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The Story behind
Bedlam’s ‘Mounes Mors’ Unholy Terror |
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Before I could tell the story behind this song, I had to listen to it again about ten times and cast my memory back a few years ago. Sure, five years isn’t a big deal to most people, but so much has happened since then that it was truly a ‘trip down memory lane’ for me. Maybe a little bit about the lyrics first. Sure, at first glance, the title ‘the Dead Ones’ makes you think “Woo Hoo another metal song about senseless blood and guts and gore… etc etc”. And yes, metal songs, particularly in the death metal genre, are like that. But not this one. I wrote 99% of Bedlam’s lyrics, and while I was busy with the music to Mounes Mors, I knew I wanted to do something different with this song. I wanted to tell a story (sure, a macabre one, but still a story). It was about that time (mid-‘97) that I read the short story called “The Dead Time” by JG Ballard for my first year English class. This story totally gripped me and I wanted to tell it over to others too. Instant lyrics. Briefly, it tells the story of a young WWII Prisoner of War who, just as the war came to an end, is told by Japanese guards that his last task before he can go free is to, together with another driver, take war victims to a nearby protestant cemetery with a truck. But this turns into a surreal journey during which he identifies with the corpses to such an extent that he sees himself as their saviour – that his death would bring them life. And it just gets weirder from there. The music for the song was entirely my creation, with the (rather ironic) exception of the bass intro – this was actually a guitar intro to a song we stopped playing a while before then. I thought it would suit the song so I just borrowed it – hey, there is no law that says you can’t steal from yourself! The structure of the song was very formulaic: verse – chorus – verse – chorus – interlude – bridge – interlude – bridge –verse – chorus - fade – something I learnt from primarily 80s LA rock and always liked. The feel I tried to create with the overall song was something eerie without going all “Black Sabbath dark” (not that there is anything wrong with Sab of course!). So, to tone down the gloom the song was played faster than I anticipated at first. Also, the second guitarist added a few rock-type licks – mainly hammer-ons and some pitch harmonics (see Mötley Crüe, LA Guns) - which, together with the drums, made the song just a little more ‘up-beat’. I would have enjoyed a ripper of a guitar solo – something between Slayer, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest – somewhere in the song, still don’t know why we didn’t do that. Must have been a lazy guitarist! (note to self, ask Martin if any guitarists or drummers read this, just for future reference) The exception to this gloom-meets-rock feel is the bridge, where I tried to create a deadly full-frontal death/thrash metal attack, complete with what the ‘producer’ of our e.p called ‘a barking vocal’. I myself liked the description ‘aggressive growls’ for my vocal assault here, but I suppose barking will have to do. Point is, I wanted to rip apart the general feel of the song with an element that would convey fear and uncertainty that turns into anticipation and self-glorification – something I picked up from the story. I don’t know if I succeeded, as I am yet to meet another person that actually read the story and likes my kind of music! But anyway, who says metalheads don’t think all metaphorical when they write? Brief note on the interlude – I actually figured out the main line (shadowed by the bass) about five minutes after learning the first few bars to Beethoven’s Pathetique. Thanks Ludwig. Where I came up with the second guitar’s line, I do not know (so if I ripped off someone that is still alive, please don’t tell them!). Always was rather proud of that though, I thought it blended nicely and re-introduced the eerie element before all hell broke loose in the bridge. Now, to get to the bass. I suppose it would be accurate to say that I shadowed the guitar throughout the song, with a few exceptions. This kinda pisses me off, seeing as I wrote the guitar parts on the bass! But anyway, I felt that my bass down there would give the second guitarist more freedom to play on higher octaves and to put in more rings and licks, and whatever other little tricks they woo drummers and ourselves with. I also included a few licks derived from basic major scales, focussing on higher octaves and fifths, just to make it a little more interesting on the recording. When we played live, I usually restricted these kind of ‘frills’ to parts of songs where there was no vocal, as I didn’t want to sacrifice the intensity of either parts of my performance for another (besides, the bass is always too soft to hear it anyway!). But the studio made it possible to actually play the bass a little more than usual. So, that’s just a few notes on what went into the creation of the little song I decided to call Mounes Mors and confuse everyone including myself. I really liked performing this song live, it had a lot of energy, and I got to show off just how vicious I could make my voice sound (see ‘bridge’) - things I don’t feel the production picked up. Nevertheless, if you, after all of this, actually still want to hear the song, or, alternatively, you just want to read the story to see if I was lying, talk to Martin and we’ll organise something. Until then, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to challenge sanity every chance you get. |
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Title: Mounes Mors Artist: Bedlam Musicians: Floris du Toit, Leon Grobler, Rudi Greffrath & Danie Burger Description: 4 track Demo Album Length: 14:26 Format: CD Titles of Tracks 1. Styx 2. Wicked Uxor 3. Mounes Mors 4. Closed Eyes |
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