July 31, 2016

"The most metal word of all is burn, followed by cries, veins, eternity, and breathe."

"The least metal word is particularly, followed by indicated, secretary, committee, and university."
What you can infer from this is that the metal English is spoken from a timeless, elemental, and darkly ethereal space, while standard English is unremarkably deskbound. Perhaps this is why we hunger for metal in the first place.

39 comments:

Laslo Spatula said...

"The most metal word of all is burn, followed by cries, veins, eternity, and breathe."

Odd to think, but these words would also fit comfortably in a Romance Novel.

An interesting overlap, of which "throbbing" could be added.

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

Lady Mayron tried to stiffle her cries in her pillow, but she could feel the passion burning in her veins. "Breathe" she thought to herself, just breathe, but as Lord Taylor's hand reached to touch her pale skin it seemed like an eternity.

Oh: and Lord Taylor was throbbing. With Hellfire.

Double-kick drum goes here.

I am Laslo.

traditionalguy said...

Words inseminate minds. But it's birth defects in minds that concern us most.

Which reminds me of a headline on Drudge: " Satan Club approved for elementary school students."

Fernandinande said...

Áhefegian clympre scolde broc éaca ealdhríðer Englisc.

JackWayne said...

"What you can infer from this is that the metal English is spoken from a timeless, elemental, and darkly ethereal space, while standard English is unremarkably deskbound. Perhaps this is why we hunger for metal in the first place."

Not really. There is the metal you can understand when you hear it and the metal that you understand if you have the lyrics handy. Metal is like any other music: do I like the beat? Dick Clark understood that as well as anyone.

Etienne said...

As you can see, Five Finger Death Punch have the highest number of swear words in their lyrics, and Pig Destroyer have the most complex wordplay. It also suggests that bands that swear more seem to use more complex words.

I always thought that if you swear more, you were a gauche brain, and if you drew pictures and wore white to a disco bar; pinky extended on your umbrella drink, you were right brain.

n.n said...

The most metal word of all is penumbra, commonly known as the twilight zone, the intersection between fantasy and reality, from where gods deliver religious/moral instruction to the Twilighters. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Judaeo-Christian concept of Hell.

bleh said...

I saw another nymag article about Trump's reaction to the Khan response. I couldn't believe the editorialization by the nymag writer. The writer said Trump's claim that Khan might have had some help in drafting his speech is "demonstrably false" because Khan and the Clinton campaign denied it. It's really unbelievable how the so many in press carry water for the Democrats, probably without even realizing it.

Etienne said...

I read today where they plan to make it illegal for Catholic schools to discriminate against homosexual and she-male students.

I guess it's sort of like payback for all the shit the Catholics did since Peter was Pope.

Metal language, head bobbing long hair greasers...

Yancey Ward said...

Surprised it isn't "death".

Laslo Spatula said...

Fleshing out my earlier thesis: "Odd to think, but these words would also fit comfortably in a Romance Novel."

Charlotte Bronte, the Root Source of Heavy Metal Life:

I feel monotony and death to be almost the same.

Conventionality is not morality.

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Let your performance do the thinking.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.

You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength.

I am Laslo.

john mosby said...

Laslo, there is a huge overlap between heavy metal and the arts of the romantic era. Think "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," done by both Coleridge and Iron Maiden. Or compare Blake engravings with HM album covers.

Then of course there's Uriah Heep....

JSM

buwaya said...

I never could understand a word they were saying.
Or in most modern American music either.
I havent got the ear.

buwaya said...

After much practice (involuntary, most of it) I still dont get it. Somehow it seems like the sort of learning curve one needs to "get" the cante jondo of flamenco.

Susan said...

I think bullshit is the most metal word of all.

Laslo Spatula said...

I really thought Althouse would go for the catnip of the Gothic Romance/Heavy Metal juxtaposition.

Added word: codpiece.

I am Laslo.

buwaya said...

All metal is merely a cowardly, tentative approach to its apotheosis, which is Gwar.

buwaya said...

The Gothic romance connection is apt, as both "horror" and romance genres have a similar source, both were 19th century commercial products targeted mainly at the female market. Still going strong today.

bagoh20 said...

I don't believe the data is accurate.

Wanna guess which are the most hip hop words? That's a sad realization.

JackWayne said...

Buwaya, Gwar is absolutely in your wheelhouse. Their shtick is Grand Opera. With metal singers.

Etienne said...

Sort of about language and music, but post breakfast, and thinking about going out to edge the yard with that damned invention called plastic twine...

I'm trying to translate a German song. Obviously it's supposed to be a love song, but the title is: Du Bist Die Zeit

Kind of an obtuse romanticism maybe, but the tune is stuck in my head...

Refrain: Du bist die Zeit
Du bist die Zeit, die neu beginnt
Ein offenes Buch will ich für Dich sein
Alte Worte schenk ich dem Wind
Du bist die Zeit
Bist tausend Jahre und bist ein Tag
Ich bin für ein Leben bereit
Nur mit dir, denn für mich bist Du die Zeit


You are the time
You are the time, the new begins
An open book I want to be for you
Old words I gift to the wind
You are the time
Are a thousand years, are one day
I'm ready for life
Only for you, because for me you are the time

I'm ready for edging the lawn time...

buwaya said...

Mireille Mathieu!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

The most metal word of all...

...dreadful, tinny sort of words...

n.n said...

Penumbra is the most mental.

wildswan said...

Buwaya
"Somehow it seems like the sort of learning curve one needs to "get" the cante jondo of flamenco."

Is metal duende? If so, is it tin duende?

buwaya said...

If metal is duende, it is of a sort I dont get.

wildswan said...

Is Lorca metal?
Burning dark gold breathing from the veins of eternity?

wildswan said...

Burning dark gold breathing fire from the veins of eternity?

Etienne said...

buwaya puti said...Mireille Mathieu!

Oui, she just turned 70 years old! Some people collect Dylan tunes, I collect Chanson and Schlager :-)

wildswan said...

Take a movie like The Wild Ones
The motorcyclist gang members are metal but Brando is duende?

buwaya said...

Lorca could be metal. Maybe. I dont know if it works in English and who would know what they are saying anyway. Worth a try?
My boy plays metal. Cant sing though, and takes no such advice from me.

buwaya said...

Brando had duende. When they let him.

wildswan said...

"Brando had duende. When they let him."

That's harsh.

buwaya said...

More than Lorca, maybe, De Leon - poet/lyricist of the Quintero, Leon y Quiroga team that wrote 5000 coplas (cabaret songs, more or less).
Look for, for instance, Muero de amor.
Garcia Lorca was more subtle, stuff like De Leons goes for the throat.

buwaya said...

Look for the Lola Flores video (b&w clip from a 1950s Mexican movie) where she sings Pena, Penita Pena (a copla by Quintero Leon y Quiroga). She starts off with de Leons' poem.

buwaya said...

Its said of Lola Flores that she couldnt sing, act, or dance. But you couldnt stop looking at her.
For my money she did the best possible version of Lara's "Maria Bonita" - a very Mexican song, but she did it in her Andalucian accent flamenco- style.

rehajm said...

The best metal word is Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ah!

mikee said...

No discussion of the most brutal and most metal things ever can be complete without the compendium of the most brutal and most metal things ever, from the most brutal and most metal Metal Band ever, Dethklok!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltyjVnnEuqg

buwaya said...

Dethklok - "Go Forth and Die" is the best commentary on modern college I have seen, ever.
Look for the Youtube.
Thanks for the tip.