Metallica: Harvester of Sorrow Meaning

Song Released: 1988

Harvester of Sorrow Lyrics

My Life Suffocates
Planting Seeds of Hate
I've Loved, Turned to Hate
Trapped Far Beyond My Fate

I Give
You Take
This Life That I Forsake
Been Cheated of My Youth
You Turned this Lie to Truth

Anger
Misery
You'll Suffer unto...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 26th 2008 !⃝

   Man people I read a book by Metallica and they are quoted as saying the song is about a man who is married too young and has kids and one night he snaps and kills them all.
   
   There now stop with the damn abortion shit.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 13th 2007 !⃝

   If it's about abortion, explain this part:
   "Drink up
   Shoot in
   Let the Beatings Begin
   Distributor of Pain
   Your Loss Becomes My Gain"
   
   I'd be willing to bet it's addiction he's talking about. Ever see the vid of them in '92 playing? James does the little hand-motion for "shoot in" like he's shooting up heroin or some such. I don't think abortion is the issue.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 12th 2007 !⃝

   "To see into my eyes, you'll find where murder lies ...infanticide."
   Murder lies in infanticide. Infanticide is abortion.
   
   The Harvester of Sorrow is the abortion industry, the Language of the Mad is the bullshit that they spew to convince pregnant women that their baby isn't human, and is just an inconvenience.
   "I've loved, turned to hate, trapped far beyond my fate"
   "I've loved" Meaning, "I've had sex". "Turned to hate" Meaning, "I hate the product of the sex I had, and I'm gonna have an abortion". "Trapped far beyond my fate" Meaning that you've OKed the murder of an innocent unborn kid, and have thus damned your soul to Hell.
   "I give, you take, this life that I forsake."
   "I give" Meaning, "I give you money so you'll take the unborn child so you can kill it and rid me of it". "You take, this life that I forsake". Do I need to explain?
   
   "Pure black (The evil of abortion) looking clear. My (Switching to the Harvester's point of view) work (Preforming the abortion) is done soon here. Try getting back to me, get back which used to be (The mother realizes the evil she's done, and wants the baby back, only to have it thrown in her face that the infant has been brutaly murdered)".
   By brutally murdered, I mean, the back of the infant's head is impaled by a large needle. The brains are sucked out, and the skull is crushed in. In other cases, younger cases, the baby is dismembered while still alive and in the womb. That, my friends, is the brutal horror of abortion. I think it's awesome that Metallica adresses it in their song.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 15th 2023 !⃝

   It is whatever it means to me. It's art.
   
   BTW Rachmaninoff created
   a piece callled Harvester of Sorrow and Tostoy wrote a piece called harvester of Sorrow.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 6th 2023 !⃝

   James did say the songs mean different things to different people...though It seems to me about addiction then mental and physical abuse that followed. How many men have killed their child because they beat their woman? Drink up shoot in let the beatings begin.......
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 30th 2021 !⃝

   Its about the relationship between a priest, reverand, pastor, whatever your version is called. first verse, means he used to love god, but it has now turned to hate, the seeds he has sown he is now reaping back. Next verse means like verses out of thr bible, you give i take , ( our money, our soul), cheated of my youth, ( he never got to experience a childhood because he was forced to bear christ cross) youturned this lie to truth, ( bible says all have twisted and rurned his word into lies that only benefit the god-head)..... and so on and so forth, although it means other things as well, only great songs are a double edged swoed, meaning that they have more than one side of a story to tell.
   
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 19th 2021 !⃝

   The lyrics could also be about extremely abusive relationship where one lefts another with a huge narcissistic injury leading to a feeling of inadequacy and humiliation. So the victim of abuse is getting filled with hatred and desire for vengeance. The whole attitude of the lyrical hero is about to devalue the ex, make him miserable and release the repressed anger. "Infanticide" is a metaphor for destroying the essence of vitality in a person by directed abusive behavior.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 24th 2021 !⃝

   The song is about a man abused in childhood ‘ been cheated of my youth’, now grown abusing drugs and alcohol, going insane and abusing his own family ‘ drink up, shoot in, let the beatings begin’ the abuse leads to the death of his family or, at least his infant child ‘infanticide’. Not about abortion but, lyrics mean different things to different people and how they interpret them, even if it wasn’t the artists meaning of the lyrics
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 21st 2017 !⃝

   Farming horror, be fruitful and multiply as the corn multiplies or abort
   http://metallica.wikia.com/wiki/Harvester_of_Sorrow_(song)
   
   It's someone thinking I must be responsible for a change since I'm not and abort this kid Bcz there is already too many People breeding without approval or a vote as she feels it's her right to impact another life like theft and murder or the abuse we all go through (Unforgiven) when born via population control for lacking birth control. That should be be the only thing free government provides in a world where smart people know nothing is free yet the majority via democracy push for welfare. As population grows unsustainably out of balance with nature or God, we lose liberties and economic war issues occur, that's why people work towards beauty, and others hate Christ for it, exodus 34:14, 1 Samuel 16:7, John 18:36, Matthew 24:9 (CEB)
   
   - working slave Jew (we worsen slavery, work we all must do), now work smart not stupid
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 19th 2016 !⃝

    a song about insanity! how uncommon for Metallica(coughsanitariumfrayedendsthethingthatshouldnotbecough) sorry. I had something in my throat
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Dec 2nd 2015 !⃝

    I kind of think it's about a guy who really loved his family,but goes insane(for whatever reason) and murders his family.
12. tirititrantrantran3

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 10th 2014 !⃝

    This song is about the soviet famine that took place in the URSS around 1932, in the major grain-producin areas as Ukraine and Kazakstan. If u read the lyrics and imagine yourself as a farmer during this period, it makes much sense.
13. Naomers

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 19th 2013 !⃝

    The song is pretty much self-explanatory. He murders his family or a loved one because of psychopathy. It might not even be a loved one. He could be sarcastic when he says "darling."
    
    The guy who submitted the Rated #1 is 101% correct.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Nov 10th 2012 !⃝

    its about james parents and killin mosoin of james by james's father
15. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 30th 2011 !⃝

    To me this song is about a man, who keeps all of his anger and aggression bottled up inside and then one day he snaps. He is filled with so much anger and hate that he goes insane and kills those who mean the most to him
16. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 30th 2011 !⃝

    'thou the correct central idea of every song lies into the songwriter themselves, I think this song tells about abortion and the possible consequence of alcoholism.
17. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 1st 2011 !⃝

    There is a reason why artists usually avoid explaining the meaning of a song. It can be interpreted in more that one way , and it is ,, designed " to make you feel a certain sensation , to give you a state of mind . In this song , for one , I feel sadness , violence , darkness , loneliness...Sure I have a ,, novelistic " interpretation of it , but I'd rather keep it to myself .
18. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 8th 2011 !⃝

    This song is about the corruption of innocence.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)