“I'm looking through a hole in the sky. I'm seeing nowhere through the eyes of a lie. Hole in the sky, take me to heaven. Window in time, through it I fly.”
~ Black Sabbath - Hole in The Sky (1975)
~ Black Sabbath - Hole in The Sky (1975)
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There is a lot of hidden-in-plain-sight philosophy found in music lyrics, particularly in psychedelic rock music and counter-intuitive underground genres like “Doom” or “Stoner”. This turns a lot of people away at the door as they expect heavier music to be ‘dumb’, but it’s quite the opposite in many cases.
In this case, Black Sabbath.
Many consider the godfathers of Heavy Metal to be an “evil” band, promoting darkness and sinister ideations such as Satan Worship and Corruption of the Spirit. Classic ignorance from the uneducated blowhard.
If you take the time to read these song lyrics below in their entirety, you’ll discover the game of polarity which many of these darker bands utilize to convey their message without sounding like a church pastor on a Sunday morning…
~ Black Sabbath - Into The Void (1971):
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Rocket engines burning fuel so fast,
Up into the night sky they blast.
Through the universe the engines whine,
Could it be the end of man and time?
Back on earth the flame of life burns low,
Everywhere is misery and woe.
Pollution kills the air, the land and sea,
Man prepares to meet his destiny, yeah!
Rocket engines burning fuel so fast,
Up into the black sky so vast.
Burning metal through the atmosphere,
Earth remains in worry, hate and fear.
With the hateful battles raging on,
Rockets flying to the glowing sun.
Through the empires of eternal void,
Freedom from the final suicide.
Freedom fighters sent out to the sun,
Escape from brainwashed minds and pollution.
Leave the earth to all its sin and hate,
Find another world where freedom waits, yeah!
Past the stars in fields of ancient void,
Through the shields of darkness where they find,
Love upon a land a world unknown,
Where the sons of freedom make their home.
Leave the earth to Satan and his slaves,
Leave them to their future in the grave.
Make a home where love is there to stay,
Peace and happiness in every day!
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At first glance you might think Ozzy is singing literally, about a rocket ship leaving the earth… a whimsical sci-fi dream tale of a physical escape from the material prison planet… and there’s certainly a lot of negative imagery present; that must mean he’s promoting it, devil worship, yeah?? Meh.
That perspective is the non-philosophical, brute force, face value assumption of the fearful uninterested mind.
In this song, and many others from Sabbath, the allusion is to a metaphysical escape. The ‘Freedom Fighters’ are a reference to the modern day “Psychonaut” (or Hippies, back in the early 70’s)… while the ‘Rocket Engines’ are a euphemism for LSD or psychedelic exploration \ journeying.
The end verse is classic Enlightenment ideation. Waking up to the deeper workings of the human Ego experience and the trappings of the Material world, while now KNOWING the metaphysical existence of The Soul as a reality… leading to a higher state of Consciousness that shows the way out of the maze of destruction which the physical world is seemingly enthralled.
In simpler terms, this is a song about Enlightenment and living in Nirvana.
All the negative imagery may appear to make the band sound Evil, but they are singing about the Evil of the material world. They are singing about YOUR evil, not theirs.
The Void is a place of Love.
Everything that surrounds the Void is what really scares you.
Jump in!
