8.10.08

Lyrical Analysis: Nocturnal by The Black Dahlia Murder

I pay less notice to the lyrics of songs then I used to. Now, when I buy new cd's, I have a quick look through the booklet for the artwork, usually while I'm ripping them for my mp3 player. But for a lot of releases that is the only time the written lyrics pass by me. 
Once in a while however, a hear a song that does make me want to now what exactly is being sung. One of those is "Nocturnal" by The Black Dahlia Murder. There are some hooks in that song that made it interesting, certain parts that could be clearly heard that draw you in. I had a closer look at the lyrics and found more than I expected.
Let's do some analysis:
  1. A minimalist booklet design: Apart from the front page, the booklet does not contain any artwork or pictures. Each song has its lyrics printed on a separate page in a light font on a dark background. With the lyrics before you and nothing to distract you, your own imagination will draw up visions of what is being sung about. This is a trick that horror writers sometimes use as well. Instead of meticulously describing every physical aspect of a monster, they stay silent on specifics. This way, the reader will imagine the monster as something which is particularly frightening to him personally.
  2. Free flowing text: The lyrics of a single song are printed as a continuous sentence. There is no punctuation to break up the text. No indentation indicating the start of a chorus. It puts your brain into a higher gear because it is harder to follow the lines. But it also has the side effect of keeping you better focused on what is going. Your mind is less likely to drift away.
  3. A dark ritual: I read from the lyrics the description of a dark ritual going on: a sacrifice, a forbidden book, the calling upon an unholy master, blotting out the sun, ... Good stuff!!
  4. Figures of speech: The choice of words used to compose these lyrics was not done haphazardly. Serious effort went into provoking a sense of dread through vocabulary and style. 

Perfect for a closer look (lyrics are in italic):
between the lines of dead language tongues 
before the dawn our hearts they shall hunt 
the smell of blood excites the nostrils
at first cut the sanguinary worship of 
"sanguinary", not "bloody", but "sanguinary", excellent word.
red spraying punctures a sight so divine
clutching her carcass face frozen in time 
Here we have the first of a set of alliterations (clutching-carcass, face-frozen), more will follow
a distorted dialect for the draining of veins 
Like before, more repeats (distorted-dialect-the-draining)
to the flooding of bedsheets with sick crimson rain 
They could've gone with "reddish" maybe, but "crimson" has a more evocative feel.
a warped diction of scriptures befouled 
traditions steeped within disgraces reviled
father, unholy one, to your nightrealm we bow 
nocturnal majesty, sworn to black we'll always be 

damnation's diction, a deadly disclosure our poisons in their goblets drip 
More repeats (damnation's-diction-deadly-disclosure)
How perfectly hideous, so eloquently scribed each scripture so skillfully sick 
And more (scribed-scripture-skillfully-sick)
parchment scabbed over with plasmatic prose, prophesize permanent night 
And even more (parchment-scabbed-plasmatic-proces-prophesize-permanent), be assured, this is no coincidence. Writing lines like these takes time, effort and talent.
the words of sheer blackness paint ebony my soul and bestow me with infernal might
"ebony", another choice for a more evocative color than simply brown. And not to forget, a bit of rhyme (night-might). 
A warped diction of scriptures befouled 
traditions steeped within disgraces reviled 
Father, unholy one, to your nightrealm we bow 
nocturnal majesty, sworn to black we'll always be 
A call and an oath upon the dark one. It would indeed be unlikely for a cabal of cultists to request something from their master without them having to pledge themselves to him for eternity. I suppose, who knows what it's like to be a cultist these days...
hatred and persistance 
destined to see 
a complete eclipse 
of that hated sphere the sun
Blotting out the sun, a lofty goal... not so easy to reach...
by the light unspoken 
this language of brutality
enraptured I have become 
unholy night's arms welcome me

nocturnal majesty, sworn to black we'll always be 
hatred and persistance 
destined to see 
a complete eclipse 
of that hated sphere the sun

2 comments:

BoboDeBoze said...

Aha, I feel a project coming up: make a tool that enhances lyrics by replacing more common words with more exotic or evocative ones or with words that lead to more alliterations or other style figures. Would there be a market for such a thing? ;-)

dafmetal said...

Good question. I started typing my thoughts, but I decided that I'm going to turn them into a blog post when my text started getting too long... ;-)