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mirageasylum
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:33 pm
Posts: 85
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:28 am 
 

Upon reading about Murnau and his artistic output I've found an interesting image, supposedly a poster (?) for a lost film of his called Der Janus-Kopf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Head_of_Janus):

Image

I must say it is probably the earliest example of corpse-paint I know of. I does look like a self-drawn demo tape cover a bit, with the facial expression hinting at DSBM :). And the skeletal hand? Nice.

Anyway I've been interesed in make-up that is similar to corpse-paint being used outside of (and especially before) BM. But things that actually resemble it closely, e.g. make-up of the Königin der Nacht in some versions of Die Zauberflöte would, I think, be a bad example.

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Wyrmbane
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:30 am
Posts: 222
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:48 pm 
 

In the rock world you have the usual Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper and Kiss as pioneers. If you are going outside of music, then I think it's probably, as warpaint, old Amerindian and Viking warriors.

Edit: In the world of circus/theatre/early films, I don't think it is that unusual to find clown/mime make-up that is close to "corpse-paint".

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joppek
Veteran

Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:36 am
Posts: 2547
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:56 pm 
 

i'm pretty sure you'll find similar stuff in african tribal history with voodoo practices etc. (i don't actually know shit about that stuff; just going by the impression western popular media has left me with)
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Zodijackyl
63 Axe Handles High

Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:39 pm
Posts: 7601
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:57 pm 
 

There are a lot of traditions involving death, it's not like it's something new that came from black metal. People have costumed themselves as lots of things for a long time. Day of the dead face paint has generally been more colorful and complex than corpsepaint, but it hasn't always been that fancy, and black/white isn't uncommon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_dead

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ThrashingTheRedemer
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:50 am
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:02 pm 
 

Perhaps these two threads can be merged?
http://www.metal-archives.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=100534

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Desperta_Ferro
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 6:45 am
Posts: 715
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:24 pm 
 

Vikings didn't really used it, it was more of a celtic/germanic thing (and even "celt" it's more of a catch-all phrase, some celts did it and some not). When vikings came, warpaint was already "out of fashion" for a long time. Even when Caesar arrived to Britain, the tradition of using blue paint for war was only preserved there, in the rest of Europe it had died out. Braveheart styled warpaint it's just a myth, it never really existed (it looks cool tho).

The romans did it too. A triumphant general would paint his face red to represent Jupiter's face.

Anyways, emphasizing facial features for theatrical purposes it's nothing new at all. Scary clowns and all. Hell, take the colours off the Joker and what you have is black metal corpse paint.

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DaBuddha
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:30 pm
Posts: 1236
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:54 pm 
 

I've always thought that corpse paint, or even war paint and general makeup, is a very powerful expression, one which should not be taken lightly. This is why I won't stop wearing paint live or in band pics.
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Atropus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:02 pm
Posts: 679
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:20 pm 
 

The goth/deathrock scene was doing that kind of black n white "corpse" makeup long before Norwegian black metal was a blip on the radar.

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mirageasylum
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:33 pm
Posts: 85
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:44 am 
 

Wyrmbane wrote:
old Amerindian warriors


Image

Thank you, that's a great example.

joppek wrote:
i'm pretty sure you'll find similar stuff in african tribal history with voodoo practices etc. (i don't actually know shit about that stuff; just going by the impression western popular media has left me with)


Extremely hard to say, since the "true" Voodoo practitioners are all but extinct and what remains is a clusterfuck of christendom and old african beliefs being practitioned mainly by Haitians. But Yeah, Baron Samedi seems to be into the whole corpse-paint idea :).

Zodijackyl wrote:
There are a lot of traditions involving death, it's not like it's something new that came from black metal. People have costumed themselves as lots of things for a long time. Day of the dead face paint has generally been more colorful and complex than corpsepaint, but it hasn't always been that fancy, and black/white isn't uncommon.


Naturally. Day of the dead might be a good example. The article you provided reads that there are European equivalents of day of the dead - is it possible that e.g. pagans painted themselves like that on e.g. Walpurgis Night or some other festival?

ThrashingTheRedemer wrote:
Perhaps these two threads can be merged?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=100534


Yeah, maybe they should be. Sorry for starting a thread so similar to the one you mentioned.

Desperta_Ferro wrote:
The romans did it too. A triumphant general would paint his face red to represent Jupiter's face.


Didn't realize how metal those guys were :).

Image

DaBuddha wrote:
I've always thought that corpse paint, or even war paint and general makeup, is a very powerful expression, one which should not be taken lightly. This is why I won't stop wearing paint live or in band pics.


I agree 100%. It is sometimes misused as well as misinterpreted, though.

Atropus wrote:
The goth/deathrock scene was doing that kind of black n white "corpse" makeup long before Norwegian black metal was a blip on the radar.


Any examples?

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