Thoughts On BM Composition

[Lies and Perfidy]

In response to the initial question/problem, I suggest the use of copious amounts of marijuana.

I'm serious. Try sleep deprivation, if the weed's not your thing. Get your mind in a really weird place, because those with more traditional views on metal composition such as ourselves need to have a completely different perspective to write that kinda shit. My old thrash band tried writing black metal once and it was an unmitigated disaster, but after we smoked a few bowls we came up with some kinda cool stuff.

 

[Perdition's Light]

I've never really thought of black metal as a genre that mixed well with drugs, but then again this new velvet cacoon album, genevieve, everyone seems to be pissing their pants over (i haven't heard it), according to an interview with one of the two guys, was created entirely under the influence of DXM. Cough syrup black metal...

 

[no country for old wainds]

It's not an album that people should be pissing their pants over, it's simply good.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

People misunderstand the term "heavy." None of your uses are valid. Heavy is Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, "The Chemical Wedding" and diSEMBOWELMENT. It is not synonymous with "extreme," "relentless" or "brutal." It is being bludgeoned to death by riffs like an oil tanker loaded with anvils. Of fucking course black metal has this; if you say anything different, I have a BA-PHO-MET-IN-STEEL-FOR-THE-FLESH-OF-CAIN and a PRO-CRE-ATION-OF-THE-WICK-ED!!! here that would like to disagree with you. Is black metal about being heavy? Of course not, but having a discussion with you of all people regarding what black metal is about is like talking to a brick, so I'll just leave it at that for now, though undoubtedly the idiocy that most certainly will surface in this thread will bring me back to smite you with the power of font size seven, and FUCKING FUCK in bold type.

Heavy is a measure of how much low-end a band/song/album has.

It's not an album that people should be pissing their pants over, it's simply good.

...what are you...kidding?

Below the lid of a vast rounded monument
Trickling of gristly vestiges and whacked hopes
Enhanced by the horrible excess of fetid exhalation
And uterine strangulation by the wreaths
Of the herds astray, arid in despair, blessed
With dilated flakes of fire, slowly wafting down…
Say, what does a maternal heart feel when merely
Vinegar stills your child’s thirst?
You’d implore to harbour his torment in your chest…
To make his burden yours, but…Sacrilege!
Who are you, harlot, to interfere with His emerald will
When even your glance should never leave the soil?

There resides the fusion, there is the nucleus
Angel prick and holy semen,
And a woman genuflecting an aroused beast of burden alike
Seduced by the father and seducing the son
There resides the fusion, there is the nucleus
A phallic communion that sanctifies interior wastelands

He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption
Carnal malefactor, rub your sterile wriggling womb
With a candle in reverential contemplation
And give voluptuous harbour to vile insects
He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption
The scorpion shall open the book of Solomon for you to see
And the snake slither out of the lips that delivered once
The redeemer of man, born out of shameful maternity…
He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption
The lactiferous Beast subjugated reason to appetite
Praised be human nature, ciborium of shame and waste,
For bathing in decline a redeemer moist of
Semen so contemptible

There resides the fusion, there is the nucleus
Angel prick and holy semen,
And a woman genuflecting an aroused beast of burden alike
Seduced by the father and seducing the son
There resides the fusion, there is the nucleus
A phallic communion that sanctifies interior wastelands
When a woman is knead by the claws of fowls attracted
By seminal odours no longer hidden by dignity
And purified by their beaks rummaging her swollen vagina
When laments alter into praises despite holy duty
And menacing perdition
Seers can say that his birth does death subdue no more
His birth does death subdue not, for my God
Proceeds of failed humility…
O Master, the eastern pillar of your domination is
The organic fallibility.

AYN-JUHL PRICKUN HO...LEE SEEEMUUUHHHHNNN

 

[Erik]

Heavy is a measure of how much low-end a band/song/album has.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Heavy is heavy. For help understanding, listen to the first 18 seconds of "King in Crimson" by Bruce Dickinson.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I suppose there's more than one kind of heavy, but when I think of heavy, I think of tons of huge bass.

 

[Hell Mike]

When I think of heavy, I think of HEAVY. A few listens to Bruce Dickinson or Candlemass would probably help you understand.

 

[Lies and Perfidy]

I would like to point out that Erik and Fotmbm, for mentioning The Chemical Wedding as one of the all-time heaviest albums, both deserve expensive booze and hot hookers. But I'm cheap, so buy it yourselves and consider it a gift from me.

Anyway, if we're discussing heaviness, to me it's a mixture of chord progressions and guitar tone, with the drumwork also helping. Heavy doesn't have to be slow, but in general slower riffs tend to have more room to emphasize crushing heaviness. I mean, let's face it, there are probably only a handful of songs in the same league of heaviness as "Black Sabbath," and that doesn't have overwhelming bass or drop-D tuning or even the world's most menacing guitar tone–it's just slow, deep, and absolutely fucking CRUSHING. You can't quantify heaviness, but when you hear it, you KNOW it's there.

 

[Thanatopsis123]

Heavy is a measure of how much low-end a band/song/album has.

Agreed. Warhorse "As Heaven Turns To Ash" is a good example of what I'd call heavy.

 

[anonymousnick2001]

When I think of heavy, I think of HEAVY. A few listens to Bruce Dickinson or Candlemass would probably help you understand.

That was my general perception of heavy. Black Sabbath, Suffocation, Cathedral, G//Z/R, etc.

My friend seems to think it's all about speed, screamy vocals, and blasting drums. However, he acknowledges thatt here are different perceptions of heaviness.

I'll also add that you shouldn't try to have "BM lyrics" separate to your music - they should be at one with the music, and you should think of a theme and a unique idea to explore before trying to create anything.

Well, that was what I was trying to do, so I guess that I was already headed in the right direction. I was thinking of reading some lyrics out loud and trying to create music to match the mental images. Evocative music, y'know?