One of the first things to do in order to fully understand a song is look at the narrator. In War Pigs there is an omniscient narrator, describing the history of whatever world War Pigs takes place in. One may easily dismiss this as Ozzy Osborne simply singing as the narrator but I feel it goes a little deeper than that. The song Iron Man, off of the same album, speaks of a man who "turned to steel, in the great magnetic field, where he traveled time for the future of man kind". I believe that this "Iron Man" is the narrator of the story that unfurls in War Pigs. Something that reinforces this is the guitar riffs found at the beginning of both songs. The beginning of Iron Man has a guitar note that changes key to the point that it matches the Two guitar notes that make up the beginning of War Pigs. This signals some sort of relation between the two songs, particularly the sharing of a character. This helps shed some light on the mood of the song, and why the narrator can view the entirety of the War Pigs history. From the beginnings of the machinations set in motion by the powers that be, to the biblical day of judgement.
The first stanza shows the amount of disdain that the narrator has for the people in charge. He compares the gathering of generals to that of the witches by describing every one of their actions the same way that Shakespearean witches might have been described in Macbeth. (Generals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses; Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerers of Death's construction) The generals, to the narrator, are pushing forward the war (likely the one being waged in Vietnam at the time, as that is when this was written) by poisoning the minds of others (see the last two lines of the first stanza)
The next stanza starts with "politicians hide themselves away". This is significant because it shows that the generals were manipulating them, subsequently making them take the blame for what had happened. Evidence for this is quite simple. If the politicians knew what they had wrought well enough, through other plots they would have not only remained in power, but also kept the peoples' favor. (this parallels Macbeth once again, as many view the witches machinations as what caused the entire ordeal, yet Macbeth is the one who is viewed as the big baddie) But the narrator, being omniscient, can see that instead of owning up to what they have helped start, through hiding , they allow the poor to fight their war.
After this, we see a dual meaning begin to appear in the song. At first glance it seems that the narrator is speaking in the present tense. That eventually people will discover what they have done and punish them for it, yet when read with the perspective of the omniscient narrator, we see a different story play out. Time would eventually lead to the apocalypse and judgment of everyone, therefore "time will tell on their power minds"and the judgement that eventually falls upon the politicians is divine and not a mortal one, and we see this divine punishment is different than what is saved for the generals. It is likely they are not being punished for the wars, but rather for the cowardice in allowing others to die instead of coming clean and trying to stop it themselves
My favorite part is this last stanza. the instruments go back to doing what they were doing when the generals were introduced, implying the focus is now on them once again. "Now in darkness, world stops turning; ashes where the bodies burning" implies that the wars and conflicts that were brought about through the machinations of the generals have finally destroyed everyone but them (evidence is seen in that ash is only present after something has been burned away, and that if fires were still burning, the world would not be in darkness) After having wrought this hell on earth, the generals are no longer in power as there is nothing left to govern. "Day of judgement, god is calling; on their knees the war pigs crawling" shows that now, powerless, the generals are attempting to ask forgiveness of what they have done, yet the next line shows that after all they have done, Satan is the one who they meet, not god, at their judgement day. This has two meanings. The first is quite simple. The belief that they are bad people and bad people go to hell. The next meaning has root in Dante Alighieri's famous depiction of the nine circles of hell. The Devil resides on the ninth, which is reserved for traitors, such as Brutus and Judas. To the writer, the fires of war going out could be an allusion to the cold ninth circle of hell. This means in the eyes of the writer, the generals actions betrayed humanity as a whole, making their transgressions equal to, and placing them in the company of Judas, Brutus and The Devil.
Finally, heres a video of a 57 year old Ozzy performing this song: War Pigs 2005 at Ozzfest
This particular performance is what got me to pick this song to analyze.
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