What an interesting word “bloviate” is. Dictionaries define it as speaking verbosely and in an annoying way, as if the speaker thinks himself very important but is instead empty of substance. It seems to have originated in the U.S. in the early 1850s as an alteration of the word “blow,” as in the sense of “to boast,” like a blow-hard. It came up then, and still comes up, in reference to politicians.

Even more interesting is the death metal band Evilyn‘s choice of that word as the name of a song on their debut album Mondestrunken (which will be released on August 16th by Transcending Obscurity Records). And there’s another interesting word.

Mondestrunken seems to be a German expression that translates as “moondrunk“. The only previous reported use of it that we’ve found in our research is in the name of a song that opens an innovative musical melodrama (commonly known as Pierrot lunaire) composed by Arnold Schoenberg based on a cycle of poems by Albert Giraud. It premiered in Berlin in 1921.

Well, we can only guess about why Evilyn chose that name for the album and “Bloviate” as the name of the song we’re about to premiere. But it turns out that the music is every bit as atypical as the naming choices. Continue reading »