Blind Guardian is a heavy metal band from Germany that came into focus in the mid 1980’s. They are credited with being one of the most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres. Originally formed by Hansi Kursh and Andre Olbrich, Blind Guardian’s lyrics, written by Kursh, are influenced by legends and epics, as well as fantasy tales by authors like J. R. R. Tolkien and Stephen King. Blind Guardian uses many religious references in their lyrics, but they are not a Christian band. They like to mix societal problems with literature and religion, while hiding most of it in a shroud of literary devices. Blind Guardian’s song “Born in a Mourning Hall” contains a montage of poetic devices with many of them being intertwined.
The title of the song contains three devices within itself. “Born in a Mourning Hall” is ironic because mourning halls are funeral homes and a birth is called a gift of life. This is also an allusion to death because a mourning hall is a mortuary. The line is also a double entendre because a morning hall is a church and children have been born in churches, but the line is “mourning” and implies the exact opposite. The line “TV preacher” also holds a few devices. The first is an allusion to pastors that preach on television. The second is an allusion to Big Brother from 1984. The third is ambiguity because it could be a pastor or it could be a brainwashing spokesman that is pastor like.
The chorus is loaded with poetry. The title of the song is repeated twice in the chorus and the chorus is never the same. The line “The Peter Pan will never reach the other side” is one of the more poetic lines of the chorus. First, there is the allusion to Peter Pan. Second, the hyperbole is created with the word “never”. Third, the “other side” is an allusion to heaven. Fourth, there is ambiguity because the other side could also mean the real world. Fifth, the “Peter Pan” is a metaphor comparing the child to a character trapped in childhood. Sixth, there is a paradox because while it makes sense that Peter Pan cannot die, it does not make sense that a person cannot die. The whole line is an allusion to childhood and is again ambiguous because it can mean that either the person will never grow up, or that the person will always have the spirit of a child in them.
The remainder of the song contains several other poetic devices. “Hypnotized by the TV snake” is an allusion to both the devil and the antichrist, a metaphor comparing the speaker to a snake, and contains imagery by creating images of a snake on a TV screen with a swirling background. The “Eternal fall down” contains a hyperbole by calling the fall eternal, and it is ambiguous because it also refers to the slow and unending death of the character. “I’m an old man” is characterization that gives insight on the main character, possibly the narrator. The “serious smile” is an example of alliteration. “sitting still” is another example of alliteration, but it is also paradoxical because you cannot sit still, but you can sit still (like being frozen to the television screen).
These devices all describe similar events because the overall theme of the song is the end of the world. The narrator uses these lines to show the corruption of the world and how it is making him suffer emotionally. He uses lines like “Born in a mourning hall” and “Shadows left the fear inside” to represent the suffering he dealt with in his childhood. This emotional suffering leads to his thoughts of suicide, but he cannot do it or he lives through it. The “Peter Pan” metaphor shows that he cannot escape his childhood suffering. The constant references to watching events unfold and not dying show that either he is waiting to die with the rest of the world, or he is cursed and meant to suffer by watching the world end and having to live through the entre ordeal. This suffering and end of the world talk is religiously tied because of lines that can be related to the antichrist (“TV preacher”, “TV snake”, etc.). The main suffering in the song is the emotional suffering of the main character and the physical suffering that he will have to endure. Blind Guardian incorporates a lot of heavier metal and some orchestral sections to show the more apocalyptic parts of the song and keep a dreary tone in the song. The band follows suit by using a lot of guitar and including lyrics that seem like combined ideas of their influences. Blind Guardian proves their right as one of the most influential metal bands out there.
6. Born In A Morning Hall
In fact it was close to a real fallout
Everything's under control
The speaker said with a serious smile
Behind his mask
He knew the truth
I'll bring new age of better ways
The TV preacher said
Just pay today
Pay today
World's dressed in black
On earth's judgments day
And I?
I know it can't go on
Forbidden signs increase
I'm sitting still at home
And watching
Born in a mourning hall
Pale clouds of feared the unborn child
Then it grew up with growing plans
Of suicide
Born in a mourning hall
Shadows left the fear inside
The Peter Pan will never reach
The other side
It's frightening
Exciting to sit at home
And watch the burning fields get
Hypnotized by the TV snake
Obey and work hard
And feel no anger
Just sympathy for the higher class
There's no chance in changing
Things
Cause I am
Born in a mourning hall
Silent cries ran out
When the cradle breaks
Broken dreams were unheard on
The other side
Born in a mourning hall
Shadows left the fear
In the new born child
The Peter Pan will never reach
The other side
[SOLO]
And I'm a part of a machine
A puppet on the strings
A rebel, once
Now I'm an old man
Oh, I know it can't go on
But the ghost called fear inside
Lames my tongue, my nerves,
My mind
Eternal fall down
Someone cut the strings off
I can't move
To get back courage
I've to face the truth
But not today
Goodbye
Born in a mourning hall
Caught inside a web called life
The only way to get out soon
I suicide
Born in a mourning hall
Pale souls built a frozen world
Infected brains
Will never reach the other side
The other side
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Song Analysis of "Façade"
Disturbed is a hard rock/metal band that is not new, but not old either. They were originally call Brawl before they obtained their new singer David Draiman. Draiman suggested that the band change their name to Disturbed because of the music they were playing and the way they felt. Disturbed has a mascot they call “The Guy”, which was fully animated by Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn. The band was encouraged and influenced by bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Judas Priest, according to singer David Draiman. Draiman also considers the band to be more classic metal than hard rock. These key parts of the band along with their feelings and day to day life experiences paint a dark, eye opening, and realistic picture of of events that could, are, or have happened. Disturbed’s song “Façade” contains a lot of imagery through the use of metaphors, hyperboles, and realistic suffering.
The line “Shattered doll…” shows a metaphor in which the women is compared to a shattered doll because of her physical appearance. The line “Oh so innocent and delicate” adds emphasis to her fragile nature and the idea of physical abuse. The fact that she is too “obstinate to let go” shows that she has trapped herself into an abusive relationship. The almost paradoxical part is that the song describes a shattered doll as being delicate because smaller pieces of a doll are a lot harder to brake, but a doll that has shattered must be delicate. This creates an image of a beaten woman that has a hopeless, almost suicidal, look, that is like a Cinderella, only without the wanting to get away.
The song states that the woman finds it “just too difficult and arduous to let go”. This is a hyperbole used to show that she can’t mentally or emotionally leave the man she loves, but she won’t allow her physical suffering to overcome that. “Her eyes encircled in black again”, shows the amount of repetition of her abuse and depicts an image of dark purple rings around the woman’s eyes. The line “Broken down, hurt again, it never ends”, shows the consistancy and seemingly endless nature of the woman’s beatings, but eventually the beatings would have to end. The description “Frightened and trembling”, creates an image of shakey knees and skittishness in the depicted woman, as well as wide sunken eyes. The sarcastic line “Did she fall again? An accident?”, is a representation of the excuses that many battered woman give, as well as the men they are with, out of embarrassment in order to mask the beatings that they receive. This makes me think of the battered women’s groups and articles about battered women because of their fear to stand up for themselves and go to these places, just like the woman in the song.
The biggest object of the song that I notice is the word Façade. The narrator talks about how the woman keeps trying to hold her relationship together and then asks her in his mind “How long until you walk away?”. The narrator also states the the woman cannot “disguise the fact that you’re in misery”. The word façade has to do with hiding something unpleasant with a frontal mask or showy representation. This is what the narrator is trying to convey with the line “The world will see that she’s had enough”. He is trying to say that she is struggling to stay afloat and is reaching her breaking point. Her suffering is going to eventually going to reach a climax, according to the narrator, in the line “She’ll find her freedom in killing him”. This is ironic because killing isn’t usually associated with freedom. This pinnacle of her suffering will break her façade and change her image into one of anger, hope, determination, hatred, strength, vengence, and understanding. It creates an image of the woman’s exact opposite and brings about images of a woman killing her husband. The narrator wants her to end her suffering by taking control and acting on her feelings of homocide, but in doing so she would add to the paradox of the songs title. She is hiding her suffering through a mask of love and a web of lies and is trying very hard to become happy, but she can only become happy by removing the very things that she protects so heavily, the source of her suffering. This makes sense and adds to her suffering by adding mental stress and instability as well as a way towards happiness and freedom.
Disrurbed does a magnificent job of expressing the suffering of an abused woman through poetic devices. The imagery throughout the song builds to its pinnacle then flips completely at the end. The song title of “Façade” is well used and is just like the bands mascot, The Guy. The Guy appears evil and dark, but this is just to mask his heroic nature and fight against evil with the despair that he holds and the suffering that the world has put him through. The classic metal bands would be proud of Disturbed in their fight against conformity and their dpictions of the evils of the world. David Draiman was right to have the band change its name to Disturbed. Brawl appears to show the iolent nature of the world, while Disturbed shows the emotional seed that the world eventually plants in all of us and feeds like cattle to the slaughter.
"Façade" : By Disturbed
No one knows just what has become of her
Shattered doll, desperate
Oh so innocent and delicate
But too damn obdurate
And obstinate to let go
Broken down, hurt again, it never ends
Frightened and trembling
Did she fall again? An accident?
Her eyes encircled in black again
I can't believe that she's still with him
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
Look inside see what has become of her
Hiding within again
Can she pick herself up again?
It's just too difficult and arduous to let go
Homicide flashes through her mind again
No more pain, take control
If he raises his hand again
She'll find her freedom in killing him
The world will see that she's had enough
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
From the look in your eyes
I know you bleed internally
For how long will you deny?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
From the look in your eyes
I know you bleed internally
Broken down, hurt again
It never ends
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Song Analysis of "Undying"
Demon Hunter is one of the best bands out there. The
In the lines,“Ever since the day that I was made I've been deciding the end
And I was made of wood and stone that won't diminish or burn”, the narrator hasn’t literally been deciding the end ever since the day that he was made, he is saying that he has been creating his life/destiny ever since he was born. Wood and stone both diminsh and burn respectively, but the narrator uses the line to show that he is using his faith, which can never be diminished, to guide his life and create his destiny. The lines, “So when the heavy hand of death is here to take me away I'll be the solid grip of time, forever holding my stay”, the narrator again makes a reference to his destiny. He states that when its his time to die, he will be stopped forever in time trying to evade death. This also holds a spiritual reference to the never ending life given to you after you resurrect and ascend to heaven when you have died. In both cases life is never ending and the narrator tries to continue to shape his destiny.
The chorus, “One final heart-break And blinding lights will guide our way Free us our blind state They will call us by our name (repeat) Undying”, says that just one more heart-break is enough to end our lives. The meaning behind the chorus exageration is to explain the ascendence into heaven when you die to be judged. We are freed from a blind state by being given omnisciency and are called “Undying” by the angels guiding us to heaven. The title, which is mentioned in the chorus, states that we are immortal and will live forever. The true meaning behind this is that we will live forever beyond death because death is the beginning of a new life in which we are perfect and death can no longer occur. The lines, “Without the blood of perfect life I know I'm nothing at all So now I reign forever hallowed in eternity's hand No man can shake me from the everlasting ground that I stand”, state that the narrator is nothing without “blood of perfect life”. He is saying that without the sacrifice of Jesus, he would not be able to ascend to heaven or repent because Christ’s pure blood would not have been shed for him and his debts left unpaid by Christ. The narrator says that he is reigning forever in eternity’s hand and that the ground he stands on is everlasting and unshakeable by any man. The meaning behind this is that the narrator is doing what Gos is telling him to do and instructing others to do so as well. God gives him a firm foundation to stand upon, the everlasting ground, and his supreme faith in God is unshakeable. He feels that he is reigning over those that have, or are, falling away from God, and that God has given him the power to help them. This shows the eternity of the hand in which he reigns and how he is immovable and like an “Untouchable”.
The song “Undying” by Demon Hunter shows the bands impressive use of hyperboles and their strong connection to christianity. They use references to the crucifiction of Jesus and the powers of God to amplify their music, and create several hyperboles to infuse theminto the song as a whole. Demon Hunter uses the hyperbole of immortality to connect the song and provide a backbone for their key message. Demon Hunter uses the metal music backround in their work because it provides a way for people to listen to metal music without having to listen to some of the garbage and profanity of modern metal. Don and Ryan Clark use their christian heritage to empower their music and get todays youth to listen to spiritually uplifting, church-like music without losing the fundamentals of the music itelf. They allow for a belnd of two opposite things, metal music and church, that is in harmony with itself and still very popular in the community of metal music as a whole. They knew how to create christain music that would prosper and they did it very well through hyperboles and well written poetry often unappreciated by most, but sung the same as any normal song would be, forever masking it’s true nature.
Demon Hunter
Undying
Ever since the day that I was made I've been deciding the end
And I was made of wood and stone that won't diminish or burn
So when the heavy hand of death is here to take me away
I'll be the solid grip of time, forever holding my stay
Nobody ever made a force that took a beating like me
I call the earth and every scum to come and try to fight me
Cus when I made the choice to live beyond the dirt that we tread
I felt the curse of mortal limit fall before it was said
Pre-chorus:
When this season ends
Chorus:
One final heart-break
And blinding lights will guide our way
Free us our blind state
They will call us by our name
(repeat)
Undying
Tearing through these days I find the tolerance to strive and push on
I know what lies beyond this life for me is already won
No one can take away the blood that covers over my fall
Without the blood of perfect life I know I'm nothing at all
So now I reign forever hallowed in eternity's hand
No man can shake me from the everlasting ground that I stand
(Pre-chorus)
(Chorus)
We are the ones who will still remain when all is laid to waste
We are the ones who, when angels cry, will see them face to face
We are the ones
(Pre-Chorus)
(Chorus)
Undying
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