Heavy metal to outsiders is synonymous with devilishly dark themes, such as the works of genre mainstays like Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pantera, and more, mainly portraying feelings of isolation and devastation. Sure there’s blood and guts along the way, but it’s not the focal point of their songs.
In more extreme forms of the genre though, the lyrics can get downright disgusting. Whether it be about cannibalism, rape, self-mutilation, or sexual deviancy – for better or for worse (mostly the latter), heavy metal has had some of the most deplorable and abhorrent messages scattered across its twisted backbone over the years.
These songs feature some of the gnarliest, goriest, and sickest lyrical content in all of metal, and let’s face it, music in general. The ten on this list are so disgusting, you’ll want to hurl your guts up. Warning: none of these tracks are for the faint of heart!
10. Cradle of Filth – Lord Abortion
Extreme metal titans Cradle of Filth got super deep on this track from their 2000 LP Midian, depicting a child who survived an abortion from a mother who didn’t want him. Why is it disgusting? Well, because the boy grows up to be a necrophiliac who violently rapes virgins. This seven-minute journey through the bowels of hell features horrific lines like: “I know I'm sick as Dahmer did, but this is what I do. Aah, aah, ahh, I'll let you sleep when I am through" and “She went out like the light in my mind. Her face an avalanche of pearl, of ruby wine” providing a terrifying insight into the tortured mind of their fictional character.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “Her alabaster limbs that dim the lit carnal grin. Vaginal skin to later taste and masturbate within”
9. Carcass – Embryonic Necropsy And Devourment
One look at the cover of Carcass’ 1989 sophomore record Symphonies of Sickness, and you already know that it’s not going to be very PG. And on album cut “Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment,” they take that explicitness to the ultimate extreme. With lines centered on eating a still-born baby, Carcass spit out some of the most stomach-turning phrases ever recorded, such as “Mixing together post-natal juices, the dead infant used as stock,” and “Drink bile from a cup, gulp its phlegm from a pot. Eat mucus on a saucer, choke on embryonic clots” permeating its grotesque core.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “Suck cess on a plate, lick its pus from a spoon. Gnaw at rashes on a dish, munch on the expelled womb”
8. Bloodbath – Eaten
Want a truly messed up song? How about the story of a man who wishes to be eaten alive, based on a true case in Germany, and performed by Swedish death metal group Bloodbath? Yes, that will do. In a song riddled with puke-worthy lyrics, perhaps the sickest is the utterly repugnant line: “I finally found you, my personal slaughter. As an appetizer, I'll let you taste my daughter” – making this already gnarly composition all the more distasteful. Amazingly, there’s also a song buried underneath the shocking lyrical content, and it’s utterly brilliant. In my humble opinion, “Eaten” may not be the most disgusting track on this list, but it’s certainly the best.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “I finally found you, my personal slaughter. As an appetizer, I'll let you taste my daughter”
7. Torsofuck – Raped by Elephants
Okay, some might consider it dark humor, but “Raped by Elephants” by Torsofuck is still totally disgusting. The almost indecipherable lyrics are based around a man who goes to Africa, and gets raped by elephants. Yeah, that’s basically the extent of it… So not the cleverest song in the world but with lines like: “I screamed in agony when I felt it started to shove up my ass. Third elephant forced me to take its giant cock in my mouth” and “Extremely huge load of elephant sperm filled my throat and spurted all over my face,” it certainly nails the gross factor that it strives for.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “Extremely huge load of elephant sperm filled my throat and spurted all over my face”
6. Cannibal Corpse – I Cum Blood
Never lacking in violent imagery and gory lyricism – death metal outfit Cannibal Corpse have made a career out of shocking listeners with their extreme antics, and few songs ooze with the same wretched puss that their disgusting “I Cum Blood” track does. The whole theme of the song is necrophilia, with lines like “The smell was unbearable as I unburied her, I cum blood from my erection, I feel it run down her throat, swallow” emanating from its rotten core. If you can listen to this one without gagging, you’re a stronger person than me.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “One month in the grave, twisted and half-decayed. She turned a putrid yellow, I pissed in her maggot filled asshole”
5. Infant Annihilator – Torn From The Womb
The word ‘troubled’ comes to mind when listening to this track from deathcore purveyors Infant Annihilator. Entitled “Torn from the Womb,” the song is one in a long line of tracks from the band who brought us such charming ditties as “Cuntcrusher,” “Soil the Stillborn,” and “Whorespawn” – so yeah, it goes without saying that it’s incredibly gnarly. Pretty self-explanatory, the song is delivered from the viewpoint of someone operating on a pregnant woman, except, this birth isn’t a pleasant one. Gross, inappropriate, unsettling, and totally disturbing.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “His mother’s entrails pull out and spread upon the bed. I rape her body till she turns into a putrid heap, then I remove the umbilical cord.”
4. Aborted – Nailed Through Her Cunt
Typically, album bonus tracks are tepid affairs. However, death metaller’s Aborted chose to give their 2012 LP Global Flatline a reason for listeners to stick around. If they did, they got to absorb one of the band’s most spew-inducing tracks to date: the nightmarish “Nailed through Her Cunt.” Alarming title aside, this one’s just wrong on so many other levels. It seems to fixate on violent rape, featuring disturbing lines like: “With excremental lubricant I force them down in her cunt, violently piercing her insides, emotions I can no longer hide,” and “Mutilated in her riddled ass, remnants of what she once was. You dirty slut you get what you deserve, defecating as haematemsia emerge.”
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “Meat hook penetration. Rectal defenestration. A morbid row of guts & gore, with your mangled bowels scattered on the floor”
3. Mayhem – Chainsaw Gutsfuck
Black metal troupe Mayhem have had a much-storied and well-documented career, but less gets said about their debut 1987 EP Deathcrush. It’s the very definition of brutal, and on the dark crusher “Chainsaw Gutfuck,” their gloomy sound leaks over into the lyricism. There’s not much by way of lyrical content, but there’s certainly enough to get the listener’s stomach doing cartwheels. It’s direct, it’s no-nonsense, and it’s disgustingly visceral.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “Maggots crawling in her cunt, I just love to lick that shit. Bury you in a slimy grave, you will rot forever there”
2. Devourment – Baby Killer
In yet another song about murdering an unborn child along with its mother, Devourment’s “Baby Killer” sadly follows our list of bottom-feeding cuts that make you want to hurl. If you need any more reason for why it’s so sickening, then gaze upon these horrible lyrics: “Splaying inside the womb, red and wet I tear chunks from the pussy. Red and wet mangled unborn baby, eat the meat dripping from filthy cum-stained, blood-soaked, rotten cunt Infant skull exploding in my mouth.” Lovely… “Baby Killer” is sick from the moment it starts to the putrid finale. It begs the question, has Devourment ever considered some form of therapy? On the basis of this, they could seriously do with it.
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “I turn to its mother, blood is still flowing strongly from her butchered pussy. I drink from her fountain, stench of menstrual gore. Gagging on chunks of sliced up pussy”
1. Impaled – Rest in Faeces
The grind is indeed gory on this seven-and-a-half minute slab of utter devastation. Found on Impaled’s 2002 sophomore effort Mondo Medicale, “Rest in Faeces” is one rotten track if ever there were one. The band has always maintained an unhealthy love for all matters faecal, but on this bruising cut, they take it to a new level. Depicting a graveyard flooded with excrement, Impaled conjure up a whole host of unappetizing images with lines like: “As rectal mung flows, cadavers exposed. Tombstones in pieces, resting in faeces” – making this a composition you don’t want to be listening to while eating your lunch…
Most Disgusting Lyrics: “A fusty cargo of human excreta, impacted pipes caused the flow to reverse. Upon the cemetery litres of diarrhea, as the leaden veins burst”
What metal songs sicken you the most? Let us know below!
