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

Tentacle Metal

I mentioned my interest in the Cthulhu Mythos before, and I'd like to elaborate a bit on it in this post. In the 1920's there was an American writer who went by the name of H.P. Lovecraft. As someone who was regularly ill, he was confined to his house a lot which led him to start writing. He wrote horror stories that got published in several pulp magazines at that time. He also maintained an active correspondence with other writers about the universe he created through his stories. This universe was a mirror image the world we know with the profound difference that alien beings roamed the galaxies since the dawn of time and came to earth ever since it was created. On our earth they created large cities and civilizations and waged war on each other. Since the dawning of man, they have been lying dormant waiting till the stars are right for them to rise again.Image via Wikipedia

Now, when we are talking about alien beings, we're not talking about your regular Hollywood-type, humanoid alien, but about truly alien organisms. Think tentacles, interdimensionality, time travel, tentacles, slime, avatars, non-euclidean spaces, and some more tentacles. Among these alien beings, there were "Great Old Ones". Unique, and often gargantuan, creatures with an intelligence (and an agenda) far beyond the comprehension of men. The most famous of these Great Old Ones is without a doubt Cthulhu. He is in fact so iconic for this Lovecraftian universe that it is commonly referred to as the "Cthulhu Mythos" (which wasn't a term invented by Lovecraft, by the way, but by one of his followers).

Apparently, I'm not the only one with an interest in the Cthulhu Mythos. As it is an inspiration for several metal bands as well. Some only refer to Cthulhu himself, like in some of the following songs:

• The Call Of Ktulu by Metallica (on Ride The Lightning).
• Rite Of Cthulhu by Samael (on Worship Him).
• Cthulhu Dawn by Cradle Of Filth (on Midian).

Others take a different road and write songs about the Great Old Ones in general, as in these:

• Thy Horror Cosmic by The Black Dahlia Murder (on Unhallowed).
• Call Of Dagon by Therion (on Sirius B).
• One With Darkness by Tristitia (on One With Darkness).

And these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. There are definitely more bands with a Cthulhu Mythos theme out there and when I come across them, I'll list them on my blog. If you have any good tentacle metal references, I'll be happy to hear about them.

Horns up to Indiemerchstore

I got a pleasant surprise today. The Black Dahlia Murder t-shirt, zipped hoodie and cd that I ordered late last week already arrived today. I got them from the indiemerchstore. Ordering went flawless, and the items got here quickly. So one big horns up to them!
The shirt I got has this Cthulhu theme that I really dig. Also, it's grey which is a nice change from the usual black of metal t-shirts. The zipped hoodie has a print in a metallic color that's also pretty cool. It's good to see bands making an effort in being creative with their merchandise. The cd I got is their first one, Unhallowed, so now I have all three. I hope they come over to Belgium somewhere in the near future so I can check these guys out live.

The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal

The Black Dahlia Murder totally caught me off guard and just blew me away. I know this release, "Nocturnal", already came out in september '07, but I picked it up in january as a recommendation by my brother. I expected it to be more of a metalcore type of music, but they play some of the best Melodic Death Metal I heard in some time. They even have the artwork and the lyrics spot on. I still remember the days when you had to be born and bred in Sweden to be able to make music like this. Maybe these americans have scandinavian roots, who knows?

It also seems that they are rather controversial in the metal scene as they have their own hate group on last.fm (which I refuse to link to). Apparently, they "steal" from bands like Sacramentum, Carcass, and At The Gates. First of all, yes, they play music in the same vein, but steal? Please tell me, which parts did they steal exactly? None, that's how many. And second, those bands mentioned don't even exist anymore, let alone release any new music. Why not be happy that other bands, new bands, keep playing this genre?

Anyways, the title song, "Nocturnal", is definitely my favourite. It embodies all the typical elements that you expect from a Melodic Death Metal song and it's perfectly executed. But that's not the only one. The album is just filled with other killer songs as well: "Deathmask Divine", "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse", ... I can play them again and again.

What truly lifts them up above other similar artists is their ability to create a dark and foreboding atmosphere with just the basic instruments and Strnad's incredible vocals (no synths on this one). It's something you don't see often, except in the great MDM releases like Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane, or At The Gates' Slaughter of the Soul.

I also firmly believe that you should always support the bands you like, so earlier this week I ordered some TBDM swag (a t-shirt and a zipped hoodie). Can't wait for that to get here.

For fans of: Dissection, At The Gates, (old) Dark Tranquillity, (old) In Flames