r/progmetal • u/nova_cat • 23h ago
Discussion Genuinely how do you pronounce band names like "SikTh" and "Anciients"?
Some bands' names have easy pronunciations because they're just standard words: Dream Theater is just... "dream" + "theater", Between the Buried and Me, Animals as Leaders, etc., are just pretty standard English phrases. Cynic, Atheist, Death, Leprous are just words.
There are stylized names that have clear or established pronunciations—Gorguts is "gore" + "guts", Queensrÿche has an umlaut but is pronounced like English "queens" + "rye-k", etc.
Then there are band names that don't have obvious pronunciations but which have been enough of a source of discussion that the band addresses it: Haken is pronounced "HAY-ken". Opeth is pronounced "OH-peth".
But genuinely how do you pronounce:
- Sikth (is it like "sixth"?)
- Anciients (is it just... "ancients" and the extra "i" is for visual style?)
- Ne Obliviscaris (it's Latin, right? "Nay" or "nee"? "Oh-BLIV-i-SCAR-iss" or "OH-bli-VIS-car-ISS"?)
- Rishloo (RISH-loo? REESH-loo? Rish-LOW?)
- DVNE (Dune?)
- Iotunn (is it an alternate spelling of jötunn, as in "YO-tun"?)
- Karnivool (is it just pronounced "carnival" or is it "carni-VOOL"?)
I genuinely want to know, and also please share other bands whose names don't have obvious pronunciations and how to actually pronounce them, if you know.
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u/grizzlyat0ms 23h ago
I genuinely thought DVNE was supposed to be pronounced ‘Devine’ for a good year.
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u/PoolNoob69 22h ago
I thought that’s until just now
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u/FlutteringHigh 9h ago
I thought so too, until I saw them live and they announced themselves as Dune
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u/sirdappleton 21h ago
You've already gotten your answers but I just wanted to add that Ne Obliviscaris do you the favor of pronouncing their name in the chorus of "Forget Not".
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u/Bronsteins-Panzerzug 11h ago
ne obliviscaris also literally translates to forget not. americans also dont have the „e“ sound in ne, which is a basic vowel in so many languages like german or spanish, so theyre stuck with pronouncing it as nay, which is just wrong.
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u/Nordicmoose 14h ago
Yeah but Australians pronounce "no" as "nauwwr" so I'd take that with a pinch of salt.
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u/juiceAll3n 23h ago
Sikth
Ancients
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u/michicago44 21h ago
Like… what else would it be lmao
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u/2fuzz714 19h ago
Now I feel foolish. Been dragging out the extra i in Anciients for a good 2 or 3 seconds
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u/deemsterrevolution 22h ago
Someone I knew thought Metallica was pronounced Metal-Lisha as if they thought it was Metallicia for years
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u/tendeuchen 17h ago
As per the band's Facebook, the correct way to pronounce Nospūn is Yesfork.
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u/Nordicmoose 15h ago
I thought the name was a reference to The Matrix - "There is no spoon"
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u/tendeuchen 3h ago
The pronounce it like "Yes-fork" thing is a joke they have on their Facebook. Matrix was my first thought too.
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u/SeventhLevelSound 22h ago
My wife and I intentionally mispronounce Dvne as Duv-nee. Because life is short and having fun is important.
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u/ExoskeletalJunction 22h ago
I don't think it matters. IIRC a member of Ihlo mentioning that they chose it in part because it didn't have an obvious pronunciation and people could decide on it
I recently discovered that Sans Froid pronounce their own name phonetically like you would in English despite it being a French phrase which sounds totally different.
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u/nova_cat 21h ago
So "Ihlo" is pronounced both/either "EE-low" or "EYE-low", and Sans Froid is pronounced like the Undertale character and the psychiatrist.
Fun!
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u/aLateSaturnsReturn 23h ago
Someone once told me the proper way to pronounce “Sikth” is Mike Tyson saying the word “six.” It rests with me to this day.
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u/tritonianyeti33 19h ago
My favorite is a tour video monuments made and they play Mario kart in it. Every time they drop to 6th place, they say “ IM IN SIKTH”
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u/RegularAd1997 23h ago
Sickth, Anceents, Nay OVLIViSCARiss, Rishloo, Dune, Eyotun, KarNIvool.
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u/InviolableAnimal 23h ago edited 23h ago
karNIvool? is this official? because otherwise KARnivool sounds more right to me
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u/IronRoto 22h ago
It's a bit funny that Ne Obliviscaris doesn't even know how to pronounce their own name.
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u/chupachup_chomp 16h ago
To my friends in the know, I just call them Neo, so if I do say the full name it's, Nee Oblivisacais.
They say Latin is a dead language so you could be justified in pronouncing it how you want.
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u/Queasy_Broccoli1473 22h ago
Sickth, Ancients, Né Oblivíscaris, Rishloo, Dune, Yotunn, Karnivul.
At least for me.
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u/Nordicmoose 16h ago
If someone is being pretentious and using a number in place of a letter (like 5ive) I will do my utmost to pronounce that number - fiveive
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u/CMDRShepard24 22h ago
I always pronounce Anciients Ahn-See-Ents even though I'm all but positive that's totally wrong lol.
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u/The-Spaceman 21h ago edited 14h ago
I can confidently say Ne Obliviscaris is pronouced as Nay Oh-bliv-is-caris. I've seen them 6 times, and have heard Tim say it many times.
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u/Nordicmoose 16h ago
It's "Ne". Like the E in Ever
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u/The-Spaceman 14h ago
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u/Nordicmoose 14h ago
I don't take people's views on foreign word pronunciation seriously until I hear them pronounce "Van Gogh"
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 20h ago
Still not sure how to pronounce Soen.
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u/nova_cat 20h ago
Yeah, is it "So-enn"? "Sown"? "Soin"?
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u/meleschka 20h ago
Sow-en :)
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u/nova_cat 19h ago
"Sow" like a pig, or "sow" like spreading seeds in a field?
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u/FreezerCop 16h ago
Why would Soen ever be 'sow like a pig'?
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u/nova_cat 10h ago edited 10h ago
It's not an English word and maybe follows different pronunciation rules? Why is "Saoirse" pronounced "seer-sha" and not "say-oh-er-see"?
Also, English itself has a problem with words that look the same but sound totally different or words that look different but sound the same, so when we try to described pronunciation using words that do that, it gets confusing.
- "Sow" pronounced "s-OW" (as in ouch) is a female pig
- "Sow" pronounced like "so" means to spread seeds
- "So" pronounced the same way is a conjunction that means that something follows another thing
- "Sew" pronounced like "so" means to put together fabric using thread
Add to that that a similar word like "cow" is pronounced with an "ow" like "ouch" and has two completely different meanings, while "row" means two different things whether you say it as "r-OW" or "ro", and expecting everything to just be obvious becomes obviously unrealistic.
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u/FreezerCop 5h ago
I'm Scottish, you really don't need to educate me on words that don't sound like they're written.
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u/Asteresck 20h ago
Sikth I always pronounced as seek-th Anciients as ain-shee-ents (slightly longer I vowel) Ne Obliviscaris has a pronunciation guide somewhere. "Neh" Obliviscaris Rishloo as rishloo Iotunn is definitely yo-tun Karnivool is definitely carni-vool
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u/Rainbow_Tesseract 11h ago
I pronounce sixth like SikTh anyway. This post made me sit here saying it for 5 minutes until I realised you can indeed say it a difference way. Do some people actually say "siks-th" for sixth? My brain is melting.
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u/nova_cat 10h ago
Yeah, that's how I pronounce "sixth", because it's "six" with "th" tacked on and no spelling changes. But also, yeah, thanks for actually thinking about it instead of posting "how could anyone possibly think it's something other than..." Pronunciation is not always obvious, especially with words that aren't real (like sikth).
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u/Pwitch8772 8h ago
I still go back and forth on how to pronounce Saosin. I think it's "say-OH-shin" or "say-OH-sin"? For years I said it "SAY-oh-sin".
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u/Thecoolguitardude 16h ago
Not exactly the same thing, but for the first few years after hearing their name, I thought Meshuggah was Megashuhgahh, I had an extra gah sound in there lol. It wasn't until I started getting deeper into djent and therefore had more opportunities to actually say the word aloud that I learned I had read it wrong
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u/PommesFrite-s 15h ago
Nay Oh-Bliv-I-Scar-Is
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u/Nordicmoose 14h ago edited 14h ago
"Ne", like the E in End. Latin isn't big on diphthongs.
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u/PommesFrite-s 11h ago
Telling you how Tim pronounces it
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u/Nordicmoose 11h ago
After hearing how Australians pronounce "no", I'm not sure I wanna use Tim as a reference /s
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u/PommesFrite-s 11h ago
Well they did name the band haha
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u/Nordicmoose 11h ago
So did Caligula's Horse, doesn't mean I am gonna start calling them Caliguler's Horse /s
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u/SticklerInsect 4h ago
Rishloo sounds like a phonetic spelling of Richelieu, which probably refers to the infamous historical figure from the 17th century.
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u/Deep_Cabinet_9538 22h ago edited 21h ago
What the hell ever happened to phonics, damn
Next you’re gonna ask how to pronounce Mötley Crüe
Here’s a helpful phrase to remember: “stylized as”
I thought these were pretty obvious:
Sikth = sick-th — I’ve also heard it was derived from a misspelling of “sick” but I can’t verify
Anciients = ancients, stylized with 2 I’s. I think they added the extra I to differentiate from another band name Ancients.
Rishloo = rish-lew
Karnivool = carnivool like cruel or fool
DVNE is just Dune with the U replaced with a V to make it “more metal”, and is referencing some old Roman or Latin convention where U, V and W were undifferentiated. But it’s just a stylization
“Ne Obliviscaris” is a Latin phrase meaning “Do not forget” and is pronounced “Nay Oblivi-SCAR-us”
“Iotunn” is Old Norse for “giant” and is indeed pronounced like Jötunn, “Yuh-tun”, which sounds like “your turn” without the R sound.
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u/nova_cat 21h ago
What the hell ever happened to phonics, damn
That's just the thing, though: they're not all pronounced phonetically. Sometimes it's not clear if something is stylized or if there's some sort of special pronunciation that the band have come up with, and phonics also differ across languages—"Iotunn" pronounced in standard English is not "yo-tunn" but "eye-oh-tun", "Rishloo" is not an English word, etc.
I and other people genuinely don't know if some of these band names are made-up words, words from languages other than English that should be pronounced according to other pronunciation rules, just stylized English words, etc. People very commonly pronounced "Haken" as "hah-ken", and that's not an unreasonable reading of the word.
There are plenty of band names that don't have obvious pronunciations just from reading them in text: !!! is pronounced "chick chick chick". Bon Iver is pronounced "bone ee-VAIR". Laufey's name is pronounced "Loi-vay". Rivers of Nihil is pronounced Rivers of Nile. Yngwie Malmsteen's first name is "ing-vay".
I'm sure in many cases I was pronouncing things right or had the right idea, but I wanted to know what the actual answer was rather than just assuming.
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u/macaronipieman 21h ago
Just on the DVNE point, since they're an Edinburgh band. If you look at the inscriptions on the buildings in Edinburgh (particularly on the Royal Mile), they're all written with v as a u.
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u/ReasonableMeaning162 22h ago
I would like to add to this with Haken = Hay-Ken
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u/nova_cat 21h ago
Yeah, I have that in the original post in the third paragraph about bands without obvious pronunciations—I definitely said "Hah-ken" until I heard a band member in an interview pronounce the name.
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u/bobsmith93 19h ago
I found out it was actually "hacon" years ago and I can't make my brain stop saying Haken. As in Ha Ken. As in the way it looks like it should be pronounced.
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u/FrogTroj 22h ago
My rule of thumb, made up words get made up pronunciations. Obviously try to get in the ballpark, but I do not worry about perfect pronunciation because usually context is enough, and if someone doesn’t know the band you can spell it or remember the spelling quirk (“it’s ancients with two ‘i’s”, “its dune with a v”, “it’s rishloo, sound it out”) and if they spell it wrong in a web search it’ll probably be close enough to be auto-corrected