moments

[einride]

ok we've done favourite albums songs etc etc etc in a million permutations

how about particular moments in songs that just floor you every time? music is all about ebb and flow and tension and release, and some of those moments where it all comes together just right tend to stick to my brain. the ones below are the ones that are so obvious that they just come to me without thinking. i'm sure there are a million others if i think about it but i would like to stick to the very best.

PRO TIP: you can find songs on youtube and right-click to "copy video URL at current time" EDIT: god fucking damn it UM doesn't support linking to specific times in a video. well i'll be. the timestamps are there but that sure makes this thread idea a whole lot less convenient


bruce dickinson "back from the edge", 2:47

it's the "NOW AND THEN I WONDER WHERE THE FACES FROM MY CHILDHOOD HAVE GONE" part. the vocal line distorting and then the little lead afterwards leading into the last chorus. every fucking time this hits me so hard.

king crimson "starless", 11:22

when the main theme comes in again at the end and then the harmony variations and the driving bass and drums, holy shit. also i love/hate the economy and restraint of this part, like they could easily have pulled three minutes of material out of just elaborating on this and it would be an awesome climax but they stop after like a minute, which is infuriating but also kind of genius

katatonia "funeral wedding", 4:43

when it just stops and this goth-cowboy shit hits and then the machine-like double kicks... i don't know what it is about this particular weird-ass atmosphere but it just so fucking completely works for me. every time.

agalloch "hallways of enchanted ebony", 3:06

whispeeerrrss... and then that lead. when the riff starts up again after the brief break it knocks me on my ass every time. this is the essence of why agalloch was truly great. can't fucking beat it. best album there ever was on this gay old earth.

sólstafir "i myself the visionary head", 17:06

you know this one. "i wish myself a path to VISUALIZE MY ART" baka-da-baka-da HUAH! blastbeats i mean like the king crimson thing, this works chiefly because there's been 14 minutes of buildup to it, and maybe it's kind of a cheap trick, but again, a classic, truly

bathory "one rode to asa bay", 8:44

speaking of classics, this is the classic of classics. people of asa land...

 

[MFJ]

GREAT idea for the a thread and most of the ones you mentioned have been noted moments for me throughout the years. Particularly for Agalloch, Solstafir, and King Diamond. I'll come up with a few for myself, I've got plenty of ideas...

 

[Ellestin]

An obvious one comes to mind but there are many others I need to dislodge from my clotted joke of a memory. Good idea.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Cool thread. KC- Starless is one of my favorite songs of all time so I wholeheartedly endorse that one. That song impels me to make some really strange faces. (the highest compliment you can give to a musician btw)

 

[Krilons Resa]

One that immediately springs to mind is Neurosis - The Tide at 4:55 when all that eerie tension is finally released and your soul gets crushed under the weight of a riff tidal wave....and for even more affect @ 6:55.



I apologize for the shit quality of this bastard's upload.

 

[NAD]

Agreed with that moment of One Rode to Asa Bay. So incredible.

One of mine is from Hallways of Enchanted Ebony as well, but a different moment: 8:42 when the canines come in. Oh man, so good.


The tension in Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part One that is built up and finally released at 12:29 right here is just... I have no words. First time I heard this I think I just sat there in stunned silence.


A Sun That Never Sets moment for me is the very end of the album when it all collapses on itself, starting at 8:59 in Stones from the Sky. All the tension of the entire album isn't released so much as it crumbles apart.

 

[MFJ]

On the subject of Agalloch...



15:20, I mean COME THE FUCK ON. Pretty much the moment which defined me as a musician.

Another one which pretty much brings tears to the eyes:



4:15, probably their best acoustic passage ever. A fitting end to the greatest album of all time.

 

[Ellestin]

15:20, I mean COME THE FUCK ON. Pretty much the moment which defined me as a musician.

Clap... Clap...

Yeah it's one of these parts that haunts you for life

 

[einride]

Clap... Clap...

Yeah it's one of these parts that haunts you for life

yep i agree with this

i also really get the bit in "stones from the sky"

i never did like "a desolation song" though

 

[NAD]

Max what did you say about A Desolation Song some years back, something like "it isn't the last track, it's the coda after the album ends." HANG ON I CAN SEARCH YE OLDE ARCHIVES:

it's an encore to the album, not a bonus track. the major piece that is "the mantle" ends and this is the folky outro that says to us "goodnight"

or something

Yes. This. Agreed. And then the bone crack happens one last time and holy shit I'm going to listen to The Mantle right now.

 

[NAD]

When the song comes full circle back into "if you didn't knooooow" at 8:22.


When the guitar solo transcends the space/time continuum at about 3:59.


When the tension is reestablished/released with those piano chords at 13:01. This entire outro slays me every time, saw them perform it live back then and it was pure magic.


Bassfuzz transition outro at 3:37......but especially when the full band hits at 3:55.


Bass lead that starts at 6:35 and dudes I didn't even know this meedly meedly part was Cliff until 2 years ago and it made me fall in love with Orion all over again like a raging hormonal teenager. I read some story that Kirk had already flown home so Cliff had to recreate guitar harmonies on bass. Neato.

 

[SonOfNun]

This is one of the greatest compositions of all time.

6:53 for a minute and then 10:50 to the end.



Also the bit in the middle of "Fossegrim" from 1:50 to 2:50

 

[Tide In Mind Out]

Ooof, this could be overload for my brain. This is how many songs become my favorite songs -- the ones I might not listen to all the way through, but still consider favorites nonetheless. What's really cool is when you find *another* great moment in a song that you'd already found the moment for, and then you're debating yourself as to which moment is better. Happened to me with Bal-Sagoth the other day, but Bal-Sagoth is too silly to post here.

 

[J.]

Also the bit in the middle of "Fossegrim" from 1:50 to 2:50

Good call. Ive never been an Empyrium fanboy. Hell, I didnt really like this album. But that 1 minute melody has stayed with me since I first heard it the year this was released. Just stuck in my head. It's time stopping stuff

 

[J.]

The one that immediately popped in my head, for whatever reason. From 2:55 - 4:20





My first exposure to Type O and a major step in my musical journey way back in 1998. I think NAD and Opeth17 will know this one. One of those songs I wish was an instrumental
1:00 - 1:25 and 2:10 - 2:34




One that really impresses me and has stuck with me since I got it. I will go around whistling this tune. And I stop what I'm doing for this entire song, but 26:15 - 28:45 get the blood pumping




I've got almost 40 Graveland CDs. And the one small part that is always with me is the first 4 minutes of this song. It's a perfect combo of Graveland and Lord Wind. At 2:34 until 3:45 where everything comes together is triumphant I tell you.

 

[Ellestin]

More later probably but these four are a place to start


00'00
So yes I'm probably cheating a little since this is not a "defining moment within a song" per se, but I guess it agrees with the purpose ITT, that very first guitar plugging sound is like a Pavlovian signal that makes my brain snap and turns me into this grinning half-beast liable to lunge at anyone within grasp and pummel their face in blast beat style - in a brotherly, nature-loving way of course.


12'21 (YouTube doens't have a video for the song "The Void Beyond", so I'm posting the full thing)
The latest Void of Silence hasn't been talked about much, yet it's one of the few recent releases - along with Nasheim's Jord och Aska - that I'm already willing to call a classic. It's a massive album, chock-full of soaring guitars, soaring keyboards, soaring vocals, maybe to the point of "beauty fatigue", as MFJ put it somewhere else. Anyway that particular part floors me every time, from the moment the guitar starts wailing, through the whole build up after this, and when the vocals kick in at 13'26, I'm ready to throw myself down the gulf of eternal pinkage.


4'10
A "lyrics" moment more than anything, because it's basically the continuation of the lethargic comfort of the whole song - hell, the whole album -, but the part starting with "Diane my muse, Diane my solitude" feels like the last seconds when you know a dream is going to end and you try with all your strength to cling to it as the contours of reality inexorably come into focus.


6'49
No big words needed. That moment where the mid-song development reverts to that incredible atmosphere leading up to the final chorus that is at the same time the abrupt end of the song. I mean, don't we all live for moments like that?

 

[SonOfNun]

Good call. Ive never been an Empyrium fanboy. Hell, I didnt really like this album. But that 1 minute melody has stayed with me since I first heard it the year this was released. Just stuck in my head. It's time stopping stuff

Empyrium makes me feel like a civilized human being.

My first exposure to Type O and a major step in my musical journey way back in 1998. I think NAD and Opeth17 will know this one. One of those songs I wish was an instrumental
1:00 - 1:25 and 2:10 - 2:34

God, that's a great song. Another one is "Wolf Moon." From around 1:00 when that riff kicks in and then Pete's vocals about ten seconds later. Always sends chills down my spine.

More later probably but these four are a place to start

4'10
A "lyrics" moment more than anything, because it's basically the continuation of the lethargic comfort of the whole song - hell, the whole album -, but the part starting with "Diane my muse, Diane my solitude" feels like the last seconds when you know a dream is going to end and you try with all your strength to cling to it as the contours of reality inexorably come into focus.

Dude yes. That whole album is a moment, but that's a particular standout. "The Desolate One" always puts me on another plane. I'll never forget sitting in the back of a van in Albuquerque, NM with Blake from Nachtmystium talking about that song.

 

[Doom]

This one never got old for me, Opeth - Black Rose Immortal:



The bit starting 11:55 after the very brief silence, up until about 14:45.

 

[einride]

glad to hear the "a deeper kind of slumber" love, i'm glad i'm not alone in realizing how great that album is

one of my most played albums of all time, bought it in 1998 and still pull it out a number of times a year. tiamat's finest moment and i'm one of the biggest tiamat guys you're likely to ever find

top 10 of all time for me, easy, and yes that bit in the title track is really, really something, i don't need to play it, i know exactly what you're talking about

Dude yes. That whole album is a moment, but that's a particular standout. "The Desolate One" always puts me on another plane. I'll never forget sitting in the back of a van in Albuquerque, NM with Blake from Nachtmystium talking about that song.

...however i feel like i need to mention that i nearly always skip "the desolate one", i think it's the one weak track on the album

 

[einride]

burzum "det som en gang var", 9:07

"vi hørte alvesang / og vann som / sildret". these few seconds in my opinion actually represent the pinnacle to this day of what metal has achieved as an artform and i say this with no hyperbole whatsoever. this album is the ultimate accomplishment, the end of the logical evolution of metal from black sabbath to burzum, this is it -- the apex. and then there's this one moment that just defines it. actual shivers down my spine every time, still, after all these years

in the woods... "299 796 km/h", 13:15

this song and album are fucking immortal in their entirety but especially this, the grand finale with the counterpoint lead guitars, especially at 13:32 when the drums briefly drop out and then come back. this reprise and conclusion is like the king crimson thing i posted earlier but more laid back. melancholy and hope mixed into one very powerful and pure statement