Your Favourite Unexpected Moments

[Marvellous G]

Quite a weird idea for a thread, but I realised last night while listening to Deadwing for the first time that I love prog so much because it's the one genre that can actually make me smile when I hear something really unexpected and amazing in a song. Some of my favourite moments are:

Opeth - The Lotus Eater - 5:53. When all the dissonance is building up right before this awesome keyboard lead started, I was expecting something like the intro to The Leper Affinity, ie just another riff to start, but when I heard this creepy, almost jazzy keyboard part it made me love this album/band even more.

Dream Theater - Learning To Live - 8:16. Another case of something you only get in prog, I love it when a band repeats melodies or references other songs from their work in some way, so when the Wait For Sleep riff started it was unexpected but great.

Transatlantic - On The Prowl - Just the whole song here wasn't what I thought I was going to be getting from The Whirlwind, so it was great when the amazing bassline started and I realised it was going to be at least mildly funky.

Porcupine Tree - Gravity Eyelids - 4:00. I've said this before, but this is some of the most menacing guitar I've ever heard, and it really caught me off guard completely.

Bonus mention: Tool - Faaip De Oiad. Having been lulled to sleep when first listening to Lateralus in bed by Disposition, when this came on I woke up and was completely terrified. This was not enjoyable.

Anyway, what are some of you guys' favourite unexpected musical moments?

[lonestar]

One that stands out in my mind is the background sounds of bottles being opened, ice cubes falling into a glass, drinks being poured, and harmless bar chatter during Marillion's Torch Song. 

[moffatt]

Opeth Hessial peel - When the growl comes in halfway through.

[Sigz]

The coutnry ho down in Ants of the Sky.

[Arcaeus]

Opeth Hessial peel - When the growl comes in halfway through.

That kicks my ass every time.

[The Letter M]

Since I've been listening to pretty much just Marillion for the last month or so, I definitely have to add the ELP-esque keyboard solo in the middle of "Interior Lulu"... it just comes out of NOWHERE!!! First time I heard it I was blown away and surprised at the same time, and instantly like it... then there's the Wall-sound progression right after it, which was almost a 1-2 punch of "unexpected moments", smack dab in what was initially a chill Marillion song 

-Marc.

[ZBomber]

Pretty much all of Anesthetize by Porcupine Tree. So dynamic.

[Zydar]

The first time I heard Another Day (DT) and the saxophone enters at 1:10 I was like "Whooah Nelly! This I like!".

[Basekick]

The Horns Solo...

Seriously though, there are a couple here that really captivated me the first time I heard them:

Audioslave - Number 1 Zero (2:35).  This song starts off slow and suddenly a blisterring guitar comes out of no where and melts your face.  Sweet.

Opeth - Burden (2:15).  A really cool solo is going on with a set of chords behind, when suddenly, instead of resolving the normal open cadence, they hit us with a gorgeous closed cadence out of left field.  Beautiful. 

Opeth - Blackwater Park (5:15).  When that riff comes in from the acoustic section.....YES.

Dream Theater - In The Name Of God (9:30).  A huge build up on piano and guitars imply a huge climax.....when suddenly there are more keyboard notes to be played.  Kind of humorous actually.

[Ultimetalhead]

Porcupine Tree - Kneel and Disconnect: When the harmony kicks in, holy hell.

Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize: The insane metal part.

Pain of Salvation - Used: When DG just keeps going higher and higher.

I'll think of more, but those are the ones that really stick out.

[Arcaeus]

Pain of Salvation - Used: When DG just keeps going higher and higher.

One of my favorite moments and one of my favorite songs

[PixelDream]

Pain of Salvation - Used: When DG just keeps going higher and higher.

One of my favorite moments and one of my favorite songs

Yeah the outro of ´Used´ is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard in music.

[HarlequinForest]

Opeth - The Drapery Falls | @8:11.  Beautiful acoustic melody, with equally beautiful vocals, thrust violently into one of the most evil riffs created, along with some demented vocals.

[cygnusx1jg]

First time I listened to The Count of Tuscany and yelling "Hell, Yes!!" after hearing the part that sounds like Rush's YYZ.

Actually doing a double take after realizing how loud the first thunderclap is on ANTR.  And then same for the car wreck later in the song.

[AcidLameLTE]

The coutnry ho down in Ants of the Sky.

I'm going to listen to that right now.

[Sigz]

The first time I heard that song was seeing it live at Prog Nation '08.

I was very confused.

[contest_sanity]

The lyric "and they tell me to please go and f*ck myself" from Pink Floyd's "Lost For Words" (time stamp: around 3:47, but you really have to listen to the whole song to get the effect).  So startling.  I've heard it a thousand times and it still gets my attention.

[SPNKr]

The coutnry ho down in Ants of the Sky.

I'm going to listen to that right now.

I probably still remember how I felt the first time I ever heard that. Was over a year ago and I was like I love this band now!! Been a fan since, thanks to one of these moments

[bout to crash]

The first time I heard Another Day (DT) and the saxophone enters at 1:10 I was like "Whooah Nelly! This I like!".

That was like when I first heard "Don't Hate Me" by PT and the flute comes in followed by that badass saxophone... I played it in my car one night on the way to the beach with the boyfriend and another friend who's a musician (both of whom I got into PT but they'd never heard that album before), and after the sax came they were like "Wait a second... what just happened? Rewind that!"

[wolfking]

Pain of Salvation - Be

[ZKX-2099]

The cowbell riff in Disease, Injury, Madness.

[AwakeFromOctavarium]

Opeth - When.

Not the intro of course. When Mikael sings "To find my way back home" in clean voice all of a sudden. The only way to describe that moment is;

 

[Pyroph]

Devin Townsend - Bend it like Bender - The whole song.

[King Postwhore]

I'm gonna give a live moment.  The first time i saw Rush play Marathon in the PW tour(opening night in Maine) at the end of the song and the choir kicks in and the flood the fans with white lights. It was angelic.

[robwebster]

Supermassive Black Hole by Muse. Absolutely mindbending given their career to that date... apocalyptic rock, laden with ridiculously loud pianos and stonking riffs. And then they lead Black Holes and Revelations with a dance single. I absolutely hated it - despised it, and was a bit nauseated that Muse of all fantastic bands had put that out there - but in retrospect I quite like that I hated it. I really liked the gradual climb from "actually, I kinda like the chorus... still don't like the verses though," to "you know, this is a pretty nifty riff," to "okay i love it. play it repeatedly." I'm pretty sure this is now my most played song of all time. Mesmerising.

I've played it so often now that it can never be fresh, is the only sad thing. So what used to be unexpected and mindboggling has now become my signature Muse song, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe one day I'll just stop listening to Muse for three years. See if I can get it to sound new again.

[Marvellous G]

All of Day Sixteen by Ayreon surprised me.

[Gadough]

"It's so erotic when your makeup runs."

Shocked the hell out of me when I first heard the song, for some reason. To this day it's one of my favorite lines in music.

[Dr. DTVT]

When I was in college I had my five disc changer on random and when to sleep.  I woke up to the end of 2112 - the "Attention Planets of the Solor Federation - We have assumed control" part.  The experience was made much more freaky by the fact that I had been "eating sandwiches" with friends all night.

[energythief]

Bonus mention: Tool - Faaip De Oiad. Having been lulled to sleep when first listening to Lateralus in bed by Disposition, when this came on I woke up and was completely terrified. This was not enjoyable.

Oh god, the same thing happened to me. I STILL can't listen to the album when i lay down because I'm afraid it will happen again. Chromakey's "Hell Mary" scared me like that too.

As for DT, the first time I heard Voices, the first transition from the quiet part into the explosive multi-instrument chorus absolutely blew my mind.