When Tardive Dyskinesia isn’t just a phase you’ll grow out of…

January 12th, 2010. By AbiK

Greek progressive math-death metallers Tardive Dyskinesia signed with Coroner Records for the release of their second album entitled “The Sea Of See Through Skins”, scheduled for the beginning of October. The album, presented as an experimental and hypnotic trip into an obsessive and structurated world, features an incredible technical approach and an overload of math structures and tempos.

And so there you have it. Yes, there is a band out there that, in all their blue-sky brainstorming for a band name, came up with “Tardive Dyskinesia” as their very own.

I’m trying to envision that session…(note, the band members hail from Greece, so my lingo may be slightly off, but…)

“Hey dude, how bout Epileptic Overdrive?”

“Nah…I mean it’s good man, but it doesn’t speak to the cause and effect…you know, like something’s gotta send you on the trip…”

And somehow someone somewhere came across the condition of Tardive Dyskinesia. All the elements were there. Drug-induced. Not natural. Physically altering. No control. In fact, completely out of control. The ultimate taking over of your body…and hence your mind… That’s it, man.

Here, this is straight from the band’s website:

Here we are: 2003 and the beginning of their more creative period. The change in sound brought about a change in name too: Tardive Dyskinesia (an illness caused by long-term use of psychotropic medication that manifests itself in involuntary, repetitive movements of the limbs).

That’s all they really say about it. And I guess not much more is needed from a fan’s perspective.

But if you’ve been suffering from Tardive Dyskinesia—the real condition, that is—you might question why anyone would want to brand themselves with it–and start pumping out the requisite t-shirts and buttons to promote it. And I guarantee you that the only way some listeners know what the heck the name really means is by happenstance: they happen to run across a victim’s video on youtube while looking for the band’s latest vid upload.

They probably don’t know either that Tardive Dyskinesia can be brought on by med’s that aren’t psychotropics—like Reglan—that your doctor prescribed—in good faith—only to commit you to a lifetime of involuntary, jerking movements. A lifetime. Not just your Tardive Dyskinesia “phase” much like those of us who went through our phase with The Dead or Pink Floyd (or heaven help us, Rick Springfield).

Hey, I’m all for just about every genre of music, and whatever sparks creative souls. But I just hope that as TD groupies glorify the band, they don’t forget that for some, TD is a prison. And to quote another band of another time, “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”

Tags: Reglan, Tardive Dyskinesia

This was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Drugs/Medical . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.