The Thing That Should Not Be (Metallica cover) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Slap Bass Ninja 

Cover art for The Thing That Should Not Be (Metallica cover) lyrics by Primus

oh come on you idiots

this song is about The Greatest Lord Of Chaos and Lord Of The Old Ones, Cthulu of R'lyeh! even a casual Lovecraft fan would realise this

it speaks of cthulu rising and the subversive insanity that will consume humanity as this happens.

oh and "not dead which eternal lie" in full is

"That is not dead, which can eternal lie. Yet come strange aeons even Death may die" which is one of lovecraft's more famous pieces of poetry (it even apopears on the tombstone of Edward T. Head on Iron Maiden's World Slavery Tour double-disc album, Live After Death as Eddie's epitath) which means two things in the one poem. Firstly it means that in billions of aeons all humans will become again living, and experience nothing but a short blank of a couple of billion years which felt like a five minute nap (whether through molecular sciences or cyber-neuronets is not to be questioned owing to it's irrellevancy), and also the mystical side of raising the dead, with which Lovecraft was more concerned.

Metallica did a great tribute to lovecraftian lore in writing this song however i love Primus' interpretation with all my body (including my pee-pee) because of their unique sound and musical coordination.