Death metal spirit fingers
A recent Google search leading here was "why does frank mullen do that thing with his hand." Frank Mullen is the vocalist of Suffocation, and "that thing he does with his hand" is what I call "death metal spirit fingers." If you're unfamiliar with spirit fingers (the non-death metal kind), refer to the cultural institution known as Bring It On:
Surprisingly, spirit fingers translate well from cheerleading to death metal. See this video for Suffocation's "Abomination Reborn," where Mullen does death metal spirit fingers at 0:12 and 1:07.
Mullen does death metal spirit fingers only with his left hand, and only in response to blastbeats. You can see him do them from 0:15-0:19 in the video for "Surgery of Impalement" and all throughout this video of him onstage with Napalm Death, starting at 0:45.
As for why he does them — well, because he's awesome. Death metal spirit fingers: learn them, love them, don't leave home without them.
Labels: clee, death metal, features, usa, videos
7 Comments:
People in the crowd and bands also do a spirit finger thing during guitar solos. Even us metal heads are a little silly at times.
It's a reflex that makes sense, fingers one way with the snare, the other with the kick, of course exaggerated for the graces of the videoclip. Anyone who's a blastbeat fiend carries some sort of physical reaction I've noticed. The most humorous I've seen is the unmoving constipated face one while the hands immitate the blast. I guess I don't find it as noteworthy as others (IO isn't the first place where Mullen's have been mentioned) as something to pick up and immitate, though.
"why does frank mullen do that thing with his hand."
BECAUSE IT'S RAD!
Why else?
Check out Joe Cocker, he does a spirit fingers/Bill n Teds air guitar mashup
I don't know if it was specific to our little local scene or not but back when I was attending a lot of hardcore/metalcore shows, any time there was a "weedly-weedly"guitar part, nearly everybody in the crowd would do spirit fingers.
Thanks, Chris, for sharing that amazing video. That bass line so wanted to go into "War Pigs."
It's basically just a mutation of air guitar isn't it?
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