Is “War Pigs” the ultimate protest song?

The most notable work is Picasso’s Guernicanot only for its message, but also for its size and the crowds of people surrounding it. The painting consists of a lightbulb, a bull, fire, houses, screaming people and horses, all drawn in an obscure way, but there is no denying the terror in their faces. Critics say it is the best depiction of the horror of war in the world, but one could also argue that the meaning is diluted given the setting in the maze of a gallery.

If you are on your way to Guernicayou’ve been exposed to every emotion, every trauma, every horrific event there is. How much can a variation of that really affect you? Not to mention that it’s incredibly difficult to convey the horrors of war to a tourist in Madrid who may never have experienced it. It’s the same problem that arises in protest music.

If you listen to a lot of music, you have to realize that a song that accurately captures the anger and frustration of the band’s theme has to be something very special. Not only does the lyrics have to move you, but the sound has to accurately convey what is being expressed in the lyrics. The entire work has to be completely coherent, and there is no example of a song that does this better than Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

When Black Sabbath first started making music, they resorted to a dark and brooding sound that most music lovers had never heard before. They used this dark sound to write about dark themes such as depression, addiction, the paranormal, and in this case, war. The sound of the song fits the subject matter incredibly well in this regard, creating a sense of brooding in the track, something the damned would march towards, with empires crumbling in the background.

What’s more, the lyricism fits that tone incredibly well. It sounds like a rebellious battle cry when Ozzy Osbourne delivers lines like, “Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses, evil spirits plotting destruction, wizards engineering death.”

Finally, you have to understand who Black Sabbath were and what they represented to their followers. As working-class people from post-war Birmingham, they lived in the aftermath of what such destruction could bring. People had no prospects in this era and were instead forced to work long shifts in dead-end jobs. Sabbath not only expressed the horror of war, they embodied it.

“War Pigs” is the ultimate protest song. In the world of music, his sound still stands out from the noise, and what he rebels against is perfectly embodied in the lyrics, the sound and the band responsible for it – a true work of art worthy of being hung in the greatest museums.

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