TAC, did you notice that the singer from Katatonia was on all of the tracks (that have vocals)? And if so, did you notice it right away, or only after you'd listened more than once?
I didn't notice at all.
I had written something up leading to my album's title, but decided to hold off on the off chance you didn't realize what I was doing. I'll have to find that and post it a little bit later.
OK, so I must have saved over what I originally wrote, since I can't find it. But it originally it started off with you as the leader of Drynwhyl, and you loved music and had favorite minstrels. But because you were listening to music all the time, they started to get burned out, so you decided to give them all an extended break to do whatever they wanted - travel, spend time with their families, etc. You knew some of them probably couldn't help dabbling in music in some way, especially the Wizard, who was probably off playing with one of his many gadgets. But they could rest up and not have to perform for an audience. However, you couldn't be without music, and remembered that you had met others like you during your travels. So you summoned all that were willing to come share their music and participate in a fun game. Everything was going well, Lethean was busy planning future submissions, until:
TAC announced a new rule for the game. He pulled out what appeared to be an ancient-looking scroll, odd considering he had just decreed this new rule. He handed it to Lethean, who carefully unrolled the scroll and brushed off the dust. Lethean visibly paled upon reading the scroll, which was titled:
The Lethean Rule (This is the title of my concept album)
No one could use a minstrel group more than once. Lethean fell into a depression, until the others stepped in.
"Cheer up, Lethean. It's not that bad," said Paracyramil. "TAC thinks he invented this game, but we've been playing it amongst ourselves for ages. Usually, the rule is that no one can use a minstrel group more than once anyway."
"At least this time you can reserve them if someone else should allow them to perform first. More than one person can have them perform this time," said Ariich helpfully.
Evermind chimed in. "I had a group of the finest minstrels ready to perform for Puppies; they had even opened their mouths to start singing, when I was informed they were reserved and they were sent home. I was full of rage but still managed to withdraw politely."
"You each make a good point," Lethean conceded.
"Besides," jingle.boy added, "don't forget my motto."
I couldn't quite get that version to work into a story with all of the songs I'd picked though. Also, when I'd started to write it, I wasn't planning to use Age of Shadows yet. When I added it, I thought maybe between leading off with all those singers and you having so much music to listen to, that you wouldn't notice that the same guy was singing on all the songs.
He's the only singer on the October Tide and Long Distance Calling, the only male singer on Waking Dreams, and on the rest (besides Age of Shadows), he's the one doing the cleans. If I used The Lethean Rule as the title you probably would have figured it all out pretty quick, and if there was a chance you might not, I decided to leave it off.
Also, Diabolical Masquerade is a project by the guitar player of Katatonia.
He also sings (harsh) on it, but I had enough harsh vocals on the album and just wanted to add those instrumental bits. I had originally planned to also include a Novembre song where he does a guitar solo. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to check the banned list until I was way into this, and when I saw Novembre was on it I used the forum search and it worked this time, and I saw you'd listened to the album so I didn't bother trying to include it.