First of all I do want to say that I am a bit biased because I have a personal connection to the lyrics of this song.
I wouldn't have any problems with the Endless Sacrifice instrumental if it was in a different song, but here it just doesn't fit. The song has a strong atmosphere, and then the instrumental appears and kind of ruins it. It's not like e.g. The Ministry of Lost Souls where the instrumental actually sounds dramatic and fits well despite sounding quite different, here it's just... well, out of nowhere.
Funny, TMoLS is one of the few instrumentals I feel should have been used somewhere else.
Metropolis pt.1, if I remember correctly, was originally written as an instrumental. That's why the instrumental portion fits as well as it does.
With Endless Sacrifice, I don't have a problem with the entire instrumental break; just a small portion of it. It's a moody, melodic song, and then in the middle of it, we get circus noises. It's seriously a handful of seconds that ruin that instrumental break for me.
I'd agree if the 'circus noises' were in the middle of a verse or chorus, (where the song is moody and melodic) but they're in the middle of the chaotic and fast paced instrumental section. Also, I listen to stuff like Diablo Swing/Unexpect/Akphaezya so circus noises are more than welcome.
As for not being well contructed, I don't mean that it doesn't transition in and out of the song well. The transitions are actually pretty good. But it's very random and far too showy for the type of song it is in (which overlaps into point #2). The instrumental section in Metropolis is also random and over the top, but it feels like it was constructed to sound that way, and in the context of the song, that mood fits. Even if the ES instrumental section was very deliberately crafted to sound chaotic, it doesn't come across that way. It just comes across as random.
And as far as fitting, as has been pointed out, the mood of ES is somewhat dark and extremely emotional. It is about questioning one's life choices that keep him and his family apart and have taken a toll on the family relationship. I realize the "feel" of an instrumental section is largely subjective, but the instrumental section doesn't feel to me like it fits that vibe at all. I don't hate it, and I can appreciate it, but it detracts from the feeling the song is trying to create.
Both instrumental sections are pretty showy, random, and chaotic. I wouldn't say either is doing more of any one of those things.
As for the vibe, I totally get where you are coming from but I look at this way: I once saw a poster here say that the instrumental in Metropolis felt like a tour through the city. (Might've been one of you guys in this thread!) The instrumental in ES, to me of course, feels like a display of what they are making the sacrifice for. It might be a bit of a stretch for some, and that's perfectly fine too.
A lot of the instrumental sections recently sound like they're just there because at some point they decided "and then we'll have an awesome instrumental section, then the chorus comes back..." so they wrote one. They don't feel like they grow organically out of the song itself. Now, shocking transitions can be cool, but even that can be overdone.
The stuff on Images and Words somehow feels more genuine to me. They weren't trying to live up to anything, they were still proving themselves and laying it all out there, but only after refining those tunes for years. That's why the early "classic" stuff is superior.
So would you agree that a person that did not start with I&W wouldn't feel this way? Also, I've heard several times that DT songs emerge from jam sessions. I don't think they're deliberately stuffing instrumentals into every song, but I'd say it is a possibility.
This just made me wonder what Wither would be like with a 4 minute jam.
Endless Sacrifice has the same problem as TMoLS. I love the instrumental sections of both songs, but the problem is they are placed in songs where they do not belong. With a bit of tweaking and lengthening, they could make great stand alone instrumental tracks. But within the songs, they just seem...out of place.
THIS THIS, I'm always thinking about how awesome TMoLS would be if it was a suite instead of just one song.
I don't care much for TMoLS for a couple of reasons, but I love the instrumental that's buried in there. A suite would've been great.
The "Metropolis" instrumental - and I would argue this is the case with many of their old instrumentals - is as catchy as a chorus.
The "Endless Sacrifice" instrumental - and I would argue this is the case with many of their new instrumentals - is a boring guitar-keyboard shred duel.
Most of the section has some banging rhythm riffs. Pretty catchy to me.
A shrug emote would be great here.
Topic: Metropolis Pt. 1 Instrumental is Fantastic (Read 14639 times)
