?Classics? of power metal #13: JUDICATOR - At The Expense Of Humanity (2015), early impressions

Previous exposure to this artist/album:  See below

I have a bit of a weird relationship with Judicator, in that I first became aware of their existence a few years ago when checking out new music and I clicked with their quirky 2022 record, The Majesty Of Decay.  I learned just enough about the band to know that Majesty was a bit of a departure, thanks in no small part to John Yelland basically becoming the band's sole creative force, whereas main guitarist and bassist Alicia Cordisco (known at the time and credited as Tony) had been pretty much the composer previously, and so this was this big reinvention in trying to write songs without her.  Thing is, I quite enjoyed The Majesty Of Decay for what it was.  Whereas, I'd also listened to one of Alicia's post-Judicator projects, Project: Roenwolfe, and at least their EP, well, I wasn't mad at it but I didn't really connect with it.  And then the new version of Judicator went on to put out Concord, a record that supposedly saw them sounding more like what fans expected from them, and, well, I wasn't mad at it, but I didn't really connect with it.*  So, is Judicator one of those bands where I'm gonna be that weirdo who only likes the atypical record that everyone else hates?  Well, knowing that I'd been curious about what Judicator sounded like in their purported prime, and knowing that I wanted a more modern take on epic-power in my master list, and getting the sense that they were a slightly under the radar cult band, I decided to find out.  Their third record, At The Expense Of Humanity, seems to be the designated fan favorite, whilst having the "music" part of the songwriting credited entirely to two people who are not part of Judicator today (Alicia, who was 50% of the band's founding members, and keyboardist Lorelai Laffey, about whom I know absolutely nothing), so it seemed like an interesting one to profile.

I get a little bashful about these "early impressions" posts because, well, after a couple spins I don't always have a complete sense of how I feel about a record.  That's to be expected, yes?  Especially with a record as dense as Expense.  Long album that even if it doesn't go full Angra with the progginess is still filled with 6+ minute tracks, many of which have different sections, a singer who puts on multiple vocal hats, multiple voices singing on top of each other at times (the "Judi-Choir," per album credits).  Of course my initial thoughts are going to be a little half-baked!  There are only so many ways, though, to say "I need more time, I'm still digesting it."  

But hey, let's talk through the process.  First whenever listening to something new there's the banal part wherein I try to parse by assigning adjectives, as above, just to understand what exactly I'm hearing.  And by comparing to things with which I'm more familiar.  First few tracks have some Iced Earth to them, but the closest analogues I have are actually a few IE-adjacent acts.  Into Enternity, featuring IE's last lead vocalist, Stu Block, is the other main metal act I can think of who put out a concept album in the 21st century about a member's experience losing someone to cancer.  On the other hand, the vocal delivery and the way the guitars and vocals play off each other remind me of no artist more than Witherfall, featuring IE's last lead guitarist, Jake Dreyer.  Witherfall with a splash of Orden Ogan, maybe.  So ends the requisite "compare a thing to other things" segment.

Getting a little deeper, here are the major things I plan to be focusing on as I formulate my final review of the record.

Do the vocals work for the concept?

As always, the vocals are what I gravitate towards.  John is another theatrical vocalist whose main modes are big grandiose histrionic sing-along and borderline-whiny emo-ish quieter parts.  This is well suited for songs about cosmic mystery and I imagine it'd be the same for historical figures.  Is that the right approach for singing about topics like hospital hallways and the mundanity of the grieving process?  Or is going to end up sounding - there's no polite way to put it - silly as all fuck?  Early impressions are mixed on whether or not John is giving the correct performance for the material.  Often even within a song.  "I'd love to rid myself this useless cage of human flesh" does seem like the sort of thing to shriek at the heavens.  Many of the other screamed lyrics just seem like a metal band that only knows a few tricks.  I don't particularly like the sound of the soft but still melodramatic singing, whether because it just sounds bad or whether because it's the wrong voice to use for a topic whose gravity speaks for itself.  Still on the fence about whether the occasional dabbles in growls are a good idea.  I need more time, I'm still digesting it.**

Do the songs hold together?

Here I definitely have concerns that we'll have a record wherein songs consist of a bunch of dissimilar parts grafted together without the transitions to justify, such that the whole thing turns into a blur.  I've complained about records like that in numerous previous posts.  My early impression, for what it's worth, is that I'm not convinced yet that Judicator have Angra's skill for making the whole more than the sum of the parts.  At least so far, I'm gravitating more towards the relatively straightforward (musically speaking) tunes than towards the artsier pieces.

I've found that really what I need is one thing onto which to grab.  Give me a memorable lyrical phrase to latch onto, or give me one especially haunting guitar figure to tie the thing together.  Just give me that one element.  Otherwise it's... okay, look.  Dream Theater are another band I mention pretty often because I'm a fan.  But you know that thing DT do where they decide that something is going to be one of the designated "epics," so they go into a slow moody instrumental bridge, and this listener takes it as permission to stop paying attention for awhile because I know that we're not getting back to the engaging part of the song again for like five minutes?  Judicator dabble in doing that, and I predictably have no patience for it.  I think it says something that the lyrics as transcribed online are full of notations like "solo: Josh" - it's one person's time to take the spotlight, and the song will just have to wait.  But there's potential for growth through repeat listening here.  The bridge of "Lucid Nightmare," the part starting around 4:40, is captivating, serving as a perfect base for the "darkness inside/darkness behind" part.  Why can't they all be like that?  Why can't the rest of the ten-plus minute song be that good?  There's definitely enough here that I would be going back for another few listens even if I weren't trying to blog about it.

Does it have the intended emotional effect?

Related but separate question to either of the above.  I.e. do the vocals and music come together to sell the lyrics, and are those lyrics worthwhile?  John likes his purple prose (sample lyric:  "Full moon shine/ I'm swimming in my deepest fears/ Blackest skies/ A highway jam that's in my head").  I'm back and forth on whether a personal story filtered through that kind of writing will work.  There's something to be said for a little plainspoken truth too, you know.  I'm getting a bit of whiplash when something like the kind of poetry quoted above will be in the same song, sometimes in an adjacent line, to something like "Mom caresses withered hands" or "what's the deal?" or "I know that you two butt heads."  The net effect so far is that parts of songs work better than others, contributing to the overall sense of the record being more a collection of bits than unified songs as noted above.

Best as I can tell from initial survey, Expense isn't just about cancer, it's about how cancer affects this one particular character*** who's the brother who didn't get sick, his own mental health, the messy family dynamics both before and during the cancer, and so on.  That's exciting!  I just finished attempting to somehow have something to say about a record whose lyrics were exclusively a dumb story about a Black Crystal Sword, so I'm eager to dive into a record that's actually about something.  Whether Judicator can pull it off won't make or break my opinion of Expense so much as make the difference between a special piece of art and a nice try.

Is it too much?

I gotta say, whether I listen to the record, in whole or in parts, I've lost the ability to pay the slightest attention by the last few tracks.  Sixty-six minutes is a lot of music.  However much variety the band muster up within their bag of tricks, it's still a finite toolset; it's all been starting to sound the same by around the time I get to the title track, and then there's still somehow another ten minutes after that.

Is it power metal, and if so, why?

Honestly that's more of an aspirational goal.  I'm way too far from an expert to be very useful here.  Given that I'm attempting to blog about the edges of PM, the project has encompassed a bunch of bands that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of.  Something like "God's Failures" falls as easily into the later-generation thrash buckets as to PM to my way of thinking.  As above, the aforementioned Witherfall are the closest analogue I have to what Judicator are doing here, and they seem to generally be classified as prog-power.  This sound is neither classic USPM nor typical modern PM to me; it's, uh, a sort of metal of some kind.  Some songs on Expense have the classic rapid-fire drumming and repetitive rhythm sections I expect from power metal and some just don't.  You know bands, always insisting on not doing exactly the same thing over and over.****

Just because I'm still processing/getting to know the music doesn't mean that I don't have an opinion, yet, though!  I'm allowed to change my mind, of course, but I like Expense, and am pretty confident that I'll continue to like it without quite crossing over into loving it.  Put it into that big stack of those records where I admire the accomplishment whilst being at a bit of a remove, with a few misgivings.  Even odds that I'll end up ranking it 3.5/5.  If I go up or down, really doubt it'll be more than half a point either way.

Favorite track:  "Autophagia"

Runner up:  "Coping Mechanism"

Least favorite track:  "My Fantasy Destroyed"

Early rating:  3.5/5

Next:  More on At The Expense Of Humanity, whenever I get around to it!

*All of these projects have one major strength: they are not the other band I've heard John sing for, Behölder. 

**I promise not to end every paragraph with that.  From here on, take it as implied.

***I'm going with words like "character" and "narrator" here because I'm not going to automatically assume that every detail is autobiographical.

****As I saw posted on Reddit not long ago, attempts to too rigidly define what the power metal sound is sometines oversimplify to the point wherein one would think from the discourse that the classic Helloween records consisted of ten versions of "Eagle Fly Free" in a row.