Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony

 Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony (2011)

Fleshgod’s music isn’t metal for the masses. Their mix of classic orchestration and insane and complex death metal is quite demanding. So are their lyrics, the English as well as the Latin ones. They don’t content themselves with screaming words like “sathanas”. They dig deaper into ancient books. Some of the phrases are very well-known, some I didn’t found in classical textes, so I guess that they wrote it by themselves. Hats off!

~ The Imposition ~

Semper avarus eget et hostis humani generis est

He who is always greedy lives in want and is an enemy of the human race

Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat

Impunity always invites to greater crimes.

Parcere subiectis (et) debellare superbos

To spare the subdued and war down the proud 

This is a quote of Vergil’s Aeneis, Book 6, Verse 853, where (in the underworld) the dead Anchises reveals the future and destiny of Rome to his son Aeneas.

Ab uno disce omnis

From one, learn all/ the whole 

Again a quote of the Aeneis, Book 2, Verge 65. Here, the whole phrase talks about the Trojan Horse.

Fiat iustitia et mundus pereat

Let there be justice, though the world perish 

This was the motto of Ferdinand I, the Holy Roman Emperor of 1558.

~ The Deceit ~

Discete aut disce quam ubi non accusator, ibi non judex

Learn (plural) or learn (singular) that there is no jugde where is no accuser. 

(Although discite would be the correct imperative plural)

Si vis pacem para bellum, cur qui tetigerit picem inquinabitur ab ea

If you want peace, prepare for war, because he who touched pitch, will be besmeared by it

Impares nascimur, pares morimur, ergo iustitiam quaerimus, rem omni auro cariorem cur pulvis sumus et in pulverem reverterimus

Unequal we are born, equal we die, so we seek justice, which is more valuable than gold, because we are dust and to dust we turn

~ The Egoism ~

Si vitam inspicias hominum, si denique mores, cum culpant alios: quia nemo sine crimine vivit

If you look at the men’s lives, or at least at his manners, (see, that) everyone has a skeleton in the closet, although he blames the others

This is a poem from the Distichs of Cato (the Elder, 234 -149 BC). In fact, the collection of Roman proverbial wisdom is older and not originally written by Cato. Fleshgod filled in the word quia – because. This doesn’t make any sense, because it turns the only main clause into a subordinate clause and it destroys the hexameter. But I don’t want to blame the others!

~ The Oppression ~

Quis habet fortius certamen quam qui nititur vincere se ipsum?
Who is forced to struggle more than he who tries to master himself?
Thomas à Kempis - The Imitation of Christ, Book I,3

Keep on rockin’, FG and see you in the “Labyrinth”.