Just listened to A Sort of Homecoming at work, man I love Anathema sometimes.
Now that we're past two thirds of the list, these albums are truly one of my favourites. I love everything from this point onwards.
I don't think I've heard a single Anathema song.
Well maybe you should listen to some! Or maybe not, your choice. Anyway, you're responsible for this next installment...
#17
The Crimson Idol
W.A.S.P.
Genre: heavy metal
1992
Recommended to me by: wolfking
I’m fairly familiar with one side of the classic metal scene, the one branching out from Deep Purple. I’m familiar with Rainbow and Whitesnake, and then I’m familiar with Dio-fronted Sabbath and the Coverdale / Page album, and then I’m familiar with Led Zeppelin. I’m very familiar with some of the older rock acts like Scorpions or Jethro Tull. So, you know, I’m not completely uneducated in that regard. But a lot of the older metal scene is a blur for me. I think I might’ve unknowingly heard a few KISS songs, or a few Alice Cooper songs, or even a W.A.S.P. song once, but the thing is, I never actively sought out these bands’ music, and never gave them a proper chance. I have this ridiculous image of the musicians wearing masks or make-up, trying hard to be all rock’n’roll and shit, and as I wasn’t even alive during this times, I can only take it for what it is—perhaps cool at the time, but also a little ridiculous. Might be a bit hypocritical or just plain stupid of me, writing the bands off without even hearing their music, but what can you do, the stereotypes and the image of the band can both be a blessing and a curse, depending on the listener.
So when I’ve got
The Idol in my roulette from Kade, in a fucking ballad round, no less, I think I just shook my head in disbelief. I know from experience that Kade doesn’t put much thought in the roulette submissions, and I won’t lie, the thought that crossed my mind was along the lines of “okay, here we go, WASP in the ballad round, probably also awful production, we’re looking at 4.5/10”.
The song got a perfect 10/10.
This one song I’ve got in my roulette made me realize I’ve been a fool discarding those bands so easily. Whatever their image is, I should let the music do the talking, so to speak, and in case of
The Crimson Idol, the music is just so damn good. While yes, it does employ some of the elements I was expecting from the bands like KISS and W.A.S.P. (I’ve never heard KISS though, so I may be way off. Stadler, don’t kill me), it manages to hit all the right spots with this one. This album is ridiculously singalongable, which is probably not a word, but it’s the truth still. And I mean ridiculously. Every vocal melody is a keeper. It also has a ridiculous amount of acoustic stuff on it. I mean, it’s W.A.S.P., not B.U.M.B.L.E.B.E.E., right? The music should be balls to the wall all the time, and the band should be those rock star assholes with edgy lyrics? Double bass and guitars and no keyboards and no stupid acoustic guitars either, just true metal music, right? Well, no, not on this album, not at all. Thinking about this, I think it might be the reason this album is so high on the list. That, and the fact that there are no weak songs at all. Everything on this record is pure gold.
While yes, there are metal clichés like Doctor Rockter (or whatever the name is) or Chainsaw Charlie, they’re there for a reason, as the album tells the story of a young rock star. It sounds pretentious, but I actually thought the story was extremely well done, and the emotional climax in
The Idol, the song that introduced me to this album and this band hits me, well, not like a ton of bricks, but like a small pile of bricks.
My only complaint about this whole thing is that my version of the album, probably remastered or whatever, has the 16-minutes spoken track named
The Story of Jonathan in the end of the album, which is even more stupid than having an unrelated bonus track in the end of the concept record. I need to delete that from my phone.
Favourite songs:
Arena of Pleasure (
YouTube,
Spotify),
I Am One (
YouTube,
Spotify),
The Idol (
YouTube,
Spotify)