As a fan of metal, I loved this. Read a couple a day for a few weeks, listening to the original songs and then rereading the poems Steph created each time, and almost every poem I was still thinking of the following day. Such a great mix of emotion, words, and message. Highly recommended!
I remember once having to explain why I liked heavy metal to a friend of mine. I told them that it wasn't always about the music (which often is overly repetitive with its power chord-laden riffs and simple beats) or the vocals (which often are either screamed or growled to the point where you can't interpret them), but all about the attitude. Metal has a defiant attitude that few other musical genres can reach, because every instrument is loud, distorted and aggressive... the notes are all attacks, all hammers and pulls. Its anger that motivates, kind of like punk rock, but also a dark power is usually summoned by its otherworldly powerful sound.
Metallurgy speaks to this otherworldly power. It is a metal fan's tribute to the genre, remixing lyrics from actual songs into newfound meanings -- finding fresh stories and deeper implications in the mix. It has a dark side, of course, but it also feels fresh and there are touching moments in Ellis' collection that will appeal to a romantic the way the requisite ballad does on side B of a metal LP. But it's the dark side that dominates as my favorite in the book.
As a poet myself, I must confess that I really enjoy language games and writing exercises that play with found words. I've done blackout poetry, used word blenders, and done mash ups for kicks. And this book -- which blends paired song lyrics together to create new poetry -- is certainly playful in that way. I am also aware of literary "pla(y)giarism" and the way that derivative works (from fan fiction to the books of Kathy Acker) offer commentary on the texts they borrow from. But even so, as a reader, I often am suspicious of these kinds of formats, because I always wonder: what is the poet avoiding by not being original? Are they being lazy by pulling inspiration from other writers, stealing some of their creativity and wearing it as if it were there own? Why not just read the originals to begin with? Luckily, Metallurgy does not suffer from this fate. It feels original; you could read these lines and never realize they were sourced in heavy metal songs.
No, these poems do not feel derivative at all, but inspired. The music absent, the lyrics cut-up, the originals haunt but at a respectful distance, so that a guitar riff that you might be familiar with -- like say, something from Metallica -- only whispers in the back brain rather than dominating the imaginary loudspeakers in your head. And there are so many poems in the collection -- it's over 120 pages of headbanging verse -- and some of the fun is stumbling upon a favorite band or track and seeing what the poet has up her sleeve.
The book refuses to be the literary equivalent of a cover album, so there are a lot of surprises hding in here, too. I won't spoil the fun, but for example, she sometimes works in translations (like Rammstein’s “Mutter”), reworking some of the language across international borderlands, deriving new meanings from it. Then there is a lot of play with structure and font -- we even get concrete, visual poems like “Old Moon” which mashes together Five Finger Death Punch and System of a Down to align the lines (some new, some borrowed) in the shape of a seductive and devious half-moon.
Ellis, clearly a fan of the music and metal culture, respectfully cites her sources in the footer of each poem, and this only made me want to expand my record collection. The range of songs drawn from is impressive, turning me on to bands I've never heard of (mostly death metal bands from distant lands), and I will probably seek them out now, and part of the fun jamming to their tracks will no doubt be the click of recognition of how these poems connect with what I am listening to. In fact, that’s the main takeaway from this book: it sends you back to the songs, with a new perspective, and a desire to mash up your own playlist into something poetically distinctive. Perhaps this is what all musicians do too, to some degree. Ellis' creativity is contagious, and the poetry she conjures here is amazing.
I usually don't crank the tunes when I read, but in this case they were cranking in my brain as I read. Rock on, Stephanie. Metallurgy gets six horns out of six from this six-armed air-drummer.
This was such an original and well-executed poetry collection: found poetry inspired by metal lyrics. As someone who listens to a lot of music when I write and is often inspired by melody and lyrics, I was instantly intrigued. And I found that Ellis captured not only the lyrical aspect of metal songs, but all the melodies, the sometimes harsh/chaotic/violent sounds, the driving energy and urgency of metal music as well. Reading these poems will definitely make you want to go back and listen to the music. There are so many dark, evocative images throughout, as these poems deal with the darker aspects of human nature. One of my favorites was "Fever":
"In the labyrinth of fever
is the believer washing life
from hardened skin.
A mirror of the world,
root of sin feeling inside
for the way to the brain,
flowers an infection.
Your madness,
a mirror of the world
dying of fear."
