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Lets start with the lyrics, shall
we? This is dark, dark, dark. A concept of sorts where every
song reflects the main characters dream of a kind of violence,
ie: rape,war, school shooting, torture etc. ****
Some of the songs are easier to
relate to then others. "Blade", which is set as
an old time epic battle hundreds of years ago will bring to
mind Braveheart but I don't see myself in this song. In, "When
I Look Into My Eyes", the hero is being tortured by the
hero. A little confusing there. More personal songs are,"In
An Empty Room", from a Mother's view, is about a daughter
who was raped and is now in an asylum, and, "I Killed
You", is a man who catches his wife in an affair and
kills them in a blackout of rage and anger. ****
Other topics are, Mechanized Warfare
and how impersonal it is, School Violence perpetrated by a
demeaning teacher and by a student being made to feel insignificant
by other students, as well as a serial killer listening to
voices in his head. ****
Musically there is a lot of Metal
sounding songs probably written to highlight Bach's voice.
The first song opens the album with what sounds like late
night T.V. interspersed with static and what sounds like a
heart beating in the background. A very anthemic sound on
this and much of the music throughout, there are also some
cool guitar riffs mixed with Hennings keyboards. "Miseducation"
the most Skid Rowish sound and is reminiscent to Floyd's,
Brick In the Wall, lyricallly. "I Killed You" may
be the most personal song for husbands as the hero finds his
wife in the arms of another man and kills them both. The middle
of this song finds Bach in full rage mode as he does Jekyll/Hyde.
The song goes into a vocal round which is experimental sounding
and only works moderately well. ****
Other experiments can be found
throughout. "This Is Going Hurt" has an almost abmient/electronica
feel to open it and "Outcast" uses what feels like
a Kansas leftoverture guitar break. I greatly enjoyed "In
An Empty Room" which reminds me of Spock's Beard's, Ballet
of the Impact and "Blade"which uses a Celtic folk
intro for over 2 minutes with some operatic female vocals
to highlight the old time warfare lyrics. ****
The album ends with a lullaby feel
as Back shows off what he's learned being on Broadway of late.
The subject seems to conclude here the way to cope with so
much violence is to raise our children to be and see different.
Hmm. You decide. But after watching this morning news I'm
pretty skeptical. Musically, this album is more metal then
some prog. fans usually enjoy. There are plenty of keyboard
moments but the guitars are riffing a lot in a heavy style
to go with the heavy subject. I give it a B.
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