The first thing the man does after killing his girlfriend is sleep with her. Next, he eats her heart. After returning from the dead, his girlfriend does the same to him and they go on a murderous rampage in a church, before getting married. This is one of the more immoral and violent songs by Avenged Sevenfold, even though most metal bands tend to have violent music by nature (as one commenter pointed out on the "Cute Without the-E song"). The way the band contrasts the violence with serenading violins and cellos makes this song feel less aggressive, as if attempting to make the acts taking place in the story appear less gruesome and more beautiful. However, if it weren't for the shock value of being about necrophilia, I doubt "A Little Piece of Heave" would have earned over 10 million views on YouTube. It is an okay song and a decent music video, but it has received more views from words of mouth like "dude, have you heard this song by A7F? It's about sex with dead people. Friend: Sweet, let me see!"
The theme of necrophilia is quite popular in metal music because of its obscenity. Few concepts are more immoral and appalling than sexual acts involving dead humans. Monstrous and necromantic, it draws the attention of many metal bands who want to show how talented they are at songwriting and shocking. The German industrial metal band Rammstein hailed for it song "Du hast" wrote a necrophilic song of its own entitled "Heirate mich" which translates to "Marry me". It tells the story of a lonesome grave robber who digs up his dead lover to screw her by the chapel. This theme is taboo, and will always have a shock value in songs and in movies.
Most necrophilic verse:
ReplyDeleteShe was never this good in bed
even when she was sleepin'
now she's just so perfect I've
never been quite so fucking deep in
it goes on and on and on,
I can keep you lookin' young and preserved forever,
with a fountain to spray on your youth whenever
I actually kind of tapered away from Avenged, as I used to be quite a fan. I felt that their music sounded way too similar, but this song is quite different. Obviously with the story line and increased instruments, this song does sound different from their others but the material is still the same. Same old Avenged- ripping peoples hearts out, necrophilia, and the like, I would expect nothing else from this band. Overall though I feel like with the use of animation, this violent material was kind of cartooned down to a point where it wasn't all that scary. I think Avenged did this on purpose but with animation takes away from the lyrics of the song. If I had heard this song without the video I would of had a much different perspective of the song. Even still its a great video, great song, and a great band.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the comic nature of the video, and the operatic instrumentals, and the sort-of goofy, punning lyrics are signs that for the most part the song is a joke. If you aren't prepared to accept the conventions of this genre, and are too shocked by the violence to understand the black humor behind them, then this song could be really disgusting. However, it just makes me laugh when I notice the little details, like "eyes-over-easy", and the pun on his crime being "cold". The song is also easier to digest because there's a twisted, but still (within the context of the story) happy ending, and because the girlfriend's retribution makes the crime so much lighter and evens the playing field.
ReplyDelete