The Benja-man Is Verbose

Stand In The Fire  [1980; although I'm using the 2007 reissue] tracklist 1)  Stand In The Fire 2)  Jeannie Needs A Shooter 3)  Excitable Boy 4)  Mohammed's Radio 5)  Werewolves Of London 6)  Lawyers, Guns, And Money 7)  The Sin 8)  Poor Poor Pitiful Me 9)  I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 10)  Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger/Bo Diddley [cover of Bo Diddley songs, mostly "Gunslinger"] B1)  Johnny Strikes Up The Band B2)  Play It All Night Long B3)  Frank And Jesse James (solo piano version) B4)  Hasten Down The Wind (solo piano version) Learning To Flinch  [1993] tracklist 1)  Splendid Isolation 2)  Lawyers, Guns, And Money 3)  Mr. Bad Example 4)  Excitable Boy 5)  Hasten Down The Wind 6)  The French Inhaler 7)  Worrier King 8)  Roland Chorale 9)  Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner 10)  Searching For A Heart 11)  Boom Boom Mancini 12)  Jungle Work 13)...

Prior exposure to this band/record:  Zero. The Alliance Of The Kings (which fortunately seems to be its official title, as I would refuse out of principle to write out  The Alliance Of The Kings - The Black Crystal Sword Saga Pt. 1 ) begins with a spoken word section that frames the record, in part, as follows: Sendor, the Supreme Dark Wizard, came to know about the existence of a mysterious sword that gave its holder absolute power: immortal life, unbelievable strength, and knowledge of all magic. No one knew about the sword except the four Kings from the four corners of the world. The sword had been hidden in the Dark Cave in Noland under the cover of darkness, and locked in a hidden place that could only be opened if the four weapons of the four Kings were revealed before it... And it goes on like that, but I might fall asleep if I try to transcribe any more.  Let's pretend for just a sec to ignore any language barriers that might lead one to snicker at ...

Since I've done Avantasia before, I ended up forgoing the usual two-posts thing.  So, this'll be it. When does The Scarecrow generate excitement for a listener of my particular tastes.  Pretty much from minute one.  The moment "Twisted Mind" hit, I was grinning.  Yeah, this is what I came for  Da-da-da-daDAH!  The main riff is positively groovy, sounds heavy, sounds electronic.  Instantly memorable.  Speaking of memorable, Roy Khan's unmistakable vocals immediately set the mood to go to the slightly darker side of power metal, sticking to his great low range to let Tobias handle the high stuff in a way that quickly turns up the intensity higher than you get with Kamelot.  So I was intrigued pretty early.   Now, when does that buzz fade?  It was a little later each time.  On the first listen it was at the chorus of that song.  My mind started wandering early.  The record seemed more full of downtuned meanderings than ...

Much like with the previous record, I don't have any particular preconceptions going into  Mr. Bad Example  or any real sense of its reputation.  I think Zevon was by this point firmly a has-been who'd never be a megastar again, his former cast of millions reduced to longtime friends and collaborators like Waddy Wachtel, who produced and is all over the guitar work.  I think Zevon was also by this point firmly a critical darling who had a devoted cult audience that he probably didn't properly appreciate.  And of all of his albums, our 1991 effort here is firmly one of them. Track One:  "Finishing Touches" This is increasingly becoming the song to which I look forward to coming back whilst exploring the record.  True, I sometimes complain about one-riff songs.  All I can say is that I'll forgive a lot for a really, really good riff.  On that backdrop we have Zevon in articulate bitter mode, with yet another classic opening line ...

As complex and unusual as the music gets, I always come back to the vocals.  Here, I mean (although also in general).  Vocals are what make  The Shadow Cabinet truly unique.  (I assume Erik Ravn is the main vocal force here, my apologies if I misidentify someone else's goofy voice as his.)   [EDIT:  This what happens when a newb tries to listen to something about which little info is at arms' length.  An earlier version of this post just went on like that, crediting Erik for most of the vocals.  Apparently the main man on the vox is actually Nils Patrik Johansson, who joined WH in 2003, also known to people who are not me for his work in the bands Astral Doors, Lion's Share, and, later, Civil War.] You hear musical theater performances from non-metal people - stage actors, but rockers like Meat Loaf too - elsewhere, and you hear metal guys strain their voices trying to hit notes outside of there range elsewhere.  What you don't get...

Prior exposure to this band/record :  Nada.   When I first started blogging about music, the premise was that I'd "react" (think of a text-based and less engaging version of the YouTube semi-professional "reactors")  in some simulation of real time.  That way, my reader * could trace the evolution of my relationship with a work of music.  I've moved away from that to a degree, ** but I do hope that these early-impressions posts do capture an interesting moment in time in which a listener hasn't totally absorbed the music yet.  On this occasion, I'd like to work through, as best as I can remember, my basic reactions to  The Shadow Cabinet . First listen, part I (tracks 1-4, while walking) My big summary statement upon starting the first track was "I was not prepared for this!"  I keep expecting folk-metal to be gentler or more lilting, but clearly Wuthering Heights are aggressively metal first.  The keys, used mostly for bombast, got my ...

Unlike pretty much everything that came before it, which has a bit of a reputation ( Sentimental Hygeine  as the one with R.E.M., the sober record, the revival after a down period, etc.) I didn't have any particular expectations coming in to Transverse City  other than some off-peak Zevon.  We're fully mired in the period that's only for the die-hards, where Zevon just wasn't on the world's radar.  He still made music, though! Track One:  "Transverse City" I'm not much of a fan of a lot of things about the '80s, and although some great music happened there, the decade-specific pieces of the overall audio aesthetic rarely fail to make me cringe. *   To me, "Transverse City," both the song and the record, get off to a bad start with the first sound being synthesizer.  Sure enough, synths soon envelop everything, with the analog instruments struggling to get heard.  That type of sound, which I guess once sounded slick and futuristic (especia...