Heavy metal and palaeontology have come together in an unlikely partnership following the discovery of an ancient predator's remains.
Palaeontologist Mats Eriksson of Sweden’s Lund University was the first person to find remains of a half-metre worm that lived 420 million years ago. As a fan of King Diamond, he named it Kingnites Diamondi.
The creature’s names sparked a project to deliver a metal song, with At The Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg teaming up with American band Invertia on the track Deep Time Predator, streaming below.
German act Seetyca also worked on the track, which features lyrics composed by Eriksson, based on a scientific paper he wrote about the fossil. It tells the story from the creature’s point of view. He’d hoped King Diamond himself to appear on the track, but yhe singer wasn’t available.
The project is a collaboration with Eriksson and the Science Slam Sonic Explorers, a collective of musicians and researchers.
In 2006, Eriksson named a species Kalloprion Kilmisteri after Motorhead frontman Lemmy.
