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So, Heavy Metal Fruit is awesome. It is also a concept album, and boy do I love concept albums. But what the hell is it about? After pinning down most of the lyrics I’ve given it some thought, and ideas have formed. Seeing how it’s a concept album the songs should fit together thematically. This often includes recurring musical themes or characters/themes in the lyrics.
In the case of Heavy Metal Fruit there are few, if any (I haven’t found any) recurring musical themes, but there are some characters (The Starhammer, the knuckleheads, mankind) and concepts (survival, surveillance, control, the gullibleness of mankind) that pop up several times, and seem to be connected somehow. Did I mention I love concept albums?
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The Starhammer
This thing is introduced in the first song, by the same name. It talks about itself in first person, describing itself as an orbiting eye, passively watching all and everything, keeping track of what’s happening and storing it for whatever future use. It also tells us how it is a slave. And a slave, by definition, has a master..
Anyway, The Starhammer is also mentioned in X-3 (Knuckleheads in space). The song is told, apparently, by astronauts ready to be shot into space, and they’re bringing some cargo to the eye in the sky: “.. there’s nothing wrong with all this brute force flinging metal to the eye in the sky”. I guess they’re involved in building and/or maintaining The Starhammer.
The Eye All-seeing, part I of Gullible’s Travails, is supposedly written from the viewpoint of mankind. It conveys a feeling of knowing that something is not right. That we, instead of making the most of ourselves, just keep our heads down and truck along, riding the tiger. All the while seeking forgiveness from the Eye All-seeing. I would speculate this is the Starhammer again.
So, what we know so far about the Starhammer:
– It’s in orbit
– It surveys and stores data
– It is controlled by someone/something
– It is being built/maintained by astronauts
– People pray to it for forgiveness
The Starhammer is like a spy satellite, keeping track of what we’re up to down on the ground. People know this and fear it (or its masters), and the knuckleheads are building/maintaining it. It’s also sentient, if the first person perspective in Starhammer isn’t just a writing trick or something.
Who is the master? What do people fear? And why are the astronauts knuckleheads? Maybe this comes off as some kind of rambling mess, but meh. I’m trying to sort my thoughts on the album.
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More coming! There’s a recurring theme of survival in Gullible’s Travails, W.B.A.T and The Bomb-Proof Roll and Beyond, as well as the knuckleheads being mentioned in at least two songs, awesomeness I’m sure. I’ll have a go at it later.
Way to go, Traktor. I haven’t paid attention to the lyrics this much to tell if it’s conceptional or not. I think it’s the first album bent wrote all the lyrics? So it’s quite possible he took the pilot seat because he had a greater picture in mind.
nice idea. i haven’t paid much attention to the lyrics either, but my guess (after reading this) would be that the starhammer is some kind of god, or how people used to see god and how they tried to reach him when they started exploring space. like, god is somewhere above us and watches us, and we’ll fly with rockets into space to see what he looks like. so, the metal flung into the sky is the rocket itself, not some maintaining materials. but i guess i should read the lyrics first…
oh yeah, starhammer would be like thor and his crushing hammer. nordic myths, anyone?
edit: after reading the lyrics, i can confirm my impression for the first 2 songs. x-3 for me is clearly about the americans flying to the moon (“We’ll fly the flag and I know were representing humanity and democracy and all that”), and finding out that it’s no god, and that stars aren’t either, they’re ‘just’ “gas sucking binary star”s. i have no idea about the rest of the songs though…
this is fun.
@ leucocyte: You read my mind about the reference to a god. But i think we’re talking about THE god here. No matter what religion you lean towards, there’s always the notion that there’s a higher power behind it all. And so the Starhammer (which can easily be another word for GOD – Starhammer – he who built the universe) represents GOD in the way that many fundamentalists precieve Him/her/whatever. Like a prair that goes unnoticed. Hence the “Always watching, but never interfering” part.
The more i think about it, the stronger the religious undertone rings through in the lyrics. The Starhammer (God) – The Knuckleheads (meaning humanity)that realize just how insignificant they really are, but also are in awe of the massive creation around them . The “round and round” reference in ABPR&B, where we eat our time on this earth in a faster and faster pace, in search of cheap thrills and insignificant joys, “never catching on” to what it’s all about. Thou Shalt not lie, to yourself of to others, as explained in Close your eyes and W.B.A.T (Those songs can count as inner space exploration aswell), and finally the lack of hope in an evil, material and plastic world (G T) as we sail along the timeline, forgetting the past, when life really ment something….When GOD was in our hearts instead of satan…or something like that
Well…there are several other ways to interpret these lyrics. This (however clueless it may be) is one of them
Ps; I’m an agnostic
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