This demands proof. Never could stand After Forever, and so didn't listen much to it. Show me the awesome.
I'll admit that I've always found After Forever to be kind of weak instrumentally, and Revamp isn't better by much. Both bands are completely carried by Floor's singing and their intellectual lyrics. I don't know how responsible Floor is for either band's lyrics, but she communicates them as deeply as any other singer I can think of.
My favorite example, and the one that really got me into Floor is Invisible Circles. It's a concept album from the perspective of a child growing up with neglectful parents. Despite all the pain she goes through and all her efforts to the contrary, she finds that she grows up to be just like them in the end. The thing I appreciate most about the way this story is constructed is how it presents every character's perspective, instead of outright demonizing the parents for being neglectful. The other thing is the way the characters are played. The father is played by the band's male singer. He uses growling vocals, which I don't prefer, but they work pretty well for this role. Floor plays both the mother and the child, and she does so by alternating between operatic and standard vocal styles. The thing that's genius about this is the end of the story focuses almost exclusively on the child as she nears adulthood and begins to understand the circumstances of how her life came to be what it is, but every character's vocal style is still used
to demonstrate how the parent's styles of thinking have embedded themselves in the child's mind. Dominating and aggressive thoughts are sung in the father's vocals. Self-absorbed and over-dramatic thoughts are sung in the mother's vocals. The child also progresses from sounding child-like to adult as the story moves on.
Two songs from the album demonstrate amazingly well how this approach worked for the album. The first is
Sins of Idealism. Here the child is very young and just begging for attention, but the father is resolving to continue pursuing his career goals instead of family and the mother is mourning the loss of her freedom and beauty. I love the lyrics to this song and Floor sings them very emotionally, especially towards the end where she gradients between vocal style while hanging on a single note.
Our course in life is a path we must take alone
No one can choose what to do, only you
so the sins we commit are the struggles within
There's no judge to decide what is right, what is wrong
Tell me, can you live in freedom
knowing that your choice hurt someone
My other selection from this album is
Beautiful Emptiness. This song is the first track on the album, but technically the end of the story. It takes place completely within the child's own thoughts, but involves every character's vocal style to show how all these different influences on her perspective and style of thinking have culminated in her final decision. It's the most emotional song I've ever heard. I simply cannot think of any other example of such a combination of lyrical and vocal conviction. This is also the angriest song in my entire collection, and what I listen to for maximum catharsis when I'm raging. The whole thing just drips with a scalding vindiction that's incredibly satisfying. It's very sad, though, in the context of the story, which I won't completely spoil.
A couple more of my favorites that are also really strong vocal performances:
Energize Me is a song about random acts of kindness.
Emphasis is a beautiful anthem of existentialism.
And I'll throw one out from Revamp. This is officially my favorite song. It perfectly describes how I feel about the struggle of life in general.
MillionWith one foot still in the past
With the other far ahead
In-between the times go fast
Chase your life while living it
With memories like scars
Or beautiful memories
Fighting inner wars
The past can hurt and teach
With today within our reach
Just perfect.
I can't really do as much with this post as I'd like, but I have to stop here and go to work. I won't have another chance to write on this for another 9 hours. Definitely looking forward to hearing Floor Jansen sing some Nightwish songs.
Author
Topic: ♪ The Great Music Thread ♫ (Read 460812 times)