Metal and Early music

[MLK]

comparison #1:
- machaut - gloria from the nostre dame mass
- timeghoul - boiling in the hourglass

comparison #2:
kyrie from the templar's chant
black sabbath - sabbath bloody sabbath

After this, […] present the Kyrie chant, whose liturgical function, at the beginning of the Mass, is to exalt divine majesty, the only force capable of remedying the weaknesses and imperfections of the human soul. Once a year, the Kyrie was sung outside the Mass, to open Vespers for Easter Day. […] But the Kyrie could also be employed to fortify the souls of the combatants when an army deployed in order of battle.

http://musicologicus.blogspot.com/2009/03/chant-of-templars.html


There are superficial reasons why metal compares so much to medieval music, to do with the lineage of the musical language it uses (metal started when Sabbath starting imitating horror movie music clichés - which themselves relied on a lot of 'medievally' sounding devices, because they sound 'creepy' to modern ears). More fundamentally, metal shares a dark but reverent worldview and mythic/allegoric way of describing life which is much more at home in the ancient world than it is modernity.

[Eleison]

I have thought for some time that the relationship between metal and medieval music is more significant than the relationship between metal and classical music.  Classical music can only lend to metal a dramatic structure, but the spirit of classical music is too far removed from metal for there to be a significant dialogue between the two.  Medieval and (some) renaissance music on the other hand is closer to metal in its evocative quality.  The ambiance of medieval Christianity is surprisingly close to metal.

[Veritas]

Early music -> Classical Music

Metal music ->

[aquarius]

Early music -> Classical Music

Metal music ->

only 1% of metal is trying to figure that out these days.

[Veritas]

We needn't rush things; we're still figuring out the implications of what we've developed thus far.

[Annihilation]

The classic chant is Dies Irae (Trans. "Day of Wrath"). It was hip for Romantic composers to insert this into their "darker" pieces.

Day of wrath, day that
will dissolve the world into burning coals,
as David bore witness with the Sibyl.

How great a tremor is to be,
when the judge is to come
briskly shattering every (grave).

A trumpet sounding an astonishing sound
through the tombs of the region
drives all (men) before the throne.

Death will be stunned and (so) will Nature,
when arises (man) the creature
responding to the One judging. [...]

[Annihilation]

The beginning of Asphyx's epic Initiation into the Ossuary (off the s/t) features an excerpt of unidentified chant over a drumless introductory riff.