Azure Ides-Grey posted an old Underoath video on his blog, and it made nostalgic something similar, but even futher back for me. I jammed this album for an entire year straight my senior year of high school, and most recently, during a workout. I credit the album for getting me interested in philosophy as a general field of study.
The best part of the album is the Trilogy of Knowledge (actually four tracks) songs that close it out, which is one of the first symphonic/operatic thrash pieces I’ve come across—and maybe the only one on a major-ish label (not to be confused with symphonic metal, which is an actual, specific genre). I embedded the video at the start of it, for convenience.
Modern metal bands are at ease with atonality, but Believer seemed to have made it an art form by contrasting it with extremely traditional harmonies. There was an interview with Believer in an old HM Magazine where Kurt Bachman (vocals/guitar) they described how they rolled dice to come up with the lead in the middle of “Dimentia” at 14:50, until all twelve notes were used. Contrast that to the ending of the song.
Also contrast the beautiful ending of Movement II at 43:50 to the randomized melodies at the beginning of Movement III at 46:26.
2 Comments
I believe this is the first time I’ve heard … er … Believer. Some good sounding stuff there. Very different from the heavy music I’m accustomed to, but it’s quality … impressive that a “Christian” metal band was on Roadrunner in the 90s. That said, I just couldn’t help but laugh at some of those vocals. 😉
That’s thrash vocals for you. 🙂
But yes…as good and “listenable” the music was (for a metal band) they didn’t stick well. It was too experimental, I think. Weird stuff is always a hard sell.
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