Metal

Artist:          Machine Head

Song:           A Thousand Lies

Album:        Burn My Eyes

Producer:    Colin Richardson

Label:          Roadrunner

Year:           1994

Notes:
Machine Head was political way before current events and ‘Stop The Bleeding.’ The band came out of the box swinging, with this track featuring on its 1994 debut. Robb Flynn told Kerrang! about it in an interview last year marking ‘Burn My Eyes’ 25^th anniversary: ““We’d just gotten into the first Iraq war, so Bush senior was president, and that song was a really strong anti-war, anti-racism statement. We were listening to a lot of punk rock at the time, and we were practicing in a shared space with five punk bands, so it was very political and that was really seeping into what we were doing, for sure.”

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
Johnson was startled out of his contemplations by what sounded like a thousand roman candles going off at once.

Lyrics
What is a man that stays true to the game
But has to cheat a little to get by
Well that’s a person that I know too well
Don’t want to know but I don’t have to ask why
Everyone like a loaded gun
You want some shit I’ll fuckin’ pound you, son
Don’t need a reason, pain I’m feelin’
I gotta vent or else I blow inside

Introspection, termination
Can’t tell right from wrong
Fed up with this whole system
It’s gone on far too long

You tell a thousand lies been told a thousand times
Your words we hear but we cannot sympathize
Thousand lies been told a thousand times
Hard as nails the power to survive

What’s a man that stays true to the game
But can’t believe some of the things he sees
Anger’s a gift and I won’t be kept down
In poverty there is no democracy
Used needle and a crack vile
A broken bottle and a bullet shell
This urban life is so volatile
An inner city or a concrete hell

Introspection, termination
Can’t tell right from wrong
Fed up with this whole system
It’s gone on far too long

You tell a thousand lies been told a thousand times
Your words we hear but we cannot sympathize
Thousand lies been told a thousand times
Hard as nails the power to survive

So pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, get up

What is a man don’t stay true to the game
Don’t care for no one, only cares for his greed
He’s playin’ God killin’ thousands of people
‘Cause the power is the fix that he needs
Racist goal of the white devil
I watched our soul burnin’ over oil
A politician got no feelin’
It makes my motherfuckin’ cold blood boil

Introspection, termination
Can’t tell right from wrong
Fed up with this whole system
It’s gone on far too long

You tell a thousand lies been told a thousand times
Your words we hear but we cannot sympathize
Thousand lies been told a thousand times
Hard as nails the power to survive

Slow
Slow
Slow

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Artist:          Killswitch Engage

Song:           Numbered Days

Album:        Alive and Just Breathing

Producer:    Adam Dutkiewicz

Label:          Roadrunner

Year:           2002

Notes:
If a structure gets too top-heavy it falls. When the fall occurs the light, shelter, whatever else it provided disappears. But this is only temporary. New life rises from the dust. This is the same whether you’re talking about a barn, distant cosmic objects, or the body politic. But in two of these three cases, the fall can be averted. Steps can be taken. Existence rolls on either way. So let’s pick the path that keeps us here with it.

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
Their austere-yet-comfortable nature stemmed from a compromise between prison hawks who had pushed for stiffer sentencing and other citizens whose primary concern was still the weal of those being detained.

Lyrics
The Time Approaches
Fall!

This is the voice of the Voiceless
We have learned about making choices
Not of persecution or dilution
We have severed the solution
To build our foundation on natural elements to preserve life
We will rise and battle on

Chanting inspiration for the righteous
Dislocation from the social order
Kingdoms will rise to power
But kingdoms fall to dust
To ashes of the dead
Will be a sign
The time approaches

Arms raised (raised)
Eyes gazed (gazed)
Tongues of fire whisper
This life (life)
Will soon (soon)
Slip away!

Babylon you will fall
Your days are numbered
Who will hear your cries as you fall

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Artist:          Exodus

Song:           Fabulous Disaster

Album:        Fabulous Disaster

Producer:     Marc Senesac, Gary Holt, Rick Hunolt

Label:          Combat/Relativity

Year:           1989

Notes:
What goes around come around, and 31 years after its release ‘Fabulous Disaster’ is once again current; in some ways more than ever! It’s almost quaint to hear H.W. referred to as a “raving madman” given where we are now. The solution, as always, VOTE!

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
This was also the true point-of-origin of the long-fabled Peter Principle.

Lyrics
When the missiles are falling and the reaper comes calling
You had better kiss your ass goodbye
Atomic detonation, mass immolation
Without a warning, all your memories will die
So try to relax, face up to the facts
You’ll either die or the fallout will rot you in your tracks
There’ll be no tomorrow, only pain and sorrow
‘Cause our future’s in the hands of a raving madman

They spend all their time building missiles so people die
What kind of life do you expect for us to live?
We’re angered by fear because the time is near
When some lunatic will finally pull the plug
And forever after, you can hear the laughter
World’s being plastered by an evil bastard
Exterminating faster, devastating plaster, fabulous disaster!
Now you can see, what this all means to me
When the bomb… comes falling down!

Now the reaper has called, but do you have the balls
To sit there or stand up and fight?
Try to make a note, it’s your right to vote
To keep these fucking assholes in line
It will always be the same ’cause they lie in their campaigns
Promise through their teeth for total world peace
So we know it’s not the truth, they should call Dr. Ruth
On how to give the people the real big screw

They spend all their time building missiles so people die
What kind of life do you expect for us to live?
We’re angered by fear because the time is near
When some lunatic will finally pull the plug
And forever after, you can hear the laughter
World’s being plastered by an evil bastard
Exterminating faster, devastating plaster, fabulous disaster!
Now you can see, what this all means to me
When the bomb… comes falling down!
Down, down, fall down!

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Artist:          Machine Head

Song:           Stop The Bleeding

Album:        Civil Unrest

Producer:    Robb Flynn

Label:          Nuclear Blast

Year:           2020

Notes:
Written just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, ‘Stop The Bleeding’ channels the venom of Machine Head leader Robb Flynn’s lyrics through a call-and-response delivery teaming him with Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach. Says Flynn: “I wrote and sang the lyrics on Wednesday, May 27^th, 2020, the day that the four officers who murdered George Floyd were (originally) not charged with anything. This day was engulfed in protests and riots across America. I drove into Oakland past large demonstrations already happening and in a fury wrote down everything I was feeling after watching the horrific footage. Within hours, what I wanted to say, what I needed to say had been recorded in the song.”

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“Like you said, there sure ain’t a fuckin’ thing to stop them out here.”

Lyrics:
The endless scroll of human tragedy
I swipe along as the days go by
Another brother murdered out in the streets
I connect to the shame, we don’t know what it’s like

Born lucky cause the color of skin
America your heart is caving in
Somehow I thought this was the land of the free
Where is our humanity?
Our humanity

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piles up in the streets
Stand and fight
Not another life
Just stop the bleeding

And some will claim it’s a conspiracy
The fake news out to undermine
When riots fight off white supremacy
Never given a choice, so they’re drawing a line

I stare and look out at the world in disgust
These men are dying over nothing just
Good men stand up and show your bravery
For a lost democracy
Our democracy

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piles up in the streets
Stand and fight

Not another life
Just stop the bleeding

Our strife
Our struggle
Fight through these open wounds

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piled up in the streets
Stand and fight
Not another life
Just stop the bleeding now

Our strife
Our struggle
Fight through these open wounds

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Artist:          Black Sabbath

Song:           Children of the Grave

Album:        Master of Reality

Producer:    Rodger Bain

Label:          Warner Bros.

Year:           1971

Notes:
Geezer Butler is a pacifist and this song picks up right where ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Electric Funeral’ left off. War is bad. Love is all. And the future is lost if we don’t realize that. Add in some swirling extra percussion and a looped, whispered “Children of the grave…” at the end for spooky effect, and the doom warning is complete. Ozzy also called it “the most kickass song we’d ever recorded,” in his ‘I Am Ozzy’ autobiography. Three nails verses and no chorus will do that!

Lyrics:
Revolution in their minds the children start to march
Against the world in which they have to live
And all the hate that’s in their hearts
They’re tired of being pushed around
And told just what to do
They’ll fight the world until they’ve won
And love comes flowing through, yeah

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear, yeah

So you children of the world
Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in
Spread the words today
Show the world that love is still alive you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave, yeah

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Artist:          Nuclear Assault

Song:           When Freedom Dies

Album:        Handle With Care

Producer:    Randy Burns

Label:          In-Effect

Year:           1989

Notes:
From the second you see the cover, ‘Handle With Care’ presents itself as the pinnacle of socially conscious thrash metal. And it delivers song after song (‘Critical Mass,’ ‘Search & Seizure,’ ‘Torture Tactics’) of supercharged condemnation, with catchy riffs almost everywhere. Police repression, environmental destruction, the balance between freedom and security, fascism, and abuse of authority all take a beating before the journey’s over.

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“The freedom of assembly on the part of the nation’s youth was legislated against to the extent that any person wishing to host a group larger than 100 people 16-years of age or older had to first register the event and then accept criminal liability for any misdeeds.”

.”

Lyrics:
United in a time, a time of need
Against a common foe, the enemy
The years of death endured, the years of pain
Against an evil force, a force not sane

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

And then the world endured, a victory won
Against an insane man and his cohorts
But once the war was done, blind fear prevailed
And years of darkness came, freedom was nailed

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

We let our freedom die, we let it wane
We feared an enemy’s atomic rain
But what was on our minds, what we became
We and the enemy
We are the same

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security
We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.