One of the games I like to play when I listen to music is what I fondly call the “Whoa, what the hell was that?! Lets rewind and re-listen to that 4-second passage about 79 times so I can figure out, or try to figure out, what exactly just happened that sounded so cool/unique/different/strange” game. No, I didn’t just make that up. Yes, I play it all too often. Sometimes I play it to the extent that I never actually make it through and entire song, I just hear it as a selection of 3 to 8 second clips that are constantly rewound and repeated. By the way, I live in hyperbole.
Regardless, I do love doing this when I listen to music. It’s a different level of music enjoyment for me. It makes songs seem like puzzles and gives me the opportunity to try and figure out what the band was intending by putting together different passages or recording techniques. So with this in mind, I’ll play this game out loud for your reading enjoyment.
I’ve been fixated recently on two songs that blend together on Misery Signals’ most recent disc “Controller”. The songs ‘Reset’ and ‘Homecoming’ provide a stunning eleven plus minutes of musical composition. Through the two songs, there is an incredible display not only of technical prowess and musicianship, but also of tasteful producing and engineering on the part of Devin Townsend who produced, mixed, and engineered this record. I could sit here and wax poetic about the band and the producer, but that would viciously side track me in a post that’s already going to be WAY too long. So all nonsensery aside, let’s begin:
Reset (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWWIkfSCJQ)
(0:00) The intro guitar part starts out as a non-reverbed, non-delayed riff. This keeps the space of the song very close to the listener, which will be immediately contrasted when the song picks up.
(0:11) The second guitar, drums, and vocals crash in, the mix fills out with reverb, delay, and an increase in volume. The second guitar’s big open chords (that ascend in scale) combined with the effects on this guitar open up the mix and ramp up the momentum of the song. This is accentuated by the snare roll that starts as having an accent in it and ends as just a straight quarter note roll.
(0:23 – 0:33) Here the first guitar stops riffing and plays big ambient chords combined with little scales, pick slides, bent notes, and other general hints at shredology that open up the mix even more. All the craziness that happens in the guitars and drums allow the song to build and introduces the main verse.
(0:39 – 0:42 and 0:49 – 0:54) The breakdown sounding bit here (“Nothing is picture perfect”) has the kick drum accenting the rhythm of the guitars. This draws attention away from the more ambient guitar before and after this section and makes this part feel heavier because all five instruments (the two guitars, drums, bass, and vocal rhythm) all sync up with each other.
(0:58) Oh man this little lick is so sweet! Everything cuts out, this delayed guitar plays this very staccato line and then we’re hit in the face with a SUPER fast, double-kicked barrage of down picked, palm muted guitar. Its like the song goes from a jog to a sprint! I love this change. Best part is that it’s reprised later.
(1:00 – 1:20) The drums in this part help emphasize the “sprinting” nature of this passage. However, what’s interesting is how the cymbals he chooses to play on change the voice of the passage. The drummer, Branden, starts on the ride, a bigger, darker (lower pitched) cymbal. Then he moves up and wails relentlessly on a crash which is a thinner, smaller, brighter (higher pitched) cymbal. To me, the higher pitch makes the voice of the song sound a bit more frantic/urgent. Then it moves back to the ride which brings it back down and back up to the crash. All this moving around doesn’t really hold some crazy significance, but it provides a bit of change that makes this part more dynamic and more interesting to listen to…even if you don’t immediately pick up what it is you’re hearing.
(1:21 – 1:37) The verse repeats.
(1:37 – 1:59) The interlude here separates the first movement of the song from the second with an alternating brutally heavy section and an equally ambient, spacey section. The heavy section is a departure from any established melody and builds on the rhythm that we’re first introduced to at 0:39 – 0:42 and 0:49 – 0:54. What’s interesting is that the way the drums play behind the repeating guitar parts changes the accent, tempo, and even timing of this rhythm. It starts with the drummer playing on the toms accenting the 3/4 timing. At 1:48 though, the drummer switches to a reaaaaally slow 4/4 count that slows everything down.
(1:59 – 3:09) BAH!! The great reprisal!! This is where Devin Townsend as a producer shines! Try to listen closely from here to the end of this segment. These are all parts of the song we’ve already heard before, but everything’s been changed in some aspect. After the re-introduction with the intro riff, we’re hit with a subtle keyboard-chorus line. Normally this would sound cheesy if it were the primary focus. However, Devin mixes it way down and uses it to compliment the open chords the rhythm guitar plays. This as well as the delay/verb used on the lead guitar opens the space of this song WAAAAY up. Also the drumming changes up the rhythm by dropping down to the china and playing weird ghost-noted passages that almost sound like a slow shuffle. This creates a compLETEly different feel in this song. Also, at 2:28 the lead breaks from the riffing style of playing that lick to playing the chord that he’s creating the little arpeggio out of…another cool change.
(2:34) All the chaos that’s created with all the space, delay, riffing, shuffling, and chorus and all gets cleared when the vocals come in. It’s like the muddiness of the song settles out and we’re left with a wide expanse of clear sonic space. The drums fall down to a simple open 4/4 beat while the guitars play matching open monster-chords.
(2:45) The transition from the chaotic openness, to the clarity when the vocals come in is used as a template to juxtapose that awesome lick from back in 0:58. Except this time they beef up the delay (which you can hear not only repeating, but panning across from left to right and back again making the notes swirl around your head) and repeat it a second time in a higher harmony.
(2:47) Aaaaand again! More reprisal! This time with that rad super fast face-blast of double kick. All the space in the song almost loses the listener. Parts start literally blending together and the definition of the song gets lost as it all kinda planes out into a huge soundscape. This all gets put in perspective by reintroducing the brutality of this (and the following) hard hitting guitar parts.
(3:09 – 3:42) This part of the song always confused me. I can’t figure out why they use SUCH a different part here. I don’t think I’m out of line saying that this passage doesn’t sound like it belongs in this song. But then again, maybe it’s the uncomfortable feeling of this segment that allows for the part that follows it to feel as good as it does. Cool note about the blast beat section (blast beat: when the drums play a rhythm that is just eighth/sixteenth/quarter/whatever notes of the kick drum, snare, and hi-hat/cymbal all at once) though: at 3:19 there’s a section where the drummer is playing three different time signatures at the same time. His right hand on the china cymbal is playing in a half-time 2/4 beat, his left hand on the snare is playing around a 3/4 rhythm, while his feet on the kick are playing all sorts of weird accented notes in 4/4…I think. I haven’t been able to bend my brain around the time-space continuum quite enough to fully understand what he’s done here, but regardless, it’s something incredible.
(3:42 – end) Ugh…this is why I love this band and this producer. Seamlessly they translate from a hard hitting, brutal metal song into a beautiful, ambient, acoustic jam…and then back. Right after the abrasive, uncomfortable bit, the guitars space back out (as Devin ups the verb/delay/panning of the guitars) and at 3:58, the guitars start fading out, holding one note and letting it slooooowly die out. By 4:22 you can hear the last of the distortion give way as the drums lighten and start dinking around on the cymbals. Everything gets so delicate that you can hear such subtleties as how loosely the guitar player is holding his pick (loosely, you can hear it hitting each string on the acoustic louder than you can hear the note of the string) to even the kind of sticks the drummer is using (a hard-wood tipped stick…if it were nylon tipped the cymbals would be pinging a lot more and if it were softer there wouldn’t be as much attack from the stick tapping the cymbal). At 4:51 we’re introduced to another, honorary, member of the band, the guitar player and drummer’s (who are brothers) dad. The guy is a member of some symphony as a trained percussionist. So there a bunch of chimes, vibraphones, and bells and stuff that accent the guitars. This all adds a depth to the ambience that you normally wouldn’t find. Other cool things happening here…in list form:
-Drummer starts alternating crash cymbals which spreads out the sound of the drum-sound-space.
-Drummer is playing with the snare chains off the snare which makes it sound like a tight tom.
-There’re really faint synthesizers playing in the background which opens up the mix even more.
-The final chime at the end of the song is met with a brutal attack of distortion and drums and screaming as the song after this begins. An interesting juxtaposition.
-The guitars layer and layer until there are literally about 5 or 6 guitars playing on top of each other.
You know what, I’ve gone on long enough on this one song that to go into the intricacies of “Homecoming” would be ridiculous. But take a listen to it. Put yourself in the mindset of listening behind the obvious melodies and figure out what is happening and why. There are some REALLY interesting things going on in the soundspace that these guys have created. Maybe you’ll pick up on them. There’s a whole world that (some) bands create behind the caustic assault of screaming and distortion. It’s your job to find it and appreciate it when it’s there.
Misery Signals play rock shows.
This is one of the August Burns Red pre-order packages. I hate them for making me choose between the bundle with the t-shirt + poster and the one with the 7" vinyl. Decision: pending.
