Mikael Åkerfeldt's English flubs

[Opet]

...almost all singers mispronounce words. some for the sake of 'art'.

I agree. I guess finding the perfect words doesn't always mean they'll fit the sound of that particular line. The scythe mispronunciation used to bother me.

 

[Lina]

Originally posted by Austin7
Damn, I live in America and I can't even speak English good.

*fighting the urge to make the obvious joke!*

 

[PrinnyD00d]

Originally posted by MetalSlime


White Cluster - "The knocking message called for my life!" He clearly says "The knocking message called for my LLliiiaaaaooorrrggghh"


I'm sure there are more, but these are all that I can think of off the top of my head. Next time I listen to the CDs I will try to catch the others that I am missing. Has anybody else found any mistakes like this?

 

[ControlledChaos]

Originally posted by Austin7
Damn, I live in America and I can't even speak English good.

You mean you can't speak english well ...

 

[Lina]

OK, well, he made the joke for me.

 

[Duvall]

I always liked the "Scythe" line for some reason. I suppose a lot of words get somewhat garbled when they're turned into a demoniac scream, though.


I've met a number of people as well who pronounce Vs as Ws - one a Chinese girl, another a Sri Lankan guy, to name a couple.. I'd expect it's not an uncommon thing and it's more likely the norm than the exception.

AND WHAT ABOUT CANADIAN ENGLISH, EH?

 

[MetalSlime]

Originally posted by Duvall
I always liked the "Scythe" line for some reason. I suppose a lot of words get somewhat garbled when they're turned into a demoniac scream, though.

"I would outrun the scythe" is sung with clean vocals in that song, not demonic screams.

I've met a number of people as well who pronounce Vs as Ws - one a Chinese girl, another a Sri Lankan guy, to name a couple.. I'd expect it's not an uncommon thing and it's more likely the norm than the exception.

AND WHAT ABOUT CANADIAN ENGLISH, EH?

I've also heard those who pronounce Ws as Vs. But not always consistently. There was a Dutch guy in my Japanese class at college who always said stuff like "Vatashi wa ..." There was no problem understanding him though.

As for Canadian English, its not so strange. There's the "eh" thing and the pronunciation of "ou", but other than that, Canadians basically sound like Americans to me.


Back to Opeth, this isn't a flub or anything, but I just love how he says "huddle" on Karma. Go listen to it again if you don't know what I'm talking about. "they aaaaaaaalllllll huddle!". He screams that word with a different speaking style than usual, and it's just badass.

I tried to reproduce the sound with my own mouth, and I can only do it if I spread my mouth wide horizontally (hard to explain). It has something to do with how he pronounces the vowel in the "hud" part, and then he holds his mouth there for the "dle" part too. So cool! I think this is done intentionally - I don't think it has anything to do with a swedish accent or anything.

 

[Don Corleone]

well, thorns of sorros mentioned children of bodom. here is my favorite CoB "language moment"...they are not lyrics, but the "thanks to" shit on the sleeve:

"thanks to this and that and our fans and so on...THE OTHERS YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO: FUCK YOU!"

 

[MetalSlime]

I found another English flub (I think).

In Black Rose Immortal, about halfway through, the line "Shadows glid the archways".

WTF is that supposed to mean? hahaha first of all, as far as I am aware "glid" is not even a word. I'm going to guess that he meant to use the past tense of the word "glide", which is actually "glided". Ok, so maybe he meant "shadows glided the archways"

but wait! This still doesn't make any damn sense! "glide" is intransitive (meaning it takes no Object), so you can't have "the archways" there unless you change the verb, or add a preposition.

So maybe he meant to say "Shadows made(new verb) the archways glide," which could make sense in a lyric kinda way if it is the shadows of the archways that are gliding. OR, maybe he means "Shadows glided amongst(preposition) the archways".

Or maybe I'm just misinterpreting it completely. still fun though! BTW, the whole Orchid album is full of strange English! I never noticed before!

 

[Don Corleone]

yeah it's true about the orchid album. his english has improved a lot towards the last album.

 

[Jayde]

I've only noticed in Harvest when he says "It's me who's the mahtah"

But it's only because he's Swedish.......

 

[luke]

I reckon' I should get a site up of the Engrish here. Off the top of my head,
/from display cases in museum at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall
"Don't lean on the glass if you want to get hurt"
/on the back of all the buses
"No kiss me"
/on a sign at a hair salon near my home
"Horny hair cream treatment - 500NT"
and countless t-shirts that provide hours of browsing entertainment at the night markets.
They fuck up Japanese everywhere here too. My favourite to date comes off the back of a package of potato chips made from sweet potatoes. It says there's a delicious vanila centre coated with luxurious chocolate.

But to be fair, the shit that's come out of my own mouth, trying to learn the languages here has at times been far from laughable. Like asking my 7 year old students if they like cock, when the principal was right there (I wanted to say basketball, but it came out wrong) asking the girl at the supermarket where her tits were, instead of the mushrooms, and trying to ask a friend of my roommates how old she was in Taiwanese and ending up calling her a whore.

 

[Orchid]

Originally posted by MetalSlime
In Black Rose Immortal, about halfway through, the line "Shadows glid the archways".

I think the line is "Shadows gild the archways", no?

That doesn't make too much sense, either (shadows doing anything else than shadowing something ), but at least it's grammatically correct.

 

[Don Corleone]

jayde - doesnt he say "im the martyr" there?

 

[MetalSlime]

Originally posted by Orchid


I think the line is "Shadows gild the archways", no?

That doesn't make too much sense, either (shadows doing anything else than shadowing something ), but at least it's grammatically correct.

My lyric-book says "glid". I'm listening to the song right now too and it sounds to me like he says "glid" too.

 

[Dvoters]

I agree, I think Swedes pronounce the Enlish language very precise and proper, the way it is read. I still laugh to myself though when I hear Mike talk teehee
Just sounds abit, well, wierd.

\m/

 

[MadTinus]

Originally posted by ~Zeanra~
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound impolite or anything

No need to apologize, no offence was taken!

 

[MadTinus]

Those who speak (or rather pronounce) English in the most funny way are still the German and French!

 

[Id]

When I first heard BRI I thought he said "shadows lit the archways" but once I saw the booklet I wondered what the hell glid was.

 

[transfixed]

Originally posted by Orchid


I think the line is "Shadows gild the archways", no?

That doesn't make too much sense, either (shadows doing anything else than shadowing something ), but at least it's grammatically correct.

I think if it was gild it would make sense because the definition of gild could apply to something a shadow does in a poetic sense...