THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: Scytale on 26 May 2007, 02:20
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Ok, this was inspired by the earlier post about concept albums, pretty simple list your favorite concept albums and briefly describe the story
I'll start by putting down my three favorites, bear in mind these are my interpretations of the story so other people may have differing opions.
1. Operation Mindcrime by Queensr˙che
Nikki, is a heroin addict and a wannabe political radical joins an underground revolutionary organization, through a combination of hypnotism and he's addiction he allows himself to be manipulated into performing a number of missions for the order, most of these involve the assassination of key political or religious figures, at first he thinks he's doing good and changing the world then later on he starts getting flashbacks and begins to question what he's doing. He is ordered to kill Mary one of he's contacts whom he is in love with. Unable to kill her, Nikki confesses he's feelings and the pair agrees to leave. He announces he's intentions to quit the order, returns only to find Mary dead, he's unsure whether or not he killed her and it drives him insane, the album ends with him waking up in a hospital bed being held under suspicion for all he's murders.
2. My Arms Your Hearse by Opeth
The album starts with the protagonists funeral, he returns as a ghost and is watching over the woman whom he loved, seeing her grief he is torn up and he vows he will find a way for them to be re-united again, the woman is unable to sense him. As the months pass the woman begins to move on with her life and the ghost becomes upset that she is no longer grieving over him. He's lingering presence cause her to feel a great sadness and she ends up experiencing a depression of sorts, the album ends with the ghost bemoaning the fact that neither of them are truly able to move on.
3. De-Loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta
The albums pretty abstract, so it's open to a lot of interpretation, the 'official' interpretation based on the book Cedric wrote is that it's about an addict, all through he's life the addict has been haunted by strange visions and dreams, he overdoses on morphine and falls into a coma, whilst in the coma he enters a world populated by the figures from he's dreams. He wakes up from he's coma and feels uncomfortable and disconnected from the real world, a short while later he commits suicide by jumping off a bridge, joining the dream world permanently.
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hi
my thread wasn't about concept albums, it was about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and stupid bitches turned it into the "mars volta nurr" thread
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stupid bitches turned it into the "mars volta nurr" thread
Welcome to The Internet.
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What's a concept album?
(don't answer that, there isn't a right answer)
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King Diiamond - Them
awesome fucking album with super falsetto vocals. couldn't be better.
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Yeah King Diamond has some pretty good concept albums, Abigail is sweet, as is the sequel to Them (Conspiracy)
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Motherfucker, you just did the one I was going to do.
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God, there's like, four or five Floyd entriesthat could be made.
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2112 is a great album but can it strictly be called a concept album since the whole second side of the record is unrelated to the story with Passage to Bangkok etc...
Same thing with Maiden's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", the second side of that record was a concept.
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i hate to bring stupidity to this thread but i mentioned this thread in passing to a person i talk to on msn and they mentined MCR...so here is the fan-girl approach to the concept album
OMGodZZZ ...have you heard about MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE...wait of course you have becuase they are the best band in the whole wide world for EVA + EVA, well like THE BLACK PARADE (which is like the COOLEST ALBUM EVA! is one of these concept album thing it like totally starts with this dude called "the patient" (real mysterious don't you think...i think he'd be cute, especially if he looks gerald way OMG HE SOOOOOOO HOTT! :-P) and he's dieing and then he starts thinking about his death and like you find out about his life and he like marches in the black parade adn does drugs and stuff but yeah it's REALLY REALLY COOL...so you should go get it RIGHT NOW if you don't already
MCR FOREVA!!!
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What i've heard of MCR reminded me of a weak version of Queen :|
I'm shocked and appalled no one has mentioned Tommy yet...
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Boys Night Out's Trainwreck album. It follows the stages of a guy's breakdown after he murders his wife in a dream, ending in his suicide.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots yet.
I haven't heard it myself, but i love the idea of it, is The Sound of Animals Fighting's Tiger and the Duke. Follows the story of Duke, who is onboard a ship sailing across the sea (I don't know where). Their cargo is a group of crazed animals who howl and fight constantly. The Captain is overthrown by a mutiny or something too. I was only half paying attention to the Wikipedia article while trying to listen to it.
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I'm shocked and appalled no one has mentioned Tommy yet...
Tommy by the Who is a concept album about how forum poster tommydski became a suicidal alcoholic, joined a futuristic biker gang in post-apocalypse Stratford-On-Avon, and dug up Shakespeare's bones to impress Chan Marshall. Also he has a wise cracking robot sidekick named Quadrophenia.
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Basically every album by Ayreon. Ayreon is essentially a one-man group (there's a permanent drummer, but one guy does the guitar, bass, most keyboards, and writes and arranges all of the songs), that only writes concept albums. He also gets different guests artists to voice every character in the story, it's pretty awesome.
However, in the interest of being precise, here's the synopsis of what is in my opinion their (well, I suppose you could say his, since it's one guy) best, 2004's The Human Equation:
A guy gets into a car accident and goes into a coma, and each track represents a day he's spending in the coma. Each track is a reflection on past events in his life, either by himself along with personifications of his emotions (Love, Fear, Pride, etc.), or by his best friend and his wife who are watching over him at the hospital. We gradually learn: His father was a drunk and beat him and told him constantly about his worthlessness and then left he and his mother alone, he was an outcast at school, as he grew up he neglected his sick mother in order to further his career and prove his father wrong, he meets his wife, his mother dies and he feels responsible, he and his friend are competing for the top job at their firm, but the main character knows his friend is better and thus he reveals that his friend cooked the books at one point to get him fired. He one day learns that his unemployed friend and his neglected wife seek comfort in each other from mutual depression (though according to all information we get it is non-sexual), and thus the main character's guilt compounds knowing the woman he cares for is leaving him due to his own actions. Then we learn that the car accident was actually a suicide attempt (which the friend guessed at earlier when noting the circumstances of the crash). He reveals his betrayal to his friend somehow (either his friend can somehow hear his subconscious or he manages some sort of partial awakeness and tells him in the physical reality of the hospital, it's sort of unclear), and then he manages to exorcise his demons and resolve to be a better man in the future and finally comes out of the coma on the 20th day.
But THEN (and this is the crazy twist ending, so if you want to listen to it for yourself and I will certainly upload the album if anyone asks then skip over the following), we find out that the entire thing is just a computer simulation for an alien (who is actually a character from one of Ayreon's OTHER concept albums) in order to stir in him the memories of emotions his race forgot eons ago. Whether the entire thing never happened or was an actual event that was recorded by the computer and broadcast decades later depends on your interpretation.
But yeah, it's a fantastic album with some awesome guest vocalists (Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth plays Fear, and Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad does Rage) and incredibly diverse music. There's one part on Day 14 where it's in the middle of this heavy guitar-riff driven part and suddenly it breaks out into a flute solo.
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Isn't NMH's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a concept album about being in love with Anne Frank?
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Isn't NMH's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a concept album about being in love with Anne Frank?
I thought he was just inspired by her diary or whatever. Communist daughter is a pretty disturbing song
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I'm shocked and appalled no one has mentioned Tommy yet...
Tommy by the Who is a concept album about how forum poster tommydski became a suicidal alcoholic, joined a futuristic biker gang in post-apocalypse Stratford-On-Avon, and dug up Shakespeare's bones to impress Chan Marshall. Also he has a wise cracking robot sidekick named Quadrophenia.
i could swear you've got the artist and album mixed up their...isn't it the who by tommydski
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Is the concept "Let's form a band that everyone will basically be thankful that we pursued a career in music rather than following our natural aptitude and becoming paedophiles"?
(http://www.dmcityview.com/archives/Sept/09-29-05/09.29.05/CAL-coheed-and-cambria.jpg)
dont even go there son >:@
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Tommy does not like competition when it comes to his insatiable lust for little girls.
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De-Loused in the Comatorium is my favorite. I'm far too lazy and tired to go into the story in detail now, but i will tomorrow
I think.
[pointless post]
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Cursive have some pretty awesome concept albums.
Domestica basically tracks the painful demise of a relationship (written whilst Tim Kasher was going through a divorce), told through a few different characters (including a cat) - from the first spiteful fight to the last moment of despair.
Happy Hollow is some kind of concept album about small town life but i've never been patient enough to sit down and try to work out the story.
both excellent albums.
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(http://www.dmcityview.com/archives/Sept/09-29-05/09.29.05/CAL-coheed-and-cambria.jpg)
BUT YOU WEREN'T LOYAL
NOW GET IN THE VAN
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Ewww Johnny. I was just reminded that they write lyrics, too.
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one of my favourite concept albums is "the call of the wretched sea" by ahab. and yes, it's about moby dick. i'll write a review if i ever find the time...
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Edge of Sanity - Crimson
In a barren future, people can no longer concieve children. Then, the King and Queen of the earth concieve a child. The birth of the child, a daughter, takes the life of the Queen. The people think the child is a sign, but she grows to be a teenager and still people cannot concieve. Then, the King dies and people fight over his throne till one guy gets it. The people hate the new King and his oppressive rule and convince the child to lead a rebellion. Whilst she is planning her tactics, Satan strikes a deal with her, gifting her with unholy powers which allow her to kick the shit out of the new king and take the throne. Then she kills all the elders of humanity who had been in some kind of cryogenic sleep. The people find out about this and imprison her in the same device that once sustained the elders after neutralising her demonic powers. Apparently everything turns out alright because there is a sequel set a thousand years later, when some eejit releases the demonic princess and she kills a bunch of people.
Bathory - Blood on Ice
Evil horsemen commanded by a two-headed beast kill boys family and boys entire village. Boy wanders in the wilderness becoming a Tarzan-like superwarrior, learns to talk to the animals, then the Gods give him a kick-ass sword and a kick-ass horse. He tears out his own heart and gives it to a witch so that he can become invincible, rips out both his eyes and throws them into the well of knowledge so that he can see everything without having to face down the beast. Boy then rides across a thunderstorm guided by ravens into the land of the dead and beats the shit out of the beast before leading the souls of his family up to Valhalla.
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
Boy gets girl, girl dies, boy loses his muse and his faith, spits bitter curses at God and all that lives, crawls through mires of despair and kills himself, gets girl back again (or perhaps he is just hallucinating in his last pain-filled dying moments).
Bal-Sagoth - A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria/Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima Thule/Battle Magic/The Power Cosmic/Atlantis Ascendant/The Cthonic Chronicles
I freely admit I have no fucking idea what these albums are actually about, except it involves space battles, hyperboreans, gladiators, dragons, vampires, cthulhu, dream journeys to the center of the moon and a song called 'And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown'.
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Can I count Black Sheep Boy as a concept album?
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My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
Boy gets girl, girl dies, boy loses his muse and his faith, spits bitter curses at God and all that lives, crawls through mires of despair and kills himself, gets girl back again (or perhaps he is just hallucinating in his last pain-filled dying moments).
Wow I love that album and had never considered the idea of all the tracks being interconnected. I kind of knew "Sear me '93" was about love and "Snow in my hand" was about loss, I kind of guessed "Crown of Sympathy" was about suicide, I always thought it was describing a drug overdose... I'd just never connected the dots in my head...
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Bal-Sagoth - A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria/Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima Thule/Battle Magic/The Power Cosmic/Atlantis Ascendant/The Cthonic Chronicles
I freely admit I have no fucking idea what these albums are actually about, except it involves space battles, hyperboreans, gladiators, dragons, vampires, cthulhu, dream journeys to the center of the moon and a song called 'And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown'.
if it's anyhelp each song only describes a small part of what ahs happened within the land and you have to join it all together to work out exactly what's happening...it's not in order either
the easiest story to find is the three parts of "The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire"
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Son? I'm older than you. Old enough to have a six year old daughter in fact.
Naturally as a parent I am concerned that Coheed and Cambria might discover this and resort to their natural instincts.
An image has formed in my head of a six year old girl who looks like Steve Albini with long hair and speaks with a British accent.
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Since I'm lazy, I'm just going to post an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on ISIS' "Oceanic" album, one of my favorite concept albums ever:
A man at the brink of emotional numbness finds a female counterpart who completes him ("The Beginning and the End," "False Light"). However, he soon finds that she has had a long-term incestuous relationship ("Maritime," "Weight;" "a day, it changes everything") with her brother ("Hym," "The Other"). This drives him to lose all hope, and he commits suicide through drowning ("from sinking sands, he stepped into light's embrace").
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Isn't NMH's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a concept album about being in love with Anne Frank?
I thought he was just inspired by her diary or whatever. Communist daughter is a pretty disturbing song
No, I read it was about a love affair with Anne Frank too. I don't really like NMH, so I wouldn't really know though.
Somebody mentioned Cursive, but failed to mention The Ugly Organ, which is positively one of my absolute favorite albums, as well as concept album. It continues in the vein of the relationship drama, the break up, etc. According to wikipedia "The album follows a story of lust, love, and empty sex throughout the "Ugly Organist's" life." It's a great album.
Also, in Domestica, Tim Kasher says in the end the couple stays together, despite all the drama.
Sorry to continue to talk about Saddle Creek, but isn't Read Music/Speak Spanish by Desaparecidos a concept album of sorts? Isn't it about a man and a woman who love each other, but financial problems kind of drive them apart, as well as the commercialization of everything, including their small town? Or is it about how the commercialization of things alienate all of us?
blargh. I'm talking out of my ass, I don't know what I'm saying anymore.
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I don't agree with the Wikipedia then. If The Ugly Organ is about any single relationship, and I'm sure it is, it's more about the relationship between artist, art and audience. Like, for God's sake, "Art Is Hard"? "Butcher The Song"? I mean, there is stuff like "Gentleman Caller" but even that has some artistic connotations. If it was just about sex then it would have been a tremendously boring collection of songs but instead it's a stunningly sophisticated record.
I guess what I'm saying is that's a really lazy assessment of the thematics of the record, on par with saying that The Wall and Ziggy Stardust are just albums about music, or that 1984 is just a book about the future, or that Citizen Kane's just a story about a sled.
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You know what? You're right.
Ugly Organ is more about an artist overall, and what it means to be a (for lack of a better word) celebrity.
klsjafksjf;lj I keep writing this long drawn out explaination but it's not making enough sense to make me happy. But over all you are right, and I agree.
It doesn't just deal with "Oh I'm an artist. I'm in a band" it deals with everything else that goes with it. Writing songs. The strain it puts on everything. Performing.
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There is for sure a romantic strand within the album's thematic tapestry, and in rereading my post I kind of shit on that notion, which was wrong of me. But yeah, you've pegged it pretty well.
I like your theory about the Desaparecidos record though.
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I'm surprised no one mentioned The Protomen. I'm going to take a guess and assume that rock operas about Megaman (the game) count as concept albums?