Demons & Wizards - Touched By the Crimson King
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Demons & WizardsEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks
CD Release Date: 2005-06-28
Music Label: Steamhammer Us
Soundtracks:
- Crimson King
- Beneath These Waves
- Terror Train
- Seize The Day
- The Gunslinger
- Love's Tragedy Asunder
- Wicked Witch
- Dorian
- Down Where I Am
- Immigrant Song
- Lunar Lament
- Wicked Witch (Slow Version)
- Spatial Architects
- Beneath These Waves (Edit)
Free Music Notes for Touched By the Crimson King
Free Music Review: 4.5. Excellent
Hit: 5 Stars
Opinions on the first 'Demons & Wizards' album tends to vary pretty heavily, though it's generally thought to be pretty good, but not up to the standards of Blind Guardian or Iced Earth. For a long time I pretty much felt that way, though the album grew on me quite a lot over the years, and now I think it's quite excellent. So I was pretty damn excited about their finally making a follow up, and I must say, I'm not disappointed. It's about as good as their first one, and they still manage to make some relatively fresh songs in spite of their veteran status as musicians.
While the sound of 'Touched by the Crimson King' is perhaps not terribly surprisingly, it is reasonably distinctive within their respective discographies. Overall, I'd say it sounds most reminiscent of 'Somewhere Far Beyond', as the thrash elements of IE are downplayed quite a bit, and the heavier songs tend to be of the speed/power variety. Still, Schaffer remarkably distinctive riff style still shines through, and they approach the ballads in a way that's a bit different than what you've heard from them before. This second element is particularly nice, as although I generally like IE ballads, most of them are very, very much the same. The core of this album has 4 ballads. 'Love's Tragedy Asunder' is the most generic of them, a decent power ballad, but nothing terribly remarkable. 'Wicked Witch' is better. It's acoustic, but it's got some denser patterns to the instrumentation that makes it a bit more complex and interesting than most ballads of this sort. 'Down Where I Am' and 'Seize the Day' are both excellent, and are two of the best ballads I've heard from the three related bands. 'Down Where I Am' carried almost entirely by Kursch's brilliant, emotional vocal performance. Very powerful. 'Seize the Day' is just so damn epic, even by their standards. Just a great, great chorus. Other than that you've got the rockers and oddball tracks. They open up with 'Crimson King' which is totally vintage D&W, and an excellent opener. Another soaring chorus, with lotsa great Schaffer riffing, and a different sorta song structure. 'Beneath These Waves' is a bit slower and moodier. A rather sad song, with another great vocal performance from Kursch. And, the unexpected, atmospheric closing section works quite well. 'Terror Train' is solid, if not truly remarkable. Schaffer's frenetic riffing is excellent, but the vocal lines fail to really grab me. 'The Gunslinger' is a bit reminiscent of 'The Crimson King', though not as good. Lotsa riffing combined with some more atmospheric stuff, a slightly unusual structure and another very epic chorus. 'Dorian' is the weirdest thing here, as it combines a solid midpaced rocking framework with a slow, kinda spaced out middle section. The middle section isn't terribly exciting, but it does earn points just for being so unexpected, and the frame sections are great, with a totally sweet, instantly memorable main riff. (And Kursch's vocals are excellent, yet again) The main album closes with the 'Immigrant Song' cover. I'm not much of a fan of Zep, but this is a pretty good song.
Though they aren't clearly marked as such, the final 4 tracks here are bonus tracks. Two of them are just unremarkable, different versions of album tracks, but the other two are original, and good. 'Lunar Lament' is the weaker of the two. A very, very epic rocker. Solid, but not one of the best things here. 'Spatial Architects' is better, with some great dense, progressively tinged guitarwork and a generally darker tone than the rest of the album. Very good stuff.
Yeah, I'm done. This album isn't truly groundbreaking, but it's very nicely done, and still finds a nicely define voice. Fans of the original album should not bedisappointed.
Touched By the Crimson King Poster
Can you think of a line that describes the emotional microcosm of a fan better than the initial words of Terror Train, one of the most impressive tracks on the new Demons & Wizards album, Touched By The Crimson King? "I´m awake, you better feed me now", sings vocalist Hansi Kürsch, hitting the nail on the head. Mind you, the international metal community has been wide awake ever since the self-titled Demons & Wizards debut arrived at the stores in 2000, waiting impatiently to be fed with more songs. The fact that they had to wait another five years is in the nature of things; after all, Hansi Kürsch?s chief occupation is his band, Blind Guardian, while guitarist Jon Schaffer has launched several major projects with his main group, Iced Earth.One the one hand, Touched By The Crimson King continues the artistic tradition of its two protagonists, Kürsch and Schaffer, and on the other it seems directly connected to the Demons & Wizards debut. "The common denominator that links the two albums lies in the fact that the tracks are constructed in a simpler style than the regular Blind Guardian and Iced Earth material", Kürsch describes of his new album. "At the same time, the music has more of an acoustic focus. You can tell that we approached the song-writing without any preconceptions. The term ?mellow? springs to mind whenever somebody asks me to describe the mood on the album. Even when the Demons & Wizards debut came out, fans told us that the music is a symbiosis of its two creative forces. Some even said that parts of it sounded like early Blind Guardian and early Iced Earth. I think this description also applies to Touched By The Crimson King. The overall impression of the album is marked by a certain rawness, together with many atmospheric moods."
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