Greetings \m/ Play lead and vocals myself mezzo suprano so it's nightwish style vocals for me, operatic. Indeed alot of my influence is behemoth. As well as all the greats megadeth so lots of jazz scale thrown in there.

For lyric writing I tend to get alot of my influence from the vedic texts or ancient cultures such as summeria or you could plain old write poetry. That is definitly something I love about metal is it encompasses aspects of science mythology and archeology. Definitly the most broad topics are braught forth via this genre of music more than any other.
Or even topics like alchemy and astrophysics, for example Vintersorg's astral and arcane album one of my favorites.

As a scientist by nature I tend to lean towards music about astronomy and also when it comes to lyric writing.
I don't know of any other genre of music in existance that encompasses such a broad spectrum of topics . Really there is a band for every interest even larping. :D 3 inchses of blood Blind Guardian for the J.R.R tolkieners etc.

I find picking 1 theme helps in the creative process, and building upon that. Pick what you like and build on it.

pantera,slayer ,children of bodom, megadeath,metallica,lamb of god, dimmu borgir,behemo th,arch enemy,amon amarth

To expand upon one band in particular dimmu borgir with one of their most recent singles gateways a song I adore,


To me it means to take responsibility for all aspects of your life, and that you are the creater or create the world you live in by your choices. Alot of metal has profound spiritual revelations if you will and messages especially of "being the change you wish to see" wich is the core message to alot of these types of lyrics. One could analize for hours the core aspects of philosophy's but the main theme is clear.Be the change you wish to see(Ex Hatebreed), atleast thats what I hear when I hear this song amoung others the repeating notion of self empowerment that we can all achieve. There are bands also that do the oposite , again this genre of music encompasses all aspects of the human condition in it's expression.Which leads me to true black metal

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Gateways-lyrics-Dimmu-Borgir/84B236A51764270D482577B6000AD5DA

This is just my thoughts on metal as a whole. I don't know about anyone else here but Metal is my life, my essence, my core principal of freedom. :) glad to see i am not alone here I raise my horns in salute brothers and sisters of metal \m/