History LyricalDissonance / Metal

* Eluveitie's "Inis Mona". A 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"

* "The Crow Man", a rather upbeat, folksy-sounding tune by Pagan Altar, about renewing the earth every year via human sacrifice.

* 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:

** they even manage to do this on a cover version: Seals' and Croft's 1972 song 'Summer Breeze', is a mellow tune with happy lyrics about coming home to your lover on a summer evening so you can chill out together. Type O Negative's cover, which opens the slasher movie ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'', sets an ominous, dark warning of horrors to come.

* Steel Panther is a novelty band whose lyrics are based on cartoonishly overblown misogyny - think Anal Cunt's take on the same subject matter turned down from 11 to about 7. "Community Property" is a ballad, the chorus of which is "my heart belongs to you/but my cock is community property".

** "Run To The Hills" is a very epic, uplifting song about the genocide of Native Americans.

* Many songs by ''Knorkator'' take the same route. "Hardcore" is probably one of their most quiet songs that nontheless is about super-loud music, while "Du bist so still" (you're so quiet) is the exact opposite.
** "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 angriest and frustrated of their songs, which doesn't really seem to be for laughs but meant in earnest.

* 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," an 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 heard in Metal. Neither the melody nor the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE the video]] suggests this.

* 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 [[CrazyIsCool decidedly odd]] sung in a death growl.
* Deathcore band Despised Icon have moments of this, such as their song "A Fractured Hand" which features lyrics like "If only I could look at you again with the same eyes that once cherished every single step you took/My heart aches whenever I think of that night you fervently whispered 'je ne te connais plus'/This is the end of something beautiful". "In the Arms of Perdition" is another example; it's a fast-paced, blastbeat-laden, fairly technical track about a severely depressed man attempting to put up a facade of happiness and gradually turning into a recluse as his ability to maintain that facade diminishes.

* Some songs by [=DragonForce=] arguably fall under this in a weird way: not only does the music (generally upbeat, fast, and even uplifting) disagree with the lyrics, but the lyrics don't always agree amongst themselves. "My Spirit Will Go On", in particular, has both a catchy tune and extremely depressing lyrics that suddenly get contradicted by the final line of the chorus. See also: "Black Winter Night", which is a triumphant-sounding tune (complete with brass section) about sailing on endless seas of sadness as the world ends and all of humanity dies out. Then again, the band has implied that they write their lyrics based on the {{Rule Of Cool}}, so...

* The ending to Protest The Hero's "Turn Soonest To The Sea" has a Disneyesque sing-song group chorus with the following lyrics:

* Music/DreamTheater has utilized the "death growl" vocal effect exactly once: on "A Nightmare To Remember", it occurs after the HAPPIEST part of the story where it is revealed that everyone survived a car accident. This part is, for some strange reason, very angrily shouted.

** 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 ditty, set to perfectly happy sounding music:

* The French band ''Carnival in Coal'' experimented heavily with this, in both directions. For example, turning '80s pop into death metal, or making "a Jamiroquai-esque disco tune with gore lyrics".

* At first glance, Music/MotleyCrue's "You're All I Need" is a pretty straightforward power ballad which tells the endearing story of a young man and his girlfriend... take a closer look at the lyrics and it becomes obvious that it's about a man killing his girlfriend out of jealousy. "Laid out cold, now we're both alone, but [[Yandere killing you helped me keep you at home]]."

* At first glance, Music/MotleyCrue's "You're All I Need" is a pretty straightforward power ballad which tells the endearing story of a young man and his girlfriend... take a closer look at the lyrics and it becomes obvious that it's about a man killing his girlfriend out of jealousy. "Laid out cold, now we're both alone, but killing you helped me keep you at home."

* Music/OzzyOsbourne's "Crazy Train" sounds like a very light-hearted song for someone like him…

[[folder:Avant-garde Metal]]

* The metal cover band Ten Masked Men specialize in destroying pop classics by interpreting them all as straightforward no-frills Death Metal regardless of the origin, so this trope is to be expected from them.

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

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

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

* Music/{{Nightwish}} has a few songs that come to mind. First is "Feel For You" off of 2002's ''Century Child''. What ostensibly seems to be a love song, starts growing grim, and once you hear the male vocal, you realize it's about a murdered ex, an unhealthy obsession, or both.