Peaceful Wars

English speakers. United States citizens (who think that we are the only Americans despite the fact that “American” applies to people on both the North and South American continents). We need to have a chat. A bit of a talk. Yes, I see you squirming like a parent just found out you missed curfew or a boss heard you bad-mouthing them. I see you glaring at me ready to hurl insults fed to you by a particular group of individuals who find a distinct pleasure in dividing the masses. Ah, but this is precisely the reason we’re having this little conversation. German metal music is not inherently evil! Stop it! Stop perpetuating this ridiculous myth! I know it’s easy to equate all metal music as such, but the notion becomes more offensive when people decide a language foreign to them indicates a specific intent. Though I could write pages of scholarly work on this topic, I’m picking one song — because I’m feeling relatively confident in my skills to provide examples and break them down for people to understand these days. Listen: I teach for a living; yes, I’m one of those people they warn you about when they feed you canned insults to direct at me. I lead proverbial horses to water, but I cannot for the life of me force them to drink as your idols insist. But, I digress. Let’s introduce the example:

“Waffen Waffen Waffen (Weapons Weapons Weapons)”
Band: Eisbrecher
Album: Kaltfront
Lyricists: Alexander Wesselsky, Rupert Keplinger, Justin Balk

So, let’s approach this song from a literary perspective; obviously, songs are typically lyrical poetry, but they can combine different types of poetry depending on the writer(s)’s intent. I would go so far as to assert that “Waffen Waffen Waffen” fits as lyrical, narrative, and dramatic: we have elements of a narrator telling us his feelings, building up a story, and an almost decisive moment where the narrator must decide how to respond to his feelings and the situation. This build-up hints at our theme, which of course here appears to be the classic good versus evil/ war and peace. From a literary standpoint, we are not hearing a call to return to times in which men conquered lands — we are hearing a critical take on the state of the world as it exists! However, how can we be so sure? Examining literary devices offers further evidence that this song possesses much more meaning than, “hurray, they are singing in German over metal music!”

Unfortunately for us, my fellow citizens, this song utilizes satire with a strong correlation to the way our country is currently acting. Now, that isn’t to say other countries aren’t participating in similar activities — these behaviors have existed for centuries, and we would be wise to remember the history should teach us the qualitative lessons beyond the quantitative, measureable achievements of Rote memorization. However, dear reader, you likely live within the same borders and should be more considerate of the fact that there are consequences to our actions. Are you beginning to understand the song a bit better now? We have more of a Rage Against the Machine quality here and less of a… whatever it is you were going for.

Ah, but wait! This is the part where people typically dig their heels into the dirt, firmly and defiantly. “Apples to oranges!” I had someone once use this excuse when I made a comparison about why we need to be cautious about our word choice, but the analogy shouldn’t matter here. Your understand that I made an analogy indicates you realize it is just that — an analogy! Let’s delve further into the rhetoric of these lyrics now. For the sake of brevity, I will assume you have the capacity to look up the definitions of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos if you are unfamiliar with the terms: are they jargon to you? Perhaps — but I use these words regularly and have already spent some time tapping away at my keyboard. A bit of research never hurt anyone! (You are not invited to disprove my sassy retort.)

Starting with ethos, I examine the speaker and writers. As we can see, more than one person collaboratively wrote this song, which is relatively common in the music industry. The main lyricist might have the basic idea, but including your band offers agency to each individual (and sometimes outside influence helps us revise and edit for clarity or when we just can’t find the right words to rhyme without losing that meaning). What do these writers know about their topic: war and peace? Oh, my sweet summer children! They are German men! Let me gesture broadly at their history and their school curriculum! Personally, I believe our school systems stand to learn from Germany’s examples on teaching history, but that is not my area of expertise. I am just an English instructor who enjoys cosplaying as Seras Victoria and appreciates the way Hirano Kouta blended Bram Stoker’s Dracula, World War II history, and the lore surrounding Vlad Tepes — let my history instructors take the lead on that endeavor! Of course, my little tangent illustrates the shared values I hold that give Eisbrecher the credibility to speak on such subjects. Obviously, I value what Wesselsky, Keplinger, and Balk have to say on this subject over individuals who never lived in Germany.

Moving onto pathos, I will review the English translations for the sake of understanding. In the first stanza, the narrator indicates he is fearful for his life because he perceives the world to be dangerous and full of crazy people. The second stanza indicates this need to respond to these “threats” while also reminding the listeners that he’s still a good guy — it’s not him, it’s everyone else, right? He wrestles back and forth with these emotions as illustrated in the music video, seemingly on the brink of his own sanity. The musical build-up and harmonica adds tension, and we see the ending of the music video almost indicate that the narrator is about to act on his violent urges. Stepping back for a moment, are these emotional overtones really any different than what we see and hear in our own culture? Were we to compare this song and music video to other popular American pieces, we may see that we are not so different after all.

Stay with me now! Take a deep breath in… 1… 2… 3… and exhale… that’s it. I understand that I am asking a lot of you. I said this was going to be a little chat, a small talk, but here we are several paragraphs down the screen. If you made it this far, give yourself a treat! Have a glass of water. Don’t forget: I became Mother before I became Professor. Take care of YOU! Ready? Let’s continue!

Logos — the logic and reasoning our writer uses to effectively structure and convey the message — isn’t being used to convince you to act a certain way in a direct approach here. In this case, the narrator wants you to be aware of his own personal mental state and convince you that his methods are the best way to solve the problems. If we look through a different lens to try determining what the collective writers were trying to say here, we might conclude that Wesselsky, Keplinger, and Balk want to convince the listeners that using “Waffen” to create peace sounds counterproductive. I have often made a point to people during arguments that a person can’t learn the lesson if they cease to exist, and perhaps that is the very argument being made here! Should the lyrics be taken at face-value to mean that we should immediately exercise our Second Amendment rights to solve our problems, or should we should to stop before we act? Once again, throwing a plate on the floor and then apologizing as an analogy may seem like I’m “comparing apples to oranges” to some of you, but the analogy stands — once you break that plate, it will never be the same again no matter how much glue you use. Once you pull that trigger, you cannot recall that ammunition. There are consequences to our actions whether we like that truth or not.

Now, my personal favorite rhetorical device happens to be kairos because correlated events absolutely influence everything in media! The best example is the music from the late 1960s/ early 1970s: the Vietnam War absolutely painted the best music from that era despite the fact that the war was awful. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.” Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” The entire discography from Rage Against the Machine literally tells you who those band members are and what values they hold: “Killing In the Name Of” isn’t shy about calling out people in white robes abusing power during the day — or telling them where to go and how to get there for that matter! But what does any of that have to do with “Waffen Waffen Waffen”? Well, the song was released in March of 2025; though albums typically take some time to write, record, and produce, we can assume much about how the world influenced this song. I will not delve into controversy here, but I will allow you this opportunity to reflect on the events of the world from January 2024 through the present. Unless you happened to be a little old lady living in a cottage deep in the forest with no access to human contact, chances are high you know things aren’t quite right out there at the moment. Things have been getting tense, uncomfortable, scary.

Now, tell me: what did you learn today? Note that I did not ask you to learn another language. I did not ask you to compromise your morals. No, I simply presented information and provided clarity. I showed you that we do not need to be challenged by language barriers. Is word choice and language going to be a barrier to understanding? Absolutely! There is a reason I spend an entire lecture on Dialects and Diction for both my Composition and Rhetoric and my Applied Technical Communications courses! Be that as it may, we as adult human beings have a responsibility to learn how to communicate better. Use. Your. Words! Waffen, fists, 2A? Oh, sure, that’s easy. Communicating? That requires more brain power, and I challenge you to do the hard work. Stronger people will do the hard work and THINK before reacting. If you are too weak to use your words, you are doomed.

*For giggles, Work Cited*
Eisbrecher. “Waffen Waffen Waffen.” Kaltfront, Metropolis Records, 2025.