Song: "The Phantom Opera Ghost" by Iced Earth
Novel: The Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910) by Gaston Leroux
Back when I was eighteen years old, there wasn't much that mattered to me other than speed metal and black-and-white Universal Horror films. And reading, of course. Fortunately, my eighteen-year old self found a band who had devoted an entire album to all of the monsters that fascinated me and fuelled my love for all things Gothic.
So, cast your minds back to late-2004, Boys and Ghouls, when I was in the process of spending my hard-earned cash garnered from working as a Supermarket Stooge - the princely sum of £4.50 an hour - on Universal's two films a set Classic Monsters series and whatever metal band was flavour of the month on my first generation IPod. You know, the chunky 160gb white one with the nice sounding click wheel. Ahh, they don't make 'em like they used to. In fact, they don't make them at all anymore.
Needless to say, it was the best of times, it was the ghastliest times.
Those concerned with accuracy here will probably like to be informed that I would purchase above mentioned horror classic DVDs and above mentioned metal music from high street shops. Oi! Close your mouth! No gasping!
Yes! The British high-street was alive and well in 2004. You could buy DVDs from shops like Silverscreen and music from shops like Virgin-soon-to-become-Zavvi.
Younger readers might not have heard of Silverscreen or Zavvi. Don't worry. Let me explain. Basically Silverscreen and Zavvi were physical places that you had to go to if you wanted to purchase a physical DVD or a physical CD. As you kids know, Silverscreen was replaced by Google searches for "download X" - "X" being your film of choice and Zavvi was replaced by ITunes, because you don't want to actually own a physical CD in 2016, do you? Right?
I might be being sarcastic. I'm also being inaccurate. Zavvi was replaced in Canterbury by Sports Direct. Never have I hated playing sports more than I did when I saw the signage change in the Whitefriars' district. Those friars would have turned white in their graves. But it all ended well - they probably smiled when La Senza opened a few years later...
I'm also off-topic. But the mention of "graves" brings me nicely to my purchase of late 2004:
Iced Earth's album Horror Show, which was actually released in 2001.
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| By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2250329 |
Iced Earth quenched my thirst for speed metal like a guy-in-trackies requires Monster energy drinks - part of your daily routine.
Iced Earth are an American heavy-metal band from Florida, who, between a debut self-titled album in 1990 and 2014's Plagues of Babylon have released eleven studio albums. It's hard to remember exactly what I liked best about Iced Earth, the first time I heard them. The songs were fast - I would have liked that; and the songs were heavy, I mean, really heavy. The guitars seemed to have so much "crunch" and boy, were the riffs good! I distinctly remember purchasing the band's Alive in Athens 3 x CD set and that was one of the best live albums that I had ever heard, at the time.
"Horror Show" features Matt Barlow on vocals, Jon Schaffer and Larry Tarnowski on guitars, Steve DiGiorgio on bass, and Richard Christy on drums. "The Phantom Opera Ghost" also features Yunhui Percifield on vocals.
Horror Show features 11 tracks devoted to horror legends and classic monsters like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Dr Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Wolf Man, Jack the Ripper, and, especially important for the purpose of this post, the Phantom of the Opera.
It probably just so happened that I purchased Horror Show about the same time that I purchased the Universal Classic Monsters DVD set featuring two films staring Claude Rains - The Invisible Man (1933) and The Phantom of the Opera (1943).
Here's the poster from 1943:
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17104670 |
Older readers who've been living under opera houses or horror enthusiasts might also be familiar with the 1925 silent film staring Lon Chaney - a must watch!
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| Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15946801 |
So the phantom with a passion for opera and underground caverns was very much on my mind in 2004. And I purchased a copy of the novel by Gaston Leroux somewhere around this point as well, and this is where the first of our literature-meets-music-connections comes in.
So, what about the novel?
"See! Feast your eyes, glut your soul on my cursed ugliness!"
*I won't ever write full synopses of the novels that I discuss, just in case people who haven't read the novels in their entirety feel compelled to go and buy them!*Gaston Leroux's novel was serialised in Le Gaulois between September 1909 and early January 1910.
Here he is:
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| By Cliché anonyme, l'auteur n'a jamais revendiqué la paternité du portrait. - www.fnac.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24935092 |
It centres on Christine, an opera singer, her long-time friend Raoul, and the mysterious phantom who lives beneath the Parisian theatre, Erik.
Erik develops a bit of a crush on Christine - it's not a nice crush, like, "I'll buy her some flowers" type of crush, it's the "I'll take her to my underground lair and hope that she falls in love with me" kind of crush.
Christine unmasks Erik, and is appalled to see the phantom's skull-like face - no lips or nose - and rotten yellow flesh hanging off it. Erik decides to keep Christine as his prisoner...
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| By Gaston Leroux - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3213930 |
So, what about the song?
"I am what man has made me, with his hate and cruel ways"
The song re-creates the epic feeling, in part, by it's length - 08.39. Admittedly, if you listen to stoner rock, a song of eight and a half minutes is not that long, but, for a heavy metal thrash/speed band, that's a decent length.For me, part of the pleasure of listening to this song when a teenager was the fact that the vocals went a long way in inspiring the myth of the phantom. With Matt Barlow taking the role of Erik, and Yunhui Percifield taking the role of Christine, you get a sense of the power battle, the perversion, and the passion at stake between the pair.
And the music changes aptly, of course, to reflect such a battle. For example, you hear harsh, distorted chords in "Erik's" opening lines that sound utterly aggressive compared to the muted - dare I say, 'sensual' riffs that undercut "Christine's" lines.
But then there's a switch! Christine's lines are undercut by the strong, assertive riff as passion changes, and Erik's become more ponderous and quiet under the muted riff. - Hard to write about, but you'll get what I mean hopefully when you hear the song.
As you listen to the song, you hear about a terrific range of passions that both the Phantom and Christine experience. There's love and madness mixed in to both, encapsulated by Christine's line: "I'm so cold inside. Mental Suicide." And there's the phantom's possessive desperation: "I now own you".
And there's no resolution...well, make of the Phantom's final line what you will! Compared to Leroux's weak and decaying Erik, the Phantom that speaks the final line in this song seems potent and utterly demonic.
Here are the lyrics to the song, which can be found in the video description (courtesy of the uploader). Note: Y = Yunhui (Christine) and M = Matt (Erik):
Y: I feel you, from beyond the walls you speak to me...
M: Christine, my love, Paris now will worship you,
You will star soon, I'll kill to make it sure for you...
Y: Oh my love, won't you please show yourself to me?
M: Soon I'll take you, in my kingdom you're the queen,
It's dark and peaceful, but my face you'll never see, no!
M: Oh Christine on this eve, I will come for you...
Y: Erik my love, I've waited all my life for you,
Please just take me, I need to be with you...
M: Take my hand, through the catacombs my lair awaits...
Y: Caverns, mazes, the underworld and the blackest lake...
Enticing danger, your passion feeds me, I'm your slave...
Y: Now I've bathed in fear, I will not leave here...
M: Breathe deep the darkness... Breathe deep the madness...
Y: I'm so cold inside. Mental suicide...
M: Breathe deep the darkness... Breathe deep the sadness...
M: Oh Christine... don't you know that it's all for you?
Carlotta's head, and the other deaths I planned...
All for you! To have your night in the spotlight...
From now on, forevermore, you will only sing for me!
Y: So you are, you are the legend, The Phantom Opera Ghost...
M: I am what man has made me, With his hate and cruel ways...
Y: Why are you?
M: Why am I?
Y&M: The Phantom Opera Ghost?
Y: I have to see,
M: You'll never see,
Y&M: What's behind the mask...
M: No!
Y: I'm so torn... between love, death, life and hate...
M: Don't you doubt me, what we have is just our fate,
I now own you, from this day forth you'll be my slave...
Y: Oh Dear God, for this life I've lost the will...
M: No this can't be! I'd rather you die than spoil my dream,
Myself I'll kill... if I can't have you no one will!
What do you think? What similarities do the novel and the song share?
Here's the song. Enjoy!
