The current band lineup for TSOAF is as follows: Rich Balling (RX Bandits) who handles the production and some vocals, Matt Embree (RX Bandits) on guitar and vocals, Chris Tsagakis (RX Bandits) on drums, with Anthony Green (Ex Saosin, currently Circa Survive), Craig Owens (Chiodos), Keith Goodwin (Days Away), and Mathew Kelly (the Autumns) all handling vocal duties. All go by aliases, The Nightengale, Walrus, Lynx, Skunk, Ram, Penguin, and Llama respectively. Randy Strohmeyer (the Tiger) and Derek Doherty (the Tortoise) of Finch, and Rich Zaniser (sp?) (the Armadillo) of the Hippos, who where all with the band on the last release are no longer in the current lineup.
Warning: Do
NOT approach this album with the notion that it will sound anything at all like
The Tiger And The Duke. If you do this you stand a good chance of simply doing away with this album, which is a big mistake, just trust me on that.
Lover The Lord Has Left Us is quite possibly the least accessible album that I have ever had the opportunity to listen to. The best way that I can describe the overall feel of the album is simply to have a nice hour long conversation with a person suffering from schizophrenia, tourrets, and bi-polar dissorder, if you can find someone like that. The album constantly switches in tempo, musical styles, vocal styles, languages, mood, and countless other areas. This is probably the main reason why this album is as inaccessible as it is. The music can quickly change from chaos to melancholy to uplifting at the drop of a hat and it works surprisingly well.
As I said before, this album has absolutely none of the ATDI-sih characteristics of the first album. In fact, there are very few characteristics of well... anything at all in this album. The band has done what few bands ever do and actually created a sound completely their own. The only gripe I have with this album is Rich Balling. The thing that brought down the last album for me was the insertion of a pointless interlude in between each song, and I had hoped that this album would be devoid of them. Alas, the album is indeed laden with pointless interludes once again.
Track By Track (I'm skipping the first track as it is merely an intro that is entirely skip-worthy, unless loud static mixed with trumpets is your thing.)
Unaria - A brief acapella track follows the intro. The vocals are very feminine, either sung by Anthony Green or Craig Owens, not sure which. The vocals, high pitched though they are, are very beautiful and the track serves as a fairly decent opener.
Skullflower - The first proper track opens up with a drum intro. The drums throughout the entire song sound as though they ran the drums through a delay pedal, which gives the song a very relaxing feel the entire way through it. In fact, every single element in the song adds to the relaxing feel. The next instruments to join the mix are a clean guitar with a bit of reverb and delay which plays a nice melodic line, and an array of ambient noises such as water drops and the like. There is also a nice distorted bit of noise in the background. There is also an incredible guitar line entering at about 1:20 which almost sounds like they got Buckethead to make a guest appearance. The vocals are handled by Green and add to the shear beauty of the song almost perfectly. The thing that really throws you off is the inclusion of a woman singing vocals in Sanskrit. Over all every single element of the song works together perfectly, making this one of the highlights of the album.
My Horse Must Lose - The song opens up with an almost hip hop beat and the same female Sanskrit voice from the previous track. There are a few interesting electronics in the beginning and a nice inclusion of what I can only describe as shredding. The song is slightly faster than the previous, but not by much. The actual drums join in and ellaborate on the hip hop style beat. The vocals finally kick in at 1:40 with the vocal duties switching over to Mathew Kelly I believe. The song has a pseudo-chorus, though its not really a chorus as it only happens once but its the only part of the song in which the vocals repeat themselves alot. The inclusion of an off key and off tempo piano line quickly gets your attention and then a very soothing classical string arrangement is added to the mix. Not one of the best on the album, but still an extremely interesting and beautiful piece of music.
Chiriacho Summit - The first of the album's many interruptions. Just a spoken word track with a female voice over a grating wall of noise. The "lyrics" are actually mildly interesting but the track would have been more tollerable without that wall of intolerable noise in the background.
Horses In The Sky - The song starts very techno-ish with more Sanskrit vocals. Then some extremely frantic electronic noises enter into the song, followed quickly by Craig Owen's first actual performance on the album. After the first "verse" the song becomes increasingly frantic before exploding into chaos in the chorus. The interesting thing about this song is the switch from the mildly frantic verses to the absolutely chaotic chorus without any sort of buildup. The guitars also make their first proper appearance in this song and provide a nice solo section. In my opinion the rhythm guitar in the chorus is equally as impressive as the solo itself. After the solo an extremely disjointed harmonized quitar line enters the song and lasts for a brief moment. The chaos then comes to a screeching hault and the song takes a break with another classical string arrangement before once again breaking back into full blown chaos, and then abruptly ending after the final chorus. Deffinitely one of the best pieces on the album.
Stockhausen es ist Ihr Gehirn, das ich suche - Clocking in at 8:02 this is one of the longest songs on the album, and deffinitely one of the most epic. It starts out with what I can only describe as a loop of kitchen noises followed by a quick guitar riff which includes a few harmonics, almost as if the guitarist quickly tuned the guitar in the middle of the song. The kitchen noises then stop leaving only the guitar playing that same slow line. The guitar is thin joined by a piano and a very very soft string arrangement. The kitchen noises return around 2:30 then Anthony Green's vocals come through and the song kicks off with one of the other vocalists joining in to harmonize. There really are no drum parts except for the high hat throughout of most of the song, and a few electronic noises are ijected into the mix at random spacings. A female opera vocalist comes in around 4:15 with Anthony (I think its him) singing very lightly in the background. 5 minutes the instruments die down for a while and let the noises take over the song before Green re-enters the scene with the elctronic noises to before allowing all the instruments to close out the song.
Prayers On Fire - This is deffinitely an odd track, which is saying a lot at this point. A hip hop beat once again makes an appearance with some Sanskrit vocals sung by that same femal voice with a male voice briefly speaking a few words. The song is all percussion just about except for the very soft guitar line and the brief appearance of what I believe is a sitar. The song is sung entirely in Sanskrit, which can either be a bad thing or a good thing depending on your perspective. I find it to be a mildly enjoyable track but for most the track will probably become annoying.
The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea - The second interruption of the album. Another spoken word track over another intolerable wall of static. Thats pretty much it.
This Heat - The longest piece of the album at 10:35, and certainly the most epic feeling. The drums kick off the song as well as some keyboards and electronic noises. Keith Goodwin takes over the vocals this time and delievers a great performance. A clean guitar joins the mix providing a nice melody to the song, and a string arrangement once again enters the mix. Around 3:20 some noise enters the mix that could either be a guitar simulating a seizure or a keyboard. Some arpegiated guitar lines enter a few minutes later dying down into another almost shred like guitar piece. There is far to much in this song to talk about, so to truly feel how epic and beautiful this song is you have to experience it for yourself.
Unaria Ancora - Pretty much just a reiteration of Unaria. The feminine vocals are exactly the same as they where 9 songs previous.
St. Broderick Is In Antarctica - Other than the drums there are really no other instruments in this song. The "instruments" consist of what sounds like someone blowing over an empty bottle, and somebody shh-ing into the microphone. Even so this is one of my favorite songs on the CD. I believe that Rich Balling is the vocalist on this song, and I also believe this is his sole performance on the album. The lazy vocals slowly drift into the song which stops after the verse. There is the sound of a paper being unfolded and the song goes into a poem. The poem itself is very hard to interpret but interesting nontheless. The verse repeats itself one last time and the song ends with only Balling's voice.
The Heretic - This is deffinitely the most beautiful song on the album. Throughout the song Matthew Kelly provides the vocals and he does an outstanding job. The strings and piano combine perfectly and are the only instruments throughout the fisrt couple of minutes. The drums enter at the 2 minute mark. The drums have a completely different feel than the rest of the song but it still compliments the song. The drums stop for a moment for a female vocalist section. I'm not sure who the vocalist is but she does an equally outstanding job as Kelly. Near the end all the instruments join in as the words "Flesh is heretic, My body is a witch, I am burning it" slowly become audible. The song ends quietly with a nice acoustic guitar riff and the string arrangement. Honestly, the first time through this song it gave me chills and I'm not affraid to admit it. This is deffinitely (aside from Horses In The Sky) the standout track of the album.
There Can Be No Dispute That Monsters Live Among Us - The intro to the song opens up with either Matthew Kelly or Rich Balling singing over an extremely odd guitar line which sounds like its being played on a resonator. In my opinion this is the weakest song on the album, and last was the best place to put it. The song itself isn't bad, it's just nowhere near as breathtaking as the rest of the album.
Conclusion:
All things considered, this is one of the few albums that can be considered truly experimental. Not only do they approach the music itself differently, even the writing proccess, recording proccess, and vocals are all experimental in some way. The drums are the main instrument, in that the guitar's are writing for the drums rather than the other way around. Also, no members of the band (Rich Balling excluded) had an opportunity to hear any of the other instrument's parts while they where recording. The only thing wrong with this album is Rich Balling himself. The inclusion of the spoken word interludes only end up interrupting the flow of the album, and are the only thing keeping this album from becoming a classic in my eyes.
Recomended Tracks:
On the first listen you should listen to the album itself as a whole, spoken word tracks included. This album is much like a movie in my opinion, in that if you skip one part then you miss grasping it as a whole. However the second time through, I suggest listening to everything minus the spoken word tracks.
Final Rating
4.5/5
