Heavy Metal Poisoning
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| "Heavy Metal Poisoning" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Styx | |
| from the album Kilroy Was Here | |
| A-side | "Music Time" |
| Released | 1984 |
| Recorded | 1982 |
| Genre | Hard rock |
| Length | 4:57 |
| Label | A&M |
| Songwriter(s) | James Young |
| Music video | |
| "Heavy Metal Poisoning" on YouTube | |
"Heavy Metal Poisoning" is a song by American rock band Styx. It was included as the fifth track on their 1983 studio album Kilroy Was Here.
The song in the story of Kilroy Was Here has the character of Dr. Righteous (portrayed by James "J.Y." Young) preaching the "evils" of rock and roll. Although the song got only minor airplay on FM rock radio, its music video received significant airplay on MTV.
AllMusic critic Mike DeGagne considered it to be "pretentious, weakly composed, and rhythmically anemic."[1]
It would be released as a B-side to the single "Music Time" (from the band's 1984 double live album Caught in the Act) in 1984.
The song begins with the backmasked Latin words "annuit cœptis, novus ordo seclorum".[2] Translated from the Latin, these words mean "He/God has favored our undertakings,[3] a new order of the ages".[4][5] These are the two mottoes on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. If listened closely enough, just after the second refrain and instrumental break, another backmasked message can be heard, saying "Rock & roll is evil", mocking the purported dangers of backmasking. The backmaskings are thought to have been a response to claims of secret messages in previous songs by Evangelical Christian Tipper Gore, Al Gore's wife.
