War Pigs (1970) - reviewed by Kyomin

1. Black Sabbath and Paranoid

 Black Sabbath is a British heavy metal band from Birmingham, UK who was formed in 1968 by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward. Also, Black Sabbath is one of the legendary rock bands with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin for big fans of rock music. In terns of musical skills, messages and intention, Black Sabbath has strongly affected heavy metal genres around the world. Until now, the majority of heavy metal bands have been influenced by Black Sabbath for various parts.
 The band released the second album "Paranoid" in 1970 which hit to the top of the UK chart and was successful worldwide as well as the US. The album has many popular songs, such as "War Pigs", "Paranoid" and "Iron Man". Among them, "War Pigs" is well known as one of the awesome opening songs.

2. War Pigs

 1-1) Lyrics

Generals gathered in their masses

Just like witches at black masses

Evil minds that plot destruction

Sorcerers of death's construction

In the fields the bodies burning

As the war machine keeps turning

Death and hatred to mankind

Poisoning their brainwashed minds...

Oh Lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away

They only started the war

Why should they go out to fight?

They leave that role to the poor, yeah!

Time will tell on their power minds

Making war just for fun

Treating people just like pawns in chess

Wait 'till their Judgment day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning

Ashes where the bodies burning

No more war pigs of the power

Hand of God has struck the hour

Day of Judgment, God is calling

On their knees the war pigs crawling

Begging mercy for their sins

Satan, laughing, spreads his wings

Oh Lord yeah!

 1-2) Themes and meanings

 In the '70s and '80s, it was golden age of heavy metal which was contained the spirit of the times and the ideology. Basically, heavy metal has the identity which tends to break stereotypes and rules. At that time, Black Sabbath reflected what is right or wrong by their songs. For example, "War Pigs" contained that the band criticized Vietnam war by the US expressing politicians by pigs metaphorically. They might think that a large number of politicians usually try to acquire things what they want as much as possible regardless of the process. In my view, 'Treating people just like pawns in chess' is considerably impressive because there is significant comparison between the poor and pawns in chess. In addition, we can clearly see several political satires, such as 'They only started the war'.

3. Why is it effective for criticism?

 I think that the reason why rock music is much more effective to encourage the public is being cool and straightforward. Rockers do not be shy and nervous when they sing their song. They always claim that we should change to right direction. Sometimes, it may be a threat to evil and wicked people like a pig. In this respect, this kind of music can give a lot of pleasure and vicarious satisfaction to people because this is what they want to say. This means that rock music can be represented by public voices.

 In spite of the fact that rock music is one of the powerful methods to be able to influence social and political problems, there are still problems in modern times. The most important thing is that this song still works until now because war is NOT over. We may need much more horrible rocker in order to make politicians afraid of war.

4. Is there any music for criticism nowadays?

 In the past, rock music used to be common and powerful for criticizing social and political issues. How about the contemporary society? There are many kinds of genres to pose problems compared to the past, such as progressive rock, hard-core and hip-hop. Furthermore, there are a variety of social media as well as music which are documentary, blog, cartoon and social network. However, it may be difficult to be reliable while it could be useful to make the public get involved in discussion concerning social and political issues. In this respect, it is clear that the role of social media is getting more and more important.

5. References

http://www.blacksabbath.com

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.metrolyrics.com/war-pigs-lyrics-black-sabbath.html

https://www.youtube.com

This is a video clip about 'War Pigs'.

Despite the fact that it shows how the war is terrible and pointless, it might not be allowed to play on another website except for YouTube.

Please click below in order to move to the website and enjoy this clip intuitively or critically.

It is up to you.