Massacre at My Lai

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 same face of the child that I had killed...this is punishment". He said that he suffered greatly from PTSD, and in 1997, he committed suicide.123 So, in the lyrics, the narrator considered the guilt and thoughts of Simpson, with a description of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - frequently referenced in post-war 1980s songs about US veterans, often connected in songs to stress, shell shock, flashbacks, nostalgia, and feelings and dreams related to an event: "nights are without rest... drugs won’t stop the nightmares... unpunished by the laws of men, yet imprisoned in your mind". It noted the death of his son: "a stray bullet... are the sins of the father visited upon the son". It concluded with his suicide: "you pulled the trigger and none mourned your death".Sources1Wikipedia: Varnado Simpson↩2Wikipedia: Varnado Simpson↩3YouTube↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: At the break of dawn / Fires rained from the sky / The command was simple / Leave none alive / The screams seemed endless / As the children cried / Herded for slaughter / They watched their mothers die / Whence comes this madness / Born of impotent rage / The daughters ravaged / And the monk was slain / What devilry / Works in the hearts of men / To twist their minds towards evil / In so short a span / Horror on hell’s doorstep / Massacre at My Lai / In a hail of gunfire / Bodies trampled in the mud / Beneath the weight of the dying / Suffocating on blood / With sordid pleasure / They struck down all in their path / The newborn and the elders / None exempt from their wrath / The soldiers took turns / But not content with violations / With knives and bayonets / They worked ghastly mutilations / The homes were turned to cinders / The animals lay still / Only a remnant of mourners / For the five hundred that were killed You might also like / Tet / Sarcoptes / The Fall of Constantinople / Sarcoptes / The Alcott / The National / Returning from the war / A withered shadow of a man / You live upon regret / The actions were so simple / The training came to fore / As your “mind just went” / Faces of the dead / Staring in the dark / Fingers clawing at your flesh / Everyday seems endless / The years just melt away / The nights are without rest / Unpunished by the laws of men / Yet imprisoned in your mind / When you took the lives of the innocent / Was it your own self that…

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

In collections

Metal Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · PTSD Songs