Dichotomy

Try as I may to enjoy the "Christian" music scene, it's never easy due to numerous bands who try to distinguish themselves only by their reverent, Christian content-packed lyrics while staying content to follow in the well-worn musical footsteps of their secular counterparts. I treasure the albums of bands that are pioneers both in the truth of their lyrics and the ingenuity of their music. Where alternative rock has bands in this category like Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, and Needtobreathe, power metal has Theocracy, and metalcore has August Burns Red, death metal has one that darn near tops them all: Becoming the Archetype. Possibly my favorite non-melodic death metal band by any stretch, it's a nice bonus that they write cool concept albums comparing the spread of the gospel to fire melting ice or containing extensive references to one of my favorite authors.

Yep, if you haven't read That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis and recognized the album art, Dichotomy is heavily inspired by his Space Trilogy, as well as the gospel. But on top of that, it's some of the best progressive death metal I've ever heard. (Except Opeth, but it's in quite a different vein) Like the Swedish masters, Opeth successfully mixes brutality with peaceful sections, but their compositions are more average-length and their sonic palette somewhat more varied.

To start off, "Mountain of Souls" begins with a rather ghastly, dramatic riff that morphs into a full-on death metal assault before the first verse. It also features a spacier bridge with clean vocals and a mellow, very Opeth-style piano outro. Excellent starting song, but not even close to the album standout. The title track mixes more furious riffing with some soft backing keyboard which is an interesting and rather puzzling effect. it again has a quiet, piano interlude with clean vocals that builds back up to the song's full force in a rather epic manner. The lyrics are more or less a retelling of the second half of Romans 1--the hopelessness of the human condition without God and our tendency to bring destruction upon ourselves.

"Artificial Immortality" shows how BtA toys with melodic songs that are enjoyable for more than pure brutality, without crossing over into melodic death metal. Fantastic blast beats in the chorus and a fist-pumping pseudo-breakdown are also awesome. Lyrically it recalls the horrific experiments of the NICE to "improve" humanity. "Self-Existent" is pretty much a retelling of the resurrection...with furious blast beats! The sheer power of the screamed lyrics "I watched him die/I watched him die" counterpointed by "I saw him rise/I saw him rise" is pretty epic.

"St. Anne's Lullaby" is a brief acoustic interlude...I hope I'm not making BtA sound too much like Opeth; they use some of the same compositional techniques, but sound very little alike. "Ransom" starts off similarly quietly but is definitely one of the heaviest songs on the album, with a particularly awesome, shredding guitar solo and lyrics using Ransom's final battle in Perelandra as a metaphor for Christ's victory over death. "Evil Unseen" has some excellent double-bass work, but seems a bit less compositionally "tight" as other songs.

"How Great Thou Art" is, of course, a death metal retelling of the classic hymn. I'm just waiting for the Hope worship band to play it during offering one day. Someday... "Deep Heaven" uses dark, dense synthesizers in the intro and verses for a really cool effect as the lyrics compare leaving the earth with leaving behind the weight of sin and death. Once again, cool piano interlude. They don't feel overdone on this album. And finally, "End of the Age" is pure epic all the way through, with awe-filled lyrics about God's glory and the second coming like "He pulls down the sky/To crush His enemies/He descends upon them with fire". The chorus has death grunts mixed with what sounds like a choir for "He is clothed in greatness/His voice resounds throughout the earth". The last two and a half minutes are instrumental and provide  more-than-adequate closure to the album.

Overall, this is a fantastic album both in its death metal prowess and its deep, truth-packed lyrics. (And C.S. Lewis references) Vocalist Jason Wisdom gets major points for his heavy-yet-intelligible vocals that get the band's message across, but they always come off as poetic rather than preachy.

Map of Metal

This is possibly the greatest metal thing I have ever seen. I've drawn a few basic maps of music evolution, but this just takes the cake. Link

The Heart of Everything

How have I had this blog for a year and a half without reviewing anything by Within Temptation?

I first learned about Within Temptation from a Facebook ad recommending them based on my love for Nightwish. I've since learned to listen to those ads, because that one was dead-on. Fans of Nightwish's epic, symphonic bombast and "beauty and the beast" vocal approach will be delighted by this group from the Netherlands. Obviously there are differences between the two--Within Temptation doesn't use real orchestras as Nightwish is in the habit of doing, they are absent of folk music influences, and their sound is more gothic than Nightwish's power metal. If you're looking for epic, grandiose, and beautiful metal, Within Temptation (particularly this album) is a recommended first stop.

First track "The Howling" starts quietly, like a lovely flower opening up, until it EXPLODES with the sound of epic choirs laid on top of booming guitars. The chorus further adds Sharon den Adel's lovely vocals to the mix. There is an extended, orchestral, semi-ambient section in place of a solo. This song pretty much exemplifies the album and was a fine introduction to Within Temptation for me.

"What Have You Done" is a duet between den Adel and Life of Agony singer Keith Caputo, which turns out exceedingly well. Other album standouts would be "Our Solemn Hour", which has some of the best choral vocals of the album and samples from Winston Churchill, of all people; the title track, which combines the guitar riffing with majestic strings so well it sends chills down my spine; and epic "The Truth Beneath the Rose" (in the sense of being 7+ minutes long; every song on the album is already epic). The recurring instrumental section combines the usual choir and orchestra with deep operatic male vocals, which is simply pretty cool. I've also found "Hand of Sorrow" and "Final Destination" especially enjoyable.

In summary: The Heart of Everything is packed with beautiful, huge-sounding metal that you should probably listen to. Especially if you enjoy Nightwish.

Alcest

Oh my goodness this is even more beautiful. I think I have found a new genre of choice in this atmospheric post/black metal.

Falling Snow - Agalloch

Oh my goodness this is beautiful.

The Reckoning

Well, the new Needtobreathe album is out. Since I got really into them last Fall, I was extremely excited for it. I've listened through it five times so far and have enough of an informed opinion to write about it. So, how did they do?

What I really enjoyed about The Outsiders was the raw, earthy feel of the whole thing--the abundance of stomping, clapping, shouting, and banjo that gave it a down-to-earth quality not found in many other more polished, "ordinary" rock bands. The Reckoning sees them explore this familiar style further, with songs ranging from anthemic to intimate to downright funky. At every turn they prove themselves adept at their blend of electric and acoustic guitars, piano, banjo, organ, harmonica, mandolin, and of course Bear Rinehart's distinctive vocals. At the same time they expand their lyrical subject matter, though I'm not sure how necessary this was.

On the one hand The Reckoning has some of Needtobreathe's biggest songs yet. "Keep Your Eyes Open" layers electric guitar and bass riffing over a swirling piano melody, with the rest of the band adding to Bear's vocals for even more punch. The transition from the quiet bridge to the truly fist-pumping final chorus is almost hair-raising. But the third track "Drive All Night" outdoes even this. It has no relation to the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name, but seems more like The Boss' style than his own song. The entire band absolutely gives it their all on this song: the drums stomp and crash, the guitars evoke the beauty and power of classic rock, and Bear just sings his heart out, becoming increasingly impassioned as the song goes on. The soul this song has is absolutely amazing; it's definitely the standout of the album.

The drums on this album are more prominent and varied than on their previous ones, doing plenty of interesting stuff in the vein of "Through Smoke". The distant, booming drums on "The Reckoning" recall this; combined with the lyrics about "the middle of our reckoning time" and piano melody it's quite epic. The plodding rhythm, accented with cymbals, on "White Fences" works well with the beautiful-sounding guitar chords and piano. (Not sure how exactly it couldn't) The eccentric rhythm, minor-key guitars, and paranoid lyrics on "Maybe They're On To Us" sound like they could belong in a spy film. Steady bass stomping starts off "Slumber" and continues accompanied by a knotty acoustic guitar riff; in the end the song goes for grandeur as in "Keep Your Eyes Open".

As I mentioned above, the lyrics on The Reckoning are even more diverse than on The Outsiders. The band's Christian faith is even more under-the-surface this time, with the Biblical allusions and metaphors out of plain sight. Quite a few more lyrics about love this time around as well. They're certainly still good (lines like "Never run away a boy/When you can walk away a man" on "The Reckoning"), but overall I miss the themes of The Outsiders.

The Reckoning sees Needtobreathe go in all manner of new musical directions, many of them pleasant. Similarly they boldly explore new lyrical territory. Unfortunately their experimentation had mixed results, with some real standout tracks and some (in my oipnion) duds. Maybe I'm just spoiled after The Heat and The Outsiders, on which nearly every song was amazing and memorable, or maybe this one just needs more time (unintentional reference) to grow on me. The album is a big step forward for the band, but it's a shaky one and I feel like they've lost some of what made their previous albums so memorable. Let's hope it's not gone forever.

A Thousand Suns

A quick disclaimer: if you were to ask me what kind of music I enjoy, my canned answer would be "good music". That is, music I enjoy. I no longer purposely avoid music just because it happens to be popular, but I tend to have more luck finding good music I enjoy outside the mainstream. Whether a band is trying to be indie or "selling out" for mainstream popularity isn't a sure indicator of quality--there are plenty of genuinely brilliant bands that are rightly popular, probably even more junky bands that no one has heard of, or should. I'm not worried about listening to the "right" music, but only music that is true and enjoyable.

That said, I have become obsessed with Linkin Park this summer.

Linkin Park's refusal to let their "popular" sound define them has won them my respect. Their first two albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora were pretty standard "rap metal", hugely popular. Minutes to Midnight was even more radio-friendly alternative rock. And I do enjoy all these albums. But in my opinion their latest effort, A Thousand Suns, tops them all. It combines the rap, metal, and alternative influences of their other albums with (at times) ambient music, dance pop, reggae, and honest-to-goodness progressive rock to produce an album as artistically brilliant as it is enjoyable. It's supposedly a concept album, addressing themes like class struggle, social issues, and nuclear weapons.

The first two songs are both basically an extended introduction. "The Requiem" packs on ambient keyboards and strings, with GLaDOS (actually Mike Shinoda's voice pitch-corrected beyond all recognition) singing part of the second-to-last song, "The Catalyst". "The Radiance" has more ominous sound effects and features a sample of J. Robert Oppenheimer's famous "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" quote.

Then we get into the first full track, "Burning in the Skies", which despite the title is an exceptionally mellow alternative rock song. It's a bit monotonous, but beautiful with great lyrics. Cool, audible bass during the verses, and great contrast in Chester Bennington's vocals between the verses and chorus. "Empty Spaces" is largely ambient filler with another quick sample (Francisco Franco? I'm not sure) that segues right into "When They Come for Me". It's one of the two fully rap songs on the album, built around a "one-two" beat that eventually gives way to a more ambient section dominated by the vocals. Very cool; I got into this song long before I enjoyed Linkin Park in general.

"Robot Boy" starts with a dramatic piano riff, which continues throughout much of the song. It's definitely one of the more "proggy" songs, very spacey with a keyboard section towards the end. Very interesting work unlike anything on Linkin Park's previous albums. "Jornada del Muerto" is largely just an extended outro to it. Then possibly my favorite song of the album, "Waiting for the End", which wears its reggae influences on its sleeve. It alternates between rapped and sung vocals until the last minute or so, which is just incredible. The first three minutes of the song all seem to overlap and become asymptotically better for it. Glorious.

And then right from reggae to dance pop. At least, that's what "Blackout" is until you get to the screams and crazy record-scratching/skipping. It's the sound of a band trying to alienate all its listeners at once and failing miserably. After the song finishes remixing itself, it mellows out to more poppy singing, which is still quite good.

"Wretches and Kings", a straight-up rap song, begins and ends with samples of Mario Savio's "Bodies upon the gears speech". Pretty cool, though I more prefer LP's rap when it's mixed with several other things. "Wisdom, Justice, and Love",another transition track, samples Martin Luther King Jr., eventually repeating the same line with increasing amounts of distortion until it sounds demonic. Yikes. "Iridescent" is definitely the most radio-friendly track of the album, singing about hope in the midst of the chaos the other songs bring up.

The last ambient track, "Fallout", repeats the chorus of "Burning in the Skies"--a counterpart to the flashforward in "The Requiem". "The Catalyst" would be a majestic album closer if it were the last track, bringing together musical elements of previous songs with multiple layered electronic beats, keyboard ambiance, screeching guitars, and both vocalists singing in unison. Quite epic indeed. Rather than end the album there, though, it continues into "The Messenger", with an acoustic guitar as the only instrumentation to accompany the anguished vocals. Very personal-sounding, stripped-back, and quite unlike the rest of the album, which makes it stand out more--combined with the title, maybe the repeated lyrics "When life leaves us blind/Love keeps us kind" is meant to be the moral.

A Thousand Suns is a huge leap forward for Linkin Park, reestablishing them as a genuinely artistic band deserving of their popularity. I can't think of another album with as much variance in style between songs--Pain of Salvation mainly only changes styles between albums. The full-length songs are pretty much all memorable and enjoyable, particularly because of how varied they are. Though good, the shorter, ambient/sampled tracks kind of come off as filler, and I wish there were a few more full songs instead.