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, 8. September 2010

Keep of Kalessin - Reclaim


Keep of Kalessin - Reclaim (2003)

Keep of Kalessin are in the big time at the moment, as it seems to me. "Armada" was thrilling and majestic, "Kolossus" epic and monumental, and "Reptilian" in general is a worthy successor.
But between "Armada" (2006) and it's predecessor "Agnen. A Journey through the Dark" (1999) there is a gap of seven years. The small EP "Reclaim" fills this gap with some fine songs, harsh but progressive black metal, and with the great Attila doing the vocals.

I wouldn't mention this EP, if there weren't some fragments of latin in the lyrics.

From the track "IX"

in limbo - in the limbo
in vitro - within the glass (means: life not in a living organism but in a controlled environment)

gigni de nihilo nililum, in nihilum nil posse reverti - Nothing can be born of nothing, nothing can be resolved into nothing (This is a phrase written by Persius, a Roman author (1st century a.d.) of dark, hard to understand satires).

From the track "Reclaim"

faber est quisque fortunae suae - Man forges his own destiny (Appius Claudius Caecus, about 300 b.c.)

lex Talionis - Talion's law (= An eye for an eye)

Vae victis - Woe to the vanquished (said by Gaul's leader Brennus who forced the Romans to bring gold and silver after he had captured the city of Rome in 387 b.c.)

fiat iustitia et pereat mundus - Let there be justice, though the world perish (motto of Ferdinand I., Holy Roman Emperor (1503-1564)

mortui non mordent - dead men don't bite

sic itur ad astra - that's how you reach the stars

exegi monumentum aere perennius - I've raised a monument more permanent than bronce (originally from Roman's famous poet Horace, Ode III, 30, praising his own poetry and claiming that his fame will last forever... where he's actually right because after more than 2000 years he's still (beside Vergil) the most famous and valued Roman writer).

So let us hope that Keep of Kalessin as well exegit musicam aere perennius.

Sonntag, 8. August 2010

Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance

Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance (1999)

From Argentina, I got a reference to an Austrian Symphonic Doom Black Metal called "Estatic Fear". They released two albums in the 1990ies. They are not only interesting regarding their music (listen to Estatic Fear), but also regarding their lyrics which contain english, german and latin words.

In general, I have to say that I sometimes had to guess what the lines mean. The grammar contains some mistakes and even words which look like latin but which aren't.

Chapter II:
Sengi amoris - ??? of the love
In pacis quentis - In ??? of the peace (maybe they meant quies - quietness)
Tvemor inogeng - tremor = tremble; inogeng = ??? (non-existent)
Osculum pudens - a decent kiss

Chapter IV:
Numquam submergiove aut diffugo
Ira inflammata mea vita ad salutem nominarit
et solitudo meum robur

This part doesn't make sense, so I'll translate every single part, using the correct spelling:
numquam - never
submergo - I sink
-ve - and
aut - or
diffugio - I disperse
ira inflammata - inflamed anger (nominative)
mea vita - my life (nominative)
ad salutem - for the health
nominarit - he/she/it entitled
et - and
solitudo - loneliness (nominative)
meum robur - my strength (nominative/accusative)

Chapter IX:
Cura a die renovato cedit
Dolor et laetitia coniungtus est

Again with some errors, but in general easy to understand:

The cure gives way to the renewed day,
Pain and joy are united.

Sonntag, 20. Juni 2010

Ofermod - Rape the World

Ofermod - Rape the World - Mysterion tes Anomalias (2005)

The lyrics of Rape the World contain several languages; Finnish and Hebrew, I guess, and Latin. The album’s title Mysterion tes anomalias is Ancient Greek and means The mystery of lawlessness as well as The mystery of sin.

The latin lines are:

Introibo in sephirah tuam
adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum
in timore tuo...

Propter inimicos meos
dirige in conspectu tuo viam meam

They are almost perfect, and it’s (grammatically) easy to understand what they mean:

I’ll enter your Sephira,
I’ll adore/ invoke your holy temple
in your fear…

Because of my enemies
focus my way on your horizon/ field of vision.

The Sephirah (singular: Sephiroth) meaning "enumerations", are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which God (who is referred to as Ein Sof - The Infinite) reveals him/herself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot