Review Summary: The Breathing Shadows Part IV
It seems that I'm almost the only one who have ever heard of Nightingale. A band that will never get succes but who still makes good music everytime they release something. This band is pretty hard to compared. I mean, I could say that some part sounds like Deep Purple, others like UFO, etc. But this band is unique sounding in my opinion. Why? Because, they blend so many inflences and the final result sounds like their's no other band who sound like this.
Alive Again is the fourth part of The Breathing Shadows Trilogy. Part 4 of a Trilogy??? Yes it seems that Dan wanted to continue. For those who have never heard of the story, I'll do a quick summary:
I
The Story begins when the main character quits his family to live in a forest where he finds a friend. The two boys strated to play games. The Last game is a hanging game and the new friend of the main character eventually died. The boy also tried to kill himself after this tragedy but he failed. Finally, he returnes to his house and his ***ty life.
Breathing Shadows
The story continues 17 years after the death of his friend. The boy, now a man, has a good life. The man is now starting to make a connection with his old friend during his dream. During one of these dreams, the man falls into a coma and a woman save his life. After he leaves the woman's house, the shadow of his old friend takes over his body and hangs him with the same rope in the same forest.
The Closing Chronicles
The man is now into his void. The guy who has taken over is body is now living through his body. The woman seduces the bad guy and becomes pregnant, in hope of giving birth to her friend who's in the void. At The end of the album the woman is giving birth to his son with her friend's soul in him. The bad guy realizes this and leaves away.
Alive Again(Not sure)
This part is about the old friend making a kind of pact with a supernatural being called the Shadowman. The Shadowman now kills the main character and the woman. The main character returned 15 years later after being ressurected again by some weird spirit.
Now let's see more details about the music!
The album starts with ''Recollection'', a mellow piano opener. Some weird sound can be heard through the song. The vibe is fantastic and Dan's voice is still good. ''Shadowman'' and ''Shadowland Serenade'' are more uptempo songs. The two songs features some harmony vocals. ''Shadowman'' has a more rockin' solo type then ''Shadowland Serenade'' which is more melodic. ''Glory Days'' is one of the album highlights. The cool keyboard intro reminds me a lot of Dream Theater's ''Images And Words''. This is a more happy song. To stay in the more happy song, ''Falling'' is next, This song is more mellow but their still a kind of happy vive. The chorus is the strongest part. The solo part is another solid part along with the harmony vocals again. ''Into the Light'' is more of a rock songs. The riffs are simple but perfect for the songs. The verse part reminds me a lot of the song''Invisible'' featured on their following release ''Invisible''. ''Eternal'' is the big strong prog song of the record. It almost start like a Pink Floyd song with this big keyboard and guitar solo intro. Some part sound a lot like Deep Purple. Especially the keyboard sounds. This song has all the elements of Nightingale. ''State Of Shock'' is the heaviest song of the record. It's the only song to feature an heavy muted E riff. The chorus is also a strong one. ''The one'' is the weirdest song of the record. The Keyboard in the intro sound a lot like Ozzy stuff on ''Ozzmosis''. This is the weakest song of the record. A bit too generic. ''Forever and Ever'' is the closing song. It's a long song but I hate the way it closes the album.
Songs recommendation:
Glory Days
Falling
State Of Shock
Shadowman and Shadowland Serenade
Pros:
Concept Lyrics
Prog elements
Guitar solos are interesting
Dan's voice
Cons:
The One
Some songs are too generic.
