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| MAR-duck? MAR-duke? Mar-DUKE? by Cosmo Lee |
What metal names can’t you pronounce?
Let’s help each other out. Use English words and syllables to denote pronunciation, with all caps for syllabic stress. For example, Metallica’s bassist is Robert True-HEE-yo. Got it? Good. I’ve listed some names below that perpetually stump me. Can you help?
- – -
Celtic Frost
SELL-tik or KELL-tik?
Dan Swanö
SWAIN-oh? SWAN-oh? Swan-OOH?
Jørgen
There are a lot of metal guys named Jørgen. How do you pronounce the o with the slash through it?
Also, is the J a Y sound, i.e., Jens Kidman = YENZ Kidman?
Marduk
MAR-duck? MAR-duke? Mar-DUKE?
Mieszko Talarczyk
One of my all-time heroes, and I still have no idea how to say his name.
Mikael Åkerfeldt
We Yanks say “Michael ACK-er-FELT.” Is this right?
Every time I see that A with the little circle above it, I think of the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels logo.
Peter T
Related posts:
meesh-ko ta-lar-chick
that one i know.
I say KELL-tik Frost but once I saw some Swiss blues-punk guy playing at a bar and I was drunk and obnoxious and kept on shouting at him to play a Celtic Frost cover (he's Swiss so he must naturally take pride in them being one of the few worthwhile things that his country has produced culturally) and after the show we were talking about it and he pronounced it SELL-tik. So maybe he's right by virtue of being Swiss? I still pronounce it KELL-tic because it sounds harder.
Dude didn't play a cover in any case.
The is a video of a surly Tom Warrior being interviewed – first question "how do you say it?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el4uQBQs9Jw
Marduk vocalist Daniel "Mortuus" Rosten said Mar-DUKE onstage.
yer-gen
HTH
I'll give it a shot.
Always have said Mar-duck, A (long sound)-ker-felt, Swan O))), Mees-ko Ta-lar-check.
What about "Drudkh"? I say, Drood- keh (almost two syllables).
The main man from Abruptum did us all a favor with "It".
Amesoeurs! Little help here?
When I met LSK from Secrets of the Moon (who happens to be French) when they came through Kansas City she tried to tell me how to say "Amesoeurs" and I just couldn't get it right…I still am not quite sure how to say it without sounding like a moron.
How the fuck do you pronounce "Akercocke"?
I've heard Ack-ur-cock-ay, which seems ridiculous for a british band.
It is Mar-DUKE. That's how the band pronounced it when I saw them live, and that's how Mike Hill said they pronounced it when Tombs opened for them.
Jess is gonna be pissed! She was thinking of this as a podcast idea….hahaha
I am not sure if you heard this floating around Cosmo or Dave, but at the D666 show a lot of people pronounce the Chasm incorrectly. Rather than the Kazm, they say the Ch-asm . . .i hope i got that right (The Chasm with the Ch like children).
I say Mar-duke, Aye-ker-cock, Drew-dik-uh.
What about Antaeus, is it An-tee-us or An-tay-us? haha
Amesoeurs would be either am-SIR or am-a-SIR, depending on how much poetic effect you want to give it.
Best English equivalent of J
Scandinavian
What about Sepultura? I always say Seh-pull-TOO-ruh since it sounds more spanish-like and I speak a bit of spanish. I constantly hear people say Seh-PULL-too-rah though
Amesoeurs is a peculiar French word I'd never heard before (meaning "soul mates" according to Neige), so I always just wing it and go with "am-soeur", like dhd describes above. Soft French vowel sounds, too, *not* like the English pronunciation of like, say, "ham sir".
Max Cavalera says Seh-pull-TOO-rah so that would be correct.
Celtic Frost have said both Selltick and Keltick throughout their careers. I picked up on Selltick from Jello Biafra's High priest of harmful matter LP when he mentions H. R. Giger's credentials.
Marduk is Mawr-duke.
To make Mieszko Talarczkyk make sense, just edit out the crazy letters. Miesko Talarchick.
Gwynbleidd, anyone? Is the 'w' a vowel sound? Is the 'y' a vowel sound? Do they form a diphthong? Is the doubled 'd' significant?
It looks half-Welsh/half-German, but I think it's actually Polish?
Seltic or Keltic according to mood (just like Tom Warrior)
I don't have to pronounce Swan
Also, I asked a friend of mine called Berian who is Welsh on Gwynbleidd, Matt. This is what he had to say:
"Well it means white wolves, in case they didn't know. It's pronounced gwin bley-dd. The double d is not something I can really explain though, you really need to hear it pronounced."
And uploaded this little soundclip of him saying it for further help.
http://www.agagames.com/crap/gwyn_bleidd.mp3
Wow, thanks Helm! Far beyond the call of duty…
Gwynbleidd's publicist roughly corroborates this: "Gwin-blade"
I know everybody is into Amesoeurs but I can't get past their stupid name. It's probably far better if you don't speak French.
I've heard Akercocke pronounced by the band themselves as "Ack – er – cock – err"
I interview Martin and Tom in spring 2007 and they said it was KEL-tik.
You are all wrong about Drudkh. A few years ago, I emailed Alex Kurtagic (head of Supernal Music, their label before signing with Season of Mist) to ask about this, and his response was "Drood-hhh."
If someone has heard another pronunciation from a person more intimately associated with the band than Mr. Kurtagic, please tell me.
Also, Akercocke = Ak-er-cock-uh. If the last syllable sounds like an "er" to you when the band themselves say it, then I would contend that it's simply a peculiarity of their accent, and something you should be wary of over-pronouncing. The intention is for the last syllable to be "uh".
Finally, those who are saying it's "Mar-DUKE" are incorrect. The emphasis is on the first syllable, not the second– MAR-duke. You retards.
Since "Marduk" is the name of a Mesopotamian god, this name should be pronunced "mardook" [marduk].
At least, this is how French people used to hear Arabic/Semitic linguages would pronunce it.
About "Amesoeurs" (which means Soulsisters), I think it would be pronunced "am sir" [amsoer]
Last thing, I read someone mentionning Antaeus. This name looking like a Latin word, I would suggest the pronunciation "anta
I really ought to be "kell-tic"; it's only "sell-tic" when it's the basketball team.
Because evidently Bostonians are really bad with… er… Celts.
Many thanks, BM and others, for the Scandinavian lessons.
Digby from Earache says this about Akercocke:
Ak-ker-COCK-er
Wrath from Averse Sefira says this about Antaeus – and also clears up confusion regarding how to say "Averse Sefira":
An-tay-us – it's a Greek name, so that would be the correct emphasis. That's also how the band says it. And it's Averse Se-fear-ah, not Se-FIRE-ah
Help with these?
Xasthur
Negur? Bunget
Attila Csihar
Drudkh
Vried
Since I rarely discuss bands with flesh 'n' blood people, I never have reason to say these bands out loud. In the rare instances that I do, I find it trips me up really quickly. So have you heard of this band called… um… Neg-um-er-aaa bung…bunj..et..ehh? Er whatever?
Vreid rhymes with "fried".
Ass
Xasthur = ZASS-ther
Attila Csihar = SHEE-har
Ass
You guise will be surprised to hear that Ass
I'd expect Xasthur to be pronounced HASTUR, like the Lovecraftean deity, but whatever. ZASS-ther sounds really stupid if you're familiar with the reference point but it doesn't really matter because I won't have to talk about Xasthur with anyone ever.
The pronounciation of Peter T
Mieszko Talarczyk = MYESH-koh tah-LARR-chik
with "rolled r", like in Polish or Spanish or Italian – but if you get "r" wrong but accents right it will be far better than what most English speakers get.
On the subject of Mikael
The Xasthur guy actually published a pronunciation guide on his blog.
Thanks, Brendan.
According to that blog:
After all these years I thought I'd give the proper pronunciation of Xasthur, at least in my world. There are a couple different ways:
* Zas-ter (rhyming with disaster)
* Zas-toor or Zas-tour
* The H is silent in both
Since Lovecraft never spelled Hastur with an X, I failed to make that connection (Perhaps that was a Derleth spelling). A Google search revealed this interview snippet:
"Maelstrom: How did you come up with the name Xasthur?
Malefic: I combined two names that interested me, Xenaoth and Xastur, and came up with Xasthur somehow.
Maelstrom: Where did you get those names? Are they just black metal like names that you liked?
Malefic: The name Xenaoth is a higher celestial spirit. I used to know this middle aged lady who studied Santeria and saw that name in a book of hers that I looked at. Xastur is from the typical Necronomicon paperback, which many other bands are guilty of taking their names from, haha. Xastur is a demoness who kills people in their sleep."
from: http://www.maelstrom.nu/ezine/interview_iss11_130.php
I'm unfamiliar with the source so take it for what it's worth.
Amesoeurs
coming from a guy who's first language is French, you pronounce it
Chthonic(I spent five years in Taiwan, seen them live a few times and still don't know how to say their "romanised" name).
Dimmu Borgir
According to a bevy of Blabbermouth Commentors, Dimmu Borgir is pronounced: Dummy Burger.
Is Cthonic a portmanteau of Cthulhu and something else? If so, it's most likely following the Lovecraftian tradition of being unpronounceable. In other words: the word was originally produced by mouths so alien that it is impossible for the human mouth to pronounce. A factor we are possibly ignoring concerning the myriad Lovecraftian bands.
Chthonic: Ka-tonic
The correct pronunciation of Chthonic is THON-ick, according to their MySpace page.
Preferably though, I still pronounce it as KA-thonic, because I feel it sounds better coming out. Haha.
both Seltic or Keltic are right to pronounce…