Author Topic: Best intro tracks to albums?  (Read 4304 times)

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Offline Riitasointi

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Best intro tracks to albums?
« on: August 28, 2014, 04:50:10 AM »
So, I was wondering what are some of the best intro tracks to music albums. Many people don't feel the need for such tracks at all, but I think a short instrumental (doesn't have to be) that really sets the mood for the record is great! More often than not these kind of intros even involve some really great melodies and musical ideas.

Some of my favorites come from a Finnish melodic deathmetal band called Insomnium. They have these instrumental, very melancholic openers on all their records and they are usually very good. Best of these are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onX5b4F7_k4  The Gale from Above The Weeping World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGQr5Fq2lM  Inertia from One For Sorrow

I also have to bring up When Time Fades Away from Wintersun's Time I. Perfectly sets the mood with the orchestral and oriental bliss.

Your thoughts?

Offline MrBoom_shack-a-lack

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2014, 05:15:08 AM »
A few that comes to mind:

Dimmu Borgir - Xibir
DTP - Effervescent!
Haken - Premonition
Haken - The Path
Wintersun - When Times Fades Away
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Offline GentlemanofDread

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2014, 05:28:19 AM »
Pink Floyd- In The Flesh will always win this discussion for me.
i don't even like dt but i had keyboard and an ipad so what the fuck
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Online TAC

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2014, 06:06:21 AM »
Judas Priest- The Hellion
Alice Cooper- DaDa
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 06:37:31 AM by TAC »
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
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Offline Zyzzyva17

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2014, 07:09:02 AM »
Between the Buried and Me - Foam Born A
Between the Buried and Me - Mirrors
Between the Buried and Me - Goodbye to Everything
D - D/F# - G - D - Bm - Bm/A - E/G# - A

Offline Sir GuitarCozmo

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2014, 07:42:50 AM »
Van Halen 1 - Runnin' With the Devil

I like to imagine what people were thinking back in 1978 when this album first came out.  You put it on and the first thing you hear is RWTD.  Aside from the fact that it has one of the greatest guitar tones ever recorded, it's a pretty basic, easy song.  A 10 year old with a basic knowledge of guitar playing could pull off the solo with little effort.  So the listener is all "Hmph.  Pretty straightforward stuff here, nothing to get excited about."

Then, it happens.

The moment that nobody who'd just listened to RWTD for the very first time probably ever expected.

Eruption.

A fucking freight train of notes and awesomeness barrels into you like a school of eels who have just seen something that eels like a lot.  Complete barn-burning reckless abandon.  At the time, such a moment of musical insanity was probably pretty rare to be captured on tape.  I wasn't even 3 at the time, so maybe it was common.  But not like this.  It was different.  Completely different.

After the last Echoplex-drenched note subsides, the entire remainder of the album kicks your ass all up and down the street.  It's a roller coaster ride for the ears.  It's like RWTD was a fake out, to lull people into some sense of la-di-da or something, so they'd be caught completely unaware when Eruption came on.

None of this is meant to diminish, in any way, the awesomeness of RWTD.  Still an absolutely amazing song, despite its simplicity.

Offline Big Hath

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2014, 08:07:24 AM »
I'm gonna say Decadence Dance from Pornograffitti.  Maybe not the best song, but good lord does it make me want to crank the volume knowing I'm going to be in for an album's worth of awesomeness.

First we get the rain and thunder followed by some pretty cool piano riffing, then comes the ominous sounding cello/bass tones and pounding hammer/anvil sounds.  Nuno then joins with a few notes of his own before cutting loose with the band.  By this point, the volume knob has just about hit max and my body is ready.
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Offline Sir GuitarCozmo

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2014, 08:09:39 AM »
Excellent choice.

Offline Dark Castle

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2014, 08:14:26 AM »
Grimes - Infinite Love Without Fulfillment (THE best intro EVER, gives me goosebumps every time and when it transitions into Genesis I get all teary eyed)
Thank You Scientist - Prelude (that shit gets me pumped up for the second track)

Then I could list a bunch of intros to some Death Metal albums, but eh.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2014, 08:27:23 AM »
Oh I am all over this ! :lol

1. Knives - Troublegum - Therapy?
2. Hello - Morning Glory - Oasis.
3. American idiot - American Idiot - Green Day.
4. The Wolf is Loose - Blood Mountain - Mastodon
5. Ain't my Bitch - Load - Metallica.
6. Tread Lightly - OMRTS - Mastodon
7. Gematria - All Hope Is Gone - Slipknot.


Too many to mention.

Offline Scorpion

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2014, 08:35:48 AM »
Excellent choice.

This. In fact, I think I'm going to listen to Decadence Dance right now.
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Offline Onno

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2014, 09:04:40 AM »
Probably my favourite intro song to any album is Opeth's Coil, the first track on the Watershed record. It's stunningly beautiful and forms a great one-two punch with Heir Apparent.

Offline Xenon

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2014, 09:11:18 AM »
Opeth - The Moor - Still Life

Leprous - Foe - Coal
Alter Bridge - Cry of Achilles - Fortress
Linkin Park - Keys for the Kingdom - The Hunting Party
Trivium- Capsizing the sea/In Waves - In Waves
Linkin Park- The Requien - A Thousand Suns
Pain of Salvation - Used - The perfect element
Tesseract- Of Matter Proxy - Altered State
The Mars Volta - Aberinkula - The Bedlam in Goliath
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 09:17:09 AM by Xenon »

Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2014, 09:12:18 AM »
Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation

Offline Riitasointi

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2014, 09:36:11 AM »
Some great choices here. I really dig the BTBAM album openers, especially Goodbye to Everything. Also Coil and The Moor  :hefdaddy I have to check out some stuff that's been mentioned, especially from that Extreme album Big Hath mentioned. 

Offline El Barto

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #15 on: August 28, 2014, 09:36:49 AM »
Black Sabbath. Exciter. Hellion. Aces High. Blackened.
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Offline Dark Castle

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #16 on: August 28, 2014, 09:42:10 AM »
Some great choices here. I really dig the BTBAM album openers, especially Goodbye to Everything. Also Coil and The Moor  :hefdaddy I have to check out some stuff that's been mentioned, especially from that Extreme album Big Hath mentioned.
BTBAM openers are some of the best there is  :tup

Offline RoeDent

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #17 on: August 28, 2014, 09:46:18 AM »
My favourite is Porcupine Tree's What You Are Listening To, because it segues so brilliantly into Synesthesia.

"What you are listening to, are musicians, performing psychedelic music, under the influence of a mind altering chemical called..." *drums; Synesthesia starts*

Another mention goes to the first two songs on Dimensionaut by Sound of Contact, a short opener with lyrics, then a 4-minute instrumental that, while not an overture in the strict sense of the word (it doesn't really introduce any recurring themes), serves as an entry point into the sound world of the album.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #18 on: August 28, 2014, 09:46:52 AM »
Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation
:neverusethis:

Probably Paradigm Shift by LTE or Untouchable by Anathema. Amazing songs that give you an overview of what the album and the band are about.

Offline Scorpion

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #19 on: August 28, 2014, 10:04:09 AM »
scorpion is my favorite deathcore lobster
Hey, the length is fine :azn: Thanks!

Offline ThatOneGuy2112

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #20 on: August 28, 2014, 10:12:03 AM »
At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal - Relationship of Command
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
The Mars Volta - Son et Lumiere - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Have a Nice Life - A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut - Deathconsciousness
Devin Townsend - Olives - Terria
The Dear Hunter - The Death and the Berth - Act II

And yeah, all of these:

Between the Buried and Me - Foam Born A
Between the Buried and Me - Mirrors
Between the Buried and Me - Goodbye to Everything

Offline jjrock88

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #21 on: August 28, 2014, 11:12:23 AM »
Hellion is my personal favorite

Offline Xenon

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #22 on: August 28, 2014, 11:22:40 AM »
The Doors - Roadhouse Blues - Morrison Hotel

Offline seasonsinthesky

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #23 on: August 28, 2014, 12:20:07 PM »
we're talking short intro tracks, right? so entire opening songs don't count?

i'll add to your Insomnium choices with my favourite of theirs by far, "Nocturne" from Since the Day It All Came Down — absolutely haunting.

further:
Devin Townsend — "Olives"
Steven Wilson — "Grace for Drowning"
The Mars Volta — "Son et Lumière"
Sigur Rós — "Takk..."
Riverside — "After" (unless it's too long to count)
The Ocean — "Epipelagic"
Melissa Auf der Maur — "The Hunt"
Marilyn Manson — "Inauguration of the Mechanical Christ"
Les Discrets — "Linceul d'hiver"
King Crimson — "The Power to Believe I. Acappella"
Katatonia — "Midwinter Gates"
Filter — "Sand"
Enigma — "The Voice of Enigma"
Dark Suns — "Zero" (probably my favourite on the whole list)
The Butterfly Effect — "Intro" (second favourite!)
Buried Inside — "Introduction" (second favourite also!)
Agalloch — "A Celebration for the Death of Man" (third favourite!)

Offline Lowdz

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #24 on: August 28, 2014, 12:27:08 PM »
ManOwaR's Warlord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRBAiq0D7x0

I remember listening to it the first time and couldn't hear what was going on clearly so kept turning the volume up, then the riff licks in and knocked me back a couple of yards  :biggrin:
I snuck this track into the school lunchtime disco at school and the teachers were going apeshit trying to get into the booth to turn it off, Got my album impounded for a few days but it was worth it.

I have a love hate relationship with intros. I can get bored of them so if they are a separate track and I can skip it when I want that's best.

Rhapsody have some cool orchestral intros.

But I agree about Decadence Dance. The intro sets up that riff very nicely.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 12:33:30 PM by Lowdz »

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #25 on: August 28, 2014, 12:42:04 PM »
Strapping Young Lad have some awesome 1-2 minute intro tracks that are a perfect way to start the album. Imperial and Dire, most notably.
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Offline Xenon

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #26 on: August 28, 2014, 01:20:27 PM »
we're talking short intro tracks, right? so entire opening songs don't count?


I think both count.

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #27 on: August 28, 2014, 01:23:09 PM »
Out of recent records, I immensely enjoyed the one to Kamelot - Silverthorn and Vanden Plas - Chronicles of the Immortals.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Riitasointi

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #28 on: August 28, 2014, 01:25:21 PM »
we're talking short intro tracks, right? so entire opening songs don't count?


I think both count.

When I started this thread I was thinking more about the short ones but people have been mentioning a lot of good longer stuff as well so keep it coming!

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #29 on: August 28, 2014, 01:28:16 PM »

Devin Townsend — "Olives"


I also nominate ZTO from Ziltoid The Omniscient.

Offline ZKX-2099

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #30 on: August 28, 2014, 01:29:57 PM »
The End. by My Chemical Romance. Starts that album off in a perfect way displaying all the major moods the album will touch on in less than two minutes.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #31 on: August 28, 2014, 01:31:23 PM »
If we're ignoring short intro tracks then In Waves by Trivium is also good.

Offline 425

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #32 on: August 28, 2014, 01:37:34 PM »
Haken - Premonition
from Visions

Haken - The Path
from The Mountain

Iron Maiden - The Ides of March
from Killers

Nightwish - Taikatalvi
from Imaginaerum



And I know people around here don't tend to like this band, but they're one of my very favorite bands and these are two of their best songs, period, so I'm going to post them anyway:

Coldplay - Don't Panic
from Parachutes

Coldplay - Life in Technicolor
from Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
And if spirit's a sign,
Then it's only a matter of time

Offline ReaperKK

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #33 on: August 28, 2014, 01:49:32 PM »
I always loved dredg's "Brushstroke: dcbtfoabaaposba" from El Cielo

Quiet ambient track that sets the mood to the album perfectly

Offline Xenon

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Re: Best intro tracks to albums?
« Reply #34 on: August 28, 2014, 01:56:14 PM »
Also, I'm not a Machine Head fan, but this Opener is Killer
Machine Head - Clenching the fists of dissent - The Blackening

Also no one mentioned this one:
DT - Regression - SFAM
Pain of Salvation - What she means to me - Road Salt One (deluxe edition)