Welcome to Gaia! ::

I have noticed that there seems to be a pretty big trend of rock&roll songs and/or bands drawing off of mythology (not only metal, but yea mostly metal). Sometimes they reference the myths accurately, and sometimes inaccurately; in both cases the influence is still quite strong, though.

I was just wondering if there were any other genres of contemporary music that drew off of mythological themes as much as rock and roll does (I think I once heard a bluegrass song called "The Green Witch of Avalon" which was very Arthurian, but it was by a local band); and I also kinda wanted to discuss the songs and bands that do utilize mythology.

This came to me the other day when I was watching Hedwig and the Angry Inch, during the "Origin of Love" song. Now, I'll admit, I always knew that rock and roll drew themes and subjects from mythology, but it was always kind of in the back of my mind. Hedwig and the Angry Inch kinda obviated it all, though, because in one song alone they featured Thor, Zeus, and Osiris. The music video looked like it also had some Babylonian god like Shamash or somebody.

Aside from that movie, Led Zeppelin is a pretty good example. And of course several metal bands including Nightwish and Hammerfall...

Do you guys like it when rock bands do this? Do you dislike it? Does it bug you when they get something wrong? What are some of your favourite songs/bands that do this?

And anything else you may care to discuss about mythology's relationship with rock&roll.

I know of the song "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac, but that's about it. Just to volunteer information.

Yea, it's always more enjoyable when they get their references correct. I'm completely fine with bands putting their own twist on myths (in fact, that's preferred because otherwise the same familiar tale repeated would be boring), but it's another thing altogether to make blatant errors and just get stuff wrong.

For example, I like the twists they gave to Aristophanes' tale in "The Origin of Love." I thought that was cool. I also like how, in the song, it was Zeus that cut the legs of the whales and cut the dinosaurs into lizards, hehe.

I like the song "Pharoah Sails to Orion" by Nightwish because they actually recognise the dualism of Set and Horus, and how they exist as almost a single entity.

The notion of the dualistic "Sethorus" had largely been forgotten after the era of Set-vilification, and it's refreshing to see a popular culture reference to the extremely ancient Sethorus worship. I'm hard pressed to think of any other popular culture reference to Set and Horus in which this is the case. Almost all of them exclusively reference the newer notion of "Set is the bad guy, and the enemy of Horus."

Plus, I don't know why, but I reaaaally like it when metal bands have female vocals (as do Nightwish and Theatre of Tragedy). It's a good effect, and I think it should be utilized more often 4laugh

Out of curiosity, does anybody here have any idea as to why there seems to be a higher frequency of myth-references in metal than the other genres of music? I'm thinking maybe it's because Led Zeppelin was sort of like the "Proto-Metal" in the beginning and they really liked referencing mythology, but I'm not sure.

Therion is amazing, i like Typhon. But anyway, Tristania, they have a ton.

On the second album called, Beyond the Veil, aside from the Latin, Gregorian chants and the shrieks, they have many Greek references.
Lyrics here
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/tristania/beyondtheveil.html#1
Especially the songs, Beyond the veil, Aphelion, Lethean River and Angina

Then in the album Ashes, there is a song that is at first obscurely about the myth when Isis extracts Ra’s true name. It’s song * called Endogenisis
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/tristania/ashes.html#8


1.

There is a song by Thrice and it's symbolism is based off of a Greek myth (let's see how many people can guess it correctly. XD It's pretty easy).

The title is pretty much a give-away on its own actually;
The Melting Point of Wax - Thrice

I like when bands do it... I recently wrote lyrics for a song called Blame the Fall, which throws Leviathan, Samael, and Hades all into the same place... haha.. I know its wrong but its still pretty cool...

I'm also in the process of writting a song called The Immortal, which is about Nicholas Flamel.. And my friend wrote one called Asmodai.

and for major label bands that do,

Vital Remains -- "Devoured Elysium"
Iron Maiden -- "The Flight of Icarus"
Iron Maiden -- "Lord of the Flies"
Behemoth -- "Pazuzu"
Behemoth -- "The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor"
Behemoth -- "Slaying the Prophets ov Isa"
s**t, a lot of behemoth does...

Morgana LeFey did a concept album on Flamel (which I learned after I started writting the Immortal). Most of ChthoniC's material is based on Taiwanese myth, mostly those of the Seediq people. Theres a crap load more... bands like Ragnarok, Samael, Leviathan, and almost any power metal you can name... once again, I love the stuff.. haha