Descent of the NOMACS - First off, this gives you a sense this is going to be one fucking ballsy, heavy album. I dunno, SX vibes with this kind of intro for some reason, Iconoclast or something.
Overture - Okay, this sounds like DT straight off the bat. That melody at 0:44 is actually really nice. Goes off into a standard DT direction though at 1:00. I wished they kept going outside the box with that 16 second section. But I know, this is an Overture.
2:03 - Wait, is this Six Degrees. Around the 3 minute mark I'm drifting but that major key melody at 3:25 is quite nice. Again, lots of 6D feels here. Around 4 minutes, alright, that's enough boys, let's move on. I have another 32 fucking tracks to get through.
Gift of Music - This was the lead single right? Okay, shit......About to Crash re-reprise? Okay, I'm alright so far with this. Oh shit, I cringed hard at the 'people don't have time for music anymore' line.
Gabriel come save us lol. Hmmm...I actually forgot what the story was about.
2:20 - Alright, some JP action. I love that touch harmonic at 2:24, all class. This is surprisingly shreddy for this type of song, but it works okay. 2:40, we heard that bend in ATE. There's always something nice in a guitar solo and often underused when you play in a minor shape but bend the 3rd or 6th notes up a tone. So often based on the shape of the scale/mode it's usually the 2nd, 4th or 7th that are the most frequently bended notes, the others are underused but so effective when done in the way JP does it here. John Norum springs to mind to with his style. Anyway, I'm getting distracted, I'll be hear all day....unpause.
That 2:44 part is cool, seems out of context of the tune though. Oh wait, it goes into Metropolis, all is forgiven. 3:38 more Jordan 6D style. I'll take the comment out about it not fitting with the style as it didn't go back to a vocal section. As a stand alone piece I don't see it working, but I didn't mind that on a whole.
The Answer - Getting strong SS vibes here. Was it there intention to try and imitate a 6D style with this album? It reeks of it so far. As Alex has said, Jordan is the master of the piano, you can't ever not love his piano playing. Luckily, that was short and is over.
A Better Life - Funny, straight off this reminds me of Empire of the Clouds from Maiden for the piano intro. As we get going, I'm already having trouble connecting everything together. I'm lacking any real distinction in hooks or repetitive sections to really make any kind of era worm. Were they also going for a one song effect? The chorus here though comes just at the right time as I write this. It's not bad.
More JP action. How good is this man over a setting where it just breathes. He can do so much and has so many ideas over this kind of setting. Although, this again seems a bit hectic in the first half. Sometimes he can't help himself though. That half time feel though makes it okay. How good is 2:41 and I love how he is such an avid user of the bridge and neck pickups so frequently, that change in tone at 2:43, switching from the neck to the bridge is so good. I do think he goes a bit shreddy in this second half too, but that was cool.
Again, are they going for a one song effect, what the fuck is with the end of this song? Would have been the perfect time of the album to go back to that chorus but what a complete letdown.
Lord Nafaryus - Ooh....all of a sudden we're into The Test That Stumped Them All territory. This is an abrupt way to enter the song and doesn't make sense to me. This is all over the shop, this......isn't very good. Post break.
Topic: - " The Astonishing " - One Year -- er, SEVEN YEARS On. (Read 176473 times)
