Metallica: The Thing That Should Not Be Meaning
The Thing That Should Not Be Lyrics
Dark deception kills the light
Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for father, roaming free
Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The first lines "Messenger of fear in sight, dark deception kills the light" - Cthulhu's very speaking causes one to go insane with fear, so messenger of fear, when he appears in Call, his Cyclopian size blocks the sun so he "kills the light".
Hybrid children could refer to the Cthulhu starspawn.
Now Father roaming free, the only creature that roams free in the mythos is Nyarlathotep, but Cthulhu can effect the minds of man in their sleep and shit, so it could in a way refer to cthulhu...
Crawling chaos, underground
Cult has summoned, twisted sound - this part I know is refering to nyarlathotep, he is the messanger of the elder gods, they speak to their followers through him, and his nickname is the crawling chaos, dead giveaway
Out from ruins once possessed
Fallen city, living death - R'lyeh, where the Old Ones lived, the city was sunken by the outer god's, and Cthulhu imprisoned in a sort of coffin within the city, in Call he is released on accident
to settle one argument, its not so much about the stories, it's about the old ones themselves, mostly Cthulhu, if they did refer to Nyarlathotep by accident, meaning cthulhu, it was a mix up, but Nyarlathotep is The Crawling Chaos.
I hope this helped, IA IA CTHULHU F'THAGHAN! -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:No it's not. This song is about the story 'the shadow over innsmouth' by h.P. Lovecraft, who also provided the inspiration for the call of ktulu with a story of the same title.
Spoiler: if you don't want to ruin the plot of the story before you read it, don't read this.
The shadow over innsmouth documents the experience of one man's visit to innsmouth. Innsmouth is a coastal town in which the inhabitants have become mutated into something unhuman after cross breeding with an aquatic race called 'the deep ones' that live on the devil's reef near innsmouth and the surrounding ocean-'hybrid children watch the sea'. Basically, the main character goes to innsmouth and finds out about this, and so the residents of innsmouth, both the deep ones and the mutated humans chase him through the town. The hybrids became 'immortal', and an old man in the town, who never bred with the deep ones fell into 'insanity',as do other characters in the story. There's a lot of other stuff that links to it too. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:The song is about the new album lulu.
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It's just another h.p lovecraft. That's all I have to say about the song. It's just too badass for me. I fucking love it
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On the part lurking beneath the sea, that's referred to a Bull Shark, Great White Shark, or Tiger Shark right?
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The line "That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die." is from "the nameless city" by H.P. Lovecraft
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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about the spelling, James stated in an interview, the only song he regrets is this one, and its only beause he purposely spelled the name "ktulu" so people would know how to pronounce it. so he spelled it wrong on purpose, for the sake of prounciation.
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The song is a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. I don't think it is about Cthulhu, but Nyrlathotep. Mustane and Burton were into Lovecraft and done a few songs for a tribute to him.
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I believe this has to do with Cthulhu, and a reference to the Great Old One, Nyogtha, the Thing that Should Not Be. The cult from the innsmouth book, who worshipped Cthulhu, were also a large reference
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Father roaming free.... That's Father Dagon.
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Yeah, the anonymous above me ist right. I´m a big Lovecraft-fan and the hybrid childrens are from Dagon or Shadow over Innmouth. Additional: "Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons Death may die" is a qoutation from the mad arab Abdul alhazred about the nameless city (from the correspondent short story). -
The song is just an homage to Lovecraft, as there are elements listed from several stories.
"Crawling Chaos" - Nyarlothatep, the messenger
"Hybrid children watch the sea" and "Father roaming free" is a reference to Dagon and the Shadow Over Innsmouth
"That not dead which eternal lie, stranger eons death may die" is a reworded version of the Great Couplet by the mad prophet Abdul Alhazred in his Al-Azif (The Necronomicon)
"The thing that should not be" is a phrase used in a Lovecraft story, may even be used in several. It has been a while since I picked up my books. -
Late Cliff Burton was a lovecraft fanatic and got James hooked to its based on Cthulu as is All nightmare lon, the call of kyulu, and this
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Messanger of fear- cthulhu's voice causes one to lose his mind
Dark Deception kills the light - When he rises in Call, he covers the sun
Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for Father, roaming free - the cultists who worship the great old ones were promised immortality through a mutation into a deep one, and Cthulhu speaks freely into their minds, and into the minds of those he chooses, showing them the Ruins of R'lyeh
Crawling Chaos, underground
Cult has summoned, twisted sound - well this part confuses me, Crawling Chaos refers to Nyarlathotep, the messanger of the elder god's, and the elder god's speak to their followers through him, now Cthulhu is on the oposing side, the great old ones
Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons Death may die-paraphrased from the necronomicon quoting the mad arab abdul alhazred who said (about Cthulhu) "this is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons, even death may die".
Drain you of your sanity
Face The Thing That Should Not Be - this is obvious, facing cthulhu drives you insane
Fearless Wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great Old One
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the Shadows is rising - He sleeps in the sunken cityh of R'yeh, he is fear, so he fears nothing, he watches the world until the stars become right, then he will return, and he rises in Call of Cthulhu.
This is about Call of Cthulhu if it is about any of HP's stories, I thought it was about just about Cthulhu himself, but it also refers to Nyarlathotep for some reason. -
Just a little factoid.
"Cthulhu" is the original writing style which was used by Lovecraft. Metallica might have written "Cthulhu" in another way to honour the author. Because in some of his stories it is written, that the ordinary mortals aren't allowed neither to spell out his name nor to write it down because his name would call him. -
Yes it is. Lars said so in a guitar magazine.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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