Love hurts. Even metalheads know this.
While we’re all in for music themed around horror, death and other assorted brutality, a strong case can be made that there’s actually nothing heavier than a breakup song. From tunes about jilted lovers to tracks about relationships gone wrong, there are few topics as universally trauma-inducing to most of us as hearing about a romance on the rocks.
But which heavy band’s heartbroken anthem hits the heaviest? We asked Revolver readers to consider the anti-love equation, and these were the top five vote-getters.
Megadeth – “1000 Times Goodbye”
“It’s not as good as it used to be.”
Dave Mustaine has penned his fair share of battle-centric lyrics — think the nuclear-winter-awaiting “Rust in Peace” or the bloodily dogmatic confrontations within “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.” Don’t forget, though, that the iconic thrasher has also written about emotional warfare, as evidenced by Megadeth’s early Aughts break-up banger, “1000 Times Goodbye.”
Found on 2001’s The World Needs a Hero, the palm-muted, mid-tempo masher concerns two people that have definitely fallen out of love. There’s a jarring meanness to both Mustaine’s brassy kiss-off to a now-dead relationship (“Let me put pennies on your eyes”) and the snarky, spoken-word interjections from a woman who just isn’t into it anymore.
It’s uncomfortable — as breakups often are.
Korn – “Good God”
“Good God” is a curious pick, because the breakup in question is reportedly between two close friends rather than a romantic partnership. Still, Korn’s Jonathan Davis makes a good point with this wall-punching Life is Peachy freakout: Being betrayed by anyone can hurt like hell.
The 7-string-chunky nu-metal number is a cathartic “fuck you” song about someone that has taken advantage of your kindness, manipulated your emotions and ultimately ended up being an exhausting drain on your day-to-day. Backed by a groove-fracked beat, few lines are as disturbingly visceral as Davis suggesting that it all feels like the villain in question is shitting needles into his brain.
Sometimes you’ve just got to cut someone loose. We’re guessing that explains Davis’ anxiety-inducing “Good God” refrain of “Won’t you get the fuck out of my face, now?!”
Pantera – “This Love”
“No more headtrips.”
As enduringly heavy as this Vulgar Display of Power classic has become, it’s fair to say that “This Love” might be one of the more yikes-y doomed-love songs in all of metal.
Philip Anselmo may be in full-blown croon mode early on, but he’s not offering sweet nothings through those clean-driven verse sections (“I said I loved but I lied”). The love he’s singing about has been twisted into something ugly and painful. There’s a haunting quality to how hurtful he says it’s become.
With its threats of violence and impending self-harm, “This Love” is an undeniably toxic look at a turned relationship. Shudder-inducing, and packaged with one of Pantera’s sickest and sludgiest outros.
Slipknot – “Snuff”
It’s truly fitting that Slipknot slipped this dourly-themed ballad onto an album called All Hope Is Gone.
The primarily acoustic-strummed piece showcases a different kind of heaviness from the Iowa Nine, Corey Taylor here waxing depressive on a crumbled relationship, dark-hearted moments and a lingering hurt in the aftermath of a break-up. It hints at how unbearably punishing getting over someone can be.
The damaged, stalker-y, discarded wine glass-sniffing music video adds an extra layer of unhealthiness to it all.
Pearl Jam – “Black”
Though Pearl Jam’s electric piano-adorned Ten ballad “Black” is arguably the softest-sounding song on the band’s debut album, it likewise stands as one of the most relentlessly gutting emotional moments of their entire career.
Eddie Vedder wrote its lyrics while reflecting on a high school girlfriend and the heightened teenage feelings of first heartbreak (“Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn”). It’s nevertheless a tender, nuanced and mature look at a love you’ll never share again sporting one of rock’s most bittersweet stingers (“I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky/But why can’t it be mine”).
Vedder’s “whys” on that line are especially raw and devastating, while the band open the floodgates with an amped-up but tears-inducing performance.
They begged their label to not issue the vulnerable “Black” as a single, worried that overexposure could dull its emotional impact. 30-plus years later, it remains an unimpeachably powerful Pearl Jam classic.