History LyricalDissonance / Metal

-->"The Charioteer" by [=CrystalEyes=] sounds downright [badass] but it's about [[NorseMythology the battle between Thor and Jormungandr at Ragnarok]] in which [[DownerEnding Thor ultimately ends up dying]].

* Theocracy's "Light Of The World" has a very triumphant sound (complete with epic key change near the end) but the lyrics pretty much go to show how people of the Christian religion have cowered away from showing their faith.

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

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* "Let The New Day Begin" by the Swedish death/power metal band {{Therion}} from their early (before they shifted to powermetal) album ''Lepaca Kliffoth''. The music is fairly typical death metal with a bit of early power metal, while the lyrics basically amount to a message of [[BeyondTheImpossible perseverance]] and [[HumanityIsSuperior greatness of Man]]. The final verse goes like this:

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

* At first glance, [[{{Ptitlewsbhxd7l}} Mötley Crüe]]'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."

* {{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.

* 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 "''Dandelion''", 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE here]]

* 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: "Bboulack 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...

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* 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...
** "My Spirit Will Go On" has the darkest intro of any of their songs.
** "Disciples of Babylon" is their only song that doesn't directly imply the inevitable death (usually in a war that apparently lasts forever) of the protagonists. What the song is about instead is a matter of heated debate.
*** It's about [[FateStayNight whether the heroes and their king have enough swords, of course]].
** In a less severe version of this trope, all of their songs are set in winter, usually during a snowstorm, despite their style being summery. They also tend to be set at night, and usually while waiting for a "brighter day" that never seems to come.
** Several songs from the latest album Ultra Beatdown also qualify in a big way:
*** "Heartbreak Armageddon" is about a man who spirals into depression after being divorced.
*** "Reasons to Live" is about a counselor who fails to prevent suicide.
*** "Scars of Yesterday" qualifies as the big one here -- when you look at the lyrics, it's quite clearly about rape.
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* "Blood Religion" by GammaRay is a song about a vampire. It starts out with dark sounding music while Kai Hansen sings about his soul being in Hell for eternity. Then he screams "Yeah! Bite me!" and the music becomes upbeat (for metal) and catchy, but the lyrics are still creepy, if pretty [[NarmCharm cheesy]]. When performed live, it ends with an audience sing-along about "screaming for blood red vengeance."

* 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 survives and basically ensures a happy ending. Halford screaming the vocals in a pretty insane tone probably doesn't help.

* BlackSabbath's "NIB" subverts this -- it starts off sounding awfully sinister for an apparent love song... but once you get to the lines that imply mind control and reveal that the singer's character is Lucifer, it all comes together.

* {{Metallica}}'s "Wherever I May Roam" is a typical metal ballad, but the lyrics are about vagrancy and would fit more into a country song. Doesn't stop the song from being awesome, though. WordOfGod says it's about home sickness.

* {{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]].

* 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.

-->''Tears shall bear his inner beauty and noble soul/and his body will come into flower by gorgeous aura.'' These are all growled while the drummer beats the living hell out of his kit with full force and technique.

-->''Tears shall bear his inner beauty and noble soul/and his body will come into flower by gorgeous aura.''
-all growled while the drummer beats the living hell out of his kit with full force and technique.

Volcanoes erupting and fire spreads across the sky\\

* Axenstar's "Northern Sky" includes the lyrics
"''The rain and thunder came crashing down from heaven\\

Volcanoes erupting and fire spreads across the sky''\\"
he sings it like he's going on an evening stroll

* The RageAgainstTheMachine cover of Devo's "Beautiful World" is an inversion--the Devo version is upbeat and happy-sounding—as are the lyrics up until the last line, which puts the whole thing in a different light. The RATM version, surprisingly, is somber throughout.

** "Kickstart My Heart", an upbeat metal tune... about Nikki Sixx being clinically dead for a minute after overdosing.

** "One" is this way as well, or at least at the beginning. It starts out so light and, to someone, even soothing. [[AndIMustScream Guess what it's about?]]. At least it gets heavy near the end but the beginning can be misleading.

* 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.

** It also has "The End of This Chapter" which sounds mostly like a powerballad, has most of the lyrics of a melancholic love song, but is actually about a stalker.