Elegy

EDIT: I am bumping this up to a 2! I'm still listening to it, and the second half of "Of Moss and Stone" is pretty extraordinary.

I vacillated for a while between giving this album and a 1 or a 2. I really do think that this is interesting, powerful music, and large sections of this album held my attention. But ultimately, I can't say that I loved Elegy. Loving this album would be like loving a sea urchin... easier to admire than to cuddle with, and a bit too spiky.

I would suggest ignoring the shorter tracks and concentrating on the long ones. The track you should start with is "Empty Hands, Hollow Hymns," which I think is the standout. We open with some formal tapping, some light strings: then an explosion of intensity as a shrieking female voice and a bass male voice crash into each other. The track has a wonderful feeling of spontaneity. Instead of a boring A-B-A structure, the track meanders forward and constantly discovers fertile ground. There are peaceful sections, sections that might have been taken from a nightmare, and several moments of transcendent intensity.

The point about structure is worth dwelling on for a bit. If you've never listened to an album like this before, you may find it disorienting. There are no choruses or refrains. Melodies are used and then tossed away. It is easy to compose music like this...less easy to do it in a way that is engaging to listen to. I think that Dead to a Dying World pulls it off well.

This album also plays another trick that I've been noticing in a lot of metal music recently, which is that during the peaceful sections, the singers use their natural, unaffected voices. When the tension begins to rise, and the singers switch to their "metal" voices, the music receives a wonderful jolt of energy.

This isn't a perfect album. The shorter tracks lack the emotional impact of the long ones, and I don't think that they are worth listening to. The absence of any moments of levity also wears on the listener after a while. But the band's ability to patiently build to a crushing climax easily qualifies it for inclusion on this website, and if I am still listening to it in six months, I would even consider putting it on my "best albums of the year" list.