Okay, here's the skinny on Nightfall in Middle-Earth.
I don't expect it to make it very far, mostly because it's power metal, but I strongly urge you all to give it a fair go before making up your minds.
The first thing that really drew me to this album was the instrumentation. The album doesn't really have anything that I'd label as a guitar solo, at least not the "hey look, our guitarists can play fast" guitar solos that are typical of the genre. Any instrumental breaks are very melodic and conceived with the singular intent of moving the album forward. Perhaps my favorite instance of this is this song around the 3:20 mark:
The whole album has a hint of progressivism, but never suffers from the showboating or technical excess commonly associated with progressive metal. Quite on the contrary, despite the arguably cheesy lyrics, the album has always felt incredibly emotional to me. It never comes off like "hey, we read Lord of the Rings and thought the dragons and orcs and shit were pretty cool, so here's some music we wrote about it". The delivery is so genuine that I would half-believe it was actually written by a band in Middle-Earth telling the story of "The Silmarillion". I mean, even if you think it's cheesy, there's no question that there is some legitimate angst packed into this ditty:
And finally, this album can be utterly relentless at times. In my opinion, there's something to be said about a band that can maintain this much intensity for entire songs at a time:
Everything about the pacing, the dynamics, the jarring modulations, the harmonies, and everything else make this album compulsively listenable for me. I don't anticipate it'll be up the alley of many BEAers, but I hope you can all get at least something out of it. And if not, thanks for giving it a chance.
Last edited by denmarkman on 06/30/2014 01:18; edited 1 time in total
For whatever reason, I just can't get into what Timber Timbre do at all. That said, I'd still much rather listen to them than Nightfall in Middle-Earth, which I just thought was awful. Not my cup of tea, as they say. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
“Far, far beyond the island
We dwelt in shades of twilight
Through dread and weary days
Through grief and endless pain”
When it comes to metal I tend to be more of the man of melody and energy above all, this of course puts me in a camp populated by power metal and progressive metal musicians. At the end of the day this brings me to my favorite power metal record: Nightfall in Middle Earth. Nightfall in Middle Earth is everything about the transition from power metal being a little more frantic than bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to a sort of a musical theatre with heavy metal guitars behind it. Nightfall is a concept album that speaks of stories inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and ends up being one of the most important as well as my favorite power metal records. If there’s power metal royalty, Blind Guardian are in that camp sitting upon its throne.
You’d think this would be easy for me, but it’s not though as you might imagine I have to swing towards representing one of the genres I adore that is completely ignored onsite. Though while I understand power metal is way too theatric and over-conceptualized, it’s why I have this huge adoration for it as I grew up loving theatric music—my first musical was West Side Story and my first favorite one was Les Miserables. To me power metal has always had these sensibilities that belong on broadway—the only thing cutting it different being a musical style highly reminiscent of speed metal canon mixed with more emphasis on melody and harmony.
But understand that this—Nightfall—was one of THE records to define power metal as it is today and is one of the finest examples of artistry within the genre. But that’s where we come to this whole stigma some folks have against concept albums or even “rock operas” and this is one of those records so people who hated Tommy will absolutely not care for Nightfall. Olbrich and Kursch have written some of the best power metal storytelling here and it takes you right into the Simarillion. This is not just generic speed metal with fantasy lyrics; do not tell yourself that because it is wrong.
As ‘man said—there is a genunity and adoration for Tolkien here that you will not find anywhere else and a lot of that is captured completely right; the desperation and greed dripping from Kursch’s words in “Into The Storm” is just one example of such things. Power metal royalty – though if you don’t like speed metal or musical theatre you probably won’t like this at all but it’s best to understand this was not just another record in the pasture for power metal.
Blind Guardian pretty much reminds me of a heavier and even more ridiculously melodramatic Queen, but I like Queen way better.
As my pick, Creep on Creepin' On is simply my favorite album of the 2010s. Country music and 60s pop through the lens of David Lynch? They've taken Lee Hazelwood's country pop style and re-imagined it in a dark nuanced mystical world. Hard to imagine that this is often Feist's backing band. And listen to Colin Stetson's fantastic sax contributions.
Lyrically, the album is a cryptic breakup record, loaded with sexual inuendo
From your chair, my narrative tonight
As your dickless cousin, brother, father, pet, friend, husband or wife
A lavender scent
A bone-orchard of hearts seems to surround you as you stare
Each gift horse straight in the mouth
Stare my arrow down
I was invited, I was called out
To watch you frolic and dance
Yep, me three. Which, considering I can't stand Queen, is not a good omen. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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