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Ne Obliviscaris – Portal of I

Peter Jones 1 Comment

Writing about 30 albums in 30 days has been a good exercise for me. It has helped me dust off the cobwebs that have accumulated in the writing portion of my brain, and has given me the opportunity to perhaps think a bit more about why I like some of the music I like.

I don’t think I could say it has made me a better writer, yet. But hopefully that will come with time and with some continued writing.

As I’ve been thinking about what album I should finish this endeavor out with, I struggled a bit. Strictly for my purposes, I felt it should be some piece of music that has had a more profound impact on my life. Yet, I’ve already written about a number of those. I’ve hit upon Neurosis, Fates Warning, Opeth, and some others. So, just for fun, I thought I would fire up iTunes and see what album has the highest play count.

And I was blown away.

I actually think there has to be some sort of error in the way iTunes counted things, because it says that I have listened to some tracks of Portal of I but Ne Obliviscaris over 1,400 times. Yet, while I doubt that total number, there can be no mistake, Portal of I was another massive breakthrough album for me, and led to Ne Obliviscaris being one of my very favorite bands.

I wish I could recall how I stumbled across this album. It was something online. There was a lot of buzz building, despite the fact it was the first album from this young Australian band. It seemed there was a bit of a bandwagon forming, so I decided I would jump on.

Again, gut trusted, payoff ensued.

Portal of I is an amazing album, one which, personally, I don’t think Ne Obliviscaris has topped, despite subsequent albums being stronger as albums. Portal of I just has some of the most amazing metal songs I think I have ever heard.

Playing another melange of genres, Ne Obliviscaris is firmly rooted in some of the more extreme styles (death and black metal are a staple of the sound). However, over all this is a very strong progressive component. Many songs are longer than 10 minutes, with multiple passages and recurring motifs, in a fashion that calls to mind classical music to be completely honest.

Furthering the classical music comparison is the central, and really essential, use of violin in the music. It would be tempting to relegate the violin to brief moments here and there. However, Ne Obliviscaris intelligently writes their music understanding that the violin is a central instrument, much like the guitar or bass. Every song is replete with lyrical violin that adds a unique and beautiful layer to the music. Played by Tim Charles, the clean vocalist, it is really present nearly all the time that Tim isn’t singing, and at times plays off the lead guitar as well.

Beautiful really is one of the most effective ways to describe the music of Ne Obliviscaris. Take, for example, my favorite song off Portal of I, “Forget Not”. A tribute to a family member of the band, the first 5 full minutes are primarily violin and acoustic guitar. The music ebbs and flows, building and retreating throughout the entire 12 minutes.

Other songs are equally as powerful. “As Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope” is a monster of a song. Layering clean vocals and black screams and death growls from Xenoyr, this is another song full of crescendo and denouement, an emotional journey from start to finish, that really showcases just how dynamic, moving, and fascinating metal can be.

Make no mistake, this is a metal album from a metal band. Yet, they are extremely willing to push the boundaries of what we would traditionally consider extreme metal, melding different styles, genres, and dynamics to create something that, at least as far as I have thus found, is a truly unique sound. Sure, other bands are doing many of the same things NeO does, but I have yet to find a band that blends them all together as seamlessly as these Aussies do. Add on that, they just come across as a super affable bunch, very willing to interact with fans and to have a relationship with those fans (particularly via Patreon), and you have a band that is super talented and a class act all around. I love all their albums, but Portal of I still remains my favorite, likely as it was my introduction to this fine act.

Fates Warning – The Spectre Within

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The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was in full swing in the early 80s. Thanks to bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (amongst others), heavy metal was taking hold, becoming a pretty big deal, and many bands were following in the footsteps of those greats.

One of those bands was Fates Warning, from Connecticut. Their first album, Night on Brocken dropped in 1984, with a distinct sense of Iron Maiden worship.

However, a closer listen revealed some tendencies to more progressive music. Shades of bands such as Rush were creeping into the NWOBHM sound that Fates was building their sound on. Enter their second album in 1985, The Spectre Within, and I don’t think it would be unfair to say that progressive metal was born.

Taking the metal sound of Night on Brocken and adding different time signatures, allowing the music to really be more dynamic and variable, and in retrospect, ground was being broken. Fates Warning is anchored by the guitar playing of Jim Matheos, and on The Spectre Within we see him upping his game considerably. Songs like “Orphan Gypsy” still are built on that fast, metal riffing. But it is also willing to slow things down, add some variation with the choruses. “Pirates of the Underground” is one of my favorites. Starting with a rapid gallop, it slows things down when the first verse hits, only to end by speeding up again, with one of my favorite endings in metal.

And that is a theme really seen on The Spectre Within. Few, if any, of the songs are predictable, or go where you initially expect. Yet what also makes this album so strong is how none of these transitions feel abrupt or out of place. There is a definite flow to the album, despite the changing time signatures and tempos throughout.

Songs like “The Apparition” are legitimate prog masterpieces. Final track, “Epitaph” is 12 minutes of excellence that really shows where the band would go on subsequent tracks like “Exodus” and “The Ivory Gate of Dreams”.

It is impossible to talk about the first three Fates Warning albums without spending some time on the vocals of John Arch.

Let me start by saying that, it took me a bit to really get into his voice. Given that Ray Alder was my introduction to Fates Warning, John Arch was something completely different. I’ve read that Tony Iommi said that Ozzy sang with the melody, but Dio sang across the melody. That is a good way to describe John Arch as well. His vocal melodies are some of the most interesting in metal. He has a high tenor, and isn’t afraid to use it. But what I love the most is just how dynamic his vocal lines are. This man can sing, and amazingly still can today. Because his vocal melodies are much more unique and dynamic than usual for this type of music, it takes a bit for them to click. But once they do, I’ll fight anyone who has bad things to say about John Arch. It’s that simple.

The Spectre Within is an essential album, as it really is the birth of prog metal. It holds up excellently today and is a dynamic, vibrant musical expression of a band that continues to shape progressive music to this day.

Neurosis – Through Silver in Blood

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We all know that life can change in a moment.

Sometimes those moments are major events. Other times, they are less so. I’d wager a guess that, at least for people who really love music, there are certain moments, albums, songs, that changed their musical lives as well.

I wouldn’t be overstating it to say that Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis changed my musical life.

Disconnected by Fates Warning, while an all time favorite album of mine, didn’t do much to change how I thought about music. It was still something that was pretty squarely in my wheelhouse. But Through Silver in Blood was something different all together. Discovering Neurosis opened entire new avenues of heavy music for me to explore. And I am grateful to this day that it did.

I’ve talked about heavy music here before (Mammoth Storm, Alruna). I’ve talked about challenging music (Mirror Reaper). Well, here we have both. Through Silver in Blood is dense. It is dark. It is a long album, with long songs. The vocals are uncompromising, with some growls, some screams, some good old hardcore wails.

The guitars build, swell, explode. Neurosis are masters of the fine art of crescendo and denouement. There are quiet moments on this album. Yet the serve to make the heavy moments mean all that much more. This is hardcore music that has been stretched and given room to become something much more, something different. There is some sludge here, there is some punk, and most importantly, we witness, through this and other Neurosis albums, the true birth of post-metal.

The title track starts with industrial noises. Drums then build in slowly and the song adds and adds until it explodes into one of the most punishing tracks I’ve ever heard. It continues to build, flow and wax and wane over the course of its 12 minutes, ending with a pounding drum beat that drives the listener into submission. “Aeon” begins with piano and string, until the bomb drops, almost a full 3 minutes in, with crushing guitars and vocals that could strip the paint right off the wall.

But what makes Neurosis, and Through Silver in Blood, so powerful and effective is their refusal to keep the needle pegged at 11. Dynamics abound, with a scaling back of the songs that prevents it from all feeling like too much. “Locust Star” would be the one exception to this, and even that takes over a full minute to really begin.

I openly admit that Neurosis is one of my favorite bands. Depending on the day, they are either pretty much even with Fates Warning, or possibly just a tad ahead. Through Silver in Blood is my “desert island” album. If I could listen to only one more album for the rest of my life, this would be it. There are enough dynamics, enough amazing music, that this has it all. But it isn’t easy. It isn’t accessible. Not everyone is going to listen to and enjoy this album. Heck, it even took me a while of really sitting down and listening to Neurosis before it clicked for me. But once it did, it clicked hard. And Through Silver in Blood is one of the most important and influential albums that most people have never heard.

Norma Jean – All Hail

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The truth is, I like most subgenres of metal. However, anything that ends in -core, well, it just doesn’t usually click for me. As with everything in life though, there are exceptions.

Norma Jean is one of those exceptions. And All Hail slams an exclamation mark on that exception.

I became familiar with the band Norma Jean with their 2013 album Wrongdoers. For some reason, songs off that album popped up in my Pandora feed. I don’t recall what station led to that, but pop up they did, and I remember digging some of their stuff.

2016 came, and with it their album Polar Similar, I was paying complete attention. So when I saw that All Hail was getting ready to drop, I pre-ordered it without question. Specifically after hearing the first single, [Mind over Mind]. That song hit like a ton of bricks, and didn’t let up for its short two and a half minute run time.

All Hail is unquestionably metalcore. But it is metalcore that has matured. There is a deftness to the writing on the album that really draws me in. There are plenty of face smashing, head banging moments that get the blood pumping. Yet these moments are balanced by other moments of subtlety and peace. This makes the record stand out for me.

Metalcore, like all its -core brethren, can be a little too much. Too samey. Too balls-to-the-wall from start to finish. There is actually room to breathe on All Hail. And the album is undeniably stronger because of it.

Case in point, “Translational”, a song that will be at the very top of my favorite songs of the year list. It starts slowly, almost gently, and gradually builds from there. Screams are balanced with softly sung lines until the song explodes with the scream “Deliver me!” Yet they still have the maturity to reign the song in, and pull it back. This makes the “Burn baby, burn!” peak of the song that much more powerful. This is a masterclass in dynamics and maturity that eludes most -core bands.

It is this maturity, this ability to weave different layers of intensity, to contrast heavy and atmosphere, that makes All Hail such a darn triumph of writing. And the writing is bolstered by excellent playing and production that, while consistent with almost too polished modern sensibilities, allows the music to have that space to breathe that it needs. Yes, this is loud, but it never gets to be too much.

And with that balance and maturity, Norma Jean has dropped one of my favorite albums I have heard this year.