I'm firmly in the camp that thinks that Music > Lyrics in terms of importance, but I still enjoy some well written lyrics myself. Who are some of your favorites and why?
One of my all time favorites is Steve Harris. Iron Maiden is lucky enough to have several awesome lyricists (Bruce * is obviously talented at the craft, but man Janick Gers is really stepping up to the plate with his lyric writing, especially with stuff like "The Legacy") but Steve's always been my favorite. Somber, brooding yet never overdramatic or filled with fluff. I wouldn't call Steve's lyric work poetry, but for what it is, is pretty damned good.
I really like Neil Peart's lyrics for what they are, but I won't go so far as to say they're perfect or without criticism (When Neil is on fire he's amazing but when he's cold he's really damn cold). His early lyric work I've also never been a fan of for ideological reasons (IE, I'm not an Ayn Rand fan) but his post-Rand influenced lyrics are still great more often than not. Stuff like Subdivisions, Armor and Sword, Territories and Hemispheres are still fantastic lyrical pieces I enjoy looking back upon every now and then.
But I think I'm going to end this with a rather underrated one is Arthur von Nagel (I mean, come on that's just an awesome name) of Cormorant. He's only worked on two albums in his entire career and that's where it'll likely end up staying (He left the band to pursue his own interests) but the two albums he worked on were absolutely brilliant. Take for instance the lyrics to "Salt of the Earth"
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/cormor ... zoa.html#3
I mean holy crap, that's pretty much poetry right there.
So yeah, who are your favorites and why?