musikwiese. (Posts about heavy metal.)https://musikwiese.fontein.de/style/heavy-metal.atom2019-11-17T10:40:27ZfelixNikolathe black league.https://musikwiese.fontein.de/2011/01/15/the-black-league/2011-01-15T00:05:42+01:002011-01-15T00:05:42+01:00felix<div><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_League">the black league</a> is a finnish band founded by the ex-<i>sentenced</i> singer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taneli_Jarva">taneli jarva</a>. they started as a doom metal act, and shifted more and more in the direction of a mixture of metal and rock’n'roll.<br>
their first album, <i>ichor</i>, is the <i>the black league</i> album i like most – probably because it’s their doomiest one, and it contains my most favourite song: <i>ozymandias</i>, a song dedicated to the poem <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias">ozymandias</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley">percy bysshe shelley</a> (his wife wrote <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein">frankenstein</a>):</p>
<blockquote><p class="quote">i met a traveller from an antique land<br>
who said: two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br>
stand in the desert. near them, on the sand,<br>
half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown<br>
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command<br>
tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br>
which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br>
the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.<br>
and on the pedestal these words appear:<br>
<i>‘my name is ozymandias, king of kings:</i><br>
<i>look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’</i><br>
nothing beside remains. round the decay<br>
of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare<br>
the lone and level sands stretch far away.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>the song is slow, dark, most of it being rather calm, while the recitation of the spoken words is heavy, powerful:</p>
<div class="youtube"><div class="youtube-disclaimer">[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TPEPNdBieQ">this link</a> to watch the video at youtube.]]</div></div>
<p>another song from that album i like a lot is <i>night on earth</i> (not related to the movie of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_On_Earth">same name</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jarmusch">jim jarmusch</a>, which i also like a lot).</p>
<div class="youtube"><div class="youtube-disclaimer">[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWJfWrug0qw">this link</a> to watch the video at youtube.]]</div></div>
<p>a third song from the album is <i>winter wind sings</i>, a dark balad encompanied with a strange video… “when you cry winter winds sing straight to my heart…”</p>
<div class="youtube"><div class="youtube-disclaimer">[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moTwTK_NT3Q">this link</a> to watch the video at youtube.]]</div></div>
<p>finally, here’s a newer piece of the band, featured on their <a href="http://www.theblackleague.fi/">homepage</a> at some point. it’s a somewhat ironic video about a concert which is not the biggest success. see for yourself:</p>
<div class="youtube"><div class="youtube-disclaimer">[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWBlBfsIY0">this link</a> to watch the video at youtube.]]</div></div></div>