In this bimonthly column, staff writer Doug Moore takes a very close look at extreme metal lyrics. Some will be serious, some will be silly, but they’ll all go under the microscope.
If you’re a Morbid Angel fan, you probably have some strong feelings about Domination.
Domination came out in 1995—just after death metal reached its commercial apex, and two years after Covenant, Morbid Angel’s sole major-label effort. Everything about it screams “crossover attempt.” It features a gaudy CGI cover, an equally bright production, streamlined songwriting, and Dave Vincent’s most intelligible vocal performance to date.
For a lot of folks, Domination marked the beginning of the end for Trey Azagthoth and friends. It has never quite outlived its reputation as an aborted attempt to sell out—its Metal Archives page features review titles like “Dumbination.” (My favorite complaint: “There are too many catchy riffs.”) But some fans consider Domination an underappreciated masterpiece, tarnished only by the scene politics of its day. I fall into this second category. Too many catchy riffs does not constitute a complaint in my book.
Either way, Domination constitutes a major turning point in Morbid Angel’s career. Fittingly, it also features one of the most bizarre lyrical left turns in death metal history.
Just close your eyes, can you remember
A generation not so long ago
I feel the shameless urge that we must restore
The former king to his rightful throne
And with me, lords and maidens
We wait for the chosen son’s return
It’s a time for celebration
Our will to restore
Make our past become the future
Once more
Still he lives!
Two thousand years have passed
And still we’re yearning for his return
We fulfill a wishful prophecy
And so the chanting begins
Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!
We render unto you what is still yours
It’s a time for celebration
Our will to restore
Make our past become the future
Once more
Share the wish as it must be
Our king and palace…mode it be!
Gods enslaved, traitors burning
Might and splendor forever return
I come alive
It’s a time for celebration
Our will to restore
Make our past become the future
Once more
Where the hell did that come from?
Speaking of hell: Morbid Angel was never as insistently Satanic as some of their peers. Notably, they mention Satan by name only on Altars of Madness. And ancient Rome does figure into an earlier MA tune (“Lion’s Den”). Still, “Caesar’s Palace” comes clear out of left field.
This song takes you straight to Whatthefucktown on every level. It’s a mid-paced power chord banger on a heretofore-shredding death metal record. It takes two keyboard-flocked minutes to get going. (Keyboards are never a good sign on a Morbid Angel album.) And it appears to be named after a hotel in Las Vegas.
The lyrics themselves are the most truly bizarre piece of this incomprehensible puzzle. In “Caesar’s Palace,” Dave Vincent seems to have written a song about his desire to magick Julius Caesar back to life and to world, um, domination. Or maybe Vincent’s talking about Julius’ nephew Augustus Octavian, who was in power exactly two thousand years before 1995. It’s not clear.
Perhaps this song is some kind of elaborate allegory. Is “Caesar” really Jesus, and is this song about the futility of the Christian obsession with him? “We render unto you what is still yours” is a Biblical allusion, after all. But if so, why is Jesus enslaving Gods and burning people and generally acting exactly the way a metal musician fantasizes about acting? And if “Caesar’s Palace” is about a Roman emperor (“Two thousand years have passed” suggests that it is), why is he doing these things? None of my interpretations hold water, and Vincent doesn’t seem especially prone to extended metaphor anyway.
“Caesar’s Palace” is also riddled with individual phrases that drive the wackiness levels into the red. Apparently Vincent is waiting for Caesar with “lords and maidens.” Most folks associate these courtly types with the Middle Ages, but not with Rome. And remember, he’s waiting in modern day. Where did the lords and maidens come from? The North Florida Renaissance Faire? Moreover, what on earth does “mode it be!” mean? These questions defy my every attempt to answer them.
The only thing stranger about “Caesar’s Palace” than its lyrics is the fact that it fucking rocks. Once it gets going, the song’s towering riffs build gradually towards a blistering solo section. Vincent’s bellows could fill an arena, especially in this more spacious context. Domination may be a failed sell-out, but it’s one I can get behind.
I wish I could say as much about Morbid Angel’s more recent attempt at cross-over appeal. “May the past become the future/Once more,” Vincent hollers during the chorus of “Caesar’s Palace.” You said it, Dave.
