Black metal botanist

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OK. I admit it. I'm out of it. I know about (but don't enjoy) heavy metal, but I'd never heard about black metal until a graduate student mentioned it to me last week and sent along this link. Not only is there a genre of rock known as black metal,1 but Botanist is one of its practitioners. Not a botanist, though Botanist may be a botanist. Botanist is the artist's name.

I listened to a bit of A rose from the dead, and I can't claim to like it.2 I am pleased to see that in an artist takes botany seriously. The titles of his songs include "Convolvulus altheoides", "Quercus lamellosa", "Echinocereus", "Monstera's lair", "Sanguinaria", "Dodecatheon", "Asclepias currasavica", "Trillium recurvatum", "Cypripedium", and "Nephrolepsis". Botanist knows his plants. Here are the lyrics to "Nephrolepsis".

Nephrolepsis

Sword fern
Thriving in humid oppression
Lomariopsidaceae

Alternate pinnae leaflets
Deltoid fronds serrated edge
Damocles sword of green
Above your head doomlike dangles

Even if you don't care for black metal, you'll have to admit that's pretty impressive. When was the last time you heard "Lomariopsidaceae" or "deltoid fronds" in a rock song?

Head over to NPR if you'd like to hear A rose from the dead.



1"[A]n extreme subgenre of heavy metal music [featuring]... =fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure" according to Wikipedia.
2I can't even claim to understand the lyrics. Heck, it took me awhile to realize that there even were lyrics.

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This page contains a single entry by Kent published on January 10, 2012 6:00 AM.

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