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Timotheus wrote:The first half is a Creed song, which sounds fine. It's like a mix of One and Lullaby. But when the drum fully kicks in it just kinda becomes kinda ehh.

I totally cannot relate to that. Lullaby is the most cheesy song Creed ever wrote. Dunno where you can find cheesiness in "The First the Last". I really like that song.

Mr. Slash wrote:Dunno where you can find cheesiness in "The First the Last".

In the entirety of it? I don't know what's cheesy about 'Lullaby' in turn. The name says it all, this track has a special function on the album.

I love The First The Last. Don't find it cheesy at all, "pop-py" perhaps but that doesn't render it a bad song. It's got a great catchy verse/chorus, the bridge lets it down slightly but even then it's not awful. I imagine it'll turn into an even better song once we know where it slots in with the books story.

I think this speaks to one of the things Timo said - the album's less your usual concept album, more of a soundtrack. It doesn't tell a clear story on its own, the context is all in another form that isn't released yet. When I got to The First The Last I was a little surprised because there'd been so little setting the scene for this apparently intense love story prior to it. It was mainly about rebellion and war, with Traipse seemingly a renewal/baptism metaphor.

Mr. Slash wrote:

Timotheus wrote:The first half is a Creed song, which sounds fine. It's like a mix of One and Lullaby. But when the drum fully kicks in it just kinda becomes kinda ehh.

I totally cannot relate to that. Lullaby is the most cheesy song Creed ever wrote. Dunno where you can find cheesiness in "The First the Last". I really like that song.

He's not talking about the cheesiness (not exclusively, at least). He's talking about the music itself. Both songs are in the same key and feature very similar chord progressions and melody lines. Listen to the first few notes of Lullaby and TFTL and it's immediately obvious.

Though in my opinion, TFTL is the better song of the two. It's definitely a bit over-dramatic at times, but that seems to be Mark's style to some degree. I don't mind it.

Ubik wrote:I think this speaks to one of the things Timo said - the album's less your usual concept album, more of a soundtrack. It doesn't tell a clear story on its own, the context is all in another form that isn't released yet. When I got to The First The Last I was a little surprised because there'd been so little setting the scene for this apparently intense love story prior to it. It was mainly about rebellion and war, with Traipse seemingly a renewal/baptism metaphor.

I feel like there was a screenshot of the book somewhere that showed As The Silence Becomes Me as the name of an early chapter. I really have no idea what order some of these songs are in compared to the novel lol.

Here's a theory about the meaning of Found - In Desolation he says "could be what's lost is never found", followed immediately by an entire song called Found. Maybe it represents a plot twist at the very end, or even a sort of "after credits scene'? Not sure exactly what it would be but it just seems like a cryptic contradiction to that lyric.

Haven't been around in a while. My top 5,

Desolation
Bringer of War
A Lot Like Sin
Take You With Me
As the Silence Becomes Me

Honorable mention... From the Sky

WaywardOne wrote:Here's a theory about the meaning of Found - In Desolation he says "could be what's lost is never found", followed immediately by an entire song called Found. Maybe it represents a plot twist at the very end, or even a sort of "after credits scene'? Not sure exactly what it would be but it just seems like a cryptic contradiction to that lyric.

It's just a closer. I think of it as music while the credits are rolling. Mark said it's called "found" because it was originally a hidden track, but decided to use it to close the album, hence "found".

Well, finally bought Dust online from Walmart. Also added a couple of albums (Breaking Benjamin's Ember and Dear Agony and Shinedown's Us and Them) to get the free shipping. Cost me less than $40.00 for four physical albums. I like it. That stated, there are no more copies to buy online at Walmart, this is the part where you have to get lucky at your local places to get albums or find somewhere else to buy the album online (and try to find other stuff to buy to get free shipping). I imagine that's actually a good thing if the online store is out of order and thus sold all the copies Walmart had expected.

The chorus of From the Sky bores me. I love the instrumentals but it is missing something, like lyrics.

WaywardOne wrote:Here's a theory about the meaning of Found - In Desolation he says "could be what's lost is never found", followed immediately by an entire song called Found. Maybe it represents a plot twist at the very end, or even a sort of "after credits scene'? Not sure exactly what it would be but it just seems like a cryptic contradiction to that lyric.

Maybe in Desolation, the Vessels are all returning to their origins. The “open the sky, take me in” line seems to follow up with the Vessels first appearing in From The Sky. Found could be the remnants of a single Vessel that survived/didn’t return with the rest.

I just wrote my full album notes to go towards our full review that's being put out on all platforms we're on.

And basically, it's bad ass (minus the 2 filler songs, can you guess which ones i'm talking about?)

WaywardOne wrote:Anyone looking for those bonus tracks come on down/up/over to Thornton, Colorado! Our Walmarts are stocked.

I drove through Thorton yesterday afternoon, though I wasn't looking for Walmart. Small world.

I'm loving this album. I purposely avoided listening to the singles when they came out so I could experience the story from start to finish, and so the first time I played the CD all the way through on Friday was the first time I really listened to the songs and lyrics and plot (though Mark's interviews pretty much outlined that already) in any detail. I don't have any issues or preferences with the style of any of the songs because I assume that Mark wrote the music to be part of the story's tone, so each piece of music fits into the narrative in a particular way. Rather than liking or disliking a song or solo, it's fun to ask why he wrote a piece in a certain way and see how the story evolves with the construction of each song. Having said that, it's a very sonically interesting album and many of the songs are already great stand-alone listens, but as a concept album, it works very well as a whole. Each play through reveals new details or questions about the narrative that I didn't catch or consider the prior time through which makes each listen very fresh. It'll be interesting to see how ADM stands up to my favorite concept albums like Maiden's Seventh Son, Nevermore's Dreaming Neon Black, and the all-time greatest, Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime. It's a great album and an interesting story, and I'm really glad Mark took this chance to break away from what has worked before to try something this different because he really smashed it.

Now I really can't wait for the book to see how closely my interpretation of the album and the plot of the novel correspond. And I'll start drafting the screenplay...just in case.

Oh, and I just heard A Dying Machine on Pandora tonight. Nice!

Jim wrote:I just wrote my full album notes to go towards our full review that's being put out on all platforms we're on.

And basically, it's bad ass (minus the 2 filler songs, can you guess which ones i'm talking about?)

A Lot Like Sin and Make it Hurt. Unless we’re including Found

Jim wrote:I just wrote my full album notes to go towards our full review that's being put out on all platforms we're on.

And basically, it's bad ass (minus the 2 filler songs, can you guess which ones i'm talking about?)

This could get heated

AHart96 wrote:

Jim wrote:I just wrote my full album notes to go towards our full review that's being put out on all platforms we're on.

And basically, it's bad ass (minus the 2 filler songs, can you guess which ones i'm talking about?)

A Lot Like Sin and Make it Hurt. Unless we’re including Found

For me the only filler song is A Lot Like Sin...it has a pretty cool main riff but the rest of the song doesn't do anything for me. Make It Hurt is one of the best songs on the album, IMO.

As The Silence Becomes Me?

*ducks*

ToNsOFuN88 wrote:

WaywardOne wrote:Here's a theory about the meaning of Found - In Desolation he says "could be what's lost is never found", followed immediately by an entire song called Found. Maybe it represents a plot twist at the very end, or even a sort of "after credits scene'? Not sure exactly what it would be but it just seems like a cryptic contradiction to that lyric.

It's just a closer. I think of it as music while the credits are rolling. Mark said it's called "found" because it was originally a hidden track, but decided to use it to close the album, hence "found".

I think the lyrics 'start again' at the end of 'Desolation' might be quite significant in this regard. Instead of 'Found' acting as end credits music, I wonder if it's actually the musical accompaniment to Stella finally going through the recall process after all she's been through. I mean, perhaps the events of 'The First The Last' mean that she doesn't wish to continue to exist in her current form. So all the little bleeps and bloops leading to that crescendo at the end of 'Found' could in fact represent her destruction in a sense - at-least the destruction of that iteration of Stella.

I haven't actually listened to 'Desolation' and 'The First The Last' in a couple of days though, so this could all be nonsensical

VigilantSteve wrote:

AHart96 wrote:

Jim wrote:I just wrote my full album notes to go towards our full review that's being put out on all platforms we're on.

And basically, it's bad ass (minus the 2 filler songs, can you guess which ones i'm talking about?)

A Lot Like Sin and Make it Hurt. Unless we’re including Found

For me the only filler song is A Lot Like Sin...it has a pretty cool main riff but the rest of the song doesn't do anything for me. Make It Hurt is one of the best songs on the album, IMO.

Make it Hurt is my absolute favorite song on the whole album. A Lot Like Sin is right up there and I'm bummed that not many people here like it. My least favorite songs are The First, The Last, As The Silence Becomes Me, and Found. I wouldn't call them filler but they lack the punch of the rest of the album. Desolation is sooo good and I'm glad it's high in the vote count.