Tag melody

Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow

Peter Jones Leave a comment

In 2017, a little album came out of nowhere and knocked my socks off with its technical approach to power metal. WItherfall dropped Nocturnes and Requiems, a compelling mix of progressive, power and even neoclassical metal, all with a dark, haunting undertone pinning it all together.

Having lost their original drummer to tragedy in 2016, the band released that album posthumously. It was replete with powerful vocals, stunning guitar work, and a melancholic attitude that impressed me. However, for some reason, it didn’t really click with me, and while I found it impressive in many ways, I didn’t find myself coming back to it that often.

However, just one year later, Witherfall dropped A Prelude to Sorrow, follow up to their debut. It would be easy to be worried about a second album coming so quickly after the debut, however, given that Nocturnes and Requiems had actually been finished some time before release, and my fears were assuaged. Some.

And then I listened to A Prelude to Sorrow.

Not much had changed, but for some reason, this album instantly clicked with me. I found myself listening over and over again. The same elements were present, yet something about them this time around spoke to me. Subsequently returning to Nocturnes and Requiems has revealed it to be an album I really love as well.

The dark atmosphere that permeates A Prelude to Sorrow is the key in making it enjoyable for me. It harkens back to the gone, but never forgotten, Nevermore. Sure, there are elements of power metal here, but the standard cheese is exchanged for melancholy and darkness. That instantly improves the album in my estimation.

Lyrically, this isn’t happy go lucky fair. Take these lines from first proper track, “We Are Nothing”:

We are nothing

Our souls are just flickering lights

To be extinguished,

Snuffed out by the cold hands of time.

Or how about these words from “Ode to Despair”?

Sometimes mirrors only show

What we want to see

And we’ll fall into despair

And we’ll get no reprieve

As we descend further down

You see what you want to see

In our ode to despair

And we’ll get no reprieve

In our ode to despair

Time just slips away

Still, these are all things we have felt, and I find the expression of said sentiments to be cathartic. There is something to be said in expressing these thoughts and feelings. Perhaps that is why I find this album somewhat therapeutic to listen to.

And musically, this is an impressive album. The guitars are technical, driving, powerful, while still emoting. The vocals are equally powerful. There are high falsettos, lower register vocals with some grit to them, but always tastefully done, executed with the utmost skill. Really, every member is excellent, with the rhythm section being more than up to the task of carrying the weight of these songs.

The best part for me, I gained an entire new appreciation for Nocturnes and Requiems after really falling in love with A Prelude to Sorrow. Witherfall has proven themselves to be one of the most promising and talented prog/power bands, and I look forward to more from them.

Alter Bridge – Walk the Sky

Peter Jones Leave a comment

I have always love Mark Tremonti’s guitar playing. Yes, always.

So, in essence, that means I just admitted to liking at least some aspect of Creed’s music. Ok, ok, I admit it. I really loved Creed when Torn dropped. At that time in my life, there was just something about it that resonated with me. Follow up, Human Clay kept me engaged, with it’s beefier production and heavier sound. There were some really great moments on that album. I mean, come on, the bridge in “What If” builds to a pummeling breakdown that still sounds awesome to this day.

But, by the time Weathered dropped, the cracks were really starting to show. Most of this centered around lead singer Scott Stapp’s over-the-top vocal delivery and what really started to look like a messiah complex.

But none of that takes away from the heavy, bombastic guitar work from Mark Tremonti. Musically, those Creed songs hold up just fine, thanks to Mark’s crunching and tasty riffs. So I was more than ready for Alter Bridge to drop their self-titled debut in 2004. We had the same musical backbone of Creed (literally, guitar, bass and drummer from Creed) with a much more accomplished, versatile, and able singer in Myles Kennedy.

I loved their debut, Blackbird was a moving follow up. AB III took a bit to grow on me, but subsequent albums Fortress and The Last Hero were on near constant rotation shortly after their releases. Likewise, I’ve definitely enjoyed and continued to listen to Tremonti’s solo work on 4 solid albums of guitar centered hard rock.

No one wants prime rib every day. Some days, you want a $1.00 McDouble. I mean, come on, you just do.

I’m not saying Alter Bridge is no better than a McDouble. But this is meet and potatoes hard rock. There isn’t much unexpected going on here. And that is just fine. Some days I just want solid, guitar heavy hard rock that you can sing along to. It fills a need and I’ve appreciated Alter Bridge more than capably filling that need for the past 15 years.

So, with their latest release Walk the Sky, I guess I have to say “Sorry, it’s not you, it’s me.”

I can’t get into it. I preordered it, as I am wont to do. It’s exciting, every week or two you’ll get a new track released to whet your appetite for the full album release. Except none of those singles drew me in. I couldn’t make myself even listen to one of them all the way through before the album dropped. And then the album dropped, mid October. Oddly enough, it isn’t even like it had real stiff competition. The latest from Insomnium had released 2 weeks before, but that hadn’t grabbed me the way their previous release had. Lacuna Coil had shocked me the week before with Black Anima which I continue to think is a really great album.

So it was all the more odd to me that Walk the Sky just couldn’t seem to grab me. But it didn’t, and it still hasn’t. Listening to it now, trying to write something about this album, and I find myself skipping songs like crazy. Not because they are bad. Alter Bridge is even stretching and doing some different things on this album. I appreciate that. And all the same keys are there. Myles has an awesome, powerful voice. Mark’s guitar is as good as ever. The man is one of the best rock guitarists out there.

But I just don’t want to listen for more than a few minutes. Like I said, sorry Alter Bridge, it’s not you, it’s me. So I guess it’s back to the cold embrace of Schammasch, Monolithe, and The Drowning for this middle aged metal head.

Allegaeon – Apoptosis

Peter Jones Leave a comment

Three years ago I had a video recommended for me on Facebook. It was of a cover of the Rush classic “Subdivisions” but a band named Allegaeon. I’d never heard of them before, but it was a Rush cover, and a great song to boot. So I decided to check it out.

What I heard was a faithful cover, but not a copy, that sounded excellent. Suddenly I was intrigued. Who was this band? Apparently this single was being released in anticipation of an upcoming album. The title of the album was Proponent for Sentience. Ok, that’s cool too. A little more digging and I find out these guys are apparently a death metal band. So, now we have a death metal band covering Rush, and releasing an album about artificial intelligence. And then there was the back catalog. Songs like “Dyson Sphere”, “1.618” (that would be the numerical approximation of the golden ratio), and “The God Particle” demonstrated that these guys were also firmly rooted in and writing songs about science.

That freaking rules.

And I really fell in love with the band and their music. Seeing them live on the Proponent tour reinforced that they are amazing musicians, and super chill dudes. So I was all on board for their 2019 release Apoptosis (another scientific term).

What we have, then, is another slab of technical, progressive death metal, with scientific themes. If that doesn’t make this album stand out a bit, I just don’t know what will. The playing is excellent, as always. The songs are intricate, heavy, and progressive. But most importantly, and one of the thing that sets these guys apart from so much other “tech death” is the fact that they really focus on melody.

All of the songs are just that, songs. These aren’t just collections of riffs played as rapidly and ferociously as possible. Riley, the lead singer, can growl with the best of them, but also has a really nice, clean vocal when the song calls for it. Moments of classical, acoustic guitar are peppered throughout (with an entire interlude type track consisting of just that). These songs are musical. Still, the playing is extremely technical, but it doesn’t feel mechanical, automated. This is music written by and played by people who understand and love music.

I love me some tech death. But other times, you really want songs that center around melodies. And that is what sets Allegaeon apart for me. Overall, I do think I prefer Proponent for Sentience over Apoptosis. But that also could be due to the fact I’ve been jamming to Proponent for the past three years, and only have a few months with Apoptosis. Again, saw these guys live on this tour and the brought it. They play with energy, passion, and a love for the music. It translates through in the music. While still relatively young, their first EP dropped in 2008, Allegaeon have become one of my favorite bands, and Apoptosis is a worthy entry in their oeuvre.