Metallica – Harvester Of Sorrow

My InterpretationThis song is definitely about a parent who tries to escape their misery through drugs and alcohol and eventually takes it out on his family by beating and killing them. Here is my interpretation of the lyrics for each of the 3 verses in the song:

Verse 1:
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

-- This is giving a historical view of the Harvester of Sorrows' life. It explains how he became the Harvester of Sorrow. It's pretty straight forward, no need to go into detail here.


2nd Verse:
Pure Black Looking Clear
My Work Is Done Soon Here
Try Getting Back to Me
Get Back Which Used to Be

Drink up
Shoot in
Let the Beatings Begin
Distributor of Pain
Your Loss Becomes My Gain

-- This verse explains how he thinks about himself and how the Harvester of Sorrow deals with it. He attempts to "get back which used to be" by abusing drugs and alcohol. Which results in him becoming violent. At this point it does not indicate that he is violent towards his family. The Harvester of Sorrow could just be getting in fights at bars or places he gets drunk and high at (like when people get drunk at bars and start fights ... get it?). Essentially, he gets drunk/high and takes his anger out on others.

3rd Verse:
All Have Said Their Prayers
Invade Their Nightmares
See into My Eyes
You'll Find Where Murder Lies

Infanticide

-- This is the verse that indicates that the Harvester of Sorrow has finally snapped and beats and murders his children (indicated by infanticide ... which has nothing to do with abortion BTW). He has finally become the Harvester of Sorrow.

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  @MasterOfLyrics
  +1

  Just wanted to add that this basically describes the evolution of an abusive person, in this case to the extreme where that individual kills their children. It is NOT about abortion, or the personification of addiction, and definitely not about slaver. It's very straightforward and not very abstract.

  Flag MasterOfLyricson June 22, 2009  

General CommentI've always inferred that this song was about someone who's suffered horribly and perceives themselves as being wronged and even persecuted on all sides. As a result, they become bitter, unable to feel compassion for other humans, and lash out angrily and even violently. This resembles certain schizophrenia-type mental disorders (note: scizophrenia =/= multiple personality disorder), where the sufferer becomes paranoid and perceives themselves as being persecuted on all sides. The song's lyrics and its emphasis on violence, alienation, and emotional blunting best matches the development of clinical psychopathy.

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  @katryna669
  0

  Id you hold on to the anger, misery, you'll suffer. And you'll keep on suffering until you let it go. Hence, you become the Harvester of Sorrow.

  Flag John3583on June 06, 2009  

General CommentI'm thinking this is either a generalized Grim Reaper/Final Judgement song like Metallica is so fond of, or a bloody-justice teenage revenge anthem. I'm leaning towards the latter. Why you ask? I'll explain.

The song clearly indicates a strong feeling of victimhood and unjustified abuse. A person of formerly pure intentions ("Planting Seeds of Hate, I've Loved, Turned to Hate, Trapped Far Beyond My Fate") has been driven into vengeful bloodlust by a lifetime of mistreatment ("I Give, You Take, This Life That I Forsake, Been Cheated of My Youth, You Turned this Lie to Truth).

The person in question is now motivated only by pure rage and pain ("Anger, Misery, You will Suffer unto Me", Distributor of Pain, Your Loss becomes my gain" etc.) and he proceeds to exact bloody payment ("All Have Said Their Prayers, Invade Their Nightmares, See into My Eyes, You'll Find Where Murder Lies) on those who planted the seeds of hate in his heart, pushed him beyond his normal limits of morality, took from him when he did nothing but give to them, and robbed him of his innocence.

He has become the Harvester of Sorrow.

So basically, take your average school shooter's life story and make a song out of it, and this is what you get.

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  @Bullzeye

General Commentjust listen in sorrow and awe to the skill of the drummer in the first 1.17 minutes.. this song is really a chellenge for any respectable drummer and Lars seems to to give the best of himself here... It is a song dominated by anger, frustration and sorrow. The heavy guitar riff and the Bass drum rolls confirm this... i believe that if you take away the lyrics from this piece, the song will loose none of its prowess, and will still express the true pain and feeeling put in the treated subject.... Lars rules, and though technically he may not be at the skill of such drummers as Mike Portnoy, or Danny Carey, he is still my favorite drummer cause he has the ability of transmitting all his wrath and passion through his pounding... He knows music is expression of feeling and soul...
Thanks for reading my humble opinion

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  @UnforgivenII
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  @UnforgivenII considering this site is about discussing lyrics, i don't see how most of your review is relevant however true it may be.

  Flag buttsatanon April 25, 2016  

General Commentthis song is about me
my life suffocates

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  @pieroyin

General CommentIt tells the story of a drunken and drugged man who torments his family before cracking and murdering them.

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  @Prodigal

Song MeaningOK, why hasnt anyone ever brought up what happend during WWII? The Harvest of Sorrows, it was when the russians when to a city where their were a bunch of farms, they made the people harvest their crops and give it to them. for years the russians came back and took all their crops, causing the people living there to die of starvation. "Planting seeds of hate". Obviosly these farmers who were planting the crops knew where they were going to, so they hated planting them becuase they knew the russians were gunna take it. "I give, You take" this explains that the people gave little crops at first, then the russians got greedy a took it all, this isnt a song about

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  @SeekandDestroy1667
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  reapers or a guy in a bar or even james hetfield himself.

  Flag SeekandDestroy1667on September 20, 2011  

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  this sounds reasonable too much more reasonable than others...

  Flagged cerise333on March 04, 2014  

My InterpretationJoeMaster bullseyed it; thats the original meaning intended by the composer(s). Very straight forward.

Never the less, I like to think that beyond that straight forward meaning there's also an obscurant or faithfull one. It's a general complaint from a man directly to God himself - (sort of like a angry prayer if you wish), about how the poor evolution of his life ("My life suffocates, Planting seeds of Hate"; "I love, turned to hate"; "you turned this lie to truth"; "I give, you take, this life that I forsake"), turned into a present state of total frustration, considering facts and indicators that could initially point in his favor (youth, innocence, inconditional love torwads life and people).

With "Anger, Misery, You'll Suffer unto Me", God responds to him in his particular, intangible and superior way, like a true and all mighty master submits servants, by telling them that in order to reach his symphaty (and whatever that can lead to), he must first suffer to gain His trust...you know, to be reliable. To me, "You'll Suffer unto Me" is a too strong verse to refer simply to bad parent towards his child, or to any sort of "booze itself" torwads any drunk. But it fits nicelly if u think it's God. With "your loss becomes my gain", eventually the guy compreends that God knows that all his sacrifice will obvisously mean little or nothing to him in his mortal, short and pathetic life, but will certainly favour Him, in a misterious and much superior way.

The complainging comes from a man who has a life not even close to what he once expected it to be, or thinks or thought he deserved - this based in a self-judgement he makes of his once young self - a pure, innocent and highly energized and life-loving child - "I loved, turned to hate". The self judment is also implied in "been cheated of my youth" and "trapped far beyond my fate". It all helps building the obvious frustration. The background can be only one: poor, if not horrible, but at least neglectful - parenting.

In the end, he's feels so miserably torwards life, he senses he's got nothing else to give or fight for, thus leading him to start feeling he's closed to dying, or at least he can no longer feel that life welcomes him, but instead its death he senses coming closer (Pure Black Looking Clear, My Work Is Done Soon Here). At this point, God then tries to encourage him by a very tricky and dubious verse: "Try Getting Back to Me; Get Back Which Used to Be". This could mean God wants him to love life again, like he did in his young age, by whatever "good means" necessary.

In the end, the man remembers times he thought of murdering ppl as a way of ending great sources of the suffering (this could've come in momments of getting bullied, for instance, as many bullied children actually think or even dream of assassinating their agressors).

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  @karneck
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  @karneck That's a really interesting way to think about it, maybe the killings are him killing sinners as his way the "Get back what used to be" from God.

  Flag jackdix261on April 18, 2018  

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  @karneck That's a really interesting way to think about it, maybe the killings are him killing sinners as his way the "Get back what used to be" from God.

  Flag jackdix261on April 18, 2018  

My InterpretationI believe this song is about depression and how it can take the toll of an individual to a deep, dark path, eventually into drugs, booze, then to murder. Depression is evil personified. Evil is the harvester of their sorrows.

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  @Outfielder

General CommentThis song can have two meanings. Listed above is one. Think about this one:
the song talks about abortion. The lyrics support this idea also.
"My life suffocates" -embryo being killed
"Planting the seeds of hate" -abortion pill or unwanted sperm
"Been cheated of my youth" -can't live out childhood
"You turn the lies to truth" -mother makes reality of abortion

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  @bassman2k