Customer Reviews

Night Castle (2 CD)

5 star:		(164)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(53)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I have been a fan of TSO for about 10 years now. I have gone to 3 concerts plus one this coming year. I remember waiting for the Beethoven CD and it did not disappoint. Then I waited after many delays for A Lost Christmas Eve and it came did not disappoint. It has been 5 years sense the last TSO album and its finally here! I remember hearing the preview songs and was not totally thrilled. It seemed over done, too clean, and it seemed there was too much hype that no album could ever overcome.

But the thing about Night Castle that makes a purchase worth it is the lyrics. TSO lyrics have only gotten better. My favorite song from their first album, Old City Bar, was the beginning of showing TSO's true colors. They aren't just about rocking out with electric guitars playing famous classical pieces....rather they take their time creating lyrics that mean so much more. "There was a life" may be my new favorite TSO piece over "What is Eternal" from the Beethoven CD. Not only do the lyrics have so much meaning but there seems to be a lot of effort in each song. Most songs are about 5 minutes long with some shorter and the longest at around 10. The sheer size of quantity AND quality show how much work has been put into this album.

Cons -
1. Seems overdone and over edited in some places
2. We have been waiting 5 years! So it may be too hyped

Pros -
1. Price is great for this double album
2. It seems there has been more effort put into this album than any other
3. A great mix of classic TSO album and their heart and soul lyrics that drive the album home
4. This album is a great for the entire album no matter what age you are.

Overall - I would say this would be a great addition to any TSO fans library. There are plenty of songs for non TSO listeners to be weened into being a fan with, especially if they aren't a fan of Christmas music.

This is a great CD. I highly recommend it!

Great:
It's been nearly 10 years since TSO's last non-Christmas effort, Beethoven's Last Night. While completely bombastic, over the top, and bordering on ridiculous, it was a great and very original take on a story involving a key figure in musical history. The arrangments (vocal and instrumental) were solid as was the majority of the song witing and the performances.

I love TSO. Must make that clear, I directed live performances of two of their albums (Xmas Eve & Beethoven's Last Night) when I was in college and have studied them and their music in depth for over a decade. They have always had an unparalleled ability to instill beauty, magic, and tenderness in their music and truly captivate their audiences.

Now in 2009, we have Night-Castle. A double disc, 28-song epic. The question is however, does it truly reflect 5 years of work and the need for the constant delays.

The instrumentals, as TSO is famous for, are certainly the perk of the album. Leading numbers being Midnight & Madness, The Lion's Roar, Tracers, and Flight of Cassandra (possibly one of their most versatile and best) and Nutrocker.

My heart jumped when I saw the title "The Mountain" as I thought, my god, maybe finally a metal-version of Night on Bald Mountain. No luck, unortunately it was merely an underperformed, uninspired, rehashing of Savatage's cover of "Hall of the Mountain King"

The treatment of Verdi's "Requiem" re-titled "Night Enchanted" is solid and has a truly kicking opening but at about a minute in, gives way to completely over produced vocals (female mainly) and is a bit repetitive and over-produced. The lowest point of the instrumentals is possibly the shameless borrowing of Savatage's "Mozart & Madness". Now cleverly (not) titled "Mozart and Memories" it is so unneccessary that it borders on insulting to Savatage fans. I do respect that they may want to introduce fans to the music of Savatage and Mozart and Madness was a great track but its place was on Dead Winter Dead, not here.

While the instrumentals are strong, some absorb track time by overly repetitive riffs, immensely exaggerated ritardanos and diminuendo and few have any shred of modulation or creative tempo change.

The vocal songs are packed full of musical emotion albiet they are really just over-the-top ballads pounding I,vi,IV,V for up to ten minutes (see Epiphany & There was a Life) The vocalists sound unmotivated and do not at all refelct the immense emotion heard on previous TSO albums. Most open with a standard 8-16 bar piano progression. Oliva, Kinkell, and O'Neill certainly have an undoubtable knack for these openings as they always "twinkle" in a sense and bring about that "magical (Christmas?) feelings and provide for a delightful listening experience.

I was very happy at the lack of filler tracks (only 2 tracks under a minute) but between the amount of borrowed material, the mechanicaly-perfect sounds, and the computer-sounding choral vocals they should just focus on writing and continuing to be as original as possible, not over producing and perfecting everything beyond acceptable reality. With all of the formulaic, fake, and repetitive garbage in mainstream music, it is pertinent for a group such as TSO, who bring something so unique and new to modern Rock and Classical, to keep as much of their material as original and unique as possible.

As always, the musicians are top notch, the arrangments are masterful but the this is certainly far from their best effort. I do however have complete faith that as TSO continues to strive for new musical heights and directions (thank god they're laying off the dead-horse that was Christmas) they will certainly continue to broaden their audience and hopefully continue to bring us solid classical/classic rock/metal influences music for years!

Ok..1st off..i'm a big fan of TSO..saw them on the very 1st tour in 99..and this year will be my 10th show. That being said..i'm a bit disappointed after the 5 year wait for Night Castle. Don't get me wrong..the instrumentals are great..the production is 1st rate..but there is a lot of "filler" here...and the "operatic" vocals are starting to wear very thin with me..the over-enunciated..Broadway musical style vocals get to be grating after a while. And i'm hearing the same lyrics being used over and over again..( on this night..stars being/not being wished upon..etc.). Maybe after all the hype and the long wait..it was innevitable that i would be a bit let down with this..i don't know. I know that it doesn't move me nearly as much as all the prior TSO releases did. Oh well..it was a good 10 year run! Let's just hope they don't get in a rut they can't dig themselves out of.......a great stage show will only take you so far.

Most people that follow Trans-Siberian Orchestra know that they are also Savatage, but Trans-Siberian has the Orchestra. That being said, for those that don't follow Trans-Siberian Orchestra and want to buy a Christmas Album off of Amazon need to know what to expect. Trans-Siberian Orchestra makes magnificant Christmas Albums, but they are not what one expects to hear played over and over on the radio...(with the exception of Mad Russian's Christmas), rather it is more of a Christmas Rock Opera. A story beginning on Christmas Eve and concluding with a Christmas Miracle. The lyrics are fantastic and the music amazing. Trans-Siberian also gives the lyrics and the story in a nice little "book" in each cd it makes. That being said, read the story and lyrics while listening to the cd to really get a great picture of their meaning. Now, as far as the music, as I stated before Trans-Siberian (had/has) an alter band named Savatage. They do very similar Rock Opera type CD's, but not Christmas CD's. Savatage is a great hard rock band with amazing stories and lyrics as well. Check out Streets and Wake of Magellan as well as about 15 others. They are a huge hit in other countries, more so than in America unfortunately). Trans-Siberian is the same group of people from Savatage, but they add an equally talented group of muscians for their Christmas music thus becoming Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Although, they did Beethoven's Last Night with TSO which is OUTSTANDING. I apologize for being long winded, but I don't want people to see this CD under Christmas albums and then purchase it only to find Rudolph and Santa aren't on it! What I am hoping to do is encourage people to purchase this CD (as well as TSO's amazing Christmas Cd's) for what it is...a BEAUTIFUL Story using phenominal instrument arrangements and incredible lyrics coupled with pitch perfect voices. You will be getting a "head banging" Cd that will melt your heart! Night Castle took way to long to come out and a few songs are Savatage which causes me to give it only 4 stars, but it is without a doubt another winner for Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I purchased "Night Castle" after attending TSO's 2009 Winter Concert in Manchester, NH. The entire second half of the show was mostly songs off Night Castle -- songs I ended up falling in love with. Wanting more, I decided to purchase the CD immediately to try and recreate my concert experience.

It's not quite the same.

Let me start by saying the instrumental tracks are fantastic. Adrenaline pumping, dynamic, and creative. I could listen to some of these tracks over and over again. "Mozart's Memories" and "Nutrocker" are some of the best neo-classical renditions out there. The instrumentation is impressive as well.

Unfortunately, the vocal tracks take away from everything that makes the album great. Stale lyrics and subpar singing plague about 3/4 of the set list. One of the biggest problems is that the singing is simply overdone -- almost like the vocalists are "trying too hard," so to speak. After awhile, the vocal tracks all start to sound the same.

The album itself doesn't have much of a "flow" to it. TSO could've stacked the songs better instead of having one heavy song followed by three soft ones. It causes some sections of the album to move rather slow.

Longtime TSO fans, I would've been disappointed if I waited nearly five years for this album. But regardless of its shortcoming, "Night Castle" earns a 3/5 overall. It's worth $10 for the instrumental tracks alone but don't expect much otherwise.

I have enjoyed all of TSO's album's and have always been thrilled with the message and music till NOW. Night Castle is a nice album. The music is wonderful. But it seems soulless compared to their other albums. The story doesn't seem to flow. Frankly, I just dont get it. Considering all of the hype and talk the last several years at there concerts and I have been goiing to them now the last several years. Seeing what they gave us they should have gone back to the drawing board. I was really disappointed with the album overall.

Like many metal fans, my TSO fandom is deeply rooted in their association to the criminally underrated band Savatage. TSO is the remaining Savatage members, the producer/main songwriter, Paul O'Neill, along with a bunch of additional musicians and of course, an orchestra. The music and story concepts are basically in the same vein as they were in Savatage, but a bit more orchestral with the metal toned down a bit. Basically TSO is Savatage-lite. Paul O'Neill basically started TSO on a kind of whim in order to deliver a holiday themed album based on the success of a Savatage song. While a very musically talented group, it always seemed like a halfassed project that got lucky(Jon Oliva has even said himself that he does this band to basically pay the bills. His role anymore in TSO is basically just playing keyboards). Now, Paul devotes all his time to TSO and basically left Savatage to more or less fade away to a footnote in heavy metal history. Doesn't seem quite fair, but at least Savatage lives on to a certain degree. TSO has always been looked at as a seasonal kind of event, an annual tradition to take the family to when they swing through your hometown. So, TSO has been a holiday household name ever since. I'm not sure how well Beethoven's Last Night sold, but it was very refreshing to see a TSO album on the shelves that wasn't Christmas themed. Not that I have anything against the Christmas albums, but who throws The Christmas Attic in their cd player in mid July? It was cool to see TSO become a band that wasn't strictly associated with one specific time of the year.
That brings us to Night Castle, an album which has been in the works for what seems like 800 years now(they played songs from it when I saw them in 2004!). All this anticipation will undoubtedly create high expectations, which is kind of a curse coz you really can't live up to it(Phantom Menace anyone?).
Well, Night Castle's sound is what you pretty much expect it to be. But honestly, I find myself getting kinda bored of it after awhile. I love orchestral and progressive rock/metal, but there's too much of a sameness to this. The story isn't bad, but it's a little lacking, especially when compared to O'Neill's previous stories. I can't honestly say it's bad musically-it's actually very good-it's just a bit monotonous, not much variance at all. It's missing something. Also, as many have said before, a bunch of Savatage tunes are used here as well, mostly instrumental. I suppose I don't have too much of an issue with this, after all they are O'Neill's songs, but it just seems a bit cheap to fill space with songs that have been done before, especially for an album that has been in the works this long. This is a bit irritating to me on Disc 2 with the bonus track, "Believe", one of the most cherished of Savatage songs from the album Streets. I'm not sure why this was done at all coz most would agree that you simply cannot touch that song. As far as "Believe" goes, Savatage vocalist Jon Oliva is what made a great song a friggin phenomenal and unforgettable song. Oliva's performance will damn near make your eyes tear up. No disrespect to vocalist Tim Hockenberry, who does the TSO version, but he just doesn't hold a candle to Oliva. It actually sounds alot like Joe Cocker singing "Believe". TSO's vocalists have never been all that great. Not bad singers by any means(at least they sing, a rare thing anymore), but they've always sounded(to me anyway) like weaker and clumsier versions of Zak Stevens.
In all honesty, it seriously pains me to have to say anything negative about this album, especially considering that in today's music mainstream, "music" is more or less a four letter word. But on the other hand, because of this rarity and also my fandom, I can't just simply give the album nothing but praise and say it's a masterpiece. That wouldn't be honest. And yes, there are good songs to be found here. I'm not giving up on this band, and I'll continue to support them.
Paul O'Neill was really onto something with Savatage. There was some real magic there, and I can only hope that in the future Paul will be able to tap back into that.

After fully listening to both discs , despite the large volume of music, I still was left feeling somehow "shorted" by this album. First off, almost one third of this material is either directly stolen from the Savatage back-catalogue or rehashed versions of previous TSO riffs. Secondly, I felt the vocals on this seemed emotionally "forced" and uninspired, I was almost literally inadvertantly laughing at some of the forced emotional "cheesiness" in the lyrics and the vocal performances.
While TSO has never put out a "bad" album , I would definitely rank this dead last in their discography. My personal favorite is their very underrated " Beethoven's Last Night" which I thought was their most original, cohesive, and emotionally compelling album to date.
This "Night Castle" while not entirely without merit, leaves the listener a bit disappointed, especially given the long wait between this and their last album one would hope they could have been a bit more creative than this.
By the way, I am not just a casual TSO listener, but a long time "metal-head" that has followed this band since it's inception as Savatage in the mid 80s through their metamorphosis into TSO and to the present day.
I think the reviewers giving this 5 stars are not being honest with themselves and certainly not being honest with you, the reader, who is coming on here looking for an objective review.
"Beethoven's Last Night" and the original "Christmas Eve" are their true 5 star albums, "Night Castle" pales in comparison to the creativity, emotional sincerity, and cohesiveness of those two albums.
To sum up, you've basically heard everything on here done before, and done better the first time around.

p.s. Any version other than the John Oliva version of "Believe" is a sacrilege.

Well, I have heard this was a rerun...by TSO.

Hardly!!!

Owning 4 of their albums, having gone to their concert 4 times....I'm happy to say, this is no rerun, but original songs, done in the flavor that has made them famous. There is some songs that are reminiscent of Beethoven's last night, but no repeats from that album. Also there are some songs from their concerts that have not previously made it to their albums. A few, I was really hoping to get.

TSO is either powerful, boisterous and fun or poignant and thought provoking, but never disappointing.

Rock On TSO!

If you are interesting in my opinion by song:
01 - Night Enchanted: an exuberant beginning in the theatrical form, we all associate with TSO. A changing tempo and several transitions that make it unique.
02 - Childhood Dreams: Wonderful melody and crooning voice rock you in this pleasant powerful song.
03 - Sparks: A true TSO song with a boisterous and powerful voice belting out the song. You feel like raising your fist and smiling at the key points in the song.
04 - The Mountain: Growling, drum beat beginning to a frenetic mad pace. A free for all guitar and drum fest.
05 - Night Castle: A throbbing refrain, with a pleading deep male voice seeking escape. A true TSO gem in its theatrics and depth.
06 - The Safest Way Into Tomorrow: A bold a powerful melody with a strong male lead. Great song and one of my personal favorites.
07 - Mozart And Memories: Sneaky quiet start with a jolt of powerful guitar lead-ins with a meld of rock and classical sounds.
08 - Another Way You Can Die: A bit different than, I know TSO for, it reminds me a bit of Aerosmith's "Walk this way" at the start. Once again the strong male voice dominates as well as the strong guitar sound.
09 - Toccata - Carpimus Noctem: Quite a mix from the classical beginning to the rolling guitars and pounding drums ending with a helicopter.
10 - The Lion's Roar: A trumpet weaving you into a drumbeat of guitars, keyboard and more guitars.
11 - Dreams We Conceive: A striking ballad with a pleading voice and guitars following along.
12 - Mother And Son: An Asian conversation (I think) is this whole song along with street sounds. no idea what is being said. "Yeah man, gonna hit road..."sounds like what is said in English.
13 - There Was A Life: A pensive plaintive beginning reminiscent of Beethoven's last night. A ballad of questions. Another powerful great song. Another favorite.
14 - Moonlight And Madness: A crazed piano start with guitars following, reminiscent of some classical favorites. A duet of guitar and piano....I have heard a similar tune during their concerts.
15 - Time Floats On: Another ballad, less plaintive and more pensive.
16 - Epiphany: A helicopter at the start of this. Throbbing guitars and a wonderful melodic ballad and the type of meandering thoughts TSO is known for. From the fear of the night, to realizing childhood is long past. "Somewhere" is the refrain... This song goes into a melody familiar to all that loved the Lost Christmas Eve album. At the 5:45 minute mark, it has the same melody as the What Child is this does at the 2:45 minute mark. Different words, but similar sound. (On this night...). Earlier, I incorrected stated it was from the Beethoven's Last night album...Whoops.
17 - Bach Lullaby: A quiet little music box theme.
18 - Father, Son & Holy Ghost: A lilting melody with one of the accomplished TSO soproanos. Tentative and poignant, until it gets a bite and then it growls with the usual full octane sound.
19 - Remnants Of A Lullaby: Guitar strumming starts this light tune. You can hear the smile in the singer's voice. It is a nice very upbeat tune.
20 - The Safest Way Into Tomorrow [Reprise]: A quick reprise of the longer more involved version, heard earlier in this album.
21 - Embers: A light guitar strumming a quick tune. Reminds me a bit of Cat Steven's Peace Train.
22 - Child Of The Night: Orchestral sounds start this piece and the highest female voices possible singing in unison (ala Wizard of Oz). All innocence and sweetness.
23 - Believe: Love this guy's voice, a raspy edge as he pours out his heart and sings a ballad of listening and support. Love this song.
24 - Nutrocker: Definitely from the concert, kicky, flashy and full of life...Exuberant and fun. Even includes the Snoopy song. You can see they are enjoying passing the baton back and forth.
25 - Carmina Burana: The opera sopranos from the concert, I have been waiting to get this in an album....Finally. It's a family favorite. Picture multiple sopranos singing in unison and the music punctuated by light, very dark foreboding and wonderful.
26 - Tracers: Pounding drums and guitar, working to a crescendo...It is a conversation of music. This is the one they raise on the lifts with the flames to... You get the musical pause as they set up the lifts.
27 - The Flight of Cassandra (Amazon MP3 Exclusive): A guitar and piano piece rolling one into the other. You can almost see the stage antics that would accompany this.

As a long-time TSO fan, also one who waited what seemed to be an eternity for an album that didn't seem to exist, do I think the wait has been worthwhile?
The answer is a resounding YES.
The album seems to be slow kicking off but it's not how you start, is it? It leaves me with a smile on my face so Cheshire Cat-ish it defies description. Epiphany could be their November Rain. Their interpretations of the classical pieces are...well, awesome but I'll be damned if I can remember what Lion's Roar is based on. The clever and so subtle re-working of Delibes' Flower Girl Duet...O Fortuna, a staple of the concerts so far sounds as good as it does live. In fact, there was more of this album performed live than we knew.
This is a monstrously clever band. I could accuse them of pomposity but I won't. This music leaves you speechless.
Five years in the making, how will the concert leave us?
Gasping for breath, I trust.