Tag Archives: Music

Music I Love: “The Days of Grays”, Sonata Arctica (2009)

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Track Listing:

  1. Everything Fades to Gray (Instrumental)
  2. Deathaura
  3. The Last Amazing Grays
  4. Flag in the Ground
  5. Breathing
  6. Zeroes
  7. The Dead Skin
  8. Juliet
  9. No Dream Can Heal a Broken Heart
  10. As If the World Wasn’t Ending
  11. The Truth Is Out There
  12. Everything Fades to Gray (Full Version)

 

Sonata Arctica are one of Finland’s finest metal exports, having released increasingly complex and progressive albums since their 1999 debut, Ecliptica. Although their origins are firmly rooted in Scandinavian power metal (their first few albums are strongly reminiscent of fellow Finns Stratovarius), their music has become much more refined over the years, with last year’s release Pariah’s Child having only a few tracks that could truly be called ‘power metal’.

Sonata Arctica’s breakthrough album was their sophomore effort, Silence (2001), a sprawling 15-track epic that at times harkens to their influences in 70s and 80s power rock such as Scorpions. They followed this with Winterheart’s Guild (2003) and Reckoning Night (2004), but it was with their fifth album, Unia (2007), that their style truly matured into something unique and different from the many other power metal bands around them. Losing the blastbeats and double kick drums, Unia saw more sophisticated songwriting and album planning (the songs flow beautifully one into another), and although they reintroduced some of the power metal influences with The Days of Grays in 2009, this more progressive style has remained with them ever since.

The Days of Grays is one of their most important albums for me, because it was largely the soundtrack to The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation when I was first writing it. I immediately fell in love with the haunting and sad introduction Everything Fades to Gray, and the forbidden love story of Deathaura echoes the unspoken love between Brandyé and Sonora (in my mind, anyway). However, it’s the third track, The Last Amazing Grays, that truly stands out for me as a song that speaks for everything in Consolation, with its reminders that everything is doomed to fade and die eventually:

“I feel the time is catching up with us

How many days until its hunger is satisfied

Living the final golden days, we are the last Amazing Grays

Hoping the young will lead the pack now”

Sonata Arctica, The Last Amazing Grays (2009)

I played this song endlessly on repeat whilst writing the death scenes in The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation, and it probably explains the tears when they died (don’t want to spoil too much if you haven’t read it yet!).

Other standout tracks include Flag in the Ground, an epic tale of adventure and freedom (the most ‘power metal’ song of the album, and the most upbeat, too), and Juliet, the third part of a series of songs started with The End of this Chapter on their second album, Silence. As If the World Wasn’t Ending and The Truth Is Out There lead into the dismal finale, a reprise of the opening track, but this time with vocals and a majestic, hope-dashing conclusion.

Sonata Arctica followed this album with 2012’s Stones Grow Her Name and last year’s Pariah’s Child, which though both excellent albums, don’t quite match the grandeur and sadness of The Days of Grays. If anything their style has become slightly poppier and a little more upbeat, which isn’t always to my miserable taste. If you were looking to get into Sonata Arctica for the first time, you could do worse than to listen to this album.

 

Thought of the Week: What Makes Me Happy (?)

A very good friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, stating that he was going to rant about something, but decided instead to list things that make him happy.

I thought this was very clever. You see, as someone who suffers from some form of major depressive disorder (bipolar, unipolar depression … something like that), I don’t often take the time to think about things that make me happy. I tend to operate more on a guilt/shame line of feelings; I could endlessly list things that make me feel bad about myself. And when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I couldn’t, off the top of my head, come up with anything.

Which is sort of a shame, really.

What makes me happy? I thought. Do puppies make me happy? Not really. What about kittens? I like them, but they make me sneeze. Good music? Too much butter on toast? Little children using words they don’t understand? All sorts of things come to mind that, perhaps, ought to make me happy, but I can’t be entirely certain any of them actually do.

Then it occurred to me that although not everything makes me happy, there certainly are things that, if nothing else, help me appreciate the world a little more each day. Things that renew my faith in humanity, or inspire me to continue when things are at their bleakest. And to return the favor to my friend for inspiring this post, here is a list of ten things that, if not make me happy, at least make me appreciate life a little more than usual:

1. When Little Satis asks me to read to him at night.

Reading

There’s something awfully rewarding not only about reading to your child, but them actually wanting to be read to. Even better when it’s your own story they want you to read!

2. Talented people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

_73332750_cumberbomb

There’s something unparallelably adorable about Benedict Cumberbatch. Plus, he’s a freaking dragon!

3. Clever rhyme schemes.

Still

Running uphill

Swimming against the current

I wish I weren’t

So fucked

Feels like I’m stuck

Lost in a sea

Of mediocrity

—Dream Theater, As I Am (Train of Thought, 2003)

Dream Theater’s lyrics are not always so clever, but this particular line often gets stuck in my head (possibly because it often reflects my own internal monologue).

4. Graphs and charts.

decline

XKCD have some of the most marvelous and insightful graphs in the comic universe.

5. Typing the last word of a novel.

This is something I’ve done precisely twice. Those words are “laughed” and “spoke”, respectively.

Just realized they’re both past-tense verbs pertaining to speech. Perhaps the last word of Ancients and Death should be “giggled”.

6. Those months when you get paid three times.

roll-of-money

Those of you on monthly salaries might not understand this, but when you get paid fortnightly, every so often there’s a month with three paydays. It’s like winning the lottery!

7. Really nice islay single malt scotch whiskey.

Bottle-Shots-064

Not something I have all that often, but there’s something irresistible about the earthy, peaty flavor of a really nice single malt scotch. Those extra paydays help.

8. Browsing through independent record stores.

record collector

This is Record Collector, one of my favorite independent record stores. It’s in Sheffield, England, and I stopped in during our recent trip. My favorite thing is to buy a CD or record with an interesting cover by an artist I’ve never heard of and see what it’s like. It’s a shame there are so few of these wonderful shops left.

9. Mince pies.

mince-pie_2739967b

Basically, it’s not Christmas without mince pies. End of story.

10. Lists.

bucket-list

I’m rather fond of lists—wish lists, in particular. I have a rather extensive list of albums and movies I want to listen to and see. I also keep an ongoing shopping list on my iPhone with probably around 200 items on it at any given moment. Not sure what the point of that is, actually.

11. (Bonus) High-resolution stock photography.

Broken camera

It may be slightly ironic that I took this high-res photo from an article about not taking photos from websites, but … I am linking to it (click above).

Featured image from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-sheridan/the-life-you-want_b_6044498.html.

Screen Shot 2015-01-07 at 6.46.37 PM

Thought of the Week: Making Music

Apologies for the delay in this week’s post—and even more apologies, because I have an admission to make: I haven’t done any (any) writing in the past two weeks.

Argh!

I have, however, what I hope is a reasonable excuse. Instead of devoting my time to words on paper (or computer screen), I have instead been trying my hand for the first time in many years at writing music:

IMG_0365

Did you know that I wrote music, once upon a time? Ahem … of course you knew—you’ve checked out all of my website, haven’t you? I have a degree in music composition from the University of Sheffield, and for quite some time in my youth thought I might be a professional composer.

Well … life got in the way, of course, and that particular dream never happened. Then, a few years ago the creative juices started flowing again, but what came out were not notes, but words. So The Redemption of Erâth was born.

But deep in the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to return to writing music, and with the advent of advanced notation and recording software, I decided to revisit one of my earlier works: a symphony for full orchestra, first written when I was about fifteen.

Inspired by the likes of Beethoven and Dvořák, I had come up with a couple of melodic ideas that seemed to fit better in an orchestral environment rather than solo piano (which was my medium of choice up to that point), and so with all the enthusiasm of gusto of youth I set about writing a symphony. Full, four-movement piece, which would have totaled nearly an hour in length—had I ever finished it. I ended up with first, third and fourth movements, but never got around to writing the second (slow movement). What I accomplished was, for my age and relative inexperience, phenomenal; however, it was most certainly not publishable, never mind performable. I didn’t have the understanding of the immense variety of instruments in a full orchestra at the time.

But that’s what I went to university for. And now, with a solid background in composition and a shorter orchestral piece (that I’m actually quite proud of) under my belt from my final dissertation, I’ve decided, while the mood strikes me, to open up Logic Pro X and Finale 2014 and start making some music! It’s tedious, long-winded and thankless work—in two weeks I’ve managed to write approximately seven minutes’ worth of music. In the first movement alone, I have another fifteen to go.

But the joy of creating is the same as it always has been, and fret not—though Brandyé and Elven have taken a (very temporary) back seat, I will return to them and their adventures in Erâth.

For now, here is Symphony in F minor—so far!

Featured image from http://wallpaperswide.com/old_music_score-wallpapers.html.

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