Trollheart

Inspired by a recent thread made by another poster, I started thinking of the different ways orchestras are used to supplement, reinterpret or sometimes rewrite completely our favorite songs. Here in this new section I'll be exploring just this phenomenon. The songs may not all be that well-known --- though many will be --- and I'll be looking at how being orchestrally arranged has changed the original, for better or worse.

Although most of these videos will feature internationally famous orchestras like the London Philharmonic or the BBC Symphony, I would like to point you first in the direction of a guy who does this for sheer enjoyment on an amateur level, but with almost professional results. He's known only by his internet username, OminousVoice, and uses various software programs to reimagine some of his favourite music. This is one he created using the Bon Jovi song, “(It's hard) Letting you go” from the album “These days”. Yeah, he has a YouTube channel, and a Twitter account, all details in the comments.

“(It's hard) Letting you go” (Bon Jovi) from “These days”, arranged by OminousVoice


This is another amateur home-produced effort, working on a-ha's biggest hit. Man, these guys have some talent!
“Take on me” (a-ha) from “Hunting high and low” arranged by JoeTracy


But of course, no matter how great these guys are, there's no substitute for the real thing. Here's the London Symphony Orchestra, tackling a favourite from Rod.
“Sailing” (Rod Stewart) from “Atlantic crossing” played by the London Symphony Orchestra.


Proving that an orchestra can even take on a serious metal song, here's the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen, with that Metallica single.
“Enter sandman” (Metallica) from “The Black Album” played by Metallica (S&M) with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.


And to finish up, Motorhead. Huh? Did he say...? Yeah, I did. Incredible as it sounds, someone out there managed to mix up an orchestral version of “Ace of spades”, and for that if nothing else he deserves inclusion here. Great job!
“Ace of spades” (Motorhead) from “Ace of spades” arranged by Andy Rehfeldt.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

I was going to continue with my mini review of your journal but I just happened to see this review of the Bad English debut. In many ways the album was the swansong of AOR for the 1980s and possibly the last classic album of its goldern period which were the 1980s. I think this is one of the very best AOR albums ever released and Howard R.I.P was also a huge fan of this album too and we spoke about it a couple of times.

Bad English were very much a Babys and Journey reunion with the members having been in either or both of those bands. Ricky Phillips had been in the Babys, but I really wouldn't call him a proper Styx member as such, as he's just a recent addition to the band since 2004 and since then they have only recorded one album.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

There are many albums that have changed, or impacted strongly on my life, some of which I've reviewed here in this section. There are others that, while they didn't exactly provide an epiphany for me, turn me onto new music or answer any questions I may have had, remain an integral and important part of the music I listened to while growing up. Some, indeed many of these albums are classics, and that in itself brings up a difficult, but valid point: how do you review a classic album? Most people who know anything about music are going to know the album, probably inside out, and will have their own personal view of it, and what it means to them. How are your words going to interest them, when you're talking about something they have probably been listening to, or at least been aware of, for half their life? How can you criticise, or even wax lyrical about an album everybody knows? What can you add to the discussion about it, what new light can you shed on it, and who is really going to want to hear you drone on about a classic?

The only way, therefore, I could even attempt tackling such an almost sacrosanct album was to write for the kids who have never heard this: the ones growing up now and only finding out about bands like these. I'm old enough, so it would seem obvious to me that everyone knows who Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Genesis or Yes are, and yet, from the posts made here in recent months it would seem that there are people who do not know these bands. This is mostly, and usually, down to age: kids of sixteen, seventeen may have heard of these bands, but have never actually heard their music. It can also be the case that someone is crossing over from one genre to another and may not be that familiar with these legends of rock music, although in the case of some even that seems unlikely. Still, for those that are only now flowering into the first years of their musical knowledge, for those starting out on the long and exciting journey of discovery into rock, metal, progressive rock and space rock, I present this review of one of the defining albums not only of the band's career, but of rock music in general.

And yes, in that way, like it did to us all, it changed my life.

The Dark Side of the Moon --- Pink Floyd --- 1973 (Harvest/Capitol)


There's been far too much written about the place DSotM occupies --- deservedly --- in the annals of rock music history, and people have said it far better than I ever could. The fact that this was Pink Floyd's first number one album, that it took them from relative commercial obscurity and thrust them into the mainsteam limelight, that it spent over seven hundred weeks in the charts and has sold over fifty million copies worldwide, has all been well documented. The groundbreaking innovations in the music --- the use of tape loops, voices, echo and reverb, analogue synthesisers and more --- the way it changed music --- and Pink Floyd forever, and the fact that it was at least in part dedicated to or written about Syd Barret, original founder and vocalist who was suffering through some mental problems that has caused him to quit the band he had started. All of this has been written before, and there's no point in me rehashing old material, trying to outdo what rock and music writers have been doing for over forty years now. Similarly, there's no point in me copying-and-pasting a Wiki article, although I did consult such for some background information.

The only way I can approach this is by reviewing it as if for someone who has not heard it before, and in that vein, much of what I say in this review will seem trite, maybe even slightly offensive to those of us who know and revere the album. But remember, I'm writing this for those who do not know the album, so bear with me. Think of it this way: if you wanted to read a review of a classic jazz, blues or even electronica album and could find nothing but essays about how great it was, and how everyone knew it, would you be annoyed? I know I would. It should not be taken for granted that one hundred percent of the population of planet Earth have heard "Dark side of the moon" --- I'm sure it's closer to only ninety-five percent (!) --- and for those who have not (yet) experienced this amazing album, I offer my description of a timeless masterpiece.

The first thing that always hits me about this album is its sense of space. Everything seems deep, from the lyrics to the music, and everything seems to constantly be in the process of expanding. You hear this from the beginning, as "Speak to me" kicks off this opus of progressive rock. A low hum is joined and superceded by a thumping sound, a steady, rhythmic beat like that of a heart. As it continues on, snatches of what will be other tracks on the album --- "Money", "Time", "Brain damage" etc --- spool through, and a voice speaks of being mad, while in the background but getting louder a maniacal laugh rises beside the vocalise (vocals without words or phrases) of Clare Torry, the music climbing in pitch with her until on her scream we pound into the first track proper, "Breathe", with David Gilmour's incredibly full-sounding guitar taking the lead, he then also taking the vocal as the song begins.

Nick Mason's steady drumming and Rick Wright's keyboards form over a minute of instrumental intro before Gilmour begins singing and the song is the first part of a life cycle really, laying out the fact that we need to live our lives while we can, as it's over far too soon. Lyrics like "Run, rabbit run/ Dig that hole/ Forget the sun/ And when at last the work is done/ Don't sit down/ It's time to dig another one" show us how petty and futile so much of the concerns we surround ourselves with, worry over and obssess over are. As Gilmour says near the end: "Balanced on the biggest wave/ You race towards a early grave". The song is slow, almost a ballad, played on lazy guitar by Gilmour sometimes in a manner comparable to slide, with a laconic vocal that is double or multi-tracked and seems to echo as he sings, and an almost funereal sound to it. Like the rest of the album --- as it was originally recorded, two sides of one record --- each song flows seamlessly into the next, and so we slide on into "On the run", where Wright's bouncing, swirling, almost panicky synthesiser runs form the basis of this instrumental, with running feet, heavy breathing and sounds of airports and so forth creating the sensation of someone in a mad hurry, racing to some appointment or other, and harking back to the rabbit in the previous song, endlessly rushing and toiling but to what end?

Voices drift about in the ether as the piece continues, announcers' voices, people laughing, shouting, and the whole tempo of the thing is fast, manic, almost a "Flight of the bumble-bee" for the twentieth century. It ends on a big hard heavy powerful guitar riff and crashes into the sound of many clocks, which suddenly all go off, chiming, ringing, pealing as "Time" opens, Gilmour's hard echoey guitar pounding in and almost meshing with the sound of ticking, pendulums and metronomes, Wright's piano tinkling in and Mason and Waters setting up the backing rhythm, another sense of doom about the music. One of only two songs on the album to feature double vocals, Wright takes the mike beside Gilmour to give us another song about wasting your life. Time is the eternal enemy, and our lives must be spent with purpose and direction or else "One day you find/ Ten years have got behind you" and it's already too late. Great guitar solo from Gilmour and powerful, effective backing vocals which will go on to define and be a major part of what will become the Floyd sound in the years to come.

By the time the protagonist in the song has decided he has to do something, that his life is slipping away, it's a race against death. "So you run, you run/ To catch up with the sun/ But it's sinking/ Racing around/ To come up behind you again." Sobering words, and a sort of funk feel to the song, with a certain gravity and pathos, which then runs into "Breathe (reprise)", a short coda to the song before it flows into the fully instrumental "The Great Gig in the Sky", with vocals by Clare Torry which are, well, you just have to hear them to appreciate how different they are, and why this piece can still be called an instrumental even with vocals, of a sort. Almost sacramental slide guitar from Gilmour, and lush piano from Rick Wright, but it's the vocals from Torry that really make the song stand out, backed by heavy church-style organ from Wright and punchy percussion from Mason.

As such, that's the end of the first part, and was the first side of the original vinyl album, and so the music actually stops rather than segueing into the next track. This then is "Money", which opens on the sound of cash registers, coins, paper tearing and then a bassline from Roger Waters that was to become famous and instantly identifiable, joined by Mason's percussion as the song takes on a sort of marching rhythm, a twelve-bar blues kind of feel and Gilmour's guitar joins the fray, as does his voice again, extolling the virtues and vices of living just to make money. Probably unintentionally ironic, as "Time" was to become one of their most successful and thereby lucrative songs, one of the two massive hit singles to come off this album. Great smoky sax solo from Dick Parry adds to the almost jazzy sense of the song, and it fades out on the recordings of people talking about various things, until it recedes into the background and the sorrowful ballad "Us and them" comes in on droning organ.

With a clever time-delayed echo on the vocal, so that instead of just "Us and them" you hear Us, Us, Us, Us, Us ... and them, them, them, them..." --- mightily effective --- it's a lament on how the have-nots are walked on by the haves, how there's no room in the world for mercy or pity or sharing the wealth, or looking after those who are worse off than us. It's Gilmour's last performance on vocals on the album, and again he's joined by Rick Wright, the song one of the most moving on the record. It also features a simply beautiful sax break from Parry which really just makes the song. The imagery in the song is striking: "Forward! he cried, from the rear/ And the front rank died/ The general sat/ And the lines on the map/ Moved from side to side" and "Listen son/ Said the man with the gun/ There's room for you inside." A lot of anti-war, anti-military rhetoric, but quite simple in itself, with a very sad ending as (it would seem to me anyway) where a war veteran dies because no-one will buy him the meal he needs to stay alive: "Out of the way! / It's a busy day/ I've got things on my mind/ For the want of the price/ Of tea and a slice/ The old man died." More powerful backing vocals and some lovely piano work from Rick Wright and a rather abrupt end, which the first time I heard this took me by surprise, because you just don't expect it.

This leaves us with three tracks to go. "Any colour you like" (probably referencing the old Henry Ford mantra, "any colour you like as long as it's black") is the final instrumental, and if this album had, in some alternate universe, a weak track, this is what I would select as it. Compared to the giants that have gone before, and the two to come, it doesn't for me stand up as well. But it's still well above anything else that was coming out at that time, although it's really just a marker to take us to "Brain damage", where we hear for the first time on the album the vocals of a man who would come to dominate not only vocals, but the whole band, and who would cause tensions within Floyd leading ultimately to his eventual departure.

Roger Waters does a great job of sounding like a madman himself, as he sings "The lunatic is in the hall/ The lunatics are in my hall/ The paper holds their folded faces to the floor/ And everyday the paperboy brings more." More than any other song on the album, this is thought to be written about Syd Barret, and his struggle with dementia. It's quite a laidback little piece initially, taken in on Gilmour's soft, chiming guitar and Waters' steady bass, that is until the chorus when a big sweeping synth, thumping drums and a squealing guitar mesh with those soon-to-be-famous backing vocals --- almost a choir really --- to take the song to almost transcendental levels. The song also contains the album title, so is essentially the title track, and the climax, the point everything has been leading to. In an almost expected move now, there are grinning, laughing voices running through the song too.

"Eclipse", the closer, is essentially the same melody but changed a little, with a repeating lyric that lists all the things, people, events, dreams and nightmares we may and probably will encounter during our oh-too-short lives. Brought in on Mason's thumping drum and with a swirling, almost carnival organ from Wright, it's again Waters who takes the album out in complete triumph, the choir/voices setting up a spirited, gospel-like finale, and as the music fades out on the final lyric "Everything under the sun is tune/ But the sun is eclipsed by the moon" we hear the sound of someone saying "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact, it's all dark", and just to bring everything full circle, the heartbeat returns, then stops.

TRACKLISTING

1. Speak to me
2. Breathe
3. On the run
4. Time
5. The Great Gig in the Sky
6. Money
7. Us and them
8. Any colour you like
9. Brain damage
10. Eclipse

So, what makes a classic album, then? Is it just that X number of people have to listen to it? Is it that it has to shift Y number of units, or have Z number of singles? Well, no I don't think so, because many albums I would consider far, far from classics can fulfill any or all of these statistics. Is it that it becomes so well known that almost everyone has at least heard of it? Again I think no, because again there are album I could name that just about anyone would know, but they are not considered classics.

Personally, I think a classic album is not made, it is created, which is to say, it's not after the album has been released and bought, listened to and rated and raved over that it is recognised as a classic. I think it happens in the studio. When the artiste recording it has recorded a classic, they will instantly know it. Musicians know when they've created something special, and I think Pink Floyd knew this about "Dark side of the moon". When Roger Waters played the rough tapes to his wife, she burst into tears at the end, and he knew then they had something special.

In essence, for want of a better phrase, classic albums aren't made, they're born. Right from the off, you know they're going to be a classic from the moment you first hear them; and every time after that, you remember how you first realised this album was going to be remembered, praised, played everywhere and that it would take its place in music history, forever.

That, in my considered opinion, is what a classic album is.
That's what Pink Floyd's "The dark side of the moon" is.
You hear it once, and nothing, nothing is ever the same.
Nor should it be.

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Trollheart

Yeah, I noticed I also did that album in the "200 word album review" slot a while back, but thought it deserved a fuller review than I gave it there. Also, as I mentioned, I'm a bit pigged out on 2012 album reviews, so it's nice to take a step back and review albums I'm very familiar with.

I think BE's debut is an example of an instance when they really should have left it at the one; the followup wasn't anywhere near as good, and they broke up after it and went their separate ways (like the Journey quote?)

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vivianne

I LOVE ELO. My favourite band of all time. Specially liked the song with the lyrics,"wish I was back in 1981. just to see your face instead of this place". I think it was called What life was meant to be. Has been a long time since I heard it.

vivianne

I LOVE ELO. My favourite band of all time. Specially liked the song with the lyrics,"wish I was back in 1981. just to see your face instead of this place". I think it was called What life was meant to be. Has been a long time since I heard it. I also think it was from the "Time" album.

Trollheart

Yes, definitely one of my early favourites, and that's a great album. Here's that song you were talking about. Enjoy!

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Trollheart

Okay then, it's a new year, we've struggled through the festivities and it's time to return to what is laughingly called normal around here. Dedicated to Blarobarg, who seems to like these entries, here's our first look at

for 2013.

And so I head to Encyclopaedia Metallum Heavy Metal Bands more in desperate hope than expectation that I won't get yet another screamy, noisy, thrashy metal band of the genus speed, thrash or black. Will the new year start off kindly for me? Who would take that bet? Calling up the site I head to the "random band" tab and click. This year, I'm going to take an actual screenshot of each selection that comes up, just so you know I'm not making these bands up! Even if the artiste can't be featured due to lack of recorded material, unavailability of their music or zero information on them, and I have to make another choice --- as I have done last year --- I'll still show the screenshot.

With that in mind, here's the first selection for 2013, whether they turn out to be a usable choice or not.

Cyclope Vision (note that "e", it's important!) hail from the mecca of Death Metal, er, Belgium? Well, they're apparently a "melodic death metal" band, and seem to only have been together for a few months, though they've already released one album, entitled "Hammersmith". The cover is funny, with a cyclops swinging an axe and looking all scary and --- nah, he just looks silly. With titles on the album ranging from "Burn the village" to "Killing my friendly enemy", and "Meet Hell before you die", I'm guessing these guys aren't big on love songs or eleven-minute compositions about clouds and rainbows!

And in typical fashion, searches for their music leads me to naught. Nothing on YouTube (no, I bloody didn't mean "cyclops"! The band are called "Cyclope Vision"! With an e! Why can't you just accept that, YouTube?!), nothing on any of my favourite online album vendors, and nothing on torrent either. Not a scrap. Of course, given that a) they're from Belgium and b) they only got together last year, that's maybe not so suprising. Perhaps they're big in their home town of, er, Deux-Acren, but nobody out in the real world seems to have heard of them, or have any of their material. So, interesting as it may have been to have listened to what these one-eyed metallers may have had to say, it's a delight I have to pass up, and the search goes on.


Oh good! Just what I wanted! Not satisfied with giving me a "melodic death metal" band from Belgium, the hardcore gods have thrown my way a "Brutal Death Metal" band! Sigh! These guys come from the good old United Kingdom and go by the jolly name of Invocate. They're actually no longer around, having come together --- and, it seems, broken up --- in 2006, leaving behind just the one album. No, no, I tell a lie! It's a demo. Even better. Never signed, never made an album but even at that, they appear to have one entry on YouTube. Amazing! Someone actually cared enough about them to upload a video, one of the three songs (!) on their demo, which they called "Dweller of the shade".

Well, to be fair, I can't review a band who have only the one track and no backstory, with three songs released in total, so what I'll do here is I'll throw the YouTube and you can hear what they're like. As for me, I'll be passing. Brutal Death Metal? I think I can take a wild stab at what it will sound like, and I'd just as soon bang my head off my bedroom wall if it's all the same to you.

(Oh, it's called "He who sleeps eternally", by the way).
Incidentally, I just noticed on the same page a video by a band called Eviscerated, the song called "Gorging on rotting entrails". Why so many horrible subjects for music in this sub-genre I wonder? All I can say is I hope they never invite themselves around to tea! Must be a riot at MacDonalds: "Whaddya mean, you don't serve rotting entrails? I want to gorge! Do you hear me? GORGE I say! Ah **** it let's go to the Wimpy!"

Endlessly I plod on through this sea of unknown and unrecognised bands, and I'm seriously considering finding a virgin to sacifice to the metal gods, that they may hear my prayer and grant my request. Not even a decent band, O Gods Who Sit On High and Riff Off Mighty Solos! Just one I can bloody review! One I can find some music for, and who aren't more obscure than that speed metal unreleased track George Micheal recorded just before retiring --- what do you mean, urban legend? Listen... Anyway, my quest is doomed as reagrds a sacrifice, for where in this city would I ever find a maid unsullied by hand of man? This leaves me no choice but to heave a mighty sigh and hit the "random" button a third time, while wondering if it's worth trying to buy a gun and end it all? Unlike virgins, weapons are readily available on the streets of Dublin, if you know who to go to. Which I don't. Ah well...



Thank you, O Gods! Thank you for hearing my plaintive prayer. You shower of ****ing smart-arsed wankers! You complete and utter bastards! ANOTHER unsigned band! ANOTHER Death Metal band! And ANOTHER band with one ****ing demo to their name! In the name of Steve Harris! What must I do to placate you! What's that? Kill the one known as "The Batlord", you say? Oh I could never do that! Could I? Really? Fire and vengeance would not rain down upon me, you say? You know people, you say? Interesting. Let me get back to you on that one, Ye Who Sit On High and Noodle Incessantly on the Same Three Chords. We shall talk.

In the meantime, strike three! Eternal Agony (nice, huh?) are indeed another death metal band. Well, you wouldn't expect them to be anything else now would you, with a name like that? Well, maybe black metal. But they too have come and gone, seeming to have put out their one and only demo fifteen years ago now, although oddly the EM titles show them as "Formed in n/a" and "Years Active n/a", which makes me wonder how they managed to record the grandiosely-titled "The beginning of a new eternal chapter" in 1998 if they were never together? Anyway, they came from Germany, and their demo contained six tracks, of which the titles speak for themselves. "Eternal **** with mutilated matter ****s in Hell" opens it, and then they go into that well-known family favourite, "Necro cannibalistic insanity", throwing in "The xecrement of Jesus Christ" (that's how it's spelled), while perhaps the most prophetic song title goes to "Kill the hope", which they obviously did, and vanished from sight, never to complete or even start the second eternal chapter. Shame!

There's one video on YT, but although it says Eternal Agony is the band the song is not on the demo, and the logo looks different. Perhaps there are two Eternal Agonies out there? Who knows? Probably enough pain to go round. Still, looking at the cover of "The beginning of a new eternal chapter", I'd have to say these guys were out-and-out black metal. I mean, they have an inverted cross on the sleeve, for ****'s sake!


All right then, this is it. One more attempt. For all I know, this section could become a blind grope through the blackest of black metal, the speediest of speed and the thrashiest of thrash with no actual prize at the end. I could go through unsigned band after unsigned band, stepping over the rotting corpses (see? This black metal is getting to me!) of long-dead acts who thought they'd take over the world, only to discover to their dismay that they were missing one vital element necessary to attain at least a recording contract, if not fame: talent.

If that happens, then so be it. Otherwise I could go through ten different bands here and never come up with one I can actually review. But hey, it's all interesting and educational, and as I said before, if it amuses the staff...

So, once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our metal dead! Forward, quite possibly, to death! Cry God for Trollheart, Ireland and Saint Patrick! Or something.



Okay! Okay! That's it! Whoever the **** is having fun at my expense up there can just cut it out, all right? Death metal bands are bad enough, brutal death metal worse, but now you want me to review a band whose lyrics cover rape, misogyny and killing, and who have the wonderful sub-genre "Grindcore" appended? NO ****ING WAY! You are out of your tree! What do you mean, they have a full album, and isn't this what I've been asking for? Crap! You're right. Well I don't care. I have SOME standards after all!

Look, okay, I'll search for their album (probably won't find it) or anything on YouTube. Will that make you happy? Right then, here I go.
Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to


As expected, nothing on them, but here's what I do know. Formed in Vancouver, Canada in 1999, they released their first, and to date only album, "Like a virgin" (yeah!) in 2001. They're said still to be active, but twelve years without any output is surely pushing it. Although maybe they're busy writing their death metal opera, "Les Miserable Bitches" --- hey, it could be a big hit! Anyway, the album consists of such touching heartfelt ditties as "You will submit", "Kill everything", "Carnage for the elderly" and "There's something about rape", and then quite hilariously ask in the second track "Why do women hate me?" Er...

I have to say, I'm glad I can't find anything to listen to concerning this band. And if you have their album and are thinking of sending it to me to review, then by all means stick it up your arse and while you're at it cut out your own heart with a spoon. I'd rather listen to a whole concert of Jedward --- yeah, I said Jedward! --- than five minutes of this misogynistic drivel. True, it could all be tongue-in-cheek, but when they finish their album with the wonderfully insightful "She really meant yes", I think it's hard to see how any of this could be in any way seen as funny or even satirical.

Of course, in fairness I've heard nothing of their music (let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it is music and not just noise and screaming epiteths) so I could be judging them harshly. But going purely by the cover of the book, it's not one I'd want to read, no matter how desperate I got. Oh yeah, here's the cover of the book, as it were. Moderator cut: image removed
Original, yes?

So that's my fourth journey into the world of random heavy metal, and I've yet to come across a band I like or even know. If I wasn't already familiar with some --- more mainstream admittedly --- metal I could fall into the trap of thinking this is all it has to offer, which would be a pity as I know there are so many great metal bands out there. Just can't figure out why I keep missing them here.

Oh well, maybe if I do as the Metal Gods demand and kill the Batlord. Now, how do I set up his speakers so that the next time he plays High on Fire they explode and take out the whole block? Much to plan, much to think on. See you next time, if I survive...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

The good son --- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds --- 1990 (Mute)


(Author's note: this review was originally written a long time ago, like back when this album was released, so if the prose seems al little stiff or not as in-depth or flowing as you might usually expect from me, that's why. It originally appeared (and still does) on my website, TheLair of Lestat as part of my Nick Cave section. I may pull other reviews, both from the Nick Cave and other sections I set up, as the mood takes me.)

Personally speaking, this was the first Nick Cave album I heard. Having seen the video for "The Ship song" on MTV and been impressed by it, I was in no way contemplating buying the album until one Saturday afternoon, as I browsed through my local record store, they had the album going over the PA. I listened in wonder as they played the whole thing through, then went up to the counter and asked what album they had just been playing. The latest from Nick Cave, I was told: "The good son". I bought it on the spot.

The great thing about having heard it already was that I didn't have to play it to know if I liked it when I got home: I had heard it already, and I knew that I loved it. As an introduction to the work of Nick Cave I'm sure there are better albums, but for me this was the perfect one. I later learned this was generally not seen as typical of the man's work; his albums prior to this had been mostly, dark, angry fiery affairs, and that in fact Cave fans were mostly upset by this "softer" work. However it turns out that he had just fallen in love and come out of rehab so hey, cut the guy some slack, huh? He deserves to be happy too!

From the opening, almost hymn-like "Foi na cruz" (which I have to admit at the time I had no clue as to what it is about, though later found out it is a Brazilian prayer which loosely translates as "it happened on the cross"), to the dreamy, melancholy piano that ends the final track, "Lucy", this album is a joy to listen to.

After the sacremental "Foi na cruz", the tempo kicks into high gear with the title track, which is menacing, thundering and disturbing. The whole thing seems to be building towards some hideous climax, but just as the music builds up, backed by Cave's snarling vocal, it soothes back into the chorus, then surges back up, taking the listener (if they are not a Cave afficionado, as I was not at the time) by surprise. An intense and sometimes frightening song, with a great singalong chorus of "One more man gone/ One more man gone/ One more man" and based as again I found out later on an old African-American traditional piece called "One more man done gone". Slowing down the tempo then for "Sorrow's child", in which Cave personifies sadness as a small girl sitting by the water, inviting others to join her (Misery loves company?). The whole rhythm of "Sorrow's child" is dark, slow and melancholy, as you would expect from a song with such a title, but with a quite beautiful piano line leading it to its conclusion.

Slow-burning and brooding, "The Weeping Song" follows on, slowing the tempo down a touch, with a sort of military marching beat against what sound like xylophones (sorry, I'm not great at identifying instruments other than thee obvious). The song is a discourse between father and son, as the child asks "Father, why are all the women weeping?" and the parent sadly replies "True weeping is yet to come". The instrumentation on the song is very simple, with the same chords repeated over and over, no elaborate solos of any type, and no middle eighth. A simple song, and quite disturbing in its simplicty, this song strips away from youth the innocence and naivite possessed by children, showing them the real world they must face.

Things slow down again then, for the song that for me started it all off: "The Ship song", which is a quite simple and beautiful lovesong, with some gorgeous piano (again, most effective near the end of the song). Cave's vocal on this song is understated but powerful, and the tenderness that he squeezes into his gruff voice has to be heard to be believed. Lyrics like "Come loose your dogs upon me/ And let your hair hang down", and "When I crawl into your arms/ Everything comes tumbling down" colour the song and give it a stark and beautiful life of its own. It's very much a solo song, with just Cave's almost hypnotic vocal, piano and drums backing.

Back to shades of "The good son" then for "The Hammer song", which catalogues the travels of a man who leaves his home to find himself, find adventure and perhaps find peace, but finds instead nothing but suspicion, mistrust and outright hostility. This theme would be later echoed on Cave's next album, "Henry's dream", in the track entitled "When I first came to town". In "The Hammer song" images which have now become known to me to be recurrent themes in Nick Cave's song are evoked: angels, angry crowds, snakes and deserts. The tempo of the song is urgent, and has an almost Western twang to it, by which I mean that it sounds a little like one of those old "Magnificent Seven"-type movies.

"Lament" follows, the tortured song of departure, perhaps death, of a loved one. Cave sings "I'll miss your fairground hair /Your seaside eyes". This is a man about to lose the woman he loves, and fixing in his mind every detail, every nuance of her appearance, every facet of her personality. The string section that runs through the chorus is very evocative, contrasting sharply with the spartan drum-and-piano backing for the verses. Which takes us to the penultimate track, the funny yet vicious (in that way Nick Cave has of being funny and vicious, and neither of the two concepts seeming incongruous) "Witness Song", in which Cave pours scorn and contempt on those who follow blindly religious icons, looking for meaning to their lives without being prepared to earn that meaning: those who attend (I would assume) the likes of gatherings where TV evangelists perform "miracles" in the name of faith.

The whole thing is treated like a gospel type ceremony, and indeed is again based on an old song, a gospel song called "Who will be a witness?" with Cave relating things like "Behold there stood a fountain!/ The fountain with the healing water", while lacing the whole thing with heavy sarcasm. As the boppy, almost "born-again-Christian" beat counterpoints the cynical vocal, Cave tells the story of his following a friend into a garden and the two of them dipping their hands in the "holy fountain". Cave asks his friend "Are you healed?" which she counters by asking him "Well are you healed?" He replies "Oh yes I'm healed" and she then declares that she is also healed: "Oh yes well I'm healed then too". Then he turns on her, snarling "Babe you are a liar too!"

One of the standout tracks on the album, "The Witness Song" constantly looks for a dispassionate, detached view of the proceedings, but there is none, as Cave growls "Who will be the witness/ When you're all too healed to see?" Not an anti-religion song, but certainly one that pokes savage fun at false healers, fake religions and perhaps cults, which prey on people's fears and gullibility.

The final track then slows things down, after the hectic, frenetic, vitriolic invective of the previous song, and "Lucy" closes the album with a gentle, sad, tender ballad to love gone forever (again I assume because of death) : "Lucy can you hear me/ Wherever you rest?" The piano outro to this song, as previously mentioned, played with supreme gravitas and melancholia by Roland Wolf, is a joy to hear, and in many ways the album comes full circle, with what was all but a prayer to open the proceedings ending in a prayer of longing and hope for rest.

Appearances deceive, and I would never have believed, looking at Nick Cave (and this is not meant as a slight on the man, just the typical human condition of "judging a book by its cover") that he could be capable of such moving and accomplished music. I have, obviously, since listening to "The Good Son" become a convert to the Church of Cave , and although I haven't found much to excite me about his last two albums, there are enough of his in my collection now that I can certainly rate him among my favourite artistes. As an introduction to a man whose music I would I think never have considered experiencing had I not heard this album, "The good son" is as good a way as any to get into the music of this poet and prophet from "down under".

All I can say is I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time to hear this, and start my appreciation of Nick Cave's music. Serendipity, perhaps...

TRACKLISTING

1. Foi na cruz
2. The good son
3. Sorrow's child
4. The weeping song
5. The ship song
6. The hammer song
7. Lament
8. The witness song
9. Lucy

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

The Journey quote is spot on, it was a remarkable album for a group of artists that came together and since this album, none of the artists involved have put out work to the same calibre.

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Metal Wars

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