7 Heavy Metal Songs About Vicious Personal Feuds

It comes as no surprise with the abundance of intensely personal songs dominating the airwaves, that it is far easier to sell venom than flowers.

While songs by those jaded and disrespected by friends, foes, family or others are not of a new trend (see decades worth of the Blues), fans of pop and rap frequently engage themselves in the personal feuds of their microphone-wielding heroes.

Heavy metal is not without its share of personal conflict either, though to a seemingly lesser extent or at least involving fewer figures. The songs on this list are not vague threats aimed at a faceless populace expressing disdain about cultural phenomena, nor are they malice toward public figures like politicians, as both topics could be their own lists.

These songs were written for specific, publicly-known individuals by those with an axe to grind.

While differing stories exist as to the motivations behind the feud between Sully Erna and Nikki Sixx, it is agreed that the rivalry came about during the Cruefest 2 tour of 2009 where the former’s band supported the latter’s.

Incensed by the ordeal, Godsmack spearheaded their next album with the single “Cryin’ Like a Bitch,” wherein Erna describes an unnamed individual as one to “strut on like on a king telling everybody they know nothing.”

While Erna himself was tight-lipped about the song’s specific intentions for some time after its release, he has since expanded his vague accusations of “rock star garbage” during the aforementioned Cruefest to calling out Sixx specifically and lyrics like “time ain’t on your side anymore” and “living dead by your faded past times” are akin to what he has been quoted stating in interviews.

Even Sixx’s near-lethal drug overdose is considered fair game (“granted a second chance to prove that your arrogance is stronger than you’ll ever be.”).

Their feud persisted for a number of years after the song’s release, though its momentum waned between 2015 and 2016 with no clear resolution.