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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: Riitasointi on August 28, 2014, 04:50:10 AM
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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?
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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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Pink Floyd- In The Flesh will always win this discussion for me.
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Judas Priest- The Hellion
Alice Cooper- DaDa
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Between the Buried and Me - Foam Born A
Between the Buried and Me - Mirrors
Between the Buried and Me - Goodbye to Everything
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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.
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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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Excellent choice.
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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.
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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.
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Excellent choice.
This. In fact, I think I'm going to listen to Decadence Dance right now.
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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.
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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
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Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation
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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.
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Black Sabbath. Exciter. Hellion. Aces High. Blackened.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Exciter.
Another excellent choice.
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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
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Hellion is my personal favorite
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The Doors - Roadhouse Blues - Morrison Hotel
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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 Lumi่re"
Sigur R๓s "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!)
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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.
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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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we're talking short intro tracks, right? so entire opening songs don't count?
I think both count.
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Out of recent records, I immensely enjoyed the one to Kamelot - Silverthorn and Vanden Plas - Chronicles of the Immortals.
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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!
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Devin Townsend "Olives"
I also nominate ZTO from Ziltoid The Omniscient.
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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.
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If we're ignoring short intro tracks then In Waves by Trivium is also good.
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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
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I always loved dredg's "Brushstroke: dcbtfoabaaposba" from El Cielo
Quiet ambient track that sets the mood to the album perfectly
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Also, I'm not a Machine Head fan, but this Opener is Killer
Machine Head - Clenching the fists of dissent - The Blackening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Hkwx6oCdg)
Also no one mentioned this one:
DT - Regression - SFAM
Pain of Salvation - What she means to me - Road Salt One (deluxe edition)
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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.
:rollin Damn, that must have been great! I would have loved to see their reactions. :tup
Rhapsody have some cool orchestral intros.
Yes, this. I love the combination of "Epicus Furor" and "Emerald Sword" on SoEL.
Also, the BTBAM intros. Mirrors is a beautiful piece that segues perfectly into Obfuscation. And then there is Foam Born. :hefdaddy It starts of soft, slowly adds instruments, is beautiful overall, and then the harsh vox come in. Part B gets even heavier. :metal One of my all time favorite openings.
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I really like Clenching the Fists of Dissent as an opener, but I prefer I Am Hell (Sonata in C#) to it. Now that's a fucking badass opener!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJt_Uh2uI9E
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Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Have a Nice Life - A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut - Deathconsciousness
Two of the first ones that came to my mind.
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Both Machine Head tracks seconded!
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
How did I forget about Taikatalvi?? Such an astounding opener to a very good record.
And no worries mate, I love Coldplay as well! One of my favorite bands for sure :)
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Anathema - Shroud of False - Alternative 4
Also here's one you probably don't know but I think it's worth a try:
Carajo - Trแgico Mundo Caํdo - Frente a Frente (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xdClX07ORo)
It's in spanish but I believe it is a great opener.
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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.
:rollin Damn, that must have been great! I would have loved to see their reactions. :tup
It was worth it. My mates still mention it to this day when we get together. :biggrin: Also managed to get WASP's Animal played another time. Got a proper bollocking for that! :biggrin:
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Both Machine Head tracks seconded!
Nightwish - Taikatalvi
from Imaginaerum
How did I forget about Taikatalvi?? Such an astounding opener to a very good record.
I dunno where's the smile "I agree", so I agree.
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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.
shit, can't believe i forgot these. my favourite of them is "Velvet Kevorkian," though there's a society-induced rage across City that is replaced by personal rage on Alien, and it's the societal version i dig the most from Dev.
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Both Machine Head tracks seconded!
Nightwish - Taikatalvi
from Imaginaerum
How did I forget about Taikatalvi?? Such an astounding opener to a very good record.
I dunno where's the smile "I agree", so I agree.
:iagree:
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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.
shit, can't believe i forgot these. my favourite of them is "Velvet Kevorkian," though there's a society-induced rage across City that is replaced by personal rage on Alien, and it's the societal version i dig the most from Dev.
Agreed. Imperial is decent but Velvet Kevorkian is absolutely brilliant. Regarding Devin's opener tracks, I really really really like Truth as well.
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Let It Roll/Hypergeek is another great opening by Devy.
Dude knows how to get things going.
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Brand New - Vices - Daisy
Anamanagucci - Endless Fantasy - Endless Fantasy
Modest Mouse - March Into the Sea - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
The Black Keys - Weight of Love - Turn Blue
Maps & Atlases - Old & Gray - Beware and Be Grateful
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot - Ill Communication
Bosnian Rainbows - Eli - Bosnian Rainbows
Death Grips - Get Got - The Money Store
Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting on You) - Singles
Gil Scott-Heron - On Coming from a Broken Home (pt. 1) - I'm New Here
Herbie Hancock - Chameleon - Head Hunters
Portugal. The Man - People Say - The Satanic Satanist
The Reptilian - PAN (sucks) - Low Health
Say Anything - Belt - ...Is a Real Boy
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House - Speaking in Tongues
Them Crooked Vultures - No One Loves Me & Neither Do I - Them Crooked Vultures
Queens of the Stone Age - You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire - Songs for the Deaf
Foo Fighters - Bridge Burning - Wasting Light
The White Stripes - Blue Orchid - Get Behind Me Satan
Wu-Tang Clan - Bring Da Ruckus - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
That's what I got from scrolling through iTunes.
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I really like the opening title track from Ah Via Musicom by Eric Johnson. It's just a soundscape of synths and loud guitar. It builds up the suspense and segues into Cliff of Dover beautifully
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FUjGNKq6CY
Full album, but you only have to listen to the first couple of minutes.
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Omg yes!
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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
Politik is potentially my favourite song of theirs, so I'd go with that one.
I'm not as fond of the entire album as most people are, but there are few opening tracks in the world as good as Massive Attack's Angel.
Tool's The Grudge is aight too.
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Thank You Scientist - Prelude (that shit gets me pumped up for the second track)
YES! Great choice. :tup
I also second the Haken and BTBAM comments, both bands do really good intro tracks.
And I think some people are (deliberately or otherwise) not getting the thread - it should be intro tracks rather than any opening tracks. Some of the examples are full songs in their own right.
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I Am The Sea/ The Real Me off The Who's Quadrophenia....
I Am The Sea is a simple piece, with hints of the four core themes of the album being introduced, the four sides of the teenage angst that are battling in Jimmy, and The Real Me is the uber violent psychological clashing of those four when they are in discordance. It is musical storytelling at its best... (one could go further into the instrumental Quadrophenia track that follows and say that this is the four aspects of Jimmy in harmony, but I digress).