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Although poverty is a very recurrent theme in metal, it is often talked about indirectly. Most of the times the conditions of the poor (misery) are evoked or poverty-related issues such as drugs and diseases are used as the main theme in certain songs.

Megadeth, the band, is very much known for songs on drugs abuse. Examples that come to mind are The Scorpion, Prince of Darkness or Use The Man. These songs can be related to the same theme and yet they bear some differences to each other.

In Prince of Darkness, drugs is denoted as being the bringer of poverty and the deceitful substance that breeds only evil:

I bring poverty, sickness and death
A worthless handshake, the slickest thief, I steal your wealth
I answer your prayers for greed and lust
More than evil, I laugh at your trust

In Use The Man, the drugs or rather the needle, is shown as an object of torture and control. The song's message is that at the end of the day, it is not the man who uses the needle but rather the other way round.

I've seen the man use the needle, seen the needle use the man
I've seen them crawl from the cradle to the gutter on their hands
They fight a war but it's fatal, it's so hard to understand
I've seen the man use the needle, seen the needle use the man

Moreover, in Slayer's Epidemic, a kind of disease is evoked. Interpretations are multiple on the meaning behind this song. I think that it speaks of the social mal-aise often felt in poverty, the growing feeling of rejection that just wants to spurt out:

Breeding Fast In Poverty
Infectious Driving Dormant Seed
Inside Your Carcass Start To Mate
Left In Charge To Dominate
Waiting To Unfold
Raging Uncontrolled
Adapt A Potency
Death Machine,
Infest My Corpse To Be

Another song, No Shelter by Rage Against the Machine, has as a central theme the dangers of media control over public sentiment.

Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war

This song also discusses materialism and criticizes the feigned rebelliousness of teenaged consumerism, mentioning companies like Nike and Coca-Cola particularly.

Coca-cola is back in the veins of saigon
And rambo too, he got a dope pair of nikes on

I guess all these songs have in common the fact that they all depict misery in all its aspects, be it misery inflicted by drugs, by a state of mind or by the oppression of the rich forcing the poor to keep buying.