Line #52 Music/TheBody


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_body_metal_6.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The dudes themselves; Chip King (left) and Lee Buford (right).]]
3
4	The Body are an American experimental SludgeMetal band. Consisting of core duo Chip King (guitars, vocals) and Lee Buford (drums) and featuring a recurring cast of collaborators, the band are known for their punishingly heavy sound, experimental touches (including gospel choirs and electronic elements), and an atmosphere of unrelenting hatred and nihilism. To date, the group has released 5 albums, along with a number of [=EPs=] and collaboration records with other bands, including Full of Hell, Thou, and Krieg.
5
6	The band's releases include:
7	* ''The Body'' (2004)
8	* ''Cop Killer/Dead Cops'' (EP) (2005)
9	* ''All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood'' (2010)
10	* ''Nothing Passes'' (collaboration with Braveyoung) (2011)
11	* ''The Cold, Suffocating Dark Goes on Forever, And We Are Alone'' (EP) (2012)
12	* ''Christs, Redeemers'' (2013)
13	* ''Master, We Perish'' (EP) (2013)
14	* ''I Shall Die Here'' (2014)
15	* ''Released From Love'' (collaboration with Thou) (2014)
16	* ''You, Whom I Have Always Hated'' (collaboration with Thou) (2015)
17	* ''[=xoroAHbin=]'' (collaboration with Vampilia) (2015)
18	* ''The Body and Krieg'' (collaboration with Krieg) (2015)
19	* ''One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache'' (collaboration with Full of Hell) (2016)
20	* ''No One Deserves Happiness'' (2016)
21	* ''Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light'' (collaboration with Full of Hell) (2017)
22	* ''I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer'' (2018)
23	* ''Mental Wounds Not Healing'' (collaboration with Uniform) (2018)
24	* ''O God who avenges, shine forth. Rise up, Judge of the Earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.'' (2018)
25	* ''Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back'' (collaboration with Uniform) (2019)
26	* ''I've Seen All I Need to See'' (2021)
27	* ''Leaving None But Small Birds'' (collaboration with Big\|Brave) (2021)
28	* ''Enemy of Love'' (collaboration with OAA) (2022)
29	* ''Orchards of a Futile Heaven'' (collaboration with Dis Fig) (2024)
30
31	!!This band provides examples of:
32	* AlbumTitleDrop: A rare example of one located ''outside'' the album: "The Vision" contains the lyrics "All the waters of the earth turn to blood."
33	* ArcWords: "The night knows no dawn", which first showed up on ''I Shall Die Here'' and later appeared on ''No One Deserves Happiness.''
34	* BoleroEffect: Used to great effect on "Prescience".
35	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Chip King is really good at this.
36	* DeadpanSnarker: Both main members, as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twr8xyo1ETo interviews.]]
37	* DrivenToSuicide: This gets brought up a lot. ''I Shall Die Here'' contains multiple speech samples drawn from suicide hotlines.
38	* DroneOfDread: A lot of their stuff features this heavily, particularly ''I Shall Die Here''.
39	* EpicRocking: Some of their songs run pretty long, the longest being "The Manic Fire" at over 16 minutes.
40	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "The Vision", which draws heavily from the Book of Revelation. There's a pretty apocalyptic theme to ''All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood'' as well.
41	* GenreBusting: They have elements of sludge metal, dark ambient, noise, industrial, electronic, and even pop music.
42	* HarshNoise: "For You", as well as the entirety of ''I've Seen All I Need To See''.
43	* HarshVocals: A uniquely disturbing flavor that WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop once described as sounding "Like a mutant pig man being tortured to death in an underground cellar." Chip's vocal style is very similar to John Gossard of Music/{{Weakling}}.
44	* HorribleHistoryMetal: "Song of Sarin the Brave" is based on the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo Subway System. Some shirts for the band actually feature a mugshot of Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attacks.
45	* LighterAndSofter: ''No One Deserves Happiness'' to their previous releases, which is slightly less abrasive and features more female vocals. They said they wanted to write "The grossest pop album of all time."
46	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Lathspell I Name You" to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', ''I Shall Die Here'' to ''ComicBook/VForVendetta''. [[note]] Specifically, it's taken from Valerie's letter to V in the death camp. [[/note]]
47	* LonelyPianoPiece: "The Fall and the Guilt" is this paired with a DroneOfDread.
48	* MalevolentMaskedMan: Both of them appear this way on the cover of ''All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood.''
49	* MisanthropeSupreme: A recurring theme in their lyrics, along with StrawNihilist and DrivenToSuicide.
50	* MoodWhiplash: All the goddamn time. Particularly notable is "A Body", which begins with almost seven minutes of a heavenly gospel choir before transitioning into grinding sludge metal with almost no warning.
51	* NobodyLovesTheBassist: The band doesn't even bother with a bassist.
52	* OminousLatinChanting: Most of it provided by the Assembly of Light Women's Choir.
53	* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: Inverted, like with most extreme metal bands. Their music is intensely heavy and nihilistic, but the guys themselves are very laid back and friendly people who enjoy hanging out with fans.
54	* SensoryAbuse: Between the grinding feedback-laden guitars and Chip's anguished howling, they're a pretty challenging listen to say the least.
55	* ShoutOut:
56	** "Lathspell I Name You" is named after a line in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
57	** ''One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache'' is a line from the song "Doll Parts" by Music/{{Hole}}.
58	* SopranoAndGravel: They like to add in female vocals to contrast against the general ugliness of the band's sound.
59	* SpokenWordInMusic: Mostly done with samples taken from cult leaders or people talking about killing themselves, though "Prescience" begins with guest vocalist Chrissy Wolpert reading an excerpt from the novel ''Suicide'' by Edouard Leve.
60	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "A Body" (or at least the first seven minutes), "I, The Mourner of Perished Days", and "The Fall and the Guilt."
61	** "The Vision" isn't even remotely a metal song, instead being a gospel/folk song that slowly devolves into creepy dark ambient.
62	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood.''
63	* TrueCompanions: Lee Buford and Chip King.

Context Music / TheBody