About this blog

This is my secondary, extremely-seldomly updated blog about music.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

DRAGONFORCE

WARNING: BIASED BLOGGING AHEAD

I realized the other day I've been forgetting a terribly important album in my reviews, one that's been dear to me for years:
Yeah. DragonForce, beeyotches.

Inhuman Rampage was the album that got me into not just DragonForce, not just power metal, but metal itself. Before I heard Through the Fire and the Flames via a preview of Guitar Hero III that mentioned how impossibly difficult it was, I mostly listened to Christian contemporary music, songs from Guitar Hero (some of which were metal, but I didn't even know that), and the soundtracks of video games that I piped into my computer and recorded. When I heard that song my life was changed.

Compared with the stuff I was used to, DragonForce was larger than life. Blindingly fast bass drumming and virtuosic guitar solos lasting upwards of three minutes (say what you will, but I believe they can play their own instruments when sober), epic multisectioned songs in excess of seven minutes, made-of-awesome lyrics like "So far away, we wait for the day/For the lives all so wasted and gone /We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days /Through the fire and the flames we carry on!"...where had I been to be missing out on such music?

DragonForce is the musical embodiment of the rule of cool. Maybe a 30-second guitar solo would fit into the flow of the song better and make it a more reasonable length, but DragonForce, luckily, is not a reasonable band. Their lyrics are so epic that they don't even make any sense! As I mentioned in a previous post, DragonForce is sometimes described as "video game" metal for their use of 8-bit-esque electronic effects. So if you like '80s music or video games, this is the band for you!

That said, there isn't too much point doing a track-by-track analysis. I have long admitted that DragonForce's songs mostly sound similar. Similarly awesome. Since the shortest song on the album is over 5 minutes, there's a lot to love here. Through the Fire and the Flames is of course, the most memorable track for me due to its general greatness and inclusion in Guitar Hero III and Brütal Legend. If you only listen to one DragonForce song, let it be that one. The album's only weak point is its obligatory ballad (which really does sound forced compared to the insanity of the rest of the songs), Trail of Broken Hearts.

I usually tend to remember my introduction to something favorably; it gets a special place in my heart that later instances can't claim. Maybe that's why DragonForce remains my favorite metal band, or maybe it's because other power metal bands are slow, short-winded, and boring compared to them. If you're one of those types who listens to music to be cool, stay away from this album and go back to your Animal Collective or whatever. But if you listen to music to enjoy music, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable listening experience than Inhuman Rampage.

Warning: May cause uncontrollable head-banging. Reviewer assumes no responsibility for DragonForce-related injuries.

Wintersun

Since this spring I've been developing an ear for death metal. I haven't discussed this fact much with people, knowing the knee-jerk reaction such an "extreme metal" genre usually evokes. It's not music if there's no singing, right? And aren't the lyrics all Satanic and gory, not at all the stuff a Christian should listen to? Let me examine these assumptions with the experience I have with the genre:

The music: In comparison with my beloved power metal, death metal tends to be at least as fast, with heavier-sounding guitars that are more often played in minor keys. It is very riff-focused and often has furious guitar solos. The drumming has lots of bass pedal and "blast beats" (2-time beats involving the bass drum, snare drum, and a cymbal that are usually played extremely quickly). It's a very technically demanding genre. And, of course, the vocals are usually shouted, snarled, screamed, or grunted rather than sung.

There's no questioning that usually these elements are acquired musical tastes (in the same way that people tell me alcohol is an acquired taste). Someone who isn't already into metal is much less likely to love a Dark Tranquillity album for the first time as he is a HammerFall album. Personally, I prefer melodic death metal, which has at least as much in common with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (think Iron Maiden, epic fantasy-themed lyrics, melodic guitar harmonies, and the like) as it does with '80s thrash. At its most melodic, it's basically power metal minus the clean vocals. (Though it can have quite a bit of clean vocals) It's powerful, epic, and even beautiful. At any rate, there's nothing "bad" or "wrong" about the musical style of death metal, as abrasive as it can be. I believe that preferred style of music (without considering lyrics) is simply a matter of taste, not of morality.

But what about the lyrics? It's true that the Satanic and gory themes people usually associate with death metal characterized it in the beginning. But like so many other genres (punk, grunge, even rock itself), the style outgrew the original culture that defined it and was responsible for its early lyrics. Namely, it grew its way to Scandanavia, where bands like At the Gates and In Flames redefined it and created melodic death metal. As I said above, it was considerably more melodic and accessible than the 'brutal' death metal that was on the rise in America. I enjoy it much more. Additionally, the lyrics were much less nasty and more diverse. The only common feature of melodic death metal lyrics I've identified is that they tend to be dark in tone, but this doesn't stop them from being enjoyable, deep, even beautiful. (See Opeth) Case in point: an album I've been getting into recently...
Wintersun is the band of former Ensiferum vocalist Jari Mäenpää (don't you love awesome Finnish names?). The lyrics are quite poetic and, rather predictably, often about winter. (I might be biased toward them because of this) Musically, it is mostly fast and furious, with melodic guitars akin to a fiercer brand of power metal plus plenty of blast beats. The keyboards give it a distinctive expansive, "spacy" sound that evokes the feel of a winter night (again, the perfect album for someone whose favorite season is winter). It's also nearly unique in my iTunes library in that every song on the album is longer than the last. It's a cool effect as you feel like you're going deeper and deeper into the album--and this is a very deep album. Each song (except maybe the two-and-a-half-minute opener) has many sections to it and this album is as deep as many a prog album. A sign of a good album is that I enjoy it more every time I listen to it, which is certainly the case for Wintersun.

Lyrically, the songs appear to follow the last thoughts of a man lost in a winter night struggling against the cold and his own delusions, but they are intentionally open to interpretation. They are poetically penned in the trademark nearly-correct-so-it-sounds-cooler style of many Finnish metal bands. The album has a mix of operatic clean vocals and screams; overall Jari is talented and understandable whatever style he's using.

The album starts off with the one-two punch of Beyond the Dark Sun and Winter Madness which introduce us to the band's frantic tempos, superb guitar and keyboard melodies, and top-notch drumming. This is a band that isn't afraid to sound big, all while keeping up the pace. They slow down to a crawl for the first part of Sleeping Stars while the atmospheric keyboards take over, but after that we have one of the album standouts, Battle Against Time, which has some truly awesome tempo shifts. Keep in mind that the farther into the album we get, the more progressive the songs become.

Death and the Healing is a largely instrumental track devoid of screamed vocals, probably the most beautiful song on the album. Starchild is an epic journey both lyrically and musically. Beautiful Death is a furious 8-minute musical attack that ends with a pretty cool ambient section. Album finisher Sadness and Hate provides a satisfyingly epic conclusion to this majestic album. If you're looking for some metal that defies genre boundaries and provides a satisfying listen for the head and the ears, I highly recommend Wintersun.

Friday, November 19, 2010

define:Epic

I take pride in the fact that I don't just listen to music: I listen to EPIC music. Music that would be appropriate for a lightsaber duel, Tolkienesque battle between good and evil for the fate of the world, or a particularly intense homework session. My definition of epic music was formed years ago by some particularly awesome music I discovered in my younger, more musically impressionable years and reinforced by some more recent gems. I decided to select the CD's worth of songs that best fit this abstract definition--I measure how epic a song is largely by how closely it resembles the following and how well it fits the above situations. If you listen to none of the other posts in my blog, check these songs out. They are made of epic awesomeness.

The first song I hear by an artist makes a strong impression on me and often ends up being one of my favorites in their catalogue. This 14-minute masterpiece was the first I ever heard of Nightwish (aside from that misheard lyrics video which is the most almost anyone hears of them) and it completely blew me away. It, like all the other songs on Nightwish's latest albums, was recorded with a full orchestra. The intrigue steadily builds with the largely ambient orchestral intro for the first minute before the trumpets come in and the band explodes onto the scene. The metal guitar, horns, and choir trade off in a crowning moment of EPIC. This song resembles film music (a favorite of Nightwish's resident keyboardist/composer, Tuomas) in its scale and complexity. There are quite a few quiet parts, a nice contrast that makes the song even more memorable. The version with lyrics is also cool (it's basically Tuomas's life story plus Poe references), but the instrumental version lets you concentrate solely on how INSANELY EPIC the music is.

This song also starts off quietly and ambiently before a lonely organ comes in above the wind to play a few notes. The band begins repeating the song's all-Latin chorus louder and louder--it means something like "The book is written, the book shall be brought, in which all is contained, by which the world will be judged". Pretty epic. The choir and organ back singer Fabio Lione up for this part for EVEN MORE EPIC. Bonus points for some awesome shred guitar. Check it out.

INTO THE FIRES OF FOREVER/WE WILL FLY THROUGH THE HEAVENS/WITH THE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE/WE STAND STRONG TOGETHER/THROUGH THE FORCING OF POWER/IT WILL SOON REACH THE HOUR/FOR VICTORY WE RIDE/FURY OF THE STORM/[2-minute hyperfast guitar solo]

At only ten minutes, Ghost Love Score is a disappointing follow-up to The Poet and the Pendulum. Not. Actually it is not disappointing at all and was released three years earlier. Like its longer nephew (sorry, learned about binary trees today) it resembles film music, with loud parts, quiet parts, and (plenty of) epic parts. Go to 7:10 on that video and you'll see what I mean. Only one thing could make it more epic...

I traditionally listen to this song after taking tests. Once again the the shredding guitar, fast drumming, and symphonic/choral elements combine to make one seriously epic song. Particularly the incredibly sing-alongable chorus. "Gloria/Gloria perpetua/In this dawn of victory!"

I have written a three-page essay on this song and why it is epic. And the metal gods manage it with no keyboards!

This song is from the same album as The Poet and the Pendulum, but it is considerably more guitar-focused. It has great riffs and an intense, uber-heavy atmosphere. The chorus (or what would be the chorus in the non-instrumental) version currently has no movie that could possibly do it justice as a soundtrack.

I don't know of any band that can so seamlessly blend shred guitar and organs/harpsichords and not have it come off as ridiculous like Rhapsody of Fire. Well, maybe it is ridiculous. But that's just part of their charm!

As I've previously written, Dream Evil is known for taking power metal to self-parodic levels, but try not to sing along with the awesome chorus. Just try. One of the more awesome guitar riffs I've ever heard as well. Bonus points for the lyrics actually being about an epic final battle.

Yes, a quarter of my definition of epic is from one album. One awesome album. This song starts out slower, with deep, pounding guitar and a choir maintaining an ominous atmosphere. After a few "verses" this gives way to a tribal-sounding drum march, then a violin solo--epic indeed! The last minute and a half are possibly the most intense piece of music I have ever heard--just when you think it's about to end, they turn it up a notch.

The first 1.5 minutes of this song are relatively quiet before the Italian bards turn it up to 11. The swirling strings, the choir, the surge of energy in the chorus--words can't describe it. I recommend listening.

The last song on my (to be) CD is the only one by an American band. (Don't worry, they have a Norwegian opera singer for a vocalist) No relation to Ghost Love Score aside from their epic blend of metal and orchestra. I'm running out of words to use, but you should probably listen to it.

Addendum: In the updated version of this playlist, I've replaced "Agony Is My Name" with Wurzelbert, but German symphonic metal band Equilibrium. After listening to the first minute or so, it pretty much sounds like the world is ending. Booming guitars combine with symphonic bombast, all turned up to eleven. The all-German vocals sound so evil, but really they're about a funny root-man who thrills people by playing his fiddle ("Wurzelbert,, Wurzelbert, Wurzelbert, spiel die fiedal!"). Wow.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

In the Night

The following is a review I posted on iTunes about one of my favorite metal albums.

Meta-Metal

For those who aren't aware, Dream Evil is the band of Mr. Fredrik Nordstrom, Swedish metal producer and one of the main guys behind the famed "Gothenburg sound" of metal. This is a guy that knows his metal, and Dream Evil is some of the finest new metal out there. If you don't read the rest of this review, use the time you saved to buy this album!

In the Night is the band's fifth release, in which they ply their craft of affectionately parodying power metal. DE is fully aware of how formulaic, cheesy, and self-promoting the genre can be, and they aren't afraid to poke some fun at it. This manifests through just-a-little-over-the-top lyrics like "I am immortal/I rule the slaughter" on the first track, "We will unite/Hail metal!/We will fight!/[BOOMING GUITAR RIFFAGE]" on the title track, or pretty much the entirety of "Bang Your Head". "The Ballad" gets bonus points for taking the classic metal song format to side-splittingly hilarious lengths. Make no mistake, Dream Evil isn't just joking around, and the lyrics are much more likely to delight than anger power metal fans. 

Musically, the band sounds top-notch. With the band led by one of the top metal producers in the business, this isn't too surprising. The booming guitars are mixed a little loud, but in power metal is this something to complain about? Every song has ultra-heavy, melodic guitar work, excellent solos, head-banging drumming, and fine vocals by Niklas Isfeldt/Nick Night. Whether you have lengthy debates over which Helloween album is best or you got into power metal via DragonForce and think they're the coolest thing ever, whatever kind of metalhead you are (or even if you aren't), this album is highly recommended.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

My Top 10 Eclectic Metal Bands

It's true that lots of the music I listen to, while awesome, and fulfilling, isn't terribly creative. Don't get me wrong, I love listening to epic metal about swords and sorcery, but occasionally I yearn for something a little different. Fortunately, in my musical travels I've found some fascinating metal bands that aren't afraid to do things differently. And now I share them with you: the ten most eclectic metal bands in my library and what they have to bring to the genre.

10. Ayreon - Science fiction rock opera
I've already done a post on these guys. Dutch multi-instrumentalist/composer/genius Arjen Anthony Lucassen could have simply formed an awesome progressive metal band, but he was far too megalomaniacal for that. Instead he started the project Ayreon. Armed with some of the best progressive and metal vocalists and musicians out there, he set out to tell the story of an ancient race of fish-people (the Forevers) that covered their world in machines and lost their emotions in the process. With their own future looking bleak, they seeded a passing comet with engineered DNA and guided it towards the Earth, where it wiped out the dinosaurs and paved the way for human life. The Forevers sought to live vicariously through the humans and, by learning from them, rediscover emotions. Soon human civilization began repeating the Forevers' mistakes and tries to warn past humans about their doom through a process called "time telepathy". Their message is received in a dream by the blind 6th-century minstrel, Ayreon, who is cursed to become unable to communicate his message by a jealous Merlin. The scientists also try to warn an aging hippie via time telepathy, but of course he is declared insane. Ultimately humanity wipes itself out in the year 2084. The last human left alive is a colonist left alone on Mars, who uses a machine called the Dream Sequencer to relive the history of his past lives. He eventually tries to go back to the very first soul created, the Universal Migrator, which travels through the universe spreading life to other planets. The Dream Sequencer eventually runs down and fails, killing the colonist, who becomes the new Migrator. Got all that?

This epic tale is told in full rock opera style, supplemented with 70s-era synthesizers for that "space" feel. Ayreon is truly larger than life in every respect.

9. Canvas Solaris - Ph.D.-level riffs (and song titles)
Canvas Solaris is definitely a band for the brainy. They play technically complex instrumental metal that reminds me of a lengthy process of introspection, decision, and discovery. Musically, it's an odyssey from quiet synthesizers to schizophrenic riffage that can be challenging to keep up with. Their songs definitely don't all sound the same--different parts of the same songs don't even sound similar. And, of course, even brainier than their music is their song titles. Perhaps in absence of lyrics to write, the band comes up with gems like "Reticular Consciousness", "Syzygial Epiphany", "Adaptive Optics", and the classic "Dark Matter, Accretion Disk, And Interacting Binary Neutron Star In A Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe". One has to wonder how much they care about becoming a hit if their song titles are too long to remember, much less rave about. They're pretty awesome.

8. The Black Mages - Final Fantasy
DragonForce has been called "video game metal" for their awesometastic lyrics and electronic effects, but their have nothing on these guys. The band was started by their keyboardist, Nobuo Uematsu. You know, the guy who composes the music for Final Fantasy. The band is instrumental  and plays metal arrangements of classic tunes from classic video games. Also a truly epic rendition of Sephiroth's theme from Final Fantasy VII, One-Winged Angel, for the Final Fantasy movie. Sadly they disbanded earlier this year, but you should definitely check out their fascinating and nerdy music.




7. Rhapsody of Fire - Dungeons and Dragons, a full orchestra, and Christopher Lee
Wait a second, didn't I originally contrast all this eclectic metal with stuff about swords and sorcery? And isn't that exactly what Rhapsody of Fire sings about? Yes, it's true. But unlike other (perfectly good) power metal bands that just play metal and sing about fantasy, Rhapsody of Fire takes the two to their logical conclusion and fuses them perfectly. Perhaps the only band that would be more at home in the tales it weaves is Blind Guardian. RoF takes power metal's virtuosity and adds full orchestral arrangements, truly operatic singing, and epic choirs singing in Latin. They use this bombastic style to tell Dragonlance-ready stories that span multiple albums in complexity. Oh, and they routinely bring Sir Christopher Lee on board to narrate (and occasionally sing).

6. Cynic - Jazz
Cynic is technical metal like Canvas Solaris, but they have vocals--namely a mix of death growls and auto-tuned robots. They also incorporate elements of jazz into their rambling songs. Probably one of the most brilliant bands I've heard. They have released one album in 1993 and another in 2008, and both have been hailed as some of the best progressive metal has to offer. I don't have much more to say, except check them out.






5. Apocalyptica - Cellos
You may have heard of Apocalyptica as that band that plays Metallica covers on the cello. That was how they got their start, along with covering  some other classic metal songs. Then they got a drummer and became a pretty awesome metal band in their own right. There's just something about a cello run through an amp that no guitar can match. Most of their songs are instrumental, but they regularly bring in guest vocalists to sing with them. Old or new, they're one of the most innovative acts in metal.

4. Pain of Salvation - Everything and the kitchen sink
Swedish prog metal band Pain of Salvation is pretty unique in that they truly have no distinctive "sound". All the other bands on this list have a certain style that their work falls under, but Pain of Salvation truly goes all over the map. Their last three albums have been a largely ambient/electronic concept album on the existence of God with all Latin song titles, a reflection on the human condition in an eccentric style bordering on rap metal, and a jam-filled retro-rock album that wouldn't have been out of place in the 70s. The perfect band for those tired of the ordinary.

3. Attack Attack! - Auto tune and electronica
Okay, maybe Attack Attack! isn't that creative. They are, however, hilarious. Where else will you find head-banging screamo metal and electronic dance pop in the same song? Your reaction to that video should be horror followed by stunned disbelief followed by uproarious laughter. (Especially in the last 50 seconds)



2. Unexpect - Insanity
I consider Unexpect the musical definition of insanity: the aural representation of what losing your mind must be like. Their music shifts between just about every imaginable style, tempo, key, and mood. The band members all go by XBox Live-like pseudonyms like Syriak, ChaotH, and Leïlindel and write lyrics like "Perpendicular euphoria/Burst! Feverish coloured bubbles!!!/Blotch this predictable boring mindscape". That stanza pretty much sums them up. This band is completely bonkersListen at your own peril.




1. van Canto - A cappella
What could be more eclectic than a metal band with no guitars, you ask? A metal band with no instruments--an a cappella hero metal band!! To be fair, they do have a real drummer--but only because no one auditioning could imitate double bass drumming without passing out. (I think they should have just gotten two "drummers" to trade off) They have the drummer and five vocalists--two to actually sing the lyrics, and three more to imitate the guitars and bass with gratuitous amounts of "rakkatakka" and "dundundundundun". They pass the voices through amps to better imitate the real instruments; the solos on their newest album sound indistinguishable from a real guitar. It's pretty impressive. Don't just take my word for it; listening is believing.

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Days of Grays

It's quite rare for me to find an album that not only defies description, but just laughs at all attempts to categorize it. The Days of Grays, by Finnish metal band Sonata Arctica, is such an album.
Sonata Arctica has evolved considerably over their career. They started off playing classic-style power metal similar to genre pioneer Stratovarius, albeit with lyrics that dealt with personal emotions and stories as much as  fantasy. Around their 2004 album Reckoning Night they began adopting a more progressive metal style with more complicated, moodier songs and complex lyrical themes. The Days of Grays combines their progressive and power metal styles, along with more orchestral elements than previous albums. The result is pretty much everything I love about European metal on one CD.

This album is one of a few in my library I have listed as "Symphonic/Progressive/Power Metal". A quick listen will reveal that it deserves all of those genres; the songs are diverse, sprawling compositions that combine crunching guitars and a (simulated) orchestra.. If you listen to this album expecting a straight-up metal record, you will be disappointed. In fact, if you're expecting just about anything beforehand, you probably won't enjoy it as much. It's hard to make general statements about such a diverse album, so let's get to the tracks.

After a completely orchestral intro that slowly builds layers upon layers of piano and strings (Everything Fades to Gray), the full band bursts onto the scene with the epic Deathaura, which is basically the whole album in miniature. In eight minutes we get a multi-sectioned odyssey containing some of the band's hardest rocking backed by the orchestra with multiple quiet interludes. The Last Amazing Grays is somewhat more straightforward. The guitar takes more of a textural backseat to the piano and organ, but comes into its own during a low-register solo which is made all the more epic by the symphonic backing.

Did I mention vocalist Tony Kakko is fantastic in all of these songs? He effortlessly switches between the usual operatic vocals and a more emotional style that befits the more symphonic parts of the album. Basically, he's awesome.

Flag In the Ground is one of the more straight-up power metal songs on the album (with the guitar and keyboard roles approximately reversed from the last song) going back to the band's earlier days, and it is quite awesome. It's also one of the very few SA songs with a happy ending. Zeroes has a more plodding pace (slow enough to headbang to)  and rocks even harder.

The Dead Skin is another short epic, this time compressed to just over six minutes. The lyrics are a little on the emo side, but musically it's beautiful, beginning with a beautiful, swirling piano melody that continues through much of the song. Did I mention the solo and post-solo section is some of the best, most metallic metal I have ever heard? Well, it is. Definitely one of the more interesting (and awesome) parts of the album.

And then...then we have Juliet. Possibly one of my five favorite songs ever. SA takes the climax of Shakespeare's most famous work and gives it the epic treatment. The ending is one of the most intense and beautiful things I have ever heard. I can't possibly do it justice with anything I say, so just listen to it.

These songs are just the highlights that I seem to enjoy more every time I listen to them, but the rest of the album isn't bad by any means (just forgettable by comparison, to me). I cannot recommend this album highly enough to anyone curious about what this "European metal" I enjoy is about.

The stuff kids listen to these days...

Last night Middlebrook Hall Council put on a pretty awesome Halloween dance for which I was the DJ. This was probably a good choice, given that the only music I dance to is folky Contra music so I was able to completely concentrate on my job. From my night in UDS I made some observations about the grim state of most peoples' music listening tastes:
  • Music from this year or last year is cool. Anything older than this, except for a few "classic" songs that have been vetted by going multi-platinum, is terrible. Also anything that isn't a single. (Except maybe the aforementioned "classics")
  • All popular music has the exact same beat. This beat has been decided upon by the Crazy Dance Party Cabal, which determined the optimal speed people like to dance at and the maximal amount of bass they can tolerate and set it as the gold standard of beats.
  • Popular songs consist of this beat with singing and some melodic elements thrown on top so they don't all sound the same.
  • Rap songs consist of this beat, maybe with a few other beats, along with rhythmically spoken vocals and slight melodic elements/sound effects.
  • If the music for a song can't be generated in half an hour by a guy working in Garage Band on a MacBook, forget it. It's too complicated. Heaven forbid that your song incorporates real instruments!
  • Most dance pop songs are about dancing to dance pop. If this is too self-referential to you, you have no taste.
  • If a pop song isn't about dancing, most likely it's about emotional love/relationships/a past, present, or future significant other. We're not trying to break peoples' brains or anything.
  • Teach Me How to Dougie is the most popular song in the world right now, despite not actually teaching the listener how to dougie.
If you desire to break free from the American musical mainstream, this blog is the place for you! (Or a place; i don't claim to know about or enjoy every alternative)

Friday, September 10, 2010

Sunday, September 5, 2010

My Top 5 in Music

Over the years, I've been seeing a shift in focus in my musical interests from bands to individual performers. (Not just solo artists. I've been taking an interest in the people behind the bands and have been richly rewarded by following their work, which can often be quite diverse. So, I've decided to compile a list of my top 5 people in music. Here we go!

5. Mikael Åkerfeldt
Vocalist/guitarist of the progressive death metal band Opeth. Somewhat surprisingly, he's also into softer, acoustic music, and hopes to release a singer-songwriter album. Opeth is a combination of these two sounds, with songs averaging eight minutes that shift seamlessly from gentle strumming and quiet singing to blast beats and death grunts. Åkerfeldt joined Opeth in 1990, when he was 16; soon all the other members left and he's led the band and done most of the songwriting ever since. More than any other band except maybe Explosions in the Sky, Opeth has mastered the loud-soft dynamic and each song is an odyssey through the diverse elements that make up the band's sound. The lyrics, far from the gore most people associate with death metal, are beautiful, melancholy poetry. He's also appeared in an Ayreon album, played with Dream Theater, and appeared in several Porcupine Tree albums (see #1).

4. Jørn Lande
Jørn is a Norwegian hard rock/metal singer best known for singing for the German power metal band Masterplan, as well as his numerous guest appearances. He's released quite a few solo albums and appeared in Avantasia and Ayreon. I first heard him on The Scarecrow by Avantasia (previously reviewed), and he has played increasing roles in the other two albums of the Wicked Trilogy. Rather than attempting to describe how awesome his voice is, I'll just point you to this video.






3. Fredrik Nordström
If there is any man who deserves to have his picture in the dictionary definition of "metal", it is Fredrik Nordström. He's been at the forefront of the booming Swedish metal scene since the early 90s; many of the country's most crucial metal alums were recorded and produced in his own Studio Fredman. Just look at his track record. He was the producer of the "Gothenburg sound" that defined the melodic death metal genre; I never get tired of hearing the distinctive sound of his albums. Basically any metal he touches turns to gold. Apparently producing dozens of albums still isn't metal enough for him, so he also formed his own power metal band, Dream Evil, which is simultaneously an affectionate parody and shining example of the genre.

2. Tobias Sammet
Vocalist for German power metal band Edguy, as well as creator of the "metal opera" side project Avantasia. Edguy is one of the more creative power metal bands out there, especially in recent years as their subject matter has been getting wackier and they've been shifting to more of a hard rock style. But he really shines in Avantasia, a side project combining some of the best metal talent into awesomeness. Unlike Arjen Anthony Lucassen in Ayreon he sings lead vocals for most of the songs, but has also incorporated vocalists like Jørn Lande, Alice Cooper, Roy Khan (Kamelot), Klaus Meine (Scorpions), Michael Kiske (Helloween), John Oliva (Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Tim "Ripper" Owens (Yngwie Malmsteen, Judas Priest, Iced Earth), and Bob Catley (Magnum). The songs vary from fast-paced power metal to his newer hard rock style to ballads, but pretty much everything is amazing. The first two albums are more concept albums, telling a fantasy story of the land of Avantasia, and the latest three, the Wicked Trilogy, are more psychological; they're absolutely brilliant and all the different artists come together into a glorious whole. Plus, as looking at any pictures of him will indicate, he has a truly bizarre sense of humor.

1. Steven Wilson
Vocalist/guitarist for British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as playing in a number of side projects. Porcupine Tree is one of the most brilliant prog rock bands I've ever heard of. It started as a fictitious legendary prog band from the 70s, essentially a solo project for Steven Wilson to release delightfully weird music, but has become a serious and innovative band since. They started off as more of an ambient, space rock band, went through an acoustic pop phase, and have recently begun becoming more progressive metal. Some of the brainiest and best music you'll ever hear. However, even a band as interesting as Porcupine Tree isn't enough of an outlet for Steven Wilson's genius, so he has quite a few side projects: No-Man (ambient music combined with pop), I.E.M. (Incredible Expanding Mindf***, playing krautrock/ambient music), Bass Communion (electronic/drone), and Blackfield (alternative rock). He's also released a solo album because all of this apparently still isn't creative enough for him. Besides all of this work, he collaborated with Opeth on three of their albums, playing keyboard and guitar as well as singing and producing. Also, he performs barefoot.

Seven Seals

Primal Fear is a band that almost wasn't. They were formed by German vocalist Ralf Scheepers after he narrowly missed being the replacement for Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford. He looks just like Halford and sounds like his actual replacement Tim 'Ripper' Owens, so I'm not sure what was wrong with him. Anyway, it's a good thing he didn't make it in, because then he never would have formed Primal Fear and made awesome albums like Seven Seals!
Seven Seals is pretty much the quintessential power metal album. It has booming dual-guitar melodies, keyboard backing for an 'epic' touch (see my last post), double bass drumming, high-pitched clean vocals about legendary heroes and fantastical battles between demons and angels. Laugh if you want, but I enjoy this album more every time I listen to it.

The album has a mix of high-octane powerhouse songs like the bombastic "Demons and Angels", "Rollercoaster" (which is almost impossible not to head-bang to), and "Evil Spell", which becomes one of the most furious songs on the album after a quieter intro. "Carniwar" is slower, but no less heavy. The album is interesting in that it has three epic, 7+-minute songs "Diabolus" has a relatively plodding tempo, but has a strong symphonic backing and still manages a fast guitar solo. "All For One" and "Question of Honour" are more typical power metal songs, but both have extended solos in the middle which are quite awesome. "In Memory" is the obligatory power ballad, and "Seven Seals" combines the slower pace of a ballad with the intensity of their faster songs.

Overall, this album really has no weak songs and has become one of my favorite power metal albums of all time after many listens. It certainly avoids the criticism leveled at bands like DragonForce that all their songs sound the same; Seven Seals has an excellent mix of songs. Power metal has always been a genre less focused on innovation than on pursuit of an ideal, and I think Seven Seals comes quite close indeed. Definitely worth a listen for any metal/hard rock fan.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Dark Passion Play

When people ask me what kind of music I listen to, my standard response is "Christian contemporary and European metal". Most American know the Christian contemporary music scene well enough, even if they don't partake in it. Artists like Skillet and Switchfoot have achieved mainstream success, and big names like Casting Crowns or Steven Curtis Chapman headline Christian music festivals so often it's hard not to know of them, at least. However, it's likely that not many in the states have heard of even relatively mainstream "European metal" bands like Blind Guardian, Stratovarius, or In Flames. The reality is that "European metal" is about as broad a descriptor as "American rock music" and considerably less well-known around here. So, after being inspired by my friend's blog on all things J-pop, this blog has a mission: to raise awareness of the awesomeness of European metal. (Not that I won't talk about other stuff, of course) So, up first is one of my favorite albums of all time, the latest offering from Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish: Dark Passion Play.


As the "symphonic" part suggests, Nightwish's instrumentation extends beyond the usual guitar-bass-drums. Their songwriter, Tuomas Holopainen, often performs with several keyboards at once, and on their latest few albums they've gotten to record with a full choir and orchestra. The symphonic and metal parts of the band take turns sharing the melodic spotlight, or work together to produce pure awesomeness. There's something about the densely layered sound created by a metal band, orchestra, and choir working together that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. More than any other, this album basically serves as my definition for what "epic" music sounds like.

The 14-minute opening track, "The Poet and the Pendulum", clearly shows Holopainen's influence by movie soundtracks. It starts off quietly before exploding into a whirlwind of strings and horns, which is soon joined by the whole band. This part actually bears little resemblance to a movie soundtrack because no movie ever made can possibly justify being accompanied by music so epically awesome. The lyrics are obscure, but are supposedly Holopainen's life story. The rest of the song is a multi-segmented odyssey traversing the breadth of Nightwish's bombastic style.

The rest of the album doesn't quite maintain the epic scale of "The Poet and the Pendulum", but this isn't saying much. The next two songs are clear-cut singles; "Bye Bye Beautiful" toys with industrial sounds and deals with the dismissal of the band's old vocalist, while "Amaranth" is more pop-friendly and focuses on the band's new vocalist, Anette Olzon. On the other hand, "Master Passion Greed" is one of the band's heaviest songs, sung entirely by bassist Marco Hietala. "Cadence of her Last Breath" and "Whoever Brings the Night" are pretty standard Nightwish fare; both are epic, thrilling tunes.

Other songs like "Sahara" and "Seven Days to the Wolves" have fantasy-themed lyrics; the outro of "Seven Days to the Wolves" ranks as one of the most epic parts of any song I have ever heard. Other standout tracks are the relatively quiet interlude "The Islander" and instrumental "Last of the Wilds", wherein Nightwish displays their earlier folk influences. "Eva" and "Meadows of Heaven" are slower, more orchestral ballads; the latter slowly builds to a huge choir-driven climax that is a great album closer.

So Nightwish is one of the best examples of the "European metal" I enjoy. The only other band that can rival their epic-ness is Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire. Oh, and just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they're underground; Nightwish is the most successful band in Finland. If you're looking to broaden your musical horizons across the Atlantic, definitely give Nightwish a look.

Addendum 5/12/2012: I was exaggerating just a bit; Nightwish is in fact the second most successful band from Finland, after HIM.

Monday, August 16, 2010

This... Is... OCTAVARIUM!!!

Well, I've been back from summer project for over a week now (see my other blog if you somehow missed it despite following this one), so I guess I should get back to the writing about music. I've kind of been focusing on my other blog and I'm a bit short on ideas, so I'll simply write about one of my favorite Dream Theater albums (it's a toss-up between this one and Awake)

Octavarium is filled with numerical symbolism and other cool stuff. The musical octave has eight natural notes and five accidentals; this was Dream Theater's eighth studio album and they had released five live albums at the time. Each of the eight songs is in a different key (only a band with musicians as crazy as Dream Theater's would come up with this); to emphasize their conceptual link, they all transition into each other with ambient sound effects. The album also concludes Dream Theater's tradition of each album ending the same way the next one begins; this one ends with the same note that their last one, Train of Thought, ended with, but the band found this to be confining and escaped from the tradition by having the ending of the last song match the beginning of the first song. The concept of Octavarium was obviously well planned-out and it's really cool to see it come together.

Musically, the album was intended as a "classic Dream Theater album", a return to their roots after experimenting with other subjects on their last few albums. It shows their old prog rock influences while showing a more modern style that they would develop more in their next album. Basically, it's the quintessential Dream Theater album.

"The Root of All Evil" is the third part in Mike Portnoy's twelve-step suite. The quiet intro recalls the distinctive rhythm used by the last part before building up to metallic awesomeness. Like the rest of the suite, it's introspective, expressing a sincere readiness to change and be rid of your demons (in this case, alcoholism). As is typical of Dream Theater's longer songs, it has an extended solo with the guitar and keyboard trading off the melody and trying to outdo each other's musicianship.

"The Answer Lies Within" is a quieter, piano-based song that has the rest of the band slowly build up into the song, along with a string quartet. It's more of a power ballad; I don't find it too exciting and it's my least favorite one on the album.

"These Walls" begins with guitar so distorted as to be a sound effect, chugging its way into a keyboard explosion, a dense sound that gives the song an epic feel (especially in the outro). The guitar remains in the background most of the time, providing a heavy atmosphere to the drums and keyboard. Lyrically, the song is about overcoming barriers to communication.

"I Walk Beside You" is without doubt the single most poppy thing Dream Theater has ever done...and it is glorious! Boasting no solos of any kind, it's a break from the excess of the rest of the album, but absolutely beautiful to listen to; proof that Dream Theater can do more with less. Lyrically, it's one of the few songs above love that I enjoy listening to; not the sad "I-need-you-I-can't-live-without-you" love that shows up in so much popular music but real love that walks beside the beloved through every difficulty, never gives up, always puts its own desires second. But if I wrote any more it would have to be on my other blog.

"Panic Attack" is basically exactly what the name suggests: a musical version of a panic attack. It's largely based around a multirhythmic guitar riff which is tons of fun to play on Rock Band. Drummer Mike Portnoy is basically showing off on this song, cranking his usual skill and precision up to 11; there's not a simple rock beat to be found anywhere in the song. The whole thing has more time changes than I can count (perhaps someone who knows the basics of music theory could, however), especially in the bridge and solos. Awesome song.

"Never Enough" is Mike Portnoy's response to ungrateful fans who refuse to be satisfied by his awesomeness.    It alternates a rapid rhythm and the slower, more "majestic" chorus. As usual, there are awesome guitar-and-keyboard solos.

"Sacrificed Sons" is about the tragedy of September 11th. It starts with a chorus of voices speaking foreign languages, which gives way to samples from the news and then a tender piano intro to the actual song. AT over 10 minutes, it starts off at a slow, solemn, pace before an extended solo. Like "In The Name of God" on their last album, it's critical of religious fanaticism.

The title track is...glorious. At 24 minutes, it's Dream Theater's longest song that isn't split into multiple parts. As is typical of their epics, its has an extended instrumental intro featuring spacey keyboards, acoustic guitars, and a flute before the vocals finally come in at about 5:30. It's absolutely brilliant and a better description of all the hidden stuff in it that I can provide is found here. In the end the song is about the cyclical nature of things; coming back full circle to where you started; fittingly, it ends the same way the first song began, turning the whole album into a big cycle. Glorious. If you're interested in Dream Theater (which you should be if you know me), I highly recommend checking out this album first.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Today: another beloved Dream Theater album, their double album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.


Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence represents an important point in Dream Theater's career: the point where they had acquired enough of a reputation as prog metal masters to make a double album at a time when such ambition was frowned upon. They didn't plan on making a double album, but the title track turned out too long to fit onto the same CD as the other songs--more on that later. I also see the album as the turning point between the sound of "new" Dream Theater (represented on the first disc) and "old" Dream Theater (on the second). The second album released by the band since acquiring their current lineup, it features them playing at their best and one of their most epic musical odysseys to date.

The first disc represents Dream Theater's more modern side. It's composed of five songs with an average length of about 11 minutes on a variety of topics. Written by drummer Mike Portnoy about his recovery from alcoholism, "The Glass Prison" is Dream Theater at its most metal. It's my favorite DT song and I've already written a six-page paper on it, which is posted earlier in this blog. "Blind Faith" confronts cults; their leaders, followers, and the concept of blind, misplaced faith, similar to "In the Name of God" on their next album.

 "Misunderstood" is a slower-paced song about the isolation that can accompany fame and living in the eyes of the public. Apparently John Petrucci learned to play the solo for it backwards, then did so and reversed it to get a hauntingly unique-sounding version of the original solo. "The Great Debate" addresses the then-hot-button topic of stem cell research, starting and ending with sound clips taken from the news with plenty of metallic intensity in the middle. Finally, "Disappear" is a quieter song on death and the loss of a loved one.

But the centerpiece of the album is the epic 42-minute title track, which takes up the entirety of the second disc. It's a look into the lives and struggles of six people dealing with six different mental disorders: bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, post-natal depression, autism, and dissociative identity disorder (multiple pesonalities). The result is one of the finest pieces of progressive music, ever. In typical DT bombast, it starts with a seven-minute overture driven by Jordan Rudess' orchestral keyboard sounds, a beautiful piece that introduces the musical themes of the suite. For some reason I feel like it would be perfect as the intro music of a Paper Mario game, but that's a discussion of another time.

Next "About to Crash" covers the rollercoaster of living with bipolar disorder, a fine piece of progressive rock that turns heavy with the short-but-brutal "War Inside My Head". This gives way to the insanity of "The Test That Stumped Them All", a song about the insanity of a schizophrenia sufferer living in a time before it was fully understood. It features some awesomely heavy riffing by John Petrucci, as well as James LaBrie's humorous attempt to play the part of the bumbling doctor and nurse trying to understand their patient's delusions. (The nurse vocals are slightly disturbing)

"Goodnight Kiss" is a much softer song featuring one of T's signature sound effect montages in the middle, transitioning into "Solitary Shell", a nod to Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" and an excellent piece of prog rock in its own right, with an amazing keyboard solo in the middle. "About to Crash" is reprised before "Losing Time" and the finale, which ties together all the stories with a moral to understand and love those suffering from inner "turbulence". The bombastic outro then ends with a nearly two-minute fadeout--only in Dream Theater, indeed.

At least for me, The Glass Prison and the title track tend to dominate my love for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and overshadow the other tracks, but except for maybe Disappear, this album has no weaknesses. This is a very appealing, solid release and recommended for anyone looking to understand the distinction between the old and new phases of the band.

Friday, May 28, 2010

The Scarecrow

Time for another album recommendation. I'm not sure how, but I've managed to blog my way thus far without talking about a genre I've greatly enjoyed for years: power metal. As my previously posted paper mentioned, power metal is a melodic offshoot of speed metal that employs fast, bass-pedal driven tempos, guitar melodies and harmonies, "clean", often operatic vocals, and uplifting lyrics about fantasy, sci-fi, war, freedom, and introspection, among others. It was partially a reaction against the doom and gloom of death metal, and itsw great fun to listen to. Sadly, it's virtually unknown in America (though there are some good American power metal bands nonetheless), but Europe has a vibrant power metal scene. Recently I've been getting to know an album by Avantasia (Avalon + Fantasia), a supergroup formed by boy genius Tobias Sammet of the German power metal band Edguy. Namely, the first album of their "Wicked Trilogy": The Scarecrow.

The Wicked Trilogy centers around the eponymous Scarecrow, actually (I think) a human who suffers from a distorted perception of the world and sets out on a quest for peace, self-discovery, and love. To tell this epic story, Sammet has recruited some of the best vocalists and instrumentalists in metal, similarly to what Arjen Anthony Lucassen does with Ayreon. (The two bands are considered rivals, and have competed over guest stars; The Scarecrow was released on the same day as 01011001, which only intensified their "rivalry")

The result is spectacular. The story and the music work together instead of detracting from each other to make great songs that can be enjoyed individually or as a whole; Sammet explains that "You don't have to understand the story, you have to feel it." There are furious head-bangers like 'Devil in the Belfry' and 'Twisted Mind', metal anthems 'Shelter from the Rain' and 'Another Angel Down', and ballads such as 'Carry Me Over' and 'Cry Just a Little'. And then there's the epic, 11-minute title track, which goes from metal to ambient music and back to metal, pretty much summarizing the scope of Avantasia's style.

The album is endlessly creative, beautiful, bursting with energy, and only gets better as you listen to it again and again. Critics of power metal who say all the songs sound the same should listen to this album (or anything by Tobias Sammet, really). When I first heard it I thought it was kind of weird and not metal enough, but a few months later they released the other two parts of the trilogy and I decided to listen to all three albums over and over until I 'got' them. I eventually did, and they're some of my favorite music ever. The Scarecrow was just ahead of its time for me; it has plenty of rokk, a truly epic scale, and lyrics you can immerse yourself in time after time. Highly recommend.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Church Music

I return to this blog! I'm still working on the whole "posting on a consistent basis thing"; now that it's summer, I really have no excuse. I have plenty of music I could write about; it's mostly a matter of putting in the time and thought. For now, I write on what I'm currently listening to: David Crowder Band's new album, Church Music.
David Crowder Band has always been a rather offbeat, "interesting" group that always stays rooted in solid Christian worship. They span many different style, combining reverent praise music with rock and electronic influences in fascinating ways. So, as fans of the band would expect, Church Music isn't just a stuffy collection of hymns set to a beat or the like. It's an uplifting 73-minute odyssey through the Christian faith, every bit as eclectic and  God-centered as DCB's previous releases. One interesting thing, rare in Christian music, is that the songs all flow directly into each other, effectively making the album a single 73-minute Christian epic. The last song even loops into the first in case you want to listen to it again (which is perfectly understandable). They did this by sequencing all the songs electronically, then playing over them while leaving the synthesizer skeletons of the songs intact, resulting in a hybrid atmosphere of synthesized and human-made music.

That said, even in an album of such length the songs never get old. As one would expect from DCB they all sound quite distinct, but manage to be consistently appealing and powerful. My personal favorite is "Eastern Hymn", which has one of the most beautifully uplifting choruses of any Christian song I know as well as some of their trademark Game Boy sounds (which I think music needs more of). There's also God-glorifying Christian rock like "Alleluia, Sing" and "God Almighty" and more dance-able numbers like "The Nearness", "The Veil", and "Church Music - Dance[!]", which channels a good deal of Daft Punk.  Besides worship music, the album has more personal songs like "How He Loves" (which I happily discovered I already knew from my church) and "All Around Me".

All around, an amazing release from the illustrious David Crowder Band proving that A) they still have what it takes as one of the most fascinating Christian bands out there and B) God is still wonderfully amazing. Though some of the songs do stand out, if you're considering this album I advise buying the whole thing for the complete experience.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

On Headphones

Time for another long-overdue post. I'm something of a headphone connoisseur--currently I own nine pairs, each with its own sonic personality. I love headphones because they're much cheaper, less cumbersome, and less disturbing to neighbors than speakers and can transform how you listen to music. Sadly, when you say "headphones" today, people usually think of something like this:











While I think more of these:











(I'm wearing these in my profile picture--note the size; I can see them in my peripheral vision while wearing them)

I suppose it's all personal preference, but I intensely dislike the sensation of having sound piped directly into my ear canals; it sounds unnatural and confining. Though there are expensive earbuds that supposedly can match the sound quality and clarity of larger headphones, their design necessarily limits them in this way, and many people seem content with the standard iPod earbuds. Instead, I like my headphones as large as possible as shown above, with enormous earpads that let the sound come from all around my ears, like a concert hall I can wear and enjoy anytime.

The effects of good headphones (or any good sound system) on how one experiences music really needs to be heard to be believed. I sampled my friend's $100 Sennheiser HD-555s during my freshman year of college, and they basically blew me away. As soon as I'd heard how they brought my old music to life, I knew cost was no issue; I had to buy my own. I keep my old earbuds and $10 folding headphones around as spares, but I can't go back to listening on them; it's just depressing.

Sadly, if you don't have access to borrowing a pair of high-end headphones, it's pretty hard to test-listen them, and spending $50+ on an unknown quantity is understandably hard to justify doing. If you're content with how your music sounds, that's fine. But if you're the least bit curious about what it could sound like, ask around. You might just be amazed like I was.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dream Theater and the Cerebral Side of Metal

This past semester, I took a class on rock music from the 1970s to the present. This was probably the most enjoyable class I have ever taken. The final paper was to write a lecture about a song we wish had been discussed in the course. My paper turned out awesomely and seems like a good fit for this blog, so here it is:

Heavy metal and its various styles have always been one of my favorite kinds of music. I appreciated the class’ coverage of classic metal, but was disappointed that its coverage of contemporary heavy metal music focused only on its dark side, the trend that led to thrash metal, death metal, black metal, and other similarly abrasive styles. I would have liked the course to cover at least one example of the more positive subgenres of metal that I enjoy, namely power metal and progressive metal. Power metal is a melodically focused offshoot of speed metal that formed largely as a reaction against the exceedingly dark tone of death and black metal and features clean vocals and upbeat, epic lyrical themes. Progressive metal combines the complex song structures, unconventional time signatures, and musicianship of progressive rock with the powerful, guitar-focused sound of heavy metal. Of the two, progressive metal tends to be much more musically interesting, and so I’m going to write about my favorite example of the genre: “The Glass Prison”, by Dream Theater.

Progressive metal, of which Dream Theater is one of the main practitioners today, has its origins in the 70s, when it was inevitable that two genres as popular as progressive rock and heavy metal would combine somehow, somewhere. Acts like Rush and Uriah Heep combined progressive rock and hard rock influences to achieve a sound that was as complex and technical as progressive rock, but distinctively heavy in its sound. But artists like these still fell within the progressive rock umbrella and were essentially still mainstream progressive rock acts that happened to sound heavier than bands like Yes and Pink Floyd. The three American bands that largely helped to turn progressive metal into a freestanding genre in the 80s were Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and, of course, Dream Theater. Queensrÿche was musically influenced by glam metal and became the most commercially successful of the three; Fates Warning drew from thrash and other extreme metal and remained largely underground.

Dream Theater, on the other hand, stayed the closest to its progressive rock origins, at least initially. Since making their landmark album Images and Words in 1992 in the middle of the popularity explosion of grunge, they’ve developed a more modern, metal-sounding approach while remaining progressive and intensely technical in their work. This new style roughly began in their 2002 album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and is exemplified by songs like “The Glass Prison”. The album still contains traces of the “old” Dream Theater, particularly in its title track, a 42-minute epic in eight movements exploring the lives and struggles of six eponymous people dealing with mental illness.

At nearly fourteen minutes in length, “The Glass Prison” is fairly long even by the standards of Dream Theater. It’s divided into three main movements and an instrumental section, and one of the more striking things about the song is the minimal level of repetition present. Each movement sounds quite different from the others, and they have little repetition within themselves; at most some form of a refrain that comes back once and is forgotten. The band’s virtuosic instrumentalists have very short musical attention spans, constantly shifting riffs and even time signatures. The result is a song packed with more detail than many an entire metal album, constantly changing from one moment to the next and rarely crossing back over its own path.

The other immediately striking thing about the song is how, despite its unusual length, it never relents from its intensely heavy, powerful sound. While it resembles a progressive rock song on a large-scale, structural and compositional level, it’s unmistakably metal at its finest in its actual sound. Crunching riffs, fast-paced shredding, and rapid-fire bass pedaling, all hallmarks of modern metal, are present here. On his website, drummer Mike Portnoy explains that the song was the band’s attempt to write a song that stays “concentrated on heaviness from start to finish without really ever letting up.”

The lyrics to the song are something else yet. “The Glass Prison” was written by Portnoy about his recent recovery from alcohol addiction. The three movements correspond to the first three steps of the twelve-step process of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Dream Theater’s lyrics have always been wide-ranging, covering topics from philosophy to mythology to current events, but personal experiences are a significant part of their songwriting, especially in recent years; this is a very personal song, at least on a lyrical level.

The first movement, Reflection, describes the speaker realizing that his life has been taken over by alcohol. Whereas so much of the heavy metal we’ve discussed focused on power in all its forms, the first movement is all about complete powerlessness: “Hopeless surrender/Obsession’s got me beat/Losing the will to live/Admitting complete defeat”. Instead the power has been taken by the addiction: “Overwhelming, unquenchable/I’m powerless, have to let go”. The combination of these lyrics with the extremely heavy power of the song’s sound is an interesting juxtaposition; right after the line “complete defeat” the fast and heavy main riff of the introduction is reprised, complete with double bass drumming.

In the second movement, Restoration, the speaker comes to believe that there is hope, that a higher Power can restore him from his addiction to sanity and wholeness: “Desperate, crawling on my knees/Begging God to please stop the insanity”. He admits his inability to save himself and turns to God and others to help him break free. “Help me, I can’t break out this prison all alone/Save me, I’m drowning and I’m hopeless on my own/Heal me, I can’t restore my sanity alone”. Musically, this section is slower and less melodically complex than the first, as if it’s humbling itself.

The shorter last movement describes his commitment to submit to God and make every effort to turn his life around: “The glass prison which once held me is gone/A long lost fortress/Armed only with liberty/And the key of my willingness.” The higher Power he believes in is suggested to be the Christian God, as he prays a line from the Lord’s Prayer in the last stanza: “Fell down on my knees and prayed/’Thy will be done’”. Though we’ve only made it through the first three steps of the program, there is already a sense of redemption evident in this song as we’re taken from utter despair and hopelessness to faith and hope for recovery. Overall, the lyrics are a tale of salvation on par with those of ‘70s arena rock, without self-congratulatingly placing music in the position of redeemer.

With all that said, the way the song begins has little to do with its lyrics or its pervading heaviosity. Dream Theater is fond of drawn-out, instrumental introductions, with the vocals sometimes not coming in for up to five minutes. For the first fifteen or so seconds, we hear nothing but static. In their previous album, Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Dream Theater began a tradition that would unite their next few albums into one “super-album” in which each album ended the same way the next began. Scenes from a Memory is a concept album that ends with the main character being ambushed and killed while listening to a record, bumping the needle and producing the static that carries over into “The Glass Prison”.

The next thing we hear is a mournful-sounding bell, which repeats a few times until it is accompanied by a low-key bass riff. Minus the static, it sounds strangely similar to the introduction of “Hells Bells” by AC/DC, with a similar-sounding guitar riff being played instead of the bass. But where the latter song slowly builds up and evolves around the tempo of the bell and the guitar riff, in “The Glass Prison” the rest of the band suddenly enters from nowhere at around 0:50. After the guitar and drums finish resonating from their entrance, the guitar starts accompanying the bass in its melody and for a few moments, it’s hard not to wonder if Dream Theater is playing a tribute to the classic band.

Then at 1:45, this resemblance vanishes the song slows to a stop before shifting gears entirely to a higher one. The guitar comes in alone to play a new, faster riff, soon accompanied by “galloping” drums. Though it took a while to build up, the powerful sound of the song is here to stay. The drums soon shift to a more normal 2-time beat, with some double-bass drumming thrown in. Thirty or so seconds later the guitar shifts to a more rhythmic riff, which is soon carried on by the bass guitar as the lead guitar begins shredding for a full thirty seconds. Not to be outdone, the drums switch to an even faster double-bass rhythm.

Finally the guitar and drums switch back to the rhythmic riff and, after three minutes of build-up, James LaBrie’s vocals finally begin. Though he is the band’s lead vocalist, Mike Portnoy contributes almost as many lines as backing vocalist, possibly because this is “his” song. Meanwhile, the guitar contents itself with occasionally shifting pitch in its riff. The keyboard, not as present as usual in such a heavy song, plays a swirling, music box-esque melody to accompany LeBrie’s vocals as they shift disconcertingly back and forth between left and right.

For the “chorus” (in the loosest possible definition) of the first movement another, spacier guitar riff comes to light along with more technically insane drumming. Around 5:20, the band simply resonates over a mandolin-like melody before switching back to the slower intro riff. During this we hear sirens, possibly indicating some kind of medical emergency arising from alcohol addiction. The band seems to be building up to the same fast riff we heard at 1:45, but when it should come we instead switch to something completely different: the next movement.

It begins with the guitar playing a simple riff unaccompanied, so distorted as to be almost completely toneless. Soon the drums come in, much simpler than before, along with the keyboard imitating records scratching. We quickly get a sense of the sonic personality of the second movement: slower, perhaps less technical than the first half, but just as crushingly heavy and powerful. The drums set the pace as the guitar shifts between various crunchy riffs to accentuate the transitions between sections of the lyrics. An almost bluesy riff accompanies the “chorus” of this movement, along with the keyboard imitating an old organ. But it’s misleading to call this part a chorus; as it’s repeated, though the vocals are the same, the guitar riff in the middle third is stood on its head into something completely different.

After this repetition, the band shifts gears yet again and enters into the instrumental section of the song. Not content with one, or even two guitar solos, Dream Theater will devote upwards of five minutes at a time to just let its incredibly skilled instrumentalists do their thing, during which time LaBrie will physically leave the stage at shows. What results sound almost like a battle of the bands as the guitar, keyboard, and drums all vie to be the most complex, the most technical, the best-sounding, calling a ceasefire every once in a while to let the bass shine though. Even in a song as heavy as “The Glass Prison”, the guitar and keyboard share the melody roughly evenly.

This lasts until almost the thirteen-minute mark as we transition to the last movement with the return of LaBrie’s vocals. The focus is almost entirely on him and the lyrics as the guitar and keyboard shrink into the background with the surging drums keeping up the power of the song. The song ends abruptly with the shattering of glass, symbolizing the destruction of the glass prison of alcoholism.

Though not Dream Theater’s most well-known song, “The Glass Prison” is exemplary in how fully it incorporates both its progressive and metal roots. Its multifaceted complexity, wrapped in unrelenting heaviness and powerful instrumentation, make it an outstanding combination of the genres. It stands up and walks like a heavy metal song, but upon analysis reveals at least as much detail as a typical progressive rock song. Mike Portnoy would go on to write four more parts to his Twelve-Step Suite corresponding to the other nine steps, bringing it to a near-hourlong tale of his recovery. Meanwhile, Dream Theater continued to develop the metal-centric approach evident in this song, most notably in their follow-up “black” album from 2003, Train of Thought. They have continued as innovators of the progressive metal scene up to the present, breaking into commercial success without changing to fit into the mold of mainstream artists; their latest album, consisting of six songs totaling 75 minutes, reached the sixth spot on the Billboard 200.

As bands like Dream Theater show, the evolution of the diverse genre of heavy metal in the past twenty or so years has been extremely broad-ranging and multidimensional. While extreme offshoots of thrash like death and black metal went underground in much darker directions, grunge and alternative metal remained relatively mainstream in America, power metal plunged headlong into bringing back the melodics of the 80s with fantastical lyrics, and progressive metal essentially did its own thing. Its power, intellectualism, and endless innovation make it a fascinating genre on multiple levels and a testament to the adaptability of the heavy metal sound to do almost anything imaginable.