Billie Joe Armstrong names the most hateful song he ever wrote: “Most diabolic”
Music was never meant to be used as a weapon. While many get caught up in band rivalries, dissecting every diss track in search of dirt on artists they don’t like, the core of any good song should always be that it simply sounds good. Then again, Billie Joe Armstrong understood the power of harnessing his anger when the moment called for it in Green Day songs.
Then again, Armstrong was born out of the era of punk, which meant venting frustration. Many of the punk godfathers had been raging against the corporate side of rock and roll, but by the time Green Day started making their own versions of punk rock, things were a bit more lighthearted than before, with some of their best songs being more introspective, like ‘Basket Case’ or ‘When I Come Around’.
Armstrong didn’t feel the need to get angry for the hell of it, but he would break out the fangs if the right target was in sight. Insomniac was already a violent reaction to how the fans treated them after they went mainstream, but by the time George W Bush started pushing America into a war that didn’t need to happen, American Idiot was the perfect spit-in-the-face to the Establishment, almost daring the government to take a look at themselves and see the error of their ways.
While the sequel is never as good as the original, 21st Century Breakdown does make for a compelling continuation of their first rock opera. There are pieces that feel like story beats from American Idiot, but there are also moments where they deal with more grown-up topics, whether that’s learning to deal with the enemy inside you on ‘Restless Heart Syndrome’ or trying to reach that special someone back home on ‘Last Night on Earth’.
But if love is a central theme of the album, rage is the other side of that coin, and ‘Christian’s Inferno’ is still among the darkest songs the band ever wrote. The melody is still bulletproof when the chorus kicks in, but every single verse feels ripped straight out of some industrialised rock and roll record, complete with Armstrong singing out of a blown-out radio speaker.
Whereas St Jimmy gave him a good outlet to vent his frustrations on the last album, Armstrong still felt that this was one of the most vicious tunes in his arsenal, saying, “[This] is the most hateful song I’ve ever written – the most diabolic.” Then again, a lot of that hatred may have been about exploring the darker side of life.
To get into that mindset, Armstrong would go on to say that he needed to explore his vicious side to get into character, saying, “[It’s] sort of ugliest place you could possibly go in your brain. I don’t know if I was having a bad morning, but it’s that angry feeling of despair that I guess a lot of people can relate to.” Armstrong wasn’t even done scratching that itch when the album was over eventually returning to it when making ‘Bang Bang’ from Revolution Radio by getting into the mind of a mass shooter.
It’s never a good idea for someone to stay in that mind state for too long, but it takes strength as a songwriter for Armstrong to leave all of that emotion on the table. It’s not the easiest thing to listen to, and it’s sometimes more than a little bit repulsive, but it’s better to let it out that way instead of turning to violence.
