Get Lyrical: Forever Storm's "Paradox"

posted in: Features • Rock

We’re a fan of a good, brain-melting paradox, especially that one about the famous lying puppet Pinoccio: What would happen if he said “My nose will grow”? It’s just impossible to figure out! That’s probably why we’re so intrigued by the track “Paradox” from Serbian metal band Forever Storm. Although it’s far from as playful as the Pinocchio paradox, it’s also quite the brain teaser, exploring both deeply personal and universal themes ranging from vanity to the destruction of the world. Epic stuff, and a lot to cover in a track that clocks in at just under five minutes, but Forever Storm weave it all together beautifully with a soaring chorus and screaming guitars.

If you find yourself thinking that a lyrically-driven metal song is a paradox in itself, Forever Storm bassist and songwriter Vladimir Nestorovic has a few things to say. “The lyrics should be the center point of any metal song, as they should always tell a story about a certain emotion, event or a thought,” he says. Of course, he adds that artists have the right to do whatever they want with their songs. “It is only my opinion that the music and the lyrics should, in most cases, have a hormonal bondage with some kind of subject and with each other as well.”

“Paradox” does meld music and lyrics in a seamless fashion, although as is fitting for a song with that title, its vocals tend to be ambiguous. The track opens with the line, “The night falls around my heart/The dark engraves another scar.” Nestorovic says that was inspired after he thought he was betrayed by someone he loved, but he later found out that he was the one to blame. Hence the chorus: “I’m losing you, losing myself to this demon called vanity/Every day more I die/Killing what keeps me alive.” According to Nestorovic, that’s the central figure of the song, as it “describes the moral paradox that I was in resulting in vanity.”

The paradoxes aren’t limited to emotions. Perhaps the most thought-provoking conundrum is the one frontman Stefan Kovacevic belts out during the song’s final stanza. “Amazingly you see the future while you’re destroying it,” he wails. It’s both true and depressing; in order to obtain the future we desire, we find ourselves destroying it with pollution and destruction. But the very pollution that will destroy us is a necessary byproduct of having the things we want. Whoa. Paradoxical indeed. But if you find yourself gleaning a different message from this metal mindgame, Nestorovic says you needn’t worry. “I think that it is for the listener to decide what he wants from the song, which is the beauty of art; you experience the lyrics in a way that suits your thoughts.”

If you’re ready for a song that makes you mosh as it makes you think, check out “Paradox” below” it’s heavy in more ways than one.

Have an interesting story behind your lyrics? Let us know at pr@ourstage.com!