Customer Reviews

As On A Darkling Plain

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ignore the "death vocals" in the beginning - it's not indicative of what follows. What follows are angel harmonies, wicked guitar solos, brilliant progressions and riffs, and an absolutely captivating mood. Pure prog all the way, and perfect execution. One of my all-time top CDs along with "The Yes Album" by Yes, "Thick As A Brick" by Tull, "As The World" by Echolyn, "Spilt Milk" by Jellyfish, "Foxtrot" by Genesis, and Zeppelin's first. - Mike

This is a faschinating album. I can best describe the music as progressive/symphonic rock combined with glimpses of classical music. In its essence, the music of Darkling Plain seems well-performed and reveals good songwriting skills. It is also a beautiful story written in the language of music that deals with classical archetypes inspired by Anne Rice's literature. Listening through the CD - and giving in to the music - kind of gives me the feeling of wandering inside a three-dimensional building - a place with shape, structure and a mystical atmosphere. A place where you have never been before, but it nevertheless feels strangely familiar.
I cannot imagine anyone not being strongly moved by Darkling Plain in one way or the other. The colorful spectrum of intense emotional energy brought out is surely a challenge,
maybe even threatening if not prepared for such intensity. The reward for being daring enough to give in to this intensity is a breathtaking musical experience.

I bought this CD after listening to some of the sample tracks. I'm glad I did, because the CD well exceeded my expectations. It is a very melodic prog rock album with occasional excursions into avantgarde, densely arranged and very homogenous in style. This is one of the albums that gets better each time you listen to it. For friends of epic music, there is a 40 minute track on the CD, plus six more tracks of about 5 minutes each. The most outstanding compositions are "Darkling Plain", "Those who must be kept", "The LEgacy of Magnus", "Run away", "Lost in money", and "Lay down beside me".

I bought this album on impulse. This is a time where I cannot get enough of progressive power metal. Ok, although this album by this US sextet has obvious progressive leanings, I would not go as far as calling it metal.

But it is interesting nonetheless, so I'll try to describe what kind of music they play and what I think of it. The centerpiece of the album is the eight-part, 40-minute long title-track. It does not sound like a single, long song, but as eight separate songs united by a story. In this case, an obscure concept about vampires (I think). Anne Rice has co-credit on one song because the band uses a quote of hers. The music on this song reminds me a bit of Kansas. It is traditional rock with baroque variations, with frequent harpsichord and pipe-organ interludes, and the only other band with anywhere near the same feel is Kansas, buy Ten Jinn don't really play in the style of Kansas, they play in their own style. The two instrumentals on this 8-song suite are the real highlights in my opinion. The remaining songs are milder, at times almost MOR-rock, quite inoffensive and good. What really surprised me was the vocalist's delivery, he reminds me a lot of early Roxy Music-period Bryan Ferry of all people.

I would have to classify this as a generally good effort that shows promise. The main problem is that the whole album has an un-self-conscious campy, melodramatic quality that is downright annoying. The lyrics are self-serious to the point of absurdity, made all the worse by the singer's tendency to pronounce words in a ridiculously exaggerated way (e.g. in the first track "Les Innocents" he incessantly pronounces "passion" as though the last syllable rhymes with "gone") The music is mediocre, not terribly inspired, though well-played. The title suite is not too bad. The last four songs, though, are really bland and drag the album out. 2-3 of them should have been dropped, and this would have been a 3-star effort. Yes, there is some Kansas sound in the music, but the main influence sounds like Jethro Tull, particularly as one song is an actual reel, like something off of the "Heavy Horses" album. Except, of course, this album has none of that Tull irony and wit.