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ravagingthemassacred
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 3:30 am
Posts: 160
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:17 pm 
 

Kind of a simple question, but I've been puzzling over it. Maybe it'll be obvious to someone else. In "Lord Abortion" what word/phrase is being referenced in this line:

"I should compare them
To a warm Summer's day
But to the letter, it is better
To [liken] their names to a grave"

so to the letter, the mystery word/phrase that describes his victims is closer to "grave" than "day" or maybe "warm summer's day". What is it?

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Poisonfume
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:26 pm
Posts: 1227
Location: Greece
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:44 pm 
 

I know Dani is an excellent lyricist, but don't think that every single line he writes needs to have some deeper meaning. I have come across many lines that just CAN'T mean anything significant. Actually, most of his lyrics fall into that category.

I guess what he's trying to say in a nutshell is he's happier with the idea of his victims dead and buried than the pleasant aspects of sexual gratification that he likens to a 'warm summer's day'
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CoF
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:25 pm
Posts: 513
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:03 pm 
 

It's "lichen", not "liken".
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Razakel
Nekroprince

Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:36 pm
Posts: 6232
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:36 pm 
 

Also seems to be a reference to Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, the first two lines of which are:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate

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deathsane
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 1:10 pm
Posts: 83
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:10 am 
 

ravagingthemassacred wrote:
so to the letter, the mystery word/phrase that describes his victims is closer to "grave" than "day" or maybe "warm summer's day". What is it?

Idiom:
to the letter
To the last detail; exactly: followed instructions to the letter.

Not much of a mystery. Especially if you're on the internet and able to use google.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
Posts: 9311
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:17 am 
 

deathsane wrote:
ravagingthemassacred wrote:
so to the letter, the mystery word/phrase that describes his victims is closer to "grave" than "day" or maybe "warm summer's day". What is it?

Idiom:
to the letter
To the last detail; exactly: followed instructions to the letter.

Not much of a mystery. Especially if you're on the internet and
able to use google.


1.
This internet trend of basically saying, "duuuh, there's such a thing as Google, you know; it is the answer to all your problems!" is really fucking annoying, hardly fosters discussion or disparate interpretations, etc.

2.
is it absolutely necessary for you to be such a douche?
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deathsane
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 1:10 pm
Posts: 83
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 11:03 am 
 

Abominatrix wrote:
deathsane wrote:
Idiom:
to the letter
To the last detail; exactly: followed instructions to the letter.

Not much of a mystery. Especially if you're on the internet and
able to use google.


1.
This internet trend of basically saying, "duuuh, there's such a thing as Google, you know; it is the answer to all your problems!" is really fucking annoying, hardly fosters discussion or disparate interpretations, etc.

2.
is it absolutely necessary for you to be such a douche?

1. Not quite as annoying as creating a thread looking for the meaning of a phrase that could've been found much quicker using Google though.

2. No, not really. Didn't think I was, actually.

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ForNaught
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:37 pm
Posts: 1093
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 8:51 am 
 

Here's my take, longer and more analytical than the lyric deserves, because I am bored* in work:
"I should compare them
To a warm summer's day
But to the letter, it is better
To lichen their names to a grave"

Lines 1 and 2, as noted are a reference to one of Shakespeare's best-known sonnets. The character is also saying that he knows in theory that he should be treating (and perhaps more importantly at this stage, viewing) women (i.e. his victims) with love and traditional, stereotypical romance and romantic thoughts.

Lines 3 and 4 present a couple of double meanings, which are quite clever on first appraisal but unfortunately don't scan all that well. "To the letter" is used both to refer to the lettering on a headstone, and to mean something like "but more accurately for me" which doesn't actually work all that well since "to the letter" normally means step-by-step and precisely. This also doesn't really fit with the song's chaotic and messy serial killer. I think it's just included because it rhymes. A number of verses in the song feature this exact same rhyming pattern and it was included here to continue the pattern despite not really working.

Next- "it is better to lichen their names to a grave". First there's the pun-- lichen often grows on older gravestones and is a common feature in old graveyards. Secondly, it sounds like** "it is better to liken their names to a grave". To liken something to something else means to compare the things descriptively-- a callback to the "compare them" lyric. So he's saying "compare their names to a grave". This one also doesn't quite scan for me. It works in the literal meaning-- to write the deceased's name on a headstone. The alternate meaning is trickier though. I think this just means that the character finds more satisfaction in thinking of a woman as a decaying, mouldering grave than something commonly considered more pleasant. Essentially an inversion of the clichéd view of women as pleasant and desirable. He still finds them desirable, but not in the warm, sunny way of a summer's day, but in the cold, decaying way of a grave. This is "better" for the character, i.e. he finds it a more satisfying fantasy and hence that is what he tries to enact. This all seems kind of obvious but the lyric doesn't strictly say it due to some clumsiness in shoehorning in the double meanings so I've chosen to infer a lot. I don't think any of it is too controversial given the context.

Two of the main themes of the song are a) that the character knows that what he is doing is wrong, but cannot help himself, and b) a kind of twisted romanticism, with many traditional romantic themes in various styles essentially perverted to fit the character's sadistic and necrophiliac traits. Both of these are evident in this verse. The twisted romance idea infuses it, of course. Secondly the first two lines show full awareness of what the "standard" view of women is (although the fact that it comes from poetry implies that he may have very little real-world experience of women). The second two, however, present his preferred view-- corpses to be. The remorse that flits in and out of some of the lyrics is not present here. The lyrics can be summarised as "For most people, women are seen this way. For me, it's this other way."

In conclusion I would say that although this seems like a clever lyric at first it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Unfortunately Dani seems to have gone for the puns rather than crafting a lyric that is internally cohesive and makes sense...

* Very. Veryveryvery.
**Actually it sounds like both, interchangeably, which is the point, but the official lyric is "lichen".
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Poisonfume
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:26 pm
Posts: 1227
Location: Greece
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 2:36 pm 
 

ForNaught wrote:
In conclusion I would say that although this seems like a clever lyric at first it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Unfortunately Dani seems to have gone for the puns rather than crafting a lyric that is internally cohesive and makes sense...


Indeed. This is the case for most of his lyrics. Even the earlier ones.
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iAmDisturbed
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 10:31 am
Posts: 493
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:28 am 
 

"I should compare them
To a warm summer's day
But to the letter, it is better
To lichen their names to a grave"
=
"I should be thoughtful and considerate
And think along more poetic lines
But I have found it better
To mutilate any fondness I may have gathered"
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