Til Opalsøens Dyb ‘To the Depths of Opal Lake’: On Bereavement, Locality, and Intimacy in Danish Black Metal Lyrics by Orm
Multilingual Metal Music: Sociocultural, Linguistic and Literary Perspectives on Heavy Metal Lyrics
ISBN: 978-1-83909-949-6, eISBN: 978-1-83909-948-9
Publication date: 18 December 2020
Abstract
Through the prism of intimacy, this chapter discusses how experiences of pain and loss in relation to bereavement by suicide is expressed in the black metal music and lyrics by Danish band Orm. Orm's 2019-album Ir ‘verdigris’, entangles the emotional complex and personal relations to the local, natural surroundings of the island Bornholm, including a named tree and lake, as well as local folklore and Norse mythology. As part of fieldwork, the author muddles with intimacy to define an approach sensitive enough to deal with strong and unspeakable emotions, including the idea of cultural intimacy and public embarrassment related to the issue of suicide. The author also reflects on how my participation in the pain of others informs the interpretation. The chapter suggests that Orm's black metal is doing important pain work, opening to listeners a path towards disembarrassment.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The author wants to express his gratitude to Orm for their friendship, participation in his research and for permission to use the lyrics and illustrations. Warm thanks to his colleagues M. Selim Yavuz and Karen Louise Grova S⊘ilen for literature suggestions and their interest in his project. Finally, the author wants to thank the three editors of this volume for their generous suggestions, critical comments, and not least their repeated encouragement to contribute to this volume in a rather dark period of his life.
Citation
Lind, T.T. (2020), "
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited