What's all this fuss about?

Latin lyrics in Heavy Metal music are a common phenomenon. The darker the music, the more evil the band wanna be. What's better than using an old, mysterious, hardly understandable, cryptic, medieval and therefore almost satanic language? Unfortunately bands seldom know how to use this language properly. So, instead of evoking the demons of the realm of evil, they just evoke a hop-frog. Clatu verata nicto! - The most of you know what happened after this wrongly spoken spell.

Normally, two questions are the result of the fact that you've just read a latin phrase:
- What does it mean? (almost everybody)
- Is it correct? (just a few latin aficionados)

This page doesn't want to make fun of mistakes in latin lyrics. I wanna answer the first question to everybody who is interested. The second question is just for myself or for the two or three weird guys out there or for bands which are thinking about using a latin phrase as well. You can contact me if you want.

Mittwoch, 2. September 2015

Ghost - Infestissumam

Ghost - Infestissumam (2013)

"Infestissumam" is the superlative form of "infestus - hostile, threatening, dangerous". It's accusative case feminine: whom? - "the most hostile one". Because of the "u" instead of "i" it sounds like archaic Latin - like the English pronouns "thou" and "thee".

The lyrics are written in Latin and Italian, although the grammar isn't always correct:

Il padre - The father
Il filio - The son
Et lo spiritus malum - and the bad spirit
Omnis caelestis - every celestial one
Delenda est - must be destroyed

Anti Cristus - Antichrist
Il filio de Sathanas - Satan's son
Anti Cristus - Antichrist
Il filio de Sathanas - Satan's son
Infestissumam - the most hostile one (again, this is feminine!)

The second song is called: Per aspera ad inferi. This means "Through hardships into the hell." The grammatically correct phrase would be: per aspera ad inferos.

Donnerstag, 20. August 2015

Absolutus

Absolutus - Pugnare in Iis quae obtinere non possis (2015)

Absolutus is an avantegarde black metal band from Belgium. They've already released two albums and one EP. All of them have Latin litles, whereas the lyrics are in English - as far as I could listen.

Album - Ostendit quam nihil sumus
He/ she/ it demonstrates that we are nothing - The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca used the phrase in his letter 101 to Lucilius. There he wrote: "Every day, every hour demonstrates us that we are nothing."

EP - Nihil mali non inest
There is nothing bad not in it. - A sentence from Cicero, taken from a letter he wrote to Atticus (VIII,4)

Album - Pugnare in iis quae obtinere non possis
To fight against this you can't obtain - A phrase from Quintilian (VI,14). All album tracks have Latin titles as well:

  • Abyssus Abyssum Invocat  - The abyss invoces the abyss   
  • Sunt Verba et Voces Praetereaque Nihil - There are words and voices and nothing more
  • Credo Quia Absurdum - I believe because it's absurd
  • Ego Sum Qui Sum- I am who I am
  • Damnat Quod Non Intelligunt - He damns what they don't understand
  • Pugnare in iis Quae Obtinere Non Possis - see above
  • Decepimur Specie Recti - We are decieved by the appearance of the right
  • Virgo Dei Genitrix - the virgin mother of God
  • Numen - Divine power/ presence

Donnerstag, 30. Juli 2015

Motörhead - Victoria aut morte

Just clicked here and there on youtube. There I found a recent Motörhead-concert. On their backdrop they had the latin words victoria aut morte.



 victoria is nominative or ablative case, morte is just ablative case. Therefore it means by victory or death.  The yell "victory or death" would be victoria aut mors or victoriam aut mortem.

Sonntag, 26. Juli 2015

Powerwolf - Blessed & Possessed

Powerwolf - Blessed & Possessed (2015)

~ Blessed & Possessed ~

Benedictus - Blessed
Et Affectus - and Possessed
Benedictus - Blessed
Halleluja - well..., not too difficult

~ Armata Strigoi ~ 
Armata means armed and strigoi sounds like the latin word striga - witch. But the ending "-oi" ist masculine plural in Ancient Greek, therefore the basic form must be "strigos". This is the name of the Warhammer's "Empire of Vampyre" [by the way, if Powerwolf ever gonna cooperate with Cradle of Filth ("Powerfilth"), this would be the perfect album's title - feel free to use it!].

~ Sanctus Dominus - Holy Lord ~
Sacramentum - sacrament
Nocturnarum - of the night's
Oremus - let us pray
Deus sanctus, deum filium - holy God, God son
Dominum - Lord 
Martyrum - martyr
Convertere apostolicus - to convert apostle
Cedere - to give way
Animus - soul

Debitus - debts
Et catholicus - and catholic
Debere - to have to
Deum animalum - animal God

Dominum - Lord
Et imperitum - and lay person

E nomine - from the name
Sanctus dominus - holy Lord
Christus animus - Christ soul
Et sanctus spiritus - an holy spirit

A nice collection of Latin words; and in the wild and free country of the wraiths, in the empire of vampyre, there is no need of a dictionary and of following grammar rules, auuuuuuuuuuuuhhh!
 

~ All You Can Bleed ~
Ex Christus, Ex corpus - from Christ, from the body
sanguinem malum -
bad blood
Ex sanguis, sanctorum -
from the blood, of the holy's
 sanguis in dominus - blood in Lord

... auuuuuuuuuuuuhhh! 

Freitag, 17. Juli 2015

Powerwolf - Lupus Dei

Powerwolf - Lupus Dei (2007)

Powerwolf arose out of the void and ascended the top of the cross within just a few years. Their last record reached the top of the German charts, their newest one - released today - may repeat the success. We'll see. At the moment, I lack the whole lyrics of their new record, therefore I enter the past and gonna talk about their 2007-release "Lupus Dei".

The first song (The Wolf of the Demon) and the last one (The Wolf of God) on this record contain latin phrases:

 ~ Lupus Daemonis ~ 

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.
Amen. 

This is the Hail Mary:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; 
blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. 
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, 
now and at the hour of death. Amen.

~ Lupus Dei ~

Cantus lupus
Satura luna
Corpus nudus domina


Agnus totus
Animus mortus
Ave deus sinistra


Cultus lupus
Opus damnatus
Metus mortis nocturna


Terra sanguis
Padre occultus
Sanctus pupus anima

These words are grammatically c..., a few latin words just strung together without considering grammar rules, declination or conjugation. I translate them litterally, so everybody can interpret them by himself. 
Totally wrong is the line corpus nudus domina for example. The word "corpus" is neutral case, the word "domina" feminine case. If "nudus" should refer to "corpus", the correct ending would be "nudum", if if should refer to "domina", the correct ending would be "nuda", or better, in genitive case (= of the nude lady) "dominae nudae".

song wolf
sated moon
body nude lady

lamb whole
Spirit dead
Ave god evil

cult wolf
work damned
fear of the dead nocturnal

land blood
by the father occult 
holy little boy soul 

But there are more important things like case endings, if you reach the top of the charts, I guess.... Look forward new record. To see you. !

Donnerstag, 16. Juli 2015

Death SS - Black Mass

 Death SS - Black Mass (1989)

The title song of this record contains a longer latin prayer, an invocation of Satan.

Satana, qui unus es dominus nobis
prodimus deum orbis terrarum
sanctos pinguemque feminam.
Tibi profundimus sanguinem nostrum liberarumque
subscribamus atrum voluminem mortis.
Et gratiam tibi agimus pro peccata nostra.
Stigma, quod nobis ipse impressisti, ostendimus.
Tibi confitemur peccata nostra
ut coniungas nos convivium ubertatis.
Nostrum cibum Belzeb consecra et vinculum
nigrae catenae solida.
Coniunge animas saltatione et commissatione
ad honorem tui, ut disiungat nos lux, Amen.  

Satan, you are the only lord for us
we produce the god of the world
and the fat woman
We pour for you our blood and that of our children,
let us sign the black contract of death.
We show the sign, which you have imprinted us by yourself. 
To you we confide our sins
so that you join us in the feast of fecundity.
.Connect the souls by dance and coalescence
for your glory, so that light leaves us, amen.

Although the grammar is quite good, still there are some words which I can't unterstand.
What is the sense of the accusative plural masculine "sanctos"?
How to use the second accusative object "convivium"?
Is "Belzeb" dative case?
What means "commisatio" - here used in ablative case "commissatione"? The word doesn't exist, but there is "commissio", ablative case "commissione"- coalescence.