Ramblings of a nerd (or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the blog).
Mostly used for reviews of music and concerts.
Imaginaerum Review
Note: In my mind, it really should be Imaginarium, and I’m going to refer to it as such. Also, I apparently have a serious weakness for the uilleann pipes, so I am biased towards songs that include them.
Taikatalvi: A good pure Finnish track. Solid haunting sound, maybe not as good overall as Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan from Once but good nonetheless.
Storytime: an instant Nightwish classic. Quick, melodic, and catchy, with a solid chorus and hook. One of the best tracks on Imaginarium.
Ghost River: Marco provides an amazing range of vocals on this one and it shifts sounds 2 or 3 different times. Quite a track. Aaaaand there’s the kids from Poet and the Pendulum. Vacillates between rough and smooth motifs. Cool song, not the best on the album, but a sleeper for sure.
Slow, Love, Slow: Whoa. Starts with a watery sound and suddenly turns very 1940s lounge style. Anette’s style is SO DIFFERENT here. Almost a slow jazz sound. Wow. I am shocked by what I’m hearing but amazed at the same time. The jazz electric guitar is a really cool touch. About 2/3 of the way through it starts sounding like jazz Nightwish and not just jazz. Who the hell is that on the trumpet? They’re amazing.
I Want My Tears Back: Based on the sample, I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d like this one… but then Troy Donockley started in with the uilleann pipes and I’m in love. Sounds like the more upbeat section of 7 Days to the Wolves for the entire song, but with Marco’s vocals in it and oh my, it is a good combination of previously winning styles for Nightwish. Think Islander + 7 Days + Bye Bye Beautiful in sound. Did I mention that I love Troy Donockley and his uilleann pipes?
Scaretale: There’s the weird kids again. Classic Nightwish sound followed by some… harpsichord? This is reminding me of the weird horror/creepy theme for the Imaginarium. Feels like Master Passion Greed in style. And then suddenly changed into a movie circus theme. Wow, Nightwish is really branching out in their styles for this album. I like it but SO STRANGE. SO SO STRANGE. Then a final shift to a more Ghost Love Score style for the finale section, which is really cool and classic symphonic Nightwish. What a weird/creepy track. I like it, but wow is it odd. Really unique in the Nightwish catalogue.
Arabesque: (Note: Instrumental): Sounds… well, Arabesque. Shifts tones frequently while keeping the same theme throughout. Written specifically for the film, apparently. Really epic piece. Good instrumental interlude to the album.
Turn Loose the Mermaids: More harpsichord and pipes with a really haunted lake type of sound. Anette is rather soft here. A beautiful adventure somewhere between Islander and Meadows of Heaven in style. Not quite so heavy as Islander, but almost as adventurous, yet not quite so powerful as Meadows was. Honestly, I could dance to this piece. I really, really enjoy it.
Rest Calm: First impression: Wow, it’s Meadows of Heaven again. That was a good song but got old fast. Hopefully this moves away from that area quickly. Ahhh there’s the change – to a more Eva style. Wow, Marco’s voice takes it away from that quickly. But it’s back in Cadence of Her Last Breath territory now.
The Crow, The Owl And The Dove: This one sounds more traditional/pop than usual at the beginning. A neat story, but a huge departure from the rest of the album. Notably, the only track written by Marco. The pipes are cool but I can’t quite get on board with the vocals. A good song either way but doesn’t jump out as amazing like Storytime, Tears, or Mermaids do. Very soft/light rock sound, which is hugely unusual. In Slow, Love, Slow they do a different sound, but they pull it off. Here I’m not convinced.
Last Ride of the Day: Epic choir intro reminds me of some tracks from Once and Dark Passion Play. Makes me feel like I’m listening to Whoever Brings the Night again but with a more light melodic feel. Good but not exceptional in any way and doesn’t stand out from the crowd.
Song of Myself: Before it even starts, the 13-and-a-half minute undertaking is Nightwish’s second longest song (after the nearly 14 minute epic Poet and the Pendulum) and appears intimidating on the last half of the album. Based on what I’ve read, it’s really 4 songs in 1. Really big in theme and style. The spoken section was as startling and shocking as it was touching and amazing. This MUST be listened to with stereo sound. Holy crap. Amazing piece. Quite a condemnation of religion as well. Not going to get much radio play but even the first listen is absolutely astounding. One of the band’s most moving pieces. Most of the rest of the Imaginarium can easily be listened to while doing other things, but Song of Myself is an exception. When listening to it, go out of your way to listen exclusively to it and consider its lyrics. Don’t shortchange yourself by putting your focus on something other than the song. (Aftersong edit: Apparently inspired by a Walt Whitman poem of the same name)
Imaginaerum (Title Track): An orchestral masterpiece by Tuomas and composer Pip Williams. Includes the themes from almost every song on the album in its complex but beautiful journey. Great piece, wonderful finale. Only down side: It sounds like it’s at the end of a movie and should have credits rolling over it. Other than that, a great look back at the rest of the album.
This is Nightwish’s best album yet. Crow/Owl/Dove is easily the weakest track and Storytime will be the most listened to and radio played, but it, I Want My Tears Back, and Turn Loose the Mermaids are all candidates for the best song on the album. Song of Myself is a truly amazing experience and Imaginaerum (should be Imaginarium of course) is a wonderful finale. 92/100
Within Temptation’s newest album, The Unforgiving, is another good foray into the world of metal… if that’s the world they’re venturing into. They sound significantly brighter and almost pop-y, which is quite a departure from their standard Silent Force/Heart of Everything dark style. Part of this is, in my opinion, probably due to Sharon den Adel’s multiple children - she and guitarist Robert Westerholt now have three under the age of six (the latest of which is barely visible in the video for the first single, Faster, as den Adel was several months pregnant during filming). den Adel and Westerholt are the primary songwriters for the group, and as the number of children in their lives increases, so does the brightness of their sound (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). The content is still a bit dark, but the sound doesn’t quite match as it once did.
As a whole, the album is still highly enjoyable despite the different sound. Track 2, Shot in the Dark, has a catchy hook and entrancing sound that keeps it going well after the song finishes. The first single from the album, Faster, feels FAR brighter than almost anything else they’ve put out since 2001’s Mother Earth. Iron and Sinéad are the mid-album gems that stand out, but A Demon’s Fate feels the most truly metal of any song and most resembles their previous work. It’s a great one that has good potential as a video.
The Bonus Track Version from iTunes has three bonus songs: I Don’t Wanna, The Last Dance, and Empty Eyes. The first of the trio is good and catchy but feels even more pop-esque than Faster, which is saying something. The Last Dance is one of the best songs on the entire album next to A Demon’s Fate but isn’t quite the same. It falls more into the style of Jillian (I’d Give My Heart) and Memories from The Silent Force as well as Forgiven from The Heart of Everything - a more somber but haunting style that lends itself so well to Within Temptation’s emotional musical storytelling.
The change in style, while a bit jarring, still feels like a natural progression for den Adel and Westerholt’s writing, somewhat reminiscent of how the Beatles changed between the early 60’s and the mid 70’s. The Unforgiving is an excellent set of work by Within Temptation, even if it diverges from their original sound, and is highly recommended.
Darroh Sudderth is possibly the strangest lead singer I have ever seen. The man is a complete and utter spaz (a good thing, really) that dominates the stage and holds everyone’s attention. He, and the rest of Fair to Midland, were really the cynosure of their March 24 show at Station Four in St. Paul, MN, to which I was graciously invited by Erin and Laura Holt of Metal and Mystery (a Macalester College-based radio program on WMCN - visit http://wmcn.tumblr.com/ for more information). A four-band show (three touring groups and one opening local group) had plenty of ups and downs, but Scale the Summit was amazing and the aforementioned Fair to Midland melted faces off.
Reaping Asmodeia, a Minneapolis-based death metal group, opened the show. Death metal really isn’t my thing, but I could still tell that at the very least the group was happy to be there and they had some impressive coordinated four-man headbanging. I can’t comment much on the music, but it seemed too loud for my taste - I couldn’t pick out their instruments separately (something that I can do on their recordings that are posted on their myspace page). The guitarists appeared to be skilled - 20 strings across three guitars proved that point - but the sound mix was just too strong.
Scale the Summit was the first of the tour groups up and they really impressed. An instrumental progressive metal band from Houston, the superb skills of lead guitarist Christ Letchford were on display constantly. Some songs were just good while the excellent tracks “The Great Plains” (from their Carving Desert Canyons album) and new songs “Origin of Species” and “Whales” were absolutely captivating. The first thing I did upon getting home was to buy their new album, The Collective, and I can safely say that it’s a gem. Second guitarist Travis Levrier and bassist Jordan Eberhardt showcased their talents as well and left a great overall impression.
The third group to take the stage was Periphery. From Washington, DC, they have gained quite a following and their presence (5 men up front) was strong but like Reaping Asmodeia before them, the sound was too loud and too pushy for the most part. Their second song (Jetpacks Was Yes!) was the only piece they played that I really enjoyed, and a post-concert youtube lookup (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTICUhCqEaY) proved that point again - it’s a very well designed and thoughtful piece that doesn’t try too hard. Most of the rest of their set was, sadly, rather forgettable, save for some (at the time) impressive attempts at crowdsurfing by frontman Spencer Sotelo. At long last, Periphery finally gave way to the kings of the night, Fair to Midland.
I’m not really sure what I expected from the Sulphur Springs, TX-based group, but they ultimately stole the whole show. Lead singer Darroh Sudderth was running around on stage in a surgical mask and tucked in buttoned shirt before his set started, and was so inconspicuous that I thought he was a roadie for Periphery or maybe a tech guy for Station Four. Once he started setting up and took off his mask, though, all bets were off. The man, as noted earlier, is a complete spaz. His uninhibited seizure-like movements on stage were funny yet infectious and made everyone like him that much more. Sudderth’s vocal talents are the centerpiece of the Fair to Midland but his antics hold a close second place. Periphery’s Sotelo tried crowdsurfing a bit, but did not succeed to the extent of Sudderth, who also doused himself with an entire bottle of water between every song. At one point, during Dance of the Manatee (one of my favorite Fair to Midland songs), the crazed lead singer climbed atop the stage left speakers (of which I was directly in front) to sing, but instead draped the microphone around his neck and proceeded to climb along the ceiling’s water pipes over the crowd, then sing upside down, hanging from his feet. Between the shock of having the lead singer of Fair to Midland dangling above my head and worrying about the water pipes soaking me, I had a great time listening to their set and it really capped off a great night of metal (with a little bit of mystery thrown in thanks to Erin, Laura, and that maniac Darroh Sudderth).
