![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Apr. 26th, 2006 09:46 pmYesterday's plan went well. I picked up "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Nightwish and "Invisible Circles" by After Forever, free, using my silver certificates. Score!
Later I came to the conclusion that "Invisible Circles" might not be the best starting point for getting into the band After Forever. It's a concept albumn/cd. It tells the story of a girl who is born unwanted by her father and grows up in a troubled household. Nicely ambitious to be sure, but many of the songs include bits of story dialogue, mother arguing with father or child talking to her inner conscience, that sort of thing. Basically there aren't many songs that stand out on their own -- no single material, in other words.
But that was the only cd by After Forever at the Southcenter Silver Platters.
I now have 3 cds by Nightwish, and one each by After Forever, The Gathering, and Leaves' Eyes. All of these are Northern European bands with strong female vocalists, but they are not all the same, and I'm slowly realizing that Nightwish is the only one of them that I really, really like. After Forever is interesting and operatic, but includes growly male vocals and the music is not as complex or interesting as Nightwish.
The Gathering (at least the cd that I have) is much darker, slower, more gloomy gothic and not so operatic, but is very interesting. I only got that cd today, I'd ordered it off of Amazon on Sunday and it came very quickly, and plays well -- a very good deal for $1.99 plus shipping and handling! I think I'll grow to like them more, but they're not very much like Nightwish. Their cd is called "Mandylion" which meant nothing to me at first but I noticed that another of these goth metal bands had a song by that name. A little research turns up some info on this... it's a cloth similar to the shroud of turin, which is supposed to have the face of Christ on it. Dunno what that has to do with a goth metal band, but their first song on that cd, "Strange Machines", talks about travelling through history in a time machine, and mentions "watching Christ arise, if he really did so" or something like that.
Leaves' Eyes is very likeable so far. This band hails from Norway (which, if I remember right, so does The Gathering). Their cd "Vineland Saga" is also a concept albumn, about the vikings in the New World I believe (I haven't really studied the lyrics yet). This is the one Kristin was interested in because some lyrics are written in Norwegian (and sung in Norwegian too I think, although most of the cd is in English). Anyway they are very orchestral and probably the least "heavy" of all of these goth metal bands... and not really gothic either, but very interesting. I listened to the cd on the way home from the board meeting on Saturday, and the songs tended to blend together, but maybe with a few more listens that will change. The one song "Elegy" that I linked a video for last week is especially good, I like that one a lot.
I did another search on the song Over The Hills And Far Away because it was supposed to be a cover. Wikipedia informed me that it was A) an old folk song popular with the British army and used as the signature theme for Sharpe's Rifles B) a song by Led Zeppelin and also a song by some band called The Mission C) A song by Gary Moore, which was then covered by Nightwish, and D) A book of fantasy stories by Lord Dunsany.
I was probably familiar with the folk song, the Led Zeppelin song, and I own the Lord Dunsany book... but for some reason the Gary Moore song and Gary Moore's name seem familiar to me, but I'm not sure where I've encountered either before. Ah well.
Last but not least, I've had the song Mother Earth by Within Temptation stuck in my head for days. This is the one band that I couldn't find at either Silver Platters in Northgate or Southcenter, and the one band out of all of those above who I think I might like as much as Nightwish, if not moreso. I also ordered this cd on Sunday but it hasn't arrived yet. But it amuses me that some of the reviews on Amazon say it "isn't metal enough" or that it "isn't gothic enough". To me that sounds like a band that does their own thing and doesn't easily fit into any one mold -- which is a good thing in my book. But I already know that the songs I've listened to from that cd I like very much, so i have no worries that I won't like it when it arrives.
Heavy Metal Girl Game!
Later I came to the conclusion that "Invisible Circles" might not be the best starting point for getting into the band After Forever. It's a concept albumn/cd. It tells the story of a girl who is born unwanted by her father and grows up in a troubled household. Nicely ambitious to be sure, but many of the songs include bits of story dialogue, mother arguing with father or child talking to her inner conscience, that sort of thing. Basically there aren't many songs that stand out on their own -- no single material, in other words.
But that was the only cd by After Forever at the Southcenter Silver Platters.
I now have 3 cds by Nightwish, and one each by After Forever, The Gathering, and Leaves' Eyes. All of these are Northern European bands with strong female vocalists, but they are not all the same, and I'm slowly realizing that Nightwish is the only one of them that I really, really like. After Forever is interesting and operatic, but includes growly male vocals and the music is not as complex or interesting as Nightwish.
The Gathering (at least the cd that I have) is much darker, slower, more gloomy gothic and not so operatic, but is very interesting. I only got that cd today, I'd ordered it off of Amazon on Sunday and it came very quickly, and plays well -- a very good deal for $1.99 plus shipping and handling! I think I'll grow to like them more, but they're not very much like Nightwish. Their cd is called "Mandylion" which meant nothing to me at first but I noticed that another of these goth metal bands had a song by that name. A little research turns up some info on this... it's a cloth similar to the shroud of turin, which is supposed to have the face of Christ on it. Dunno what that has to do with a goth metal band, but their first song on that cd, "Strange Machines", talks about travelling through history in a time machine, and mentions "watching Christ arise, if he really did so" or something like that.
Leaves' Eyes is very likeable so far. This band hails from Norway (which, if I remember right, so does The Gathering). Their cd "Vineland Saga" is also a concept albumn, about the vikings in the New World I believe (I haven't really studied the lyrics yet). This is the one Kristin was interested in because some lyrics are written in Norwegian (and sung in Norwegian too I think, although most of the cd is in English). Anyway they are very orchestral and probably the least "heavy" of all of these goth metal bands... and not really gothic either, but very interesting. I listened to the cd on the way home from the board meeting on Saturday, and the songs tended to blend together, but maybe with a few more listens that will change. The one song "Elegy" that I linked a video for last week is especially good, I like that one a lot.
I did another search on the song Over The Hills And Far Away because it was supposed to be a cover. Wikipedia informed me that it was A) an old folk song popular with the British army and used as the signature theme for Sharpe's Rifles B) a song by Led Zeppelin and also a song by some band called The Mission C) A song by Gary Moore, which was then covered by Nightwish, and D) A book of fantasy stories by Lord Dunsany.
I was probably familiar with the folk song, the Led Zeppelin song, and I own the Lord Dunsany book... but for some reason the Gary Moore song and Gary Moore's name seem familiar to me, but I'm not sure where I've encountered either before. Ah well.
Last but not least, I've had the song Mother Earth by Within Temptation stuck in my head for days. This is the one band that I couldn't find at either Silver Platters in Northgate or Southcenter, and the one band out of all of those above who I think I might like as much as Nightwish, if not moreso. I also ordered this cd on Sunday but it hasn't arrived yet. But it amuses me that some of the reviews on Amazon say it "isn't metal enough" or that it "isn't gothic enough". To me that sounds like a band that does their own thing and doesn't easily fit into any one mold -- which is a good thing in my book. But I already know that the songs I've listened to from that cd I like very much, so i have no worries that I won't like it when it arrives.
Heavy Metal Girl Game!
