'' (although the live-action TV show did once feature a Heavy Metal pastiche song about William Wallace, so perhaps not quite nothing...).
14	----
15	!Examples:
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17	[[folder: Metal examples]]
18	* Music/AdInfinitum's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ugq3ZBNEIM "Marching on Versailles"]] is about the start of the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution in 1789, when rioters stormed Versailles palace.
19	* Music/{{Alestorm}} has a song called "1741 (The Battle of Cartagena)", which is about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. It's notable because Alestorm went DenserAndWackier after being pirate metal for the longest time, but this song plays the drama of the battle and its history completely straight.
20	* UsefulNotes/NewZealand-based metal band Music/AlienWeaponry have a lot of songs about the colonisation of New Zealand and battles between the British and the Maori. Turns out, Te Reo Maori is an awesome language to sing metal in.
21	* While Music/AmonAmarth's songs about Vikings usually fall under the PeriodPiece mentioned above, the album ''Berserker'' has a few songs about specific historical events and figures of UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge: "Raven's Flight" is about the Great Heathen Army and the destruction it spread across England, "Ironside" is about the semi-legendary king of Sweden Björn Ironside and "Berserker at the Stamford Bridge" tells the tale of the epic LastStand of the legendary lone berserker at the battle of the Stamford bridge in 1066.
22	* Ancient Rites sings frequently of European history, ranging from ancient to modern times. From there, they often like to focus on its wars and major battles.
23	* "The Enemy" by Music/{{Anthrax}} discusses Hitler.
24	* Music/{{Ariya}} has a song about Alexander Nevsky's battle with the Teutonic Knights, a song about the Norfolk regiment that was (supposedly) inexplicably lost in 1915, and one about Christianization of Kievan Rus (from the Pagan viewpoint).
25	** Although the first of those was likely inspired by [[Film/AlexanderNevsky the Soviet movie where Alexander Nevsky battled Teutonic Knights]].
26	* Music/BlueOysterCult do a seriously heavy paean to the [[Music/SecretTreaties ME 262]], Gemany's iconic first jet fighter, in the last battles of April 1945
27	* Music/{{Celtic Frost}}'s Into The Crypts of Rays is all about the knight/{{serial killer}} Gilles de Rais.
28	* Music/{{ChthoniC}}'s members are quite politically active, and it shows in their music, which often references dark periods in Taiwan's history, especially the Wushe and 228 incidents.
29	* Music/{{Civil War\|Band}} was formed by several former members of Music/{{Sabaton}} and continues its parent band's tradition of historical themes, though their lyrics are usually more abstracted than Sabaton's. They named themselves after UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar and pattern their stage costumes after Union and Confederate uniforms, and named their first three albums after the Shaaras' novel trilogy about the war. They've also written other tunes such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFZPOWeOdE "Tombstone"]], about the Showdown at the O.K. Corral from Doc Holliday's perspective.
30	* Music/{{Cormorant}} does this almost exclusively.
31	* Music/CradleOfFilth did a whole album about Elizabeth Bathory, entitled "Cruelty And The Beast", though it may be based more on her Film/HammerHorror depiction than the historical SerialKiller.
32	* The Dutch death metal band Hail of Bullets writes concept albums about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Their first album Of Frost and War deals with the Eastern Front, their second album On Divine Winds focuses on the Pacific Theater and their most recent album III: The Rommel Chronicles recaps the life and military career of German field marshal Erwin Rommel.
33	* "Europa Burns" by Music/{{Dismember}} is about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
34	* Music/{{Eluveitie}} has the album ''Helvetios'', which is a concept album about the Gallic wars. On their other albums, they're singing about various topics regarding the Gallic Helvetii-tribe.
35	* {{Music/Exodus\|Band}} have done a few, including "Last Act of Defiance" which is about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_State_Penitentiary_riot the 1980 New Mexico prison riot]], "Nanking" which about [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar Nanjing Massacre]] and "Ballad of Leonard and Charles" which is about the infamous Bay Area serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.
36	* Music/HammerFall have a number of songs about the Crusades. Realism does not seem to be a priority.
37	* Holy Martyr focus a lot on this trope (albeit in an often heroic way), with their historical subjects ranging from Spartans, to Romans, to even feudal Japan.
38	* Music/IcedEarth's The Glorious Burden is based primarily on important battles and war icons. Its centerpiece, Gettysburg 1863 is an in depth retelling of the ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar Battle of Gettysburg]]''.
39	* Music/IronMaiden loves this trope. It helps that long-time lead singer Music/BruceDickinson has a history degree that gives him a wealth of knowledge to draw on for lyrics. Notable examples include:
40	** To start with, they ''are'' named after a late [[IronMaiden medieval torture device]], though such devices may never have actually been used for real.
41	** "Invaders" is about the RapePillageAndBurn the HornyVikings inflicted on Anglo-Saxon England.
42	** "Run to the Hills" is about the RapePillageAndBurn inflicted on Native Americans.
43	** "The Trooper" concerns UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar, specifically the Charge of the Light Brigade (see trope image).
44	** "Alexander the Great", about the famous Macedonian YoungConqueror, is perhaps their most unabashed one. With lyrics like, "In 334 BC, he utterly beat the armies of Persia," and, "The Scythians fell by the river Jaxartes," they've ''really'' ShownTheirWork.
45	** "Montségur" is about the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Albigensian Crusade]].
46	** "Paschendale", about the titular battle on the Western Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
47	** "Death or Glory" concerns World War I style fighter maneuvers and mentions a "blood red triplane" that clearly evokes Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.
48	** UsefulNotes/WorldWarII is a particularly fruitful topic for the band.
49	*** "Aces High" is set during the Battle of Britain, with mention of Spitfires scrambling to intercept bombers and ME-109 fighters.
50	*** "Tailgunner" is in turn about allied bombings.
51	*** "The Longest Day" is about the Allied landings in Normandy on D-Day.
52	*** "Running Silent, Running Deep" concerns German U-boats preying on Allied shipping during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Atlantic Battle of the Atlantic]].
53	** "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns" uses religious imagery to describe the first ever nuclear test, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test) Trinity]]", and the subsequent development of nuclear weapons, and refers to Robert Oppenheimer.
54	** Although based on current events when first released, "Mother Russia" now counts since it's basically an ode to the end of the Soviet Union several decades ago.
55	** "Empire of the Clouds" is an [[EpicRocking epic]] retelling of the final flight of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101 R101 Airship]] down to the death toll.
56	* {{Music/Kamelot}} had a trilogy of songs titled "Elizabeth," about Elizabeth Bathory. She's a pretty popular subject for this trope. They've had other songs referring to legends, such as "Nights of Arabia" which is about Scheherazade.
57	* Music/{{Korpiklaani}} more commonly sings about mythology (and even more commonly sings about drinking), but in "Vesaisen Sota" (Vesaisen's War), they describe Finnish freedom fighter and folk hero Pekka Vesainen and his actions during the Russo-Swedish war of 1570-1590.
58	* "Nazis Auf Speed" by Music/DieKrupps is about the Wehrmacht's use of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine Pervitin]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_ramming#Germany aerial ramming by BF 109 pilots]].
59	* Music/LeavesEyes have a few, incl "Eleonore de Provence", about the medieval English queen Eleanor of Provence, and "Maid of Lorraine", about UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc. Their considerable portfolio of VikingMetal includes songs about famous historical and semi-legendary Norsemen such as Halfdan the Black, as well as an entire ConceptAlbum about the Norse visit to modern-day Canada under Leif Eriksson.
60	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvKRbi2ovDY The Bloody Verdict of Verden]], part of a metal album on {{UsefulNotes/Charlemagne}} by his descendant Creator/ChristopherLee (in this case, about Charlemagne [[SignatureScene shedding the blood of 4,000 Saxon men]]).
61	* Music/{{Masterplan}}'s SelfTitledAlbum has a song called "Crystal Night", which is about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.
62	* Music/TheMonolithDeathcult are a band that does this almost exclusively, with a particular focus on wars and genocides. Examples include "Drugs, Thugs, and Machetes", about the Rwandan genocide, "Kindertodeslied", about the Hitler Youth, and "Master of the Bryansk Forests", about a particularly brutal battalion of Nazi Einsatsgruppen during World War II.
63	* Music/{{Motorhead}}'s [[Music/Nineteen16 "1916"]] is about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, sung from the perspective of a soldier.
64	* Music/NanowarOfSteel parodied this with "Pasadena 1994", a song in the style of Sabaton, below (and including Sabaton's Joakim Broden as guest vocalist) that portrayed the 1994 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup FIFA World Cup final]] between Italy and Brazil as a bloody battle.
65	* Music/{{Nile}} covers plenty of events throughout Egyptian history. On top of that, they hold nothing back in regards to discussing the sheer brutality behind a lot of it.
66	* A couple cases in Heliocentric/Anthropocentric by [[{{Music/TheOcean}} The Ocean]], considering they are critiques of Christianity. Notable examples being the trials of Galileo and the execution of heretics.
67	* French BlackMetal band Peste Noire has "Des Médecins Malades Et Des Saints Séquestrés" (literally "About Sick Physicians and Sequestered Saints") which is about the Holocaust. The name of the band itself evokes the trope (it literally means "black plague", and is the French name of TheBlackDeath).
68	* Many songs by Music/{{Primordial\|Band}} are concerned with Irish history and myth. One of their most well-known songs, "The Coffin Ships", takes its name from the ships that carried Irish emigrants to Canada and America during the Famine (so called because so many of the passengers died during the journey).
69	* Music/{{Pyrrhon}} have a partial example with the song "Turing's Revenge", which starts off talking about the forced chemical castration and subsequent suicide of Alan Turing for his homosexuality, and then goes on to talk about how his creation, the modern day computer, would go on to essentially dominate the way society functions and metaphorically "castrate the minds of your children's children/As surely as you've castrated me".
70	* Music/RadioTapok has made {{cover version}}s of a number of historically based metal songs. His original releases include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw0jQBLbhLU "Battle for Moscow"]], about the Red Army's [[YouShallNotPass all-out defense]] against the Axis at the gates of Moscow in 1941, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_7s5hx_0E "Tsushima"]], about the 1905 Battle of Tsushima, which decided the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar in Japan's favor. His first solo album, ''Наследие'' ("Heritage"), consists of nine original songs about Russian military history.
71	* Music/ReverendBizarre were known to do this from time to time. "Cromwell" is one example.
72	* Music/RunningWild has a number of songs based on history, often of the piratical variety:
73	** "Calico Jack", "Black Bart", "Jennings' Revenge", and "Ballad of William Kidd" (and "Adventure Galley", about William Kidd's CoolBoat) are all about the famous pirates they are respectively named after.
74	** "Port Royal" and "Tortuga Bay" are also about the eponymous famous locations from the Golden Age of Piracy.
75	** "Little Big Horn" is about, well, [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhCavalry the 7th Cavalry's]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin defeat at Little Bighorn.]]
76	** "Genghis Khan" focuses on the life of...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin guess.]]
77	** "The Battle of Waterloo" is - [[OverlyLongGag yeah, you get the idea]].
78	** [[Literature/TreasureIsland "Treasure Island"]] and [[Literature/TheLastOfTheMohicans "Last of the Mohicans"]] are somewhat mixed examples as they are [[FilkSong Filk Songs]] based on historical fiction.
79	*** Another mixed example is the EpicRocking number "Genesis (The Making and the Fall of Man)", which is a retelling of ''The 12th Planet'' by Zecharia Sitchin, a book positing a history of humanity and its creation by AncientAstronauts based on ([[LostInTranslation heavily mistranslated]]) readings of ancient Sumerian texts. Although the book purports to be real history, the band have clarified that they don't actually believe it themselves, so it functions as more of a FilkSong.
80	* Music/{{Sabaton}} ''is'' this trope. Nearly every song of theirs is about military history, to the point the band has fully embraced it as their theme (the only exceptions being their occasional HeavyMeta anthems and one song about the Nazgul from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''). Their name comes from a type of medieval leg armor, the band frequently wears camouflage onstage, and their drummer plays on ''a freaking tank.'' They also have [[WebVideo/SabatonHistory a weekly Youtube series devoted to the history behind their songs.]]
81	** Quite a few songs are about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and/or ThoseWackyNazis.
82	** They also have "Counterstrike" about the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Six Day War]], "Back In Control" about UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar, "Cliffs of Gallipoli" and "The Price of a Mile" about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and "Panzer Batallion" and "Reign of Terror" about the UsefulNotes/GulfWar.
83	** They made an entire concept album about the rise and fall of the Swedish Empire from the beginning of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar to the end of UsefulNotes/TheGreatNorthernWar, named ''Carolus Rex'' after the latinized name of Charles XII of Sweden.
84	** Their album ''Heroes'' details the heroic deeds of specific people or groups, primarily during [=WW2=].
85	** Their album ''The Last Stand'' is ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin unsurprisingly]]) about some of the great {{Last Stand}}s of history, from Thermopylae to Castle Itter.
86	** Their album ''The Great War'' is all about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, whether events, technologies, and people.
87	** They also have an unattached single about the German battleship ''Bismarck''.
88	** Their 2022 album ''The War to End All Wars'' is another World War One concept album covering, among other topics, German stormtroopers, the Battle of Doiram, and the Anglo-German naval race. It was followed up later in the year by ''Father'', a standalone single about Fritz Haber’s work to develop chemical weapons during the war.
89	* {{Music/Savatage}}'s song "Chance" is about Chiune Sugihara, a diplomat during World War II who was basically the Japanese equivalent of Oskar Schindler. In other words, it's a rare example of Uplifting History Metal.
90	** There's also their album Dead Winter Dead, which takes place during the Serbian Civil War of he 1990s.
91	* Music/{{Saxon}}:
92	** "Machine Gun" about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Contains some TechnologyPorn about tanks and (duh) machine guns.
93	** "Dallas 1 P.M." about the assassination of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. Note that it does ''not'' contain any [[WhoShotJFK speculation]] - it merely recounts the assassination itself, and public reaction to it.
94	** "Crusader", of course.
95	* Music/{{Schandmaul}}'s "Trafalgar" is about the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Battle of Trafalgar]].
96	* Music/{{Serenity}} has made three albums of this sort, with songs on topics ranging from Elizabeth Bathory to Leonardo da Vinci.
97	* Music/{{Skyclad\|Band}} has "Think Back And Lie Of England" reminding about unglamorous moments as a jab at PoliticallyCorrectHistory.
98	** There's also R'Vannith, which is about the Roman conquest of England.
99	* Music/{{Slayer}} has "Angel Of Death" about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by [[MadDoctor Josef Mengele]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and "Unit 731" about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by the Japanese during the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar.
100	** They have a few more songs about ThoseWackyNazis, such as "Behind the Crooked Cross" and "SS-3."
101	* Music/{{Sodom}}:
102	** "Ausgebombt", "Bombenhagel" and [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets "Stalinorgel"]], all broadly about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
103	** A ''lot'' of songs (including ''two'' [[ConceptAlbum concept albums]], ''Agent Orange'' and ''M-16'') about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar - most notably "Agent Orange".
104	* Music/ASoundOfThunder has "Tomyris" (about the eponymous queen of Scythia), and also deserve mention for their metal cover of the already shockingly metal national anthem of Catalonia, "Els Segadors" (literally "the reapers!"), which is about the Reapers' War or Catalan Revolt of 1640.
105	* Although he was never the heaviest act around, Music/SteveTaylor ''did'' try his hand at this with "Over My Dead Body" on his album ''Meltdown''.
106	* Several Music/SystemOfADown songs are about the Armenian genocide. All of the members of the band have Armenian heritage and have campaigned to have the genocide recognized as such.
107	* Music/{{Turisas}} is the same for Finland as what Sabaton is to Sweden. Their theme album ''The Varangian Way'' is about the historical Eastern Route of the Vikings all the way to Constantinople.
108	* Norwegian black metal band Vreid likes singing about the Norwegian resistance in UsefulNotes/WW2.
109	* UK BlackMetal band Winterfylleth have numerous songs about various English historical events.
110	* Music/XJapan has ''Rose of Pain,'' which is about the infamous SerialKiller UsefulNotes/ElizabethBathory.
111	* German blackened death metal band Music/{{Kanonenfieber}} is basically a band about UsefulNotes/WW1, much like Ukranian blackened death-doomer group 1914
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder: Other Examples]]
115	* Music/{{ACDC}} have done a song about the Original Night of the long knives from Arthurian legends, appropriately entitled "Night Of The Long Knives". They also wrote "Hail Caesar" and "War Machine" based on Ancient Rome.
116	* Music/ScottWalker, a major history buff, has quite a few songs like this, especially later on in his career. "The Electrician" from ''Music/NiteFlights'' is inspired by American torturers working for the Pinochet regime in Chile, "Clara" is about the execution of Benito Mussolini and his mistress, and "Farmer in the City" is about the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
117	* "Mary Turner Mary Turner" by the avant-garde band Music/XiuXiu is about barbaric murder of a pregnant black woman by a white mob in Georgia in 1918, for the simple act of [[DisproportionateRetribution protesting her husband's lynching for a crime he didn't commit]].
118	* "Slug Bait" by Music/ThrobbingGristle is based on numerous massacres committed during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.
119	* "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story" by Music/JediMindTricks is a rare hip hop example. Vinnie Paz's verse is from the perspective of a regular soldier in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar expressing doubts about what they're doing in the country, while R.A. the Rugged Man's verse is about his own father, telling the story of how he nearly died in a helicopter crash and how exposure to Agent Orange caused birth defects in his children.
120	* "The Mexican", the 1972 SignatureSong of British ProgressiveRock band Babe Ruth, which later became a popular [[{{Sampling}} sample]] source, is about the Battle of the Alamo, focusing on one of Santa Anna's troopers named Chico Fernandez, who dies. The more general point of the song is how the Alamo was a PyrrhicVictory for Santa Anna. The Mexican forces annihilated the Texans, but there were only around 200 Texans, while 600 or so Mexicans died in the battle.
121	* Music/{{Swans}}: "Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'ouverture" is a really bizarre example. It's named after the man responsible for the [[UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} Haitian Revolution]], and the lyrics consist entirely of Michael Gira screaming revolutionary slogans in French, accompanied by various sound effects like panicked horses galloping.
122	* Music/TheDecemberists' songs are mostly fiction, but sometimes they'll sing about the French Conquest of Algeria ("The Legionnaire's Lament"), World War I ("The Soldiering Life"), the American Civil War ("Yankee Bayonet"), botanists protecting grain during the Siege of Leningrad ("When the War Came"), boogeymen of the Troubles ("Shankill Butchers"), the Speculator Mine disaster ("Rox in the Box") and the Charge of the Light Brigade ("Cavalry Captain").
123	* ''Dywizjon 303'' (about Battle of Britain, specifically, about the Polish airmen who took part in it) and several other songs by Music/KubaSienkiewicz.
124	* Music/{{Rush\|Band}} has "Bastille Day", about the storming of the Bastille that began the French Revolution, and "Manhattan Project", about the creation of the first atomic bomb.
125	* The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (whose very name is a reference to the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper killings), love this trope. "[[https://youtu.be/21QqXumEWFU Brunel]]", a highlights reel of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's career, is a great example.
126	* Music/ThisHeat have "The Fall of Saigon", though in typical This Heat fashion it's less a matter-of-fact recounting of events and more a sort of grotesque and exaggerated depiction of the psychological decline of the people who lived through it.
127	* "Brown Sugar" by Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} is about the rape of enslaved women in the antebellum DeepSouth.
128	* "Born in the U.S.A." by Music/BruceSpringsteen is about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar--though it also touches on how [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veterans]] struggled to make their way after returning from war, which was a contemporary issue when the song came out.
129	* Another 'Nam-related example is "Goodnight Saigon" by Music/BillyJoel.
130	* German FolkRock band Music/{{dArtagnan}}'s song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANgc9fW49_8 "Wallenstein"]] is about General Albrecht von Wallenstein, who led the Habsburg armies against the Protestants during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar.
131	* Music/EricBogle's most famous song "...And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is about the Gallipoli campaign in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. A number of his other songs are about specific historic events: most often in one of the World Wars.
132	* Indie singer/songwriter and anarchist Music/DavidRovics has multiple songs about historic events, including "The Battle of Blair Mountain" about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain The Battle of Blair Mountain]]: the largest labour uprising in United States history and the largest armed uprising since UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar[[note]]And how many Americans have even heard of it?[[/note]].
133	* Sea shanty band Music/TheLongestJohns has "[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=T_5PHU7vQu4 Fire and Flame]]", which is about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion Halifax Explosion]], an industrial accident that levelled a city when two ammunition haulers collided.
134	* Huns and Dr. Beeker has "Ghost Town," about UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}.
135	* "Forgotten Years" by Music/MidnightOil is about World War I.
136	* "Spanish Bombs" by Music/TheClash (from their album ''Music/LondonCalling'') is about the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar.
137	* Pop singer-songwriter Gene Cotton had a moderate US hit in 1978 with "Like a Sunday in Salem", a cryptic, symbolism-laden account of UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy and UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist.
138	-->The curtains were drawn and the prophets had cried\
139	When somebody screamed that the joker had lied\
140	But the damage was done and the saints crucified\
141	And the truth will be lost till the end
142	* Music/{{Genesis\|Band}}: "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" is a comedic example. The song examines how the plant was taken from Russia by British nobles, only to become an invasive weed throughout western Europe and North America, portraying it as a war between humanity and a BotanicalAbomination. Fitting the "metal" part of the trope's name, the song is one of the harder rockers on its parent album, ''Music/NurseryCryme''.
143	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HorribleHistoryMetal