Becoming The Archetype: Dichotomy
I’ve managed to acquire quite the reputation for having rather brutal tastes in music, something I enjoy and is actually quite true. I’ve been an ardent fan of Death Metal and Grindcore since the early days and I’m always on the lookout for new bands that break the mold in one way or another, and Becoming The Archetype initially wasn’t one of them. In 2005 they released their first album, Terminate Damnation, and it was good, but struck me as just another Metalcore fly by night group. I was however pleased with the Christian lyrics and a few songs exhibited a progressive leaning which did catch my interest. Their second album The Physics of Fire a concept album delved deeper into progressive territory, and I began to look at these guys as more than the fly-by-night Metalcore band, but rather as an up and coming Progressive Death Metal band, that was bold and intent on taking things down their own path. I waited with great anticipation for the Devin Townsend produced Dichotomy, this was the album that was going to make or break Becoming The Archetype for me, and I was ground to a pulp and spit out like a tree in a wood chipper. This album being one of the last of 2008 to be released, took any doubts, concerns, and expectations and set them on fire with a vengence. The first track Mountain of Souls features Devin Townsend and is a perfect album opener, a well constructed intro with plenty of synths mixed in fit together perfectly to set the mood of both the song and the album. The first minute or so makes it clear they’ve left behind the Metalcore ‘structure’ and rewrote the book. Textured Synths and Lead Guitar work nicely and fall smoothly into a piano solo that in my opinion is a perfect fit and brings down the mood and comes to rest with a well played clean guitar solo. We keep the momentum growing with the title track, a triplet based sound the song keeps us going nicely, mind you these guys are singing praises to God while flattening us with these punishing riffs. This track features a guest appearance by Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter, I’m not going to spoil it, you’ve just got to hear these guys work… Artificial Immortality, the third track doesn’t let you catch your breathe, it’s very melodic sound and lyrical theme of being a living breathing immortal being created by God compared to a robotic lifeless man made ‘cyborg’, for lack of a better term, showcases the growth these guys have made as musicians and Christians. Self Existent moves into deeper territory, one of the more aggressive tracks on the album, they don’t maintain any status quo with this track, throwing breaks of piano, synth and uplifting guitar breakdowns that work extremely well together. St Anne’s Lullaby is a beautiful acoustic guitar peice, extremely unexpected to say the least, but a great listen, we move on to Ransom and Evil Unseen, where these dudes feel like they’re out there to take on the best of the best and showcases death metal as it should be, brutal, unexpected and with purpose. All while giving the Lord his praise. Next we move to a surprise gem. Christians have become quite familiar with the Praise song, How Great Thou Art, but not like this.. This Praise and Worship classic starts off with an acoustic guitar, and moves quickly into the Becoming The Archetype MO focusing on the Praise element of the lyrics and makes you just wanna fall to your knees and headbang and praise until your head falls off.. This track comes complete with Lead Guitar, Blast Beats, the works.. I was extremely impressed with their rendition of this classic. I wish all Christians praised God this completely and thoroughly, Lord knows I need to.. Deep Heaven the next track Jeff Wisdom seems to set out to write his own Praising song and doesn’t fail in anyway shape or form. The intro gives me memories of Dream Theater and Neal Morse, but has that distinct sound that makes it their own. Few can construct a breakdown quite like BTA, and they showcase this skill well transitioning to a piano solo with female background vocals bringing in Dark Side of the Moon feel, then they move into a very interesting movement I can’t really find description for… very diverse and well written. The album closes out with End of the Age. This track is EPIC!! At 6 and a half minutes it’s the longest song on the album and they put some of their best songwriting to the test with this track. Lyrical themes of the End of Days and God’s final wrath leave a chill in your spine while the music almost invites the Apocalypse to being in your head… Only Becoming the Archetype can sing Hallelujah and put forth shear metal as this.
By far their most Progressive effort, and in my opinion one of the best metal albums to be released in several years, Dichotomy is a must have for any one with an ear for metal or progressive or christian music. I’ve always loved praise and worship metal, and this one just may knock Disciple’s By God out of the heaviest Praise and Worship albums. With the usage of Pianos, Synths, and Acoustic guitars perfectly placed within the pure death metal sound these guys throw out work together to satisfy.
Rating: 
loading...
loading...
Neal Morse: Sola Scriptura
I honestly hadn’t heard of Neal Morse til Spring 2007 when I was at work and was listening to Camel’s Similar Artists on http://last.fm/. I happened to hear the last part of one of his songs, and made a mental note. As it turns out, Mr. Morse was actually pretty well known in the Progressive Rock circles. So I acquired a couple more of his items and this gem was one of them. I listened to the other album first and was pleasantly blown away, but when I put this one on, I was blown into microscopic droplets of mist!! Once every 30-40 years, comes one of those things that redefine the meaning of what it belongs, and the opening track, The Door, is just one of these things, much like Tarkus, that set the standard for what Progressive music should be, The Door delivers the same and updates the standard while remaining respectful to the foundation layed before. Perfectly orchestrated, Neal, Mike Portnoy and Randy George build up the sound with perfectly executed layers of keys, guitar, backed by a indestructable rhythm section, these 3 gentlemen display a virtuosity rarely seen this day and age. The song swings back and forth from intense guitar and keyboard interplay into mellow, passionate verses that open the story, based on the life of 16th century Reformist Martin Luther, yet paralleled with a modern flavor and to top it off, he compares scripture such as Proverbs 9 to both the 16th and 21st century context. The music delivers well, you don’t get bored or disinterested as it moves along, something impressive for a 29 minute song. There are many highlights, one of my more favorite being the electric violin solo about half way through the track, it’s performer makes his classical instrument shread like a 21st century lead guitar, with only the last few licks betraying the sound for the violin that it is. This track features a lead guitar solo from Mr Big/Racer X’s Paul Gilbert and is, in my opinion, one of the top 3 tracks of all time in Progressive music. This track alone gets a 10/10 rating.
Neal Morse and company could have done well with The Door alone as an album, but they topped it with The Conflict, which continues the story stepping into more internal conflict of Martin Luther, but also as well as Neal’s own conflicts with seeing hypocrisy in the institutions of faith today. While well composed and diverse, this track just doesn’t quite grab your attention the same as The Door, but a listener can only take so much awesomeness before it becomes fatal. The Conflict turns extremely mellow with Paul Gilbert offering us some Flamenco acoustic work that fits just right in the whole scheme of the story. As we become fully immersed into the album. The guys take a break so to speak and Neal gives us a heart felt song about the thing all Christ followers want, Heaven in My Heart. This track would be at home just as much on K-Love as it would on a Prog’s Greatest Hits album, by far one of the shorter songs Neal has offered since going solo.
After the relaxing Heaven in my Heart, the guys ramp things back up with The Conclusion. We start this one off with a bass solo and interplay between Neal and Randy George where they show off their music abilities quite well, then jumps seamlessly into the story. This song kinda wraps up and closes alot of the themes and interludes in The Door and does begin to feel like it carries on a little much. For me when this song comes on by random, I really do enjoy it, there is nothing lacking musically, but when listening to the entire album, it becomes easy to lost track of the feel. Overall, it’s a great track, and leaves no holes unfilled.
Overall, this album is a masterpiece in every way. And I can understand why this is the best selling album yet, offered by Neal Morse. I recommend this as a must have for anyone interested in Prog music, whether a casual listener to the seasoned proghead. My only real critisism of this album is the end of each song. It seems like they really get the power on to start with, but each of the songs, just kinda peeters out at the end, which works well for The Door, but may not fit as well in the other tracks.
My Rating:
loading...
loading...
Brian “Head” Welsh: Flush The Video !!
This is the new video from Brian “Head” Welsh’s debut album, Save Me From Myself. It’s pretty bizarre, but speaks it’s message pretty darn well. In my opinion anyways.
loading...
loading...
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline