NUNS, NUDITY, AND BLACK METAL.
Okay, now that I have your attention:
I have the kind of mind that’s made happy by serendipitous connections between random occurrences. Maybe it’s a deep-rooted desire for order in the chaos of life. Or maybe I’m just easily made happy. Either way, within a 24-hour period I discovered two new music videos by two somewhat out-of-phase black metal bands that involved . . . nuns and nudity.
Let’s be clear: I do not fantasize about nude nuns. No way, no how. Not me. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence. Plus, these aren’t your average nuns. And this isn’t your typical black metal either.
The first clip is a new single by our favorite Ukrainian party animals, Semargl. They may not be TRVE, but damn, they know how to get you shakin’ your booty. The second clip is from a New York horde called Imperial Triumphant. The song featured in their blood-drenched video is closer to BM-standard, but it also has some rock-the-fuck-out hooks in it and cello riffing. Granted, it’s challenging to focus on the music when your mind is distracted by what’s happening on-screen, but I liked both songs.
A word of “warning”: I’m not kidding about the nudity. Be careful about who’s peering over your shoulder when you watch these.
SEMARGL
At some point since the last time I checked, Semargl have started revamping their official web site (though it’s mainly still under construction) and adopted new “branding”: They now call their music “Ukrainian/Norwegian Satanic Pop Metal”. I can’t really improve on that descriptive.
Their new digital single is called “Tak, Kurwa (Yes Bitch)”. According to the band: “Kurwa means bitch, whore on Polish and Ukrainian. ‘Tak, Kurwa’ is play of words which also has different meaning but in terms of nun we chose meaning ‘Yes Bitch’.This single is dedicated to polish fans of Semargl.” Helpfully, the band have also provided the names of the girls in the video: Marianna, Anna, Olga, Jess, Irena, Dara.
All you metal connoisseurs out there, don’t be hating on me because I write about Semargl so often at NCS (you can find more of their videos on NCS by entering their name in the Search box on this page). I just trying to have some fun.
Here’s the Semargl video:
For more info about Semargl, here is their official site, with links to lots more of their net pages. I assume “Tak, Kurwa” will be available on iTunes and similar platforms eventually, but I haven’t seen it yet.
UPDATE: We’ve swapped messages with Semargl this morning and have now learned that the digital single of “Tak, Kurwa (Yes, Bitch)” will be available for free download at the band’s web site beginning on March 18. Semargl also emphasized that they are NOT a black metal band – their genre is indeed Satanic Pop Metal. Quite correct, as you can hear for yourselves from this song. Also, I did cheat a bit in my description of the video, since the nun is actually not nude. I like to think of this as “literary license”.
IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT
The same day that I saw that Semargl video, I got an e-mail from this unsigned New York band with a link to their new video. I wrote earlier that Imperial Triumphant are not your typical black metal band. For one thing, as you’ll see in the video, one of the bandmembers (Amarok) is a cellist, who can both riff with it a/la Apocalyptica and also use it to create chamber-music-style interludes. The other members of the band are Illya (vox and guitars) and Naargryl (bass and backing vocals). Drum credits go to session musician Alexsandr.
The song featured in this video is called “Stormgod” and it appears on an EP the band released last September called Obeisance. The lyrics are drawn in large part from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “The Challenge of Thor”, which is a very metal poem that I had never read before researching this post. It includes these lines, the middle two of which are in the song lyrics:
Force rules the world still,
Has ruled it, shall rule it;
Meekness is weakness,
Strength is triumphant,
Over the whole earth
Still is it Thor’s Day!
As a statement of fact, it’s hard to argue with that.
The song itself is an offering of seething, Bathory-style black metal — with that classical interlude, finished off with a clean, choral vocal in Latin — and some very catchy riffing. The video imagery is completely unconnected to the lyrical content of the song, the band opting instead for scenes of demonic possession, consumption of bleeding hearts, gore-drench nudity, and general evilness. Here you go:
Imperial Triumphant – Stormgod from Imperial Triumphant on Vimeo
You can download the Obeisance EP for a $5 payment (or more) on Imperial Triumphant’s Bandcamp page (here). For more info about the band, their Facebook page is at this location.
39 Responses to “NUNS IN THE NUDE”
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It doesn’t get any better than blood drenched nudity. The Imperial Triumphant vid made me think of Lair of the Minotaur’s War Metal Battle Master vid NSFW! http://deathmetalbaboon.com/lair-of-the-minotaur-war-metal-battle-master though the second half is the goods.
And for blood, nudity, drug use and general depravity, Marilyn Manson’s (S)aint NSFW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609GIy221KM&feature=related Some may think that it’s wrong, but I love that sick, twisted mother fucker.
I don’t care what anyone says, Manson is still one of the best rock singers of our generation.
I totally agree. A true ROCK STAR. He writes some deep shit, not so much in the singles, but some very thought provoking ideas come through in the course of an album.
Manson is a fucking faggot. He knows nothing of metal. At least these underground bands have fucking brutality.
Just… wow.
That’s why he’s a ROCK STAR. Sure he’s not brutal, but he never said he was. He’s an entertainer and a good one if you put your homophobia away. He is also twice the lyricist of most METAL lyricists, but if you’ve never heard anything besides the singles you wouldn’t know it. Also, if bangin’ Rose McGowan and Dita Von Teese makes you a faggot then sign me up.
I appreciate brutality too, I’ve been listening to death metal since ’91 and I listen to some crushingly brutal music, but Manson writes of pain, personal loss, politics, religion and drug abuse in a way that can’t be conveyed through pure brutality. It’s alot of messages that people who judge by image wouldn’t get anyway, so you’re probably not missing anything.
“Also, if bangin’ Rose McGowan and Dita Von Teese makes you a faggot then sign me up.” Gave me a nice smile here at the end of a grinding day. Thank you sir!
Glad to be of assistance 🙂
Well said.
Also, I appreciate your emphasis on rock star…
I think Manson (whether intentionally or not, though I like to think intentionally) created an image and persona specifically around being a depraved rock star. I haven’t really gotten into his new albums as much, but i think hes triumvirate and even the Golden Age did a good job of extending certain Nietzschian (?) ideas like art as life and life as art…
Did you see the Doppelherz film that came with some editions of Golden Age? There is some serious wordplay on that. The dude really is very smart.
Whilst I don’t find him to be a “fucking faggot” (again, wow at the unnecessary and uncalled for homophobia) I will say that I’ve never found MM to be anything but a hack with a very limited range of talent and little to no real depth. It’s all surface ideology, like someone who’s just gone to college/university and discovered that “corporations are ruining the world man!”… just bad teen angst dressed up in pseudo-intellectual bullshit.
And also I’m quite sick of the “but he’s so smart/smarter than you thinK” line of thinking… yes, he’s able to come across as a little smarter or more verbose than the cliche dumbass metalhead… but that doesn’t make him smart, just slightly above the cliche level of intelligence attributed to people. It annoys me when I see what appears to be someone of simple, average intelligence (that’s not a dig, he just doesn’t strike me as someone I’d go out of my way to attribute the word “msart” to) cast as some sort of example of the intellectual metalhead.
Zakk Wylde on the other hand, is perhaps the closest we have to a modern day Socrates.
Perhaps you’re right and he’s just “smart” enough to seem smart. There are several ideas that he’s been able to express that I thought I was alone in thinking and couldn’t put to words and that spurs alot of my appreciation. Also, you guys, Andy, Niek, Islander, are all better at that too. If only y’all would start a decadent rock band……
Socrates Wylde, didn’t see that one comin’.
It’s about time someone finally recognized Zakk Wylde for the incisive thinker that he is.
Satanic Pop Metal – Yeah, that’s pretty much the most accurate descriptor available.
But the music aside, am I the only one wondering “WHEN DID YOUTUBE START ALLOWING NUDITY?”
Excellent observation! Semargl has a censored and an uncensored version of this video. Of course, we used the uncensored version. It has only been up on YouTube since March 6. Quite possibly, it will get yanked soon, and then I’ll have to edit this post to embed the censored version.
Actually, it’s on Vimeo, not YouTube. Perhaps they’ve got different standards.
Well, the Imperial Triumphant song is on Vimeo, but we were talking about the Semargl song — though it’s a fair point that Vimeo seems to have different standards.
Oh I hadn’t noticed the tits in that one yet. Then probably it will get taken down soon yeah. Bloody viollence is fine, but a pair of hooters!
I’ve always wondered why that is to, we’re all born naked, as far as I know. But we’re not born with a battle axe in our fist. Though some may get that honour not long after birth.
Both excellent songs and videos…
Am I the only one not shocked by these videos? Good stuff no doubt, but black metal has always had a hint of satire in their demeanor. The Semargl video is laughable at best. So they show a few tits, it’s not all that controversial. The Imperial Triumph song is great, but the video is not much worse than anything Behemoth, Meshuggah, Cannibal Corpse or even bands like Suicide Silence has done. /Shrug maybe it’s just me.
I’m certainly not shocked — you’re absolutely right that it’s not worse than what other well-known bands have done before. I didn’t really expect any readers at this site to be shocked or offended. In fact, I probably overplayed the nuns/nudity angle as the come-on for this post. 🙂 I wouldn’t have done this post at all if I hadn’t liked the songs (and I do like both of them).
Haha. Fair enough. It certainly caught our attention. Which you guys seem to be good at. I spend a lot of free time at work on this site.
Thanks! We do aim to entertain at all times.
You can get the uncensored video for the new Blephegor on youtube. Nice low quality video nasty with lots of boobs, blood, fake gore and a nice lady masturbating with an inverted cross.
Good old family friendly entertainment.
This is making me flabbergasted all over again that YouTube banished the amazing video for “Buried With Leeches” by Dragged Into Sunlight, which still doesn’t appear to be hosted anyplace else yet. The only nudity in that one was the nakedness of a man being tortured. 🙂
And yes, we’re all about family friendly entertainment here at NCS. Bring the kids! Wholesome fun for young and old! Role models for future generations!
Maybe full frontal male nudity carries a different moral code than girl on girl, girl masturbation, and bloody boobs? Cause I mean come on, Spartacus would be a completely kick ass show, if it weren’t for all the dongs flying everywhere.
Totally agreed, I only watched that show because I got to see Xena Nude!
oh hell yeah man. She looks good for 50+ I’d hit that GILF.
50 +, I’m 20 years younger, she’d only have to ask once, actually she wouldn’t have to ask at all!
eh, just do it Spartacus style. Just casually stroll over to the bathing pool use a bit of spit and mount. Then whisper in her ear that you’ve had a crush on her since season two of Xena Warrior Princess.
Smooth Dude, Real Smooth!
You lost me at “not black metal” and “not nude” – which translates to: not worth my time 🙂
Damn. I wondered if I went too far in that Semargl “update”. But hey, the nun in the second video DOES take off her clothes, and the music IS black metal. One out of two isn’t bad, is it?
One out of two is fine.
I think I may put that on my tombstone.
Guess the internet has desensitized me so much I didn’t even notice there was some boobage in the vids; and while the first one technically doesn’t feature nudity at least one of the girls has on a completely transparent top.
I clearly need to amp up the shock factor to get a rise out of this audience. I may have to put up a completely nasty Dir en Grey video that Phro introduced me to a few days ago. Except I’ve been trying to forget I saw it.
The world of cinematic art has suffered a catastrophic loss: YouTube has finally removed the Semargl video as a violation of its policy on nudity and sexual content. However, Semargl has already re-uploaded the uncensored version of the video and posted it on their web site:
http://www.semargl.com.ua/
It looks like they just re-uploaded it to YouTube. Semargl v YouTube!! Who will give up first??