If you know any Voltaire, you will know that two of his songs were bumpers for the Nostalgia Critic, those are "When You're Evil" and "Death, death (Devil, devil, devil, devil, evil, evil, evil, evil song)" or for any fans of Mr. Enter you may know "The Dirtiest Song that Ain't", well that's how I was introduced to him anyway. You may have also heard the song "BRAINS" if you grew up with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but I never saw that episode. I would've done any of those songs and any of his others songs, but I chose lyrical content over personal preference this time. I can't say that this is my favourite Aurelio Voltaire song, that would probably be "Raised by Bats" or "Straight Razor Cabaret", but the lyrical content makes this song stand out.
Unlike most of my blogs, I'm not really going to go into the actual music, although whenever I do this, you can pretty much assume that the music itself if really good, since I am much more of a music guy before a lyrics guy. If I don't like the way the song sounds, I will dislike the song as a whole, even if the lyrics aren't to bad, and even then I can stomach some pretty bad lyrics or even a lack of lyrics if the music itself is good. This is what made "She's a Beauty" a song I didn't like as the lyrics mostly just passed my limit of bad lyrics I can tolerate. I will talk about the music and vocals briefly, but the focus of this review is going to be the lyrics, and oh boy what lyrics they are.
This song is about bullying, like the poem "To This Day", which is one of my favourite poems of all time, up there with "The Raven" and "In Flanders Fields". Although this isn't a subject I know well, it's not a subject that is foreign to me, and not just from media portrayals.
The song's opening lyrics set the tone nicely, by describing bullying as evil pushing down on you, and that is actually cutting most of the opening lyrics off. However, I would say that it's the third verse that really gets the ball rolling so to speak. "And all the venom in their words" describing the pure vitriol some bullies spew out, often times going beyond name calling. Aurelio Voltaire then goes further asking "What kind of ignorance/ Causes them to be so, / So sick and vile and evil?" which is a question lots of people ask, and although the song doesn't really delve into this, it isn't a song that analyzes bullying, but more a song that tries to inspire and encourage the victims of bullying.
The chorus of the song is nice, it's nice for people to hear that it is not their fault that they are being bullied, and I feel like this is something that people need to believe, it is never the victim's fault. He goes on to add "It's the world that's wrong" to the chorus, which is a lyric I both like and dislike. On one hand, sometimes yes, the system a lot of countries, especiallyAmerica, use often encouraged people to think they are better than another because of class and wealth mostly, but on the other hand, I don't think it's fair to exactly blame the world as a whole. I don't know, see what you think about it. The second and third chorus add some more lyrics, stating that "Someday the world will belong/ To the innocent", which adds a bit of hope to the song, that someday everything will be alright.
Although, I think my favourite part of the song lyrically is the part after the second chorus. Since Voltaire is a part of the goth scene, he mostly wrote this song with gothic interests in mind and goes on to name a few, wearing black, listening to The Cure and Siouxie Sioux and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As someone who isn't a goth but loves the gothic culture, I love hearing tiny references like these, and it also let's others know that it's okay to like what you like and be yourself. If you want proof, you can easily replace each of those things with stuff you like, such as Great Big Sea or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. The song basically still works, whatever you put in there, whether it's your biggest guilty pleasures (for me that would be Aqua) or a song that you legitimately love, I know people who love songs I hate, and I let them know that it's okay because it makes them who they are, and a lot of them, I like as people.
But as I said, I am a music guy before a lyrics guy, let's actually talk about the music because it is beautiful. Voltaire himself is a guitarist and mostly plays acoustic on this track, but the band behind him does and amazing job, especially the violinist. The violin just makes the tone of song and no instrument ever feels out of place, nor sticks out in a negative way. Voltaire himself is a talented singer as well, and he is one of very few singers who can make the "moaning over a microphone" sound actually not sound like utter shite.
As I said, I'm more of a music guy before a lyrics guy, but some songs do have lyrics that really resonate with me, and although this isn't in my list of songs with favourite lyrics, they really did strike a chord with me, pun intended. If all you know from Voltaire is the music you heard from Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, or Billy and Mandy, I must insist you check out more of his work, he is a talent and hosts a pretty cool web series on YouTube as well.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and being serious again, if you see somebody getting bullied, tell somebody because bullying is wrong and should not be tolerated by anyone.
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