Today, April 22nd, it’s Earth Day. A day to think and demonstrate support for environmental protection. To celebrate this day, here are 10 songs that talk about these issues. Most of these bands also sing about other social justice problems that affect us as a society in general. So, enjoy!
Stratovarius – Paradise
This Finnish power metal band has dealt with nature and social problems in many of their songs to make us more conscious of these issues, along with very technical metal music. Besides, they also have album covers showing these themes, like “Infinite”.
Rush – The Trees
Rush, the super Canadian rock trio, liked to make us aware of multiple human problems, like existential anxieties, politics, philosophy, and of course, nature caring too. But, in their case, they usually did it with a positive twist at the end, leaving an uplifting aftertaste accompanied by complex progressive melodies.
Gojira – Global Warming
Gojira is a French metal band, that is famous for singing about environmental topics, making us aware of the importance of the survival of whales and other endangered species. The song “Global Warming” is self-explanatory and presents how messed up things are going now, by our own irresponsible behavior.
Testament – Greenhouse Effect
This American thrash metal band released this song in 1989 as a part of the “Practice What You Preach” album. In those years when glam was still king in the metal world with their party songs, Testament were very visionary talking about the basis of the current climate change, one of our most important problems now in 2023. They finish the song with the line “Environmental holocaust”, similar to the Climate Emergency we’re facing right now.
Led Zeppelin – The Ocean
The Ocean was part of the “Houses of the Holy” of 1973, the fifth album of the legendary English rock band, Led Zeppelin. A rock song with nature contemplation lyrics. It refers to being involved and enjoying our natural environment, and as anything Led Zeppelin ever did, it’s simply a beautiful classic, in all the senses.
Megadeth – Countdown To Extinction
Most song lyrics of this American thrash metal band are heavily politically charged, and this song is no exception. It focuses on what we have done with our surroundings, giving us a gloomy perspective that there’s not much we can do right now to change the situation. We’re all living on a countdown to extinction. Taking into consideration that this track is from 1992, it shows what a great social observer and lyricist Dave Mustaine is, ahead of his time.
Napalm Death – Unfit Earth
This grindcore English band is known for having short, fast songs with incomprehensible growls that are filled with sociopolitical messages and bashing on the bad consequences that our capitalist society generates in all of us and in our planet. This song in particular predicts that the future of our actions will make our planet an unfit earth, where it will be impossible to live. It features two death metal legends, Glen Benton (singer of Deicide) and John Tardy (singer of Obituary).
Dave Matthews Band – Don’t Drink The Water
This American rock band has many songs about nature and social matters. This track in particular drives our attention to the destruction of the environment caused by deforestation and the taking of indigenous people’s land, by killing them, and the outcomes of these actions, which are still present to this day.
Heaven Shall Burn – My Heart And The Ocean
HSB is a metalcore German band that usually addresses political, racial, and environmental subjects. This video shows footage of Sea Shepherd in action, an activist organization that protects marine species.
Architects – Black Lungs
Metalcore British band, that mixes melodic parts with harder beats and vocals. They wrote this song about forest fires, air pollution, and the consequent inability to breathe.
I know that most of these songs listed above are on the negative side, but I posted them not to make you feel pessimistic, yet to be more conscious about our own actions and choices. Even though we don’t have the power to completely change things, if more and more people become aware of these problems we could see a better future for ourselves, future generations, and the planet we call our home.