Noise Marine "ammunition" (a somewhat silly thread)

[Evil Eye]

So we all know the threads about music that fits thematically with various 40K factions, but here I had a slightly different (and incredibly daft) idea. We all know that Noise Marines are fond of using weaponized musical instruments (or musical weapons?), but the real question is, what do you like the idea of their "music" sounding like? What do your Noise Boys play?

 

As someone whose EC army is going to be an amalgamation of different Slaaneshi warbands (presumably with different styles), I have the following ideas.

First off is a sort of synth/electronic style, but not just "lol Skrillex marines". Rather I'm thinking a somewhat more surreal, complex style with heavy use of sampling (from Emperor knows what sources). To be exact, I'm thinking the wondrous sounds of VHS Head.

(This cover art would make a superb banner...)

 

Second is a blend of the more modern "Techno Marines" style and the classic "Metal Marines" thing, with a bit of industrial metal/rock. Heavy and raw, but still with some element of refinement. Alas I am not the biggest metalhead, but Rammstein springs to mind for the "instrumentals".

Finally (for now) I kinda like the idea of Prog Rock Noise Marines. Again, I'm not hugely knowledgeable on the genre but you can't go wrong with King Crimson.

 

 

Anyway, fire away (so to speak)!

[Tyriks]

I don't think it would sound like music to us. I think it would sound like cacophanous shrieking. Like a kid picking up an electric guitar for the first time and just making noise.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm with Tyrics on this - noise weapons wouldn't sound anything like music to anyone not fully in the thrall of slaanesh.  I mean, my wife may hate my music and may find it too "shrieky", but no matter how loud it plays it won't liquefy our organs.

 

Now, noise weapons likely do sound like music to noise marines, so I suppose one could have a discussion as to what a noise weapon would sound like to them.  That said, I think the answer to that question would be highly variable, as one noise marine is likely to hear something different than another.  As well, noise marines would use senses that go to parts of the spectrum that human senses don't, and I also imagine that there is a fair bit of synesthesia, where senses cross over - for example, where something might sound bright or smell hard... all of which makes it hard for us mere humans to conjecture as to what they might experience.

[Exilyth]

Probably some experimentalist mix of 'muzak' and 'harsh noise' with actual white/brown/pink noise mixed in, underlaid with the screams of tortured souls and played right next to an industrial sized washing machine wherein bricks get thrown around - all of that turned up to 11 ofc.

 

It probably wouldn't even sound like music to us - more like someone pulling a cheesegrater over ones neurons.

[Scourged]

In my head, I couldn't help but tie it all to a music history background, starting from similar origins but (quite fittingly) turned up to 11. 

 

I imagined it started like experimental music from the late 19th Century/early 20th Century composers. They experimented by pushing the limits of tonality and harmony, stretching the definitions until - to many - it broke. It could have its origins with techniques like the 12-tone row, until finally reaching the realm of pure atonal music - literally music without any traditional or folk harmonies. But then that isn't enough...

 

New technology unlocks new possibilities, just as with the birth of electronic music and instruments. The experimentation continues, looking for the newest heights of aural experience. Look to musique concrete and elektronische Muzik, where compositions are 'performed' with recordings of sounds or pure electronic noise, respectively. Continuing to expand the boundaries of what is musical, and what is not.

 

Now, here in the history is where reality would diverge from 40k... for our timeline, we were not attuned (pun intended) to these abstract sounds. They were not musical to us - to harsh, too abrasive, too painful on the senses... which is exactly what a hedonite of Slaanesh would crave. So where our history rebelled against experimentation and gave birth to Neo-Classicism, someone who craves sensation in the ways Bequa Kynska needed decided to push forward. So much new technology could push these previous limits, an infinite spectrum of sound...

 

Why suffer with tonality at all? Frequencies have no limit, and each can interact with the other with divine perfection. Notes are not sharp, nor are they flat... hell, why bother with notes at all. Every sound, every vibration is its own symphony and must be celebrated (a la John Cage). A technology would push this further and further until even reality could not stretch the air to Kynska's whims anymore. So if reality won't cut it...

 

Imagine taking all of the above, but then infusing it with a direct line to the wailing maelstrom of psychic turmoil that is the Warp. Literal Chaos infusing the sonic chaos. Now the sounds not only affect you aurally, they affect you psychically. You truly feel every millisecond of acoustic hell in your soul. Your essence burns itself alive, with your ears as the conduit for the aural fire. This is the Song of Slaanesh.

 

It truly is music, if one knows how to understand the 'melodies.' We just simply don't understand the theory and harmony of it all. It's literally no different than any one of us going back to listen to a recording of musique concrete. To the rest of us, it is just noise that is uncomfortable and, to some, painful. But the composer understands it, appreciates it, and enjoys the music. Same as a Noise Marine with a Blastmaster. 

 

 

 

...then play it all at a decibel level so high the vibrations will literally strip away flesh due to sheer concussive force, because Slaanesh. 

[MaliGn]

I always had them down as listening to powernoise - Converter, Noisuf-X, Whitehouse and the like. I.e. the very extremest ends of electronic industrial music that rather indeed does sounds like the aforementioned washing machine full of bricks.

[Verux]

The brown note. Enough said.

[BrainFireBob]

"The Beautiful People," Manson

[dex_911]

Essentially how they sound in DoW2 - a static, over distorted cackle type of sound.

[Trevak Dal]

While I don't like Slaanesh (not the the extent I dislike nurgle), or the Emperor's Real Sweet Kids, I'd liken it to the guy from Trigun who used the saxaphone as a Sonic weapon.

 

Then again, there's the Dubstep gun from Saints Row...4?

 

As to what it would sound like...

 

Shania Twain mixed with Cher Life after Love. Just god horrible and enraging. Enough to make you want to set your own guys on fire to make. It. Stop.

[Panzer]

Well 'realistically' it would be only music to them. However mine would obviously play sick heavy metal that makes their enemies heads burst with pure awesomeness. :P 

[Gederas]

I could see it being anything in G Major

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWcnIStArpA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuqKDXW4ssw

 

Just.... Loud and sounding like music, but not 'proper' music.

[Tyriks]

I like to think that what the Noise Marines themselves hear is something like "I Told You I Was Freaky" by Flight of the Conchords.

[Dagoth Ur]

Quite frankly, I think there'd only be a hint of audible sound to most normal people. Think about it, Noise Marines probably enjoy frequencies far outside our range of perception. What if its just a milisecond of a screech as the sound builds up and then it becomes so deafeningly loud that it washes everything else out in oppressive silence?

[Galron]

We all know its highly destructive sound that can burst the ear drums and shatter armor. Quite obvious that it is recovered recordings of Hanson's "Mmm Bop" and the Spice Girls first album.

[Indefragable]

https://youtu.be/KmpMO2dJQ6Q

 

=

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/L4caiF7GTkgJa/giphy.gif

[DreamIsCollapsing]

You can also go on the totally opposite path : 

 

My noise marines will have the most beautiful and charming music ever. Like a choir with angelic voice, so beautiful it's hard not to focus on it and will a void sensation if ever it stop. 

But, as beautiful as it is, this sound still have physical (or paraphysical) proprieties to destroy organs and tank. Putting the Slaanesh "tentation" back in the Noise marine. 

 

And also : Noise marine got some "real" ammunition. With psychogenic drugs in it, so it explose like a bolter. And if your not dead, you will die by the toxic gaz it will release, could be a psychogenic gaz, laughing gaz etc... We had an exemple with a 7th edition relic. 

 

That explain why a Noise marine can get a Bolter and why it's as fluff as a sonic weapon. It's just not a noise marine, but a Slaanesh dedicaced marine, somehow i think those two thing are gonna merge to a certain point.