#Protest100

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.