US news media have been trying to find links between the actions of a convicted murder and a series of Metallica lyrics he searched for soon after the incident.
Over the last few months, there has been a lot of media attention on Chris Watts, the 33-year-old who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and daughters back in August.
While the crime itself is a brutal, heinous act, many observers have been attempting to find answers for what made this supposed family man commit such an awful crime.
Now, it appears that Metallica are being brought into this whole debacle.
According to a police report that was published by US TV station CBS4 earlier this week, Watts reportedly looked up lyrics for a Metallica track after the time which police say he disposed of his family’s bodies.
“1010 hours: during a respite following the murder of his family, and disposing of their bodies at a desolate well site, Watts searched Google for the lyrics to ‘Battery’ by Metallica,” the report claims.
Of course, this might have been a rather innocent search if not for the lyrical content of the band’s 1986 track, as pointed out by CBS4.
“The lyrics include: “- lunacy has found me – Cannot stop the battery – Pounding out aggression – Turns into obsession – Cannot kill the battery – Cannot kill the family.”
While there’s no context given as to the reason for his lyrical search, the news media has been having something of a field day with this inflammatory detail, and seem to be trying to drag Metallica’s influence into this murder case.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the lyrics of bands have been brought into question following horrific acts. Famously, Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Suicide Solution’ and Judas Priest’s cover of ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’ were named in trials regarding the suicides of young fans.
More surprisingly, Aussie rockabilly legends The Living End were even named in a murder case back in 1999, after a police officer requested the lyrics to the band’s work as part of an investigation.
“As a result of our inquiries, evidence suggests that the male offender whilst preparing to shoot these four persons listened to a compact disc over and over again,” explained Detective Senior Constable Davis in a summons to the band’s then-label, EMI.
“This compact disc is distributed by EMI and is titled… The Living End ‘Second Solution-Prisoner of Society’.”
“The offender’s preparatory acts, which includes the listening of this music/lyrics may become an issue during future court proceedings.”
Check out Metallica’s ‘Murder One’:
