Grendel's Hideous Hymn of Hatred
This composition combines two similar depictions of the character Grendel from both John Gardner's 'Grendel' and the epic poem 'Beowulf,' providing an aural depiction of the beast's final, fated battle with the hero Beowulf.
Myeah plays guitar-driven, riff-based metal.
Myeah plays guitar-driven, riff-based metal. Any other elements of our music are reduced to a supporting role.
Story behind the song
This piece was composed in response to a recent assigment for my English IV AP class at Battle Ground Academy.
About 95% of the guitar work was created by myself, on the electric bass, but since my talents fall primarily in playing that aforementioned four-string instrument, I invited another guitar player (Nic LeFeve) to play the electric guitar parts, hence a few subtle changes exist between the melodies that I originally brought to him and the melodies that appear on the final recording.
It’s also worth noting that most of the bass parts are played using a two-handed tapping technique (exceptions occur in the first two bass lines that accompany the entrance of Nic's guitar).
The lyrics portray, via free verse, my own interpretation of Grendel’s thoughts during the last day of his life. Any doubters will just have to trust me when I say that all the lyrics are vocally expressed exactly as given on this site.
Finally, the drums were originally going to be a collaborative effort performed on Christian LeFeve’s (Nic’s younger brother) drum kit, but since a drum stick was inexplicably missing on the day of recording, and all the local music stores were closed at the time, I was forced to head home where I would later create and sequence the drum tracks through the handy SkaleTracker computer program.
Lyrics
Creep...creep...across the cursed chambers of my core
Feel it flutter, as the wings of a butterfly flail in flight
Die, death, damn this dreary dance with destiny
I dreamt--yea, I dared--to defy this deluded deity and his haughty hoard of hacks
I shan't shy away on this glorious day
Nay, Grendel graciously grants his grandest hell to those congenial cretins who helped create it
Behold the beauty of battle: recesses of bare blood rusting, remnants of bashed brains rotting
An odiferous orgy of festering flesh and fetid fluids frolicking about my olfactory bulb
So sonorous, the sound of tendons snapping, the howl of humans--helpless and hemorrhaging
Heal my heart, monstrous horrors of this man-made massacre
This foul trickster cannot crush my concrete might, my complete contempt for his wretched ravenous race!
His strength is suffocating, stifling my circulation, sapping my sanity; I shall surrender
An arm...what use is two when one will do...I was a wicked wastrel...but now, I walk...I lie...and lying...lying will be the death of me...
