In Germany, „Medieval Metal“ is quite popular: teutonic men playing bagpipes, accompanied by women on the fiddle and on recorder, perform simple metal songs with catchy melodies and German lyrics. I find it interesting to use unconventional instruments and to create the atmosphere of ancient music, but I try to mingle these features with the elements of Prog Rock (like Jethro Tull did) and Prog Metal.
I added some images, but they are not a music video, only the substitute for a video – for those who find it difficult to merely listen to a song which is eight minutes long.
Lyrics: Spread the Disease
They pinned us down on a hill in the afternoon, we held the line till evening. When my brother fell and his body hit the ground, I couldn’t pray for his soul’s redeeming. The moaning and crying, the groaning and sighing was a sound we were used to hear. But for the first time ever there was the cruel endeavour of standing a helplessness springing from fear. Spread the disease from body to soul, from country to country. Begging you, please, don’t you leave me alone when you’re turning around in the direction of our distant home.
When dusk unfolded the cloak of night we found ourselves dispersed behind enemy lines. But when moonlight fell on our swords and shields we were all too easy to find. The moaning and crying, the groaning and sighing is a fruit of the life we’ve been living. The kings are denying that the priests are all lying, but I know there’s no forgiving. Spread the disease from body to soul and from country to country. But I’m begging you, please, don’t you leave me alone when you’re turning around in the direction of our distant home.
Now I’m lying here on the battlefield, hearing voices coming closer. Is it friend or foe? Soon I will know.
I’d say you greatly succeeded in your quest! Definitely Jethro Tull with a metal edge. Bagpipes are certainly a bit odd in the mix, but somehow having the images of fighting, piping Scotsmen on screen helped it all make sense. I did feel like the break in intensity that (finally) arrives around 4:50 could have come a bit sooner, and the guitar(ish) solo at the end was a tiny bit long. But having said all that, I liked it enough to listen twice! Nice work.
This is an interesting concept. Medieval/fantasy/mythology holds a certain appeal to me, as well as metal music that incorporates other type of instruments, like symphonic metal (with Nightiwsh as one of my favorite bands) or make use of more folkloric instruments. In your song, I really like the blend of the bagpipe with the metal music, nice work!
Thank you! I’ve listened to your Latin song and am looking forward to see what it will be when it has found its place in the greater work that you are planning. That sounds very interesting, and the latin lyrics let me expect very very dark things What a good thing that just now the Hxvoc voicebank has appeared!
By the way, I have also written a Latin piece, a choir as a postlude to a song about Anne Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth I., with band and symphonic orchestra. Guess I will never hear it performed live.
I hope this is meant as a compliment! I respect them and have their albums, but they never were one of my favorites. Well, I guess the organ that’s accompanying the bagpipes lets you think of them? But I had Jethro Tulls “To cry you a song” in mind when I recorded it.
That’s great! I was to young, then, and discovered all this great music of the “Art Rock” bands only when it was too late to see them on stage while they were so overwhelmingly good and creative and alive and beautiful and powerful and …
I listened to your song MattiS and “To cry you a song” by Jethro Tulls in several forms without watching any pictures. Even after the second listening to your song without pictures, I just tried to read the posts here, but I have to read them again. So maybe for the third time I will listen to your song while watching the video. Jethro Tulls is in your musical blood and you share the pride of our ancestors here and their emotions are felt in their music and you manage to revive it in your song. Your work is very good, but fortunately it is not perfect, even in the instrumental part. It does not sound legibly so like a machine game and enchants with moments of surprise … And Eclipsed Sounds probably already knows something about singing with Ventricular Lashes ( HXVOC and Asterian ) …
What a good thing that just now the Hxvoc voicebank has appeared!
I respect them and have their albums, but they never were one of my favorites. Well, I guess the organ that’s accompanying the bagpipes lets you think of them? But I had Jethro Tulls “To cry you a song” in mind when I recorded it.
