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A heavy metal umlaut is an umlaut (not to be confused with a diaeresis, the name given to the same symbol when used on the second of two vowels to show that both are pronounced) over some of the letters in the names of a heavy metal band — although the names might then sound odd to people who use languages in which umlauts are common, such as German, Turkish or Swedish.

Umlauts are often used in concert with a Blackletter or pseudo-Blackletter typeface in the band logo to give it a more gothic feel. Many bands have taken to using umlauts and other diacritics, often gratuitously, in their names.

History

The first use appears to have been by the Blue Öyster Cult in 1971. Motörhead and Mötley Crüe then followed.

The umlaut in "Motörhead" was in fact a creation of the graphic designer responsible for the first album cover. The usage stuck.

Queensrÿche went further by putting the umlaut over the "y" in their name. (It is sometimes used in Dutch to display the Dutch Y instead of IJ/ij when the real letters "IJ" and "ij" are unavailable.) From a linguistic viewpoint, this might be regarded as an attempt at a diaeresis, rather than as an umlaut, were it not that there are no vowels to be pronounced distinctly.

Hawkwind-influenced 1980s space-rock band Underground Zerø used a variation on the concept, using the Scandinavian vowel ø in their name.

The spoof band Spinal Tap played on the odd use of umlauts in 1982 by using an umlaut over the letter "n", a character only found in the Jacaltec language of Guatemala.

I SUCK COCKS

Other musical usages of gratuitous diacritics

• the band Assück.
• the Australian black/thrash metal band Deströyer 666
• the German punk band Die Ärzte used three dots (triaresis?) over the "A" in Ärzte to distinguish from its normal spelling with a (double dot) diaresis. This can be represented in Unicode: Die A⃛rzte.
• the punk rock band Hüsker Dü. (The name is a Danish phrase meaning "Do you remember?". However, ü is not used in Danish and the correct phrase would be "husker du?" The band took their name from a children's memory game, which added macrons over each u in the phrase, replacing these macrons with umlauts.)
• the French band Magma used a fictional language, the Kobaïan, for its lyrics. The umlaut appeared in several album titles (Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh and Köhntarkösz, for instance).
• the Spanish band Mägo de Oz.
• the term "nü-metal," used to describe nu metal with added umlautness.
• gay heavy metal band/cabaret act Pink Stëël have two consecutive umlauts, the first such instance in a band name.
• the accents in the name of the French electronica band Rinôçérôse are also gratuitous.
• heavy metal band Trojan used umlauts in their name on the 1985 release Chasing the Storm. (For Swedes the tour T-shirts from this time are particularly amusing, as "Tröjan" in Swedish translates as "the shirt".)
• the Finnish hardcore punk band Ümlaut.

See also

• Leet
• Language game

External links

• My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond
• http://www.rockdots.com/thedots.html

• Heavy metal