"Like other forms of English, Death Metal English is a tool kit. It can be used well or poorly; Vastum use it quite effectively. You can employ Death Metal English in other realms, but it’s designed to make death metal lyrics sound more brutal. Why do DM bands write this way? Perhaps because a few early tastemakers chose to, and everyone else just followed along. Perhaps because all those lengthy words resonate nicely in the front of your face when you utter a death growl. Perhaps because its ponderous diction mirrors the blocky nature of the music. My best guess is that death metal bands use Death Metal English because it’s innately awesome."
Invisible Oranges
14 comments:
La parta mis mas favorita es en dos partes:
Bonus points for using constructions that evoke the King James Bible, which is ironically among the most metal texts in the English canon. “Thou,” “hast,” “thine,” and so forth are all great; “unto” is my personal favorite. Yoda-style unconventional sentences can achieve the same effect, as in “Civilized I shall not be / By the holy strain of laws” or “I know the texts divine”
… award more bonus points for each reference to any obscure or fictional non-Christian deity.a
That's pretty neat. How could we say 'walking the dog'?
Well, walking would be treading or marching or keeping a pallbearer's pace, and dog would be Cerberus or maybe Sirius and doing that as a regular thing would be autohypnosis to imperative diurnal mortal drudgery
Doll-walked am I by the hand of Fate; leash-ed Cerberus adds his forward force.
Diurnal.
This past winter I took care of my sis's dog for a couple weeks. It's funny how fast I got used to walking that dog in the morning, in a snow storm, with foot-high snow. The fine sleety type snow.
They're great for keeping you on schedule.
Now say that in death metal :)
There is a reason why death metal English or rather death metal prose sounds the way it does. Firstly, death metal is a type of heavy metal genre that has a level of pomposity to it. It kind of takes itself seriously in its subject matter and in that seriousness, the language or lingo follows. My English teacher called this type of language the solemn vapors and death metal lyrics excel at the solemn vapors. Death metal lyrics and the guys who write them are trying to be meaningful and significant in their writing of the subject matter and remove the mundane usage of English as you and I would speak in our daily course of events, but DM wants to be something more and when you couple the music along with the lyrics you create a blend of the theatrical with that sense of pomposity to create a type of bad-assitude which all DM bands are trying to achieve. Even though they are guys on a stage, playing instruments, and very well in many instances I might add and outside of the shtick, the long hair, and the rest of the accouterments of metal/death metal, they are actually fairly normal down to earth people. I know many many many of them because I'm the Lord Humungous of Death Metal connoisseurship. :D
The examples are hilarious: I need to leave the gardener this note:
"Normal English: “You have to mow the lawn”
Death Metal English: “BRING DOWN THE SCYTHE OF GODS UPON THE NECKS OF THE GREEN-RIBBED LEGIONS AND SWEEP AWAY THEIR WRETCHED BODIES; THOU ART IMPLORED BY ME”"
It would be really cool if he was a metal head, but he prefers Shakira, and there is something to that.
Meth, you're into death metal, that's a surprise! I listened to the song at the link, and it was interesting/pretty good. Please give me some links to some songs you like, and tell me what your fave bands are.
deborah said...
Meth, you're into death metal, that's a surprise! I listened to the song at the link, and it was interesting/pretty good. Please give me some links to some songs you like, and tell me what your fave bands are.
Yeah, I've been a metal head since, well, since forever. DM is an acquired taste, so take this with some solace that you will like some and detest others. You can find all of these songs and albums on youtube, so I'd start with the band called Bolt Thrower and their album Mercenary and then listen to their other album called Those Once Loyal. Now, Bolt Throwers entire premise is based on War and the ravages of war and the toll it takes. Just a great band.
After you are done with that, then you will want to listen to a more tighter, but doomier type of death metal called Funeral Doom and that is to give you the extreme ends of the spectrum on your listening pallet so your brain can sort of wrap your head around what you like. Now the best ban for funeral doom is called Ahab and the two albums you want to listen to are The Call of the Wretched Sea and The Divinity of Oceans and those two albums are solely based on Melville's Moby Dick.
Now, if you want to come to the middle of Death Metal after that, then listen to Dethklok DethAlbum II. It's tight, it's funny and highlights the great musicianship that Death Metal brings. DM bands are all great musicians overall. Let me know what you think and what more you would like to listen to for suggestions.
Deb, there are so many types of DM that you would get lost in it because they sound different, the lyrics and contexts are different and if you aren't prepared for it, it would be an audio assault that you might not like. So if you want to know anything about it let me know and i'll try to help you out.
Thanks, Meth, that sounds like a logical sequence. I'll check them out and let you know :)
deborah said...
Thanks, Meth, that sounds like a logical sequence. I'll check them out and let you know :)
Okay. Good luck. Hope you like it.
Post a Comment