Can We Stop Treating Concept Albums Like Regular Albums?

Welcome to a new segment where Genghis Runs His Mouth about stuff.I've been listening to rock music for over 30 years now and while I'm no expert on the subject, I've spent a lot of time in my life observing my fellow humans do what they do. And a particular pattern has emerged regarding how long time fans of a band treat that band's occasional concept albums.

There tends to be a reaction of "meh, it's all right," (usually when comparing it to previous works from the band) which I think belies a fundamental misunderstanding of where such an undertaking fits into the scheme of things. Concept albums by their nature - when done right - are cohesive narratives, with each individual song a part of a larger storyline that dictates a dynamic structure. Just as a Hollywood movie has moments of intense drama mixed with thoughtful silence, so does the musical trajectory of the concept album. You might think it exciting, but imagine a movie like Die Hard where every single scene that's not about shooting and fighting are taken out. You don't have an intelligible story, and ultimately aren't engaged in the movie. And in fact, it's the inbetween scenes that give impetus to the actions scenes and make them satisfying.

For example, this scene from The Matrix, while a nice bit of choreography, is made so much cooler by the preceding scene where Neo finally realizes his power within the matrix, that he may actually be The One.

So it goes with music. Radio stations never play Rush's Discovery off the legendary 2112 album as a standalone track; it's not meant to be. Who really wants to hear Alex tuning his guitar and noodling around? But within context it's absolutely essential to the imagery of the story as our hero gains insight into the music of a bygone era.

Take us nearly 40 years hence to Dream Theater's The Astonishing - and ironically a pretty similar story to, albeit more fully realized than, 2112. It's a double album with 34 songs, many of which are punctuated with sound effects and ambient vocalizations/music (e.g. The Hovering Sojourn and Brother, Can You Hear Me?) rather than full-fledged progmetal tunes as enjoyed on the band's preceding self-titled album (e.g. The Looking Glass). What I've heard mostly from critics as well as fans is "wow, what an ambitious album," which sounds suspiciously like "it's kind of boring, but they clearly put a lot of work into it, God bless 'em."

All I'm saying is you can't look at such art and treat it like you're looking at the ingredients on a box of cereal: "Bastards! There's nearly 40% less balls and chunk™ in this than there used to be!" It's not a straight numbers game. And I can't say I've ever overheard someone in a museum looking at the Mona Lisa like "Not bad, but this one's so drab compared to his earlier stuff. Wish he'd done another Last Supper".

- Genghis admits it's taking a little time to fully appreciate The Astonishing...

Podcast Interview: Ronnie Atkins

Legendary Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins chats with Rags about his latest project: Nordic Union.Singer Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) stops by to talk with Ragman about his collaboration with Erik Martensson (Eclipse, W.E.T.) known as Nordic Union. So join TRTR for a little tête-à-tête about the new melodic hard rock album as well as his plans for Pretty Maids.

And don't forget to look for Nordic Union's self-titled new album which is available from Frontiers Music. HORNS UP!

Featured Tracks: Pretty Maids - Loveshine; Nordic Union - Hypocrisy, The War Has Begun, Every Heartbeat, Wide Awake; Pretty Maids - Hell on High Heels

Ronnie Atkins Interview

Podcast Interview: Torsten Ihlenfeld

Guitarist Torsten Ihlenfeld of Brainstorm sits in for a great interview about his band's new album.German power metal stalwarts Brainstorm owe their sound in part to guitarist Torsten Ihlenfeld for a great interview about what the band's up to, their latest album, and touring the world. So open a nice German beer (may we humbly suggest a nice Weihenstephaner?) and pull up a chair.

And please be sure to check out Brainstorm's latest album Scary Creatures, available from AMF Records! HORNS UP!

Featured Tracks: Brainstorm -  Entering Solitude, Sky Among the Clouds, How Much Can You Take, How Much Can You Take, We Are, Scary Creatures, and Recall the Real

Torsten Ihlenfeld Interview

Draconian - Sovran

Swedish doom metal masters Draconian do it again - this time with newcomer Heike Langhans's ethereal stylings.I maintain that one of - if not the best ways to hear doom metal is with a female vocalist. In this case, Swedish doom purveyors Draconian, whose melodic death metal sound has gradually become more black and doomy over the years, have released their latest album Sovran with newcomer Heike Langhans. And what a sound she lends to the gothic mood. Her look is even a good match, looking in promo photos like a dark earth mother/goddess with the rest of the crew surrounding her like musical priests. It's something.

Of course, the music has to serve the overall sound and it does that very well. Not all of the tunes on Sovran are doom dirges; tunes like No Lonelier Star and Stellar Tombs start out more like something from the band's melodeath origins before mellowing out to their morose conclusions. But, as it turns out, slower tunes like Pale Tortured Blue compliment Langhans' ethereal voice, who comes off like a dark reflection of Enya through a looking glass world of melancholia - and an effective counterpoint to Anders Jakobsson's gutteral vocals. Since mood accounts for most of the meat in this genre, it's clear Draconian has that covered just fine. the sludge of so much low end is often too muddy to appreciate for the music's nuances, but not so with this band, so kudos to the producers.

The Bottom Line: Gothic doom metal has its place, and few do it better than those crafty Swedes. Draconian's latest album mixes the vocal stylings of two very different singers to great effect with Anders Jakobsson's gutteral menace balanced by Heike Langhans' ethereal beauty. Nice work.

- Genghis really digs the doom metal from time to time...

Emil Bills - XX

German numetallers have shown their poppy side for their "candlelight" version of their greatest cuts.To celebrate their 20th year, German alt-metal band Emil Bulls has re-recorded new, or "candlelight", versions of their most popular songs for their latest release, XX. This is where, if only in the interest of intellectual honesty, I have to say this is some impressive stuff. It's easy to dismiss most a lot of nu metal and the like as angry guitar bashing and screaming about trite topics that everyone agrees are the bane of modern life. But to go back and re-arrange those songs into nuanced poppy anthems if a musical feat.

Tunes like Here Comes The Fire get polished to a mirror finish that would seem totally at home on a pop diva's next release. Sure, there's a bit of a disconnect between the mellow feel of the music and the incindiary lyrics.], but to turn your own work on its head, in a genre that is often maligned for its lack of innovation or depth, belies a certain self-awareness that puts the material a cut above the din. Not too shabby.

The Bottom Line: Fans of nu metal's Emil Bulls may have their minds blown when they hear the band's prime cuts transmogrified into tasty pop morsels - for better or for worse, you be the judge. But the mere fact of pulling it off this well should impress you as a music fan nonethless.

- Genghis was tapping his toes a bit to some of this stuff (is that allowed?)...