History LyricalDissonance / Metal

** 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 upbeat tunes. Examples include "1648" being a song about the atrocities the Swedes committed in Bohemia set to an uplifting heroic melody originally written for the Bohemians ''fighting back'' against the Swedes, and the epic power metal anthem "Ett slag färgat rött" (originally "Killing Ground") being about Caroleans murdering prisoners of war.

* Pig Destroyer'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".

* Opeth has plenty of examples of mellow-sounding parts with sad lyrics (although they're often dark-sounding mellow parts). The song Deliverance, though, has a really soothing soft section with lyrics which are, fairly unambiguously, about killing someone by holding their head under water.

* DoomMetal band 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.

** Another hillarious 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. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIzchPg6ts here]] a link.

* Megadeth's Chosen Ones is a very technical thrash song, but is about the killer rabbit from Monty Python And The Holy Grail. "For death surely awaits you with sharp and pointy teeth!"

** ''Price of a Mile'' and ''Cliffs of Gallipoli'' are both badass, upbeat songs about the senseless death of WorldWarI.

* Inverted in 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"

* An inversion of most of the examples on this page: 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.

* SonataArctica has its fair share of melancholic love songs played to the fast, upbeat bombast of power metal.

* The RageAgainstTheMachine cover of {{Music/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.

* 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, [[http://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.

** One of their best known songs, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXKwVe1SBTA "Trollhammaren"]], tells about how you will be murdered by a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysontheTin hammer-wielding troll]], while catchy accordion tunes play in the background.

* "The Charioteer" by {{Crystal Eyes}} sounds [[RatedMforManly downright badass]] and inspiring, but it's about [[NorseMythology the battle between Thor and Jormungandr at Ragnarok]], in which [[DownerEnding Thor ultimately ends up dying]].

* The Finnish band {{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.

** "Falling Down" is an upbeat song about [[Film/FallingDown the film of the same name starring Michael Douglas.]]

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

*** It's about [[FateStayNight whether the heroes and their king have enough swords, of course]].

* 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".

* ''Orden Ogan'''s song "The Things We Belive In" sounds like a heroic anthem. It's about people freezing to death with no hope.

* Used for comedic value by Psychostick whose metal-tinged modern hardcore sound is used as a vehicle for them to bitch about (as well as other things) very mundane and silly topics such as itchy balls ("Scrotal Torment"), a piece of shit car ("Two Ton Paperweight"), and how much they hate doing laundry ("I Hate Doing Laundry").

* 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.

* {{Sabaton}}'s love of HorribleHistoryMetal produces a lot of this:

* Doom Metal band 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.
* "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 perseverance and [[HumanityIsSuperior greatness of Man]]. The final verse goes like this:

* TypeONegative loves to do this, from "We Hate Everyone" being sung deliberately in a dispassionate way to the upbeatness of "Dead Again."

* Some dude and his band covered Ark Music Factory's hated productions: Witness RebeccaBlack's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi00ykRg_5c Friday]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjrEN6CZsac Chinese Food]] as super hardcore blackdeathscreamglamsludgespeedmathgothgrindpost metal.

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* AnalCunt was much the same when they covered things like MCHammer's "U Can't Touch This" and commercial jingles... in the typical, lye-gargling, a-thousand-dying-tyrannosaurs shrieking, billion-guitars-being-smashed style of AnalCunt.

** "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?]]. At least it gets heavy near the end but the beginning can be misleading.