German Folk Metal band founded in 1992. Credited with codifying the genre "medieval rock" as we now understand the term.
The band currently consists of seven members:
- Eric Fish - wind instruments, lead vocals
- Michael "Bodenski" Boden - acoustic guitar, guitar, backing vocals
- Michael "Simon" Simon - acoustic guitar, guitar, backing vocals
- Ingo Hampf - guitar, lute, mandoline
- Almut "Ally" Storch - violin
- Silvio "Sugar Ray" Runge - bass
- Simon Michael Schmitt - drums
Subway To Sally provides examples of:
- All Are Equal in Death: "Auf dem Hügel" describes a cemetery where everyone, parents and children, murderers and righteous men, "sleep" side by side.
- Anti-Love Song: "Feuerland", "Komm in meinen Schlaf", "Wehe Stunde", "So Fern So Nah", "In Der Stille".
- Audience Participation Song: "Julia und die Räuber", "Horo" and "Schrei" for example.
- Blood Knight: "Kämpfen wir!", a vikings' anthem.
- Body Horror:
- The titular "Kleid aus Rosen" seems to be roses sewn right into the girl's skin.
- The titular "Knochenschiff" is made of bones and flesh, and it has a heart beats with a leak in the rib cage under the deck.
- Broken Bird: "Kleine Schwester" describes a helpless, still and void girl, says that no one hears her silent screaming, and asks her what tool has ripped her wounds.
- Cain and Abel: "Grausame Schwester" is about the older sister killing the younger.
- Call-Back: "Das Rätsel II" consists of references to their previous songs.
- Crapsack World: "Warte, warte". Humans Are Bastards. Just wait a little until they hunt you down.
- Dark Is Not Evil:
- "Das Schwarze Meer" is all about the beauty of the dark and stormy sea.
- Darkness is presented as something comforting in "Ins Dunkel".
- The Living Shadow from "Umbra" doesn't seem evil either.
- Deal with the Devil: "Mephisto" fulfills your every dream, makes golden honey from concentrated poison, heals you from the thirst for knowledge, lends you meat and drink, and so on; the song ends with him reminding that you have written with blood, so now he's coming for your soul.
- Death Seeker: The titular "Knochenschiff" longs for a reef.
- Despair Event Horizon: "In kaltem Eisen": the narrator apparently killed his lover, has no memories of the act, and is absolutely devastated.
- Driven by Envy: "Grausame Schwester" is jealous of the beauty of her younger sister and kills her because of it.
- Driven to Suicide: "Wo Rosen Blüh'n" ends with the narrator deciding to join his dead lover.
- Drums of War: In "Die Trommel", the Magic Music of the drum leads people into the battlefield against their will.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The majority of songs of their first album are in English.
- Evil Laugh: In "Puppenspieler" and at the end of "Unsterblich", Eric Fish does a sinister and very smug laugh.
- Everyone Knows Morse: In "S.O.S.", naturally, the morse code is used throughout the song.
- Fading into the Next Song: Most of Mitgift and Hey!
- Flying Dutchman: "Knochenschiff", the ship of bones on an endless journey to find it's reef.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls:
- "Schlagt Die Glocken" begins and ends with an ominous bell toll, fitting the lyrics.
- Live version
of "Wenn Engel Hassen" starts with it as well.
- Gratuitous Latin: "Accingite Vos", "Ad Mortem Festinamus", "Imperator Rex Graecorum".
- Grief Song:
- In "Wo Rosen Blüh'n", the narrator mourns the death of a loved one and reviles God for taking them away.
- "Schwarze Seide" also starts with the narrator mourning the death of a loved one. Then, he digs her up and brings her home.
- "In kaltem Eisen" mixes it with Murder Ballad as the narrator apparently murdered his lover, has no recollection of the deed, and is devastated by the loss.
- Heavy Mithril: They have quite a few songs about supernatural monsters and horrors.
- "Knochenschiff" seems to be a variation of the Flying Dutchman.
- "Unsterblich" is about a vampire.
- "Umbra" is about a Living Shadow.
- "Grausame Schwester" and "Bis In Alle Ewigkeit" feature ghosts.
- "Wolfstraum" is about werewolves.
- "Die Trommel" and "Grausame Schwester" feature Magic Music.
- "Voodoo" is sung from the perspective of some Hollywood Voodoo practitioner.
- "Schwarze Seide" features something undead.
- Hell Is That Noise: In "Die Trommel", the sound of the drum hypnotizes the narrator and later haunts and terrifies him at nights. The song also features creepy background noises.
- Hollywood Voodoo: "Voodoo" mentions sticking needles in an effigy of the victim, setting it on fire, and so on.
- Humans Are Bastards: "Warte, warte" seems to be about werewolves and vampires until the Wham Line: all of them are none but people who hunt people.
- "I Am" Song: "Das Rätsel" and "Das Rätsel II".
- Large Ham: Singer Eric Fish is this on occasion.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The video for "Sieben" ends with the serial kidnapper himself getting trapped in his own house.
- Light Is Not Good: "Wenn Engel Hassen". Witnesses say that the murderer had the glow of an angel, and the chorus is about hateful angels taking revenge on mankind.
- List Song: "Sieben". The narrator has everything in seven: hounds and ravens, doors and locks, chains, and kidnapped women.
- Living Shadow: The narrator of "Umbra" is someone (or something) who came out of the shadows and avoids the light.
- Lucky Seven: "Sieben". The narrator has everything in seven: hounds and ravens, doors and locks, chains, and kidnapped women. Cause seven is his number.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Hohelied".
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Im Weidengarten" is such a tranquil, even tender Murder Ballad.
- "Wehe Stunde" is also peaceful.
- "Nichts Ist Für Immer" has a blithe tune for a song about dying. Well, there is a note of acceptance: the fear and the wounds aren't made to last forever.
- Never Be Hurt Again: The narrator of "Kaltes Herz" says he changed his old heart so it is cold and hard as stone and doesn't hurt anymore.
- Non-Appearing Title:
- "Fatum", "Hohelied", "Puppenspieler", "Kleid aus Rosen", "Mephisto", "Angelus", "Voodoo", "Minne", "Narben".
- "Umbra" is a Zig-Zagged example: the title is dropped in another language.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite having an English name, the band's lyrics are German (or Latin). Only on their first album, the majority of songs is in English.
- Magic Music:
- In "Die Trommel", the sound of the drum hypnotizes the narrator and makes him act against his will.
- In "Grausame Schwester", a harp is made of the body of a murdered girl, so she can reveal the name of her murderer.
- Manipulative Bastard: The narrator of "Puppenspieler" brags about manipulating everyone like puppets.
- Morality Ballad: "Ad mortem festinamus" says that we are hastening to death, and if we do not change our life through good deeds, we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: "Schwarze Seide" is about the narrator digging up his dead lover, bringing her back home and kissing her. And with every kiss, she wakes up.
- Murder Ballad:
- "Wenn Engel hassen" is about a man who kills seven people and then, he himself is struck down.
- "Für immer": the narrator talks about how he will never forget the beauty and the laughter of the woman he murdered.
- "Grausame Schwester" is about sibling murder.
- "Arme Ellen Schmitt" is about a woman killed by her lover.
- "In kaltem Eisen": the narrator apparently killed his lover, has no memories of the act, and is absolutely devastated.
- "Haus aus Schmerz" is written from the perspective of a Serial Killer.
- "Im Weidengarten" is about ether murder or suicide by poison.
- Obsession Song:
- "Mir allein", of the aggressive variety: the narrator locked up his crush.
- "Sieben" takes it up to seven: the narrator kidnapped his seventh crush.
- Ominous Latin Chanting:
- "Accingite Vos" consists of it.
- "Wenn Engel Hassen" starts with it.
- Our Ghosts Are Different:
- "Bis In Alle Ewigkeit" is about a girl who walks up and down a dark room crying, damned to wander for eternity.
- In "Grausame Schwester", after the older sister pushes the younger from a cliff, the voice of the younger sister is heard through the wind. Two musicians find her body, make a harp out of her hair and bones to free her song, and she reveals the name of her murderer.
- Our Vampires Are Different: "Unsterblich" is about immortal, ever-hungry creature. Once, someone gave him his blood; now, he is about to change another human being into a vampire.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: In "Wolfstraum", the narrator experiences what wolves dream of.
- Protest Song: "Falscher Heiland", "Vater".
- Religion Rant Song: "Wo Rosen Blüh'n" has elements of type one. It is a Grief Song in which the narrator asks what kind of God could take away his love so early and leave him broken.
- Self-Harm: "Narben" is about cutting yourself and feeling elated and comforted by the sight of your own blood.
- Sequel Song: "Das Rätsel II".
- Stage Names: Four of them in this band.
- Villain Song:
- "Mephisto"
- "Unsterblich": a vampire talks about his Horror Hunger and a "gift" he has for the subject of the song, and does an Evil Laugh in the end.
- "Sieben" is the Obsession Song of a serial kidnapper.
- "Puppenspieler": Manipulative Bastard brags about people being his puppets.
- "Voodoo" is sung from the perspective of some Hollywood Voodoo practitioner gleefully inflicting torture on his victim.
- "Haus aus Schmerz" is written from the perspective of a Serial Killer.
- We All Die Someday:
- "Nichts Ist Für Immer" (Nothing is forever) is based on this trope: the fear and the wounds aren't made to last forever.
- "Ad mortem festinamus" says that we are hastening to death and should refrain from sinning.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The titular "Königin der Käfer" endured a lot of suffering and turned into an Insect Queen to haunt her tormentors.
