English Bands

"Now as I go upon my way So let me go upon my way Born of a light, born of a light The wind rushing 'round my open heart An open ravine with my spirit wide Totally alive and my spirit light Through an open doorway Across a street to another life And catching my reflection In a window, switching on a light One I didn't know, totally alive, totally released."

"Hey, it's me, I just got off the train A frightening place, the faces are concrete grey And I'm wondering, should I turn around? Buy another ticket?"

"OK Computer was the last gasp of the rock monoculture: an incontestable, unrepeatable, and critically consecrated masterpiece of a genre that was too big to fail, yet too limp to preside over a new century. Picking up grunge’s challenge to macho rock orthodoxy, the bookish Oxford five-piece parlayed corporate resistance and righteous angst into an infernal assessment of mainstream conformism, petit bourgeois inertia, and cartoonish celebrity culture. But where grunge despaired at the gravity of it all, and Britpop buried its head in hedonism, Radiohead made a crucial distinction: Seeing the inferno of modern life in all its grotesque glory was not a curse to endure or escape, but a superpower to wield."

"Radiohead’s OK Computer would become such a resounding popular and critical success that it would essentially destroy an important subgenre — the Britpop of Oasis, Blur, and Suede — with the force of its implication: Three-minute songs about drunken nights or critiques of the English suburbs now seemed unspeakably tiny, and American grunge sounded noisy and antique."

"Transport, motorways and tramlines, Starting and then stopping, Taking off and landing. The emptiest of feelings. Disappointed people Clinging onto bottles. And when it comes, It's so, so disappointing.Let down and hanging around Crushed like a bug in the ground Let down and hanging around."

"Drying up in conversation, You will be the one who cannot talk. All your insides fall to pieces. You just sit there wishing you could still make love. They're the ones who'll hate you When you think you've got the world all sussed out. They're the ones who'll spit at you. You will be the one screaming out.Don't leave me high. Don't leave me dry. Don't leave me high. Don't leave me dry."

"They love me like I was a brother. They protect me, listen to me. They dug me my very own garden, Gave me sunshine, made me happy.Nice dream. Nice dream. Nice dream."

"You can force it but it will not come. You can taste it but it will not form. You can crush it but it's always here. You can crush it but it's always near. Chasing you home SayingEverything is Broken. Everyone is Broken."

"I don't want to be your friend. I just want to be your lover. No matter how it ends, No matter how it starts.Forget about your house of cards, And I'll do mine. Forget about your house of cards, And I'll do mine. And fall off the table, get swept under Denial, denial."

"Open your mouth wide, A universal sigh. And while the ocean blooms, It's what keeps me alive. So why does this still hurt? Don't blow your mind with whys."

"Because we separate like ripples on a blank shore (In rainbows)"

"Although Deep Purple helped lay the foundation for the heavy metal, their consummate musicianship meant they also transcended the genre. Indeed, they began as a progressive rock group with their eyes, unusually, on the singles market. Yet they certainly rocked, as their shows from the earliest days conclusively proved."

"And if the world does turn, And if London burns, I'll be standing on the beach with my guitar. I wanna be in a band when I get to heaven. Anyone can play guitar And they won't be a nothing anymore."

"I jumped in the river and what did I see? Black-eyed angels swam with me. A moon full of stars and astral cars, And all the figures I used to see. All my lovers were there with me, All my past and futures. And we all went to heaven in a little row boat.There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt."

"Oh, why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I want peace and honesty) Why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I want to live in the children's land And you know maybe, maybe I) Why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I'll wander the promised land I want peace and honesty) Why don't you quiet down? (I want to live in the promised land And maybe wander the children's land) Quiet down! (Yeah, and there, there we can free)"

"Flies are buzzing 'round my head, Vultures circling the dead. Picking up every last crumb, The big fish eat the little ones. Big fish eat the little ones, Not my problem, give me some.You can try the best you can, You can try the best you can. The best you can is good enough."

"This is what you get. This is what you get. This is what you get. When you mess with us."

"When I go forwards, you go backwards, And somewhere we will meet."

"Rows of houses all bearing down on me, I can feel their blue hands touching me. All these things into position, All these things we'll one day swallow whole.And fade out again. And fade out."

"Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn. God rest your soul. Oh, when the loving comes and we've already gone Just like your dad, you'll never change."

"When Geordie trio Venom coined the term black metal for the title of their 1982 second album, it was a way of marking themselves out as one louder than the rest of the rising wave of metal bands going faster, harder and noisier. With more volume than Motörhead, more speed than Priest, and more diabolic imagery than Black Sabbath visiting a Hammer Horror set, they’d already set up business to the horned one with their 1981 debut Welcome To Hell."

"We had no idea what we were doing was going to become such a big thing. So many bands were in the studio at the same time as us. How the hell could I have presumed that it would be my band who would be the lasting name? We weren’t trying to be the next Iron Maiden or the next this or that. We just wanted to do what we enjoyed. You had a band like [fellow Geordie NWOBHM outfit] Tygers Of Pan Tang always dropping Purple references; you know, ‘We want to be the next Deep Purple.’ Well, Venom never did that. We never said that. We said, ‘We are now, we are new, we are Venom."

"Very few metal bands can claim to be as influential as the power trio Venom. Taking the rumble and speed of Motorhead and warping into something more sinister altogether, the band’s Satanic themes and wild image were uninhibited savagery. ‘Welcome to Hell’ changed the metal landscape forever in 1981, followed by ‘Black Metal’ and ‘At War With Satan.’ Giving rise to what became the first wave of black metal, Venom’s impact helped usher in extreme metal, proving attitude could supersede technical abilities if done properly."

"I don’t consider our lyrics to be at all gruesome. To me, they’re more absurd and funny than nasty. You read the lyrics and they’re comical. We’re all fans of ‘70s horror movies like The Vault Of Horror and The Crypt Of Horror. They were morality tales, but also had a rich vein of gallows humour running through them. And we were also influenced by the Pan Book Of Horror Stories book series – that’s the way I see our songs. [...] We’ve never gotten any negativity from those in the medical profession for our lyrics or artwork. I’ve met a lot of nurses, doctors and people from the medical world, and they are always positive about what we do."

"When we stared the band in early ’87, there were a lot of band with so-called gore lyrics, but they were just writing about horror films and stuff like that. To us, that was ineffective, it didn’t have any impact on the listener. We wanted to introduce something that was a little more realistic. I mean, obviously, it’s got a fantasy element too, because some of these ideas are very overblown. But at the same time, the roots are in reality, and that’s why we use medical terminology. Also, I’d like to think that there’s an element of humor there. We’re not afraid to parody ourselves at times."

"Some people have missed the point, sexualizing the violence or being gross for the sake of it [..] Whatever we were doing with Carcass, there was definitely some thought behind it. [...] But it’s easy to be shocking, isn’t it? It’s easy to say horrible things. I’d like to say we did it with a sense of humor."

"["Vomited Anal Tract"] is all about someone who turns themselves inside out while they vomit. So, they end up with their rectum coming out of their mouth! Of course, it’s medically impossible – but it’s just our toilet humour."

"Juices digested from each pus-swollen pore Insatiable hunger as I feed on the gore Nothing gives me greater pleasure than a bowl full of chyme Maggot infested kidneys Are what I choose every time."

"I think we’ve gone as far as we can with the ‘gods of speed’ thing. We’re starting to get into slower stuff, going for longer songs, as opposed to the blast aspect. Also, the noisy, industrial stuff is coming more to the forefront. [...] We’re getting into real painful noise; I just want to annoy people at the moment."

"Fusing sordid grindcore crunch with anatomically correct gore lyrics, Carcass has some of the nastiest song titles in rock history: “Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites,” “Sarming Vulgar Mass of Infected Virulency,” and “Excoriating Abdominal Emanation,” to name a few."

"Carcass are one of extreme metal’s lynchpins."

"is easily one of the least appealing topics on the planet, so obviously Carcass have a song about it."

"Plugged into the socket Leads attached to twisting skin Ignite the squirming foetus To dissolve it from within"

"As salubrious pet food Human midden is consumed Not one to mince my words But now I love to see those siblings churned In tins they are reared"

"Pick at the scab – septic blood starts to weep Rip at my face – ruptured growths start to seep Blackhead and boils, pustular cysts Chapped comedones, perspiring zits Pierce the blade – infected tissue starts to bleed Diseased and plagued – tumours chew and feed [...] The juice is squeezed Sebum bleeds Lick the pox Weals and warts..."

"Along with their fellow U.K. peers , Carcass played a pivotal role in expanding the genre in the early ‘90s but with a notably more melodic presence. The band intertwined groovy riffs with the sheer aggression of and , which helped to lay the foundations for in the mid ‘90s."

"Liquidized esophagus mixes with bloodied excretion As you pathetically gasp for breath The stench of hot feces scorch your nose As you violently vomit to death."

"Sadistically sodomizing with my instruments of grime Force-feeding it down your throat if I find the time Vaseline and talc soothe the gored ano-obliteration Sardonically I gloat on your rectal dislocation"

"Your mouth is a sea of cartilage, rabid saliva bleeds Swallowing shredded tongue and pulverized, crunching teeth Respirating a bolus of rusty razor blades Asphyxiating bloody garotte, tearing your jugular vein."

"The recumbent are my prey — under my genital blade Your precordium I brutally plunder — whilst you’re put under Exsanguinating — you’re totally parched Exenterating — removing body parts Wholly abraded – surgically maimed Decortication — medically slain."

"The innards decompose, putrefy to jelly The dermis ruptures with sialagogic cruor Green putrefied offal explodes with the discharge Bubbling viscera is splattered all over the floor."

"Melodeath may have been defined by the Swedes, but it was Carcass that made its definitive statement."

"Napalm Death not only helped establish the grindcore sub-genre, but they’re one of the most influential and iconic band’s in extreme music. Their 1987 debut ' is still hailed as one of the most important metal albums for having an unprecedented and frantically chaotic approach to metal songwriting, while embracing song structures often heard in hardcore and punk music."

"What good's a rock without a roll It's a sorry lookin donut if it doesn't have a hole She gets so hot she's infra-red She can show you a position that's prohibited."

"We want to multiply, are you gonna do it? I know you qualify, are you gonna do it? Don't be so circumscribed, are you gonna do it? Just get yourself untied, are you gonna do it?Feel the heat pushing you to decide Feel the heat burning you up, ready or not.Some like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on. Some feel the heat and decide that they can't go on. Some like it hot, but you can't tell how hot 'till you try. Some like it hot, so let's turn up the heat 'till we fry."

"Airmail, cassettes, postcards, telex Drop me a line, be my grapevine I'm always trying to reach you, can't get through Our communication depends on me and you."

"Everybody seems to have their own point of view, In time my friend there'll be another. Everybody wants to tell me what I should do, But I don't know if I'll recover.What did I do? Did I deserve it? Have I been careless with you baby? What can I do to make it better?"

"With the light coming in, My desire to give in runs away with me. If I'm not good enough and my love is too much, Then forget it. Now I am strong, Carry me home. You can take it or leave it."

"Breathe, and I breathe It's bitter without you I can't live without you And I'm in love with you."

"Call me, Any time just call me. Tell me that you want me, Feel it everywhere.Hold me, Never let go of me. I love it when you haunt me, Tell me that you care."