Massacre at My Lai
2023 · Transcending Obscurity TOR163 · California
- Artist
- Sarcoptes
- Title
- Massacre at My Lai
- Release
- Prayers to Oblivion
- Year
- 2023
- Label
- Transcending Obscurity # TOR163
- Format
- Album
- Country
- California, USA
- Genre
- Metal · Symphonic Black Metal
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Symphonic Black Metal group, formed in 2005 in Sacramento, California, USA, featuring Garret Garvey (vocals, drums), Sean Zimmerman (guitar, bass, keyboard), and Steven B. (guitar, vocals). The song "Massacre at My Lai" (Transcending Obscurity Records # TOR163) took an anti-war position, through the recalling of the My Lai Massacre: "just another footnote in the history of man’s crimes" - this was the mass murder of between 300-500 civilians in the South Vietnamese area known as "Pinkville", containing the hamlets, known as My Lai 4 and My Khe 4, and throughout the area of Song My, by US forces on 16 March 1968. It provided a detailed description of the event: "the command was simple, leave none alive" and the killing of civilians: "screams... endless, children cried, herded for slaughter... new born and the elders". The second section told the story of Varnado Simpson (7 October 1948 – 4 May 1997), who admitted to murdering around 10-20 people, including women and children at My Lai, although in various interviews he gave a slightly different account on the numbers. In 1977 his son was accidentally killed by a stray bullet. Simpson said: "I looked at him, his face was like the…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Symphonic Black Metal group, formed in 2005 in Sacramento, California, USA: Garret Garvey (vocals, drums), Sean Zimmerman (guitar, bass, keyboard), Steven B. (guitar, vocals).
Themes
My Lai · Anti-War · Vet · PTSD · Suicide · Anti-Calley · Calley-Order