Rebel Jukebox #2December 22, 2010 by

Hey all! I got the urge to do another one of these today, so here I am, lol. The only major difference between this and the last is that I chose to do five songs instead of three. The descriptions are a bit less involved in general as well. Otherwise, it's all the same stuff. I hope you all enjoy it! Now let's get down to business.

Track: The Wake

Artist: Nightingale

Album: Invisible

One of Dan Swano's many, many projects, Nightingale focuses more on his love of the softer side of progressive music. This is as opposed to his, perhaps more famous, endeavors with Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath, and producing for bands like Opeth (among many others). Like Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, Swano has a very good voice for both guttural death vox and more powerful "normal" singing as well; the latter is the only that's ever really utilized with Nightingale. Suffice it to say, though, the vocals don't leave you wanting: Swano has an amazing voice. The vocal melody throughout the song as it matches with the simple acoustic guitar strumming is wonderful and the main reason I really love this song. There's also a lot of nice additions thrown in by the keyboard here and there that really add to the atmosphere. Overall, it's just a really catchy song. face_happy


Track: Alone

Artist: Green Carnation

Album: The Acoustic Verses

If you're a fan of poetry, you may recognize the lyrics to this song: they're lifted directly from the Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name. In fact, I know of another song (by Arcturus) that does the very same thing, so I think this poem is rather popular with musicians for some reason, lol. What I like most about this song is how they use a really folky backdrop to make things feel very personal, which is obviously very appropriate for an introspective poem. Despite sounding very Celtic in terms of sound (reminds me a bit of some of Yasunori Mitsuda's work, lol), the band itself is largely from Norway. Shifting sounds, though, is not uncommon for this band, with this more folky album coming after more straightforward prog rock outings and even a 1-hour epic song combining prog and a bit of doom metal in "Light of Day, Day of Darkness."


Track: Our Fortress is Burning pt. 2 - Bloodbirds

Artist: Agalloch

Album: Ashes Against the Grain

Forming the middle portion of a 3-part song, this piece from the Portland-based group shows off their ability to imbue metal into a somewhat more atmospheric style. Developing over a long intro section with a few melodies that go through variations, the song really gives off an epic vibe before breaking into John Haughm's black metal-ish vocals. While I'm sure the style isn't going to click with everyone, I really love it for this song especially. It gives off a very strong feeling that things are breaking down, like a battle is being lost (which can be inferred from the title). His voice just sounds very blood-curdling, and it's one of my favorite performances by him in particular.


Track: Trains

Artist: Porcupine Tree

Album: In Absentia

To bring things back down to a more peaceful sound after that last one, we come to another folky-sounding song. This time it's Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree at the helm, though. I know there are actually quite a few PT fans among the group here on MyIGN (hollywood being one for sure, and AWF too I think), but I don't think I've seen this song come up on any lists of theirs yet, lol. What I love the most about this one is just the calming feeling of the music accompanied by Wilson's almost nonchalant singing style. Then there's a nice bluegrass-style breakdown a little way into the song that's pretty interesting and fits the overall feeling of the song very well. I also particularly like Gavin Harrison's drumming on this song, and I often feel like his ability is a bit underrated. The ending licks of the song show it off pretty well, though. face_grin


Track: A Fair Judgement

Artist: Opeth

Album: Deliverance

This Swedish group— headed by Mikael Akerfeldt— has grown in popularity over the past few years, but they've been around for quite a little while now. I think their signing to Roadrunner Records was a bit of a catalyst for it, lol. In any case, this song comes from an almost twin release album set of Deliverance and Damnation. Oddly enough, Damnation is the one that features all softly-sung songs (i.e. no death metal vox) while Deliverance is mostly heavy. This song, though, is entirely clean-sung.

Starting on a long piano intro, the vocals kick in around 1:18 with a hesitant line that continues for the majority of the song in that vein. The chorus, if you will, is actually handled solely by instruments, with guitars taking the lead while Martin Lopez's drumming goes crazy in the background. Lopez recently left the band for health reasons, and this entire album now pisses me off because it may be his best one; I really miss his laid-back yet powerful style, lol. The song does come down using a "phone booth" style effect for the guitar, which is something Steven Wilson (who produced this album) is very fond of doing. Picking back up with a short vocal line, the song shifts into a really nice bluesy kind of solo for a moment that I really like. My favorite part of the song, though, comes just after when Lopez's drumming introduces a slightly heavier guitar solo at around 5:42. The song then ends on the same basic note it started (minus the piano intro). Actually, it doesn't end, but I never listen to the part after the 8-minute mark. Luckily, it comes at the end and is always skippable, lol.

Hope you've enjoyed this slightly lengthier second edition of the Rebel Jukebox! face_grin

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