YOUR thoughts on Mercy Falls - THE MUSIC

[Kazar]

Hey all,

so far we have two threads regarding Mercy Falls: 'the story' and 'the reviews'.
I'm missing a thread though where WE can talk about the music of MF.
A few of us have made brief comments about MF on other threads but I thought it would be nice to share all of your 'musical-thoughts' in this thread.
I myself can't join you yet - (order shipped: ok, that is a good thing --> but are they bringing it to me in some kind of rowing boat, or what?! ) -but i'm very curious what all of you think so far!

 

[grossalex]

Must say that i fell in love with the intro from the first playtrough.
Think it´s a damn good record

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

As much as I love Waiting in the Wings, I find the music on this album to be far more consistent.

Favorite songs include:

Welcome to Mercy Falls
Unbreakable
Fall in Line
Break the Silence (guitar riff at 1:54 = excellent! the bass interlude is smooth, too!)
Hide and Seek (when I first heard it I didn't like the chorus, but now it's my favorite song on the album)
Black Parade (epic closer!)

I can't say I'm a big fan of the spoken parts (I've never liked voice acting in music), but the songs are still good. An example would be One Last Goodbye... I would just like the song better w/o the voice acting, although I know that it's part of the story.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who thinks music is far more important than lyrics, anyway.

 

[korruption]

I think the voice-overs could have been better (that doctor sounds like a robot) but I mostly love the CD... Maybe 'Unbreakable' could have had a third chorus too.

So basically:

 

[Kazar]

GOT IT!!! - not the Limited Edition from Cdinzane but the regular cd I ordered last tuesday from Lion Music --> only took a week!

After listening to it a few times today I can hounestly say that this is one of the best albums I have ever heard - it may even be the best ever.
I’m simply stunned from all the things I’ve heard on ‘Mercy Falls’. I’m a huge Dream Theater fan as well and I know that comparisons with ‘Scenes from a memory’ have been made but in my book this one’s even better.

So, ‘Mercy Falls’: first, the carcrash and some intro tunes - the piano has some nice subtle melodies here. I don’t mind the voices from the docter and especially the woman – the conversations are needed to get the story started.
‘There and back’ is an awesome overture, it sets the tone, for what is about to come, very well.
I knew the next song ‘Mercy Falls’ from the download so that felt familiar. My heart jumped for joy at the chorus from 'Unbreakable'. The softer part, later on in the song, is also very good.
'Tears for a father' is next and and I really could feel the emotion put in this song.

‘A day away’ just kicked my ass – awesome up-lifting song with a chorus to die for.
Another good emotional song entered before we got into progmetal-gear again.
‘Paradise’ and ‘Fall in line’ are extremely well-written songs. The words combined with the melodies of the latter one are very challenging. I just thought ‘what the hell is happening here?’.

It can’t get any better than this, right? Wrong.
The guys must have thought: let’s put some of the most awesome melodies ever into one song and call it ‘Break the silence’! The build-up of this song is brilliant and I just thought ‘Oh, my freekin’ God’ when one of the most beautiful music-lines I’ve ever heard came out of my speakers; “LET THE MUSIC PLAY, LET IT GO ALL THE WAY”. The layering of vocals in that part just gave me the chills.............and the chorus hadn’t even appeared yet.

‘Hide and seek’ is the next one and it is as awesome as the previous song – or is it even better? A nice long intro before Tommy’s vocals enter. Again, awesome melodies with a little of a musical vibe to it – I absolutely loved it. The build-up to the chorus is just perfect and what a chorus it is!
After that more proggy-stuff in ‘Destiny Calls’ before we come to the emotional stuff again in ‘One last goodbye’. Absolutely stunning performance from Tommy (and his sister) and only in this song I thought that the spoken words were a little out of place - there’s a beautiful melody going on in the background when the docter and the woman are speaking.
‘Back in time’is an interlude important to the story while ‘The black parade’ is the last song on ‘Mercy Falls’. This last one opens very agressive but has some happy melodies as well with an epic feeling in the chorus and especially in the keyboard-parts after that. An epic ending to an even more epic album.
Absolutely mindblowing, that is what “Mercy Falls’ is.

THANK YOU so much guys, for making this album.
The joy I feel when listening to it is just unbelievable. Your dedication in making this piece of art/music is more appreciated than you’ll ever know!!

 

[i am fabio]

Album of the year if you're asking me. I'd say that i've spun this disc all the way through about 7-8 times since i got it last week. Needless to say i can't stop listenng to it! I thought "Waiting in the Wings" was an awesome disc......this album tops it and then some.

As a couple have said. the spoken parts are the "only" thing i could have done without. And while i understand that they were needed to get the story across, i think maybe including a few dialogue parts in the CD booklet could take care of this.

Every song on this album is awesome....most are mindblowing!

"Mercy Falls" is definitly among my favorite discs EVER! I'll give it a little more time before i declare it's official ranking in my all time favorites list. Just thought i'd stop in to show my support for SW, and let the band know that buying this album looks to be one of my best moves of this lifetime.

 

[fire_angel]

Destiny Calls, while not overly likeable at first, quickly became my favourite on the album. I just wish it was a bit longer and had a substantial solo in it.

One Last Goodbye is my least favourite track. I can see what the guys were trying to do with it, but i don't think the harmonies match up as well as they should, and there is just something significant missing from it to be a really strong track.

Otherwise, the album is brilliant from start to finish. I honestly love every track, and think it's a stronger release than WitW, if that's even possible

 

[Taliwakker]

^ Do you reckon that that the apple thieving bastard best friend in the story is you?

 

[fire_angel]

Hey, i'd never steal an apple.

 

[Traver]

I'm sorry to say this, but for some reason it strikes me as a bit weaker than Waiting In The Wings. I really don't know why. There are just so many immense moments on WITW, and I feel there are very few of these in MF, and I feel that the dialogue parts disrupt the flow of the music somewhat. I guess one of the reasons is also that one thing I always loved about SW was the very prominent bass (I mean, on Become you even had the bass drowning out the guitars here and there, not the other way around!), but on MF the bass is harder than ever to pick out.
It's still one heck of an album, but I guess I had just expected that little bit more from the successor to WITW.

 

[SonataFanatica]

You seriously think so, Traver? In my opinion Waiting In The Wings is A LOT weaker than Mercy Falls. I hadn't known Seventh Wonder before Mercy Falls so it was the first one I checked out - and now I'm trying to approach Waiting In The Wings and Become, but neither of them strikes me in any way!!

I absolutely adore the "voice acting" (if you want to call it that) and the thus created fact that the immersive story completely captivates you from the first second of the album to the last. It's almost as if you're living the same situations yourself!! The album strikes me emotionally like almost no other album before - in an enthusiastic as well as tear-driving way!

I wish the previous albums would do the same for me as for you guys out there but they simply don't.

The others just don't have the same emotional impact as Mercy Falls has. I'm gonna try further but I don't think they'll grow all too much on me...

I really can't (read: am not able to!!) listen to any other album at all!! There are plenty of new releases waiting to be discovered but I simply can't stop listening to Mercy Falls!! I listen to a song from another band, then another song but then I have to insert Mercy Falls into my CD player again - and be flooded with enthusiasm!!

I just have to quote Kazar here: "The joy I feel when listening to it is just unbelievable."
Amen to that, man!

 

[Kazar]

Yep, and nothing has changed my opinion so far.

- and be flooded with enthusiasm!!

ABSOLUTELY!
DAMN, WHAT A RECORD IT IS!!

Sonata,
of course, i'm not trying to force you to like 'WITW' but give it some time, my german friend..... this one's a masterpiece as well!!
Do you have the 8-track album or do you have the one with 'Pieces' on it?
'Pieces' is a brilliant soft song with a LOT of emotion in it. Also the soft middle part in 'Devil's Inc' is absolutely awesome in my opinion.
Personally, I do get sucked into the stories so the emotional impact is definately there for me..... for example, 'The edge of my blade' has an awesome story in which i can almost feel the hate of the boy towards his father's/family's murderer.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Taint the Sky, Edge of my Blade, Banish the Wicked, Star of David... these are must-listens from WITW. Never been a huge fan of the title track, though.

Mercy Falls is far more consistent, though. The strong tracks on MF kick your ass just as hard as the tracks above, but there's more of them!

Welcome to Mercy Falls
Unbreakable
A Day Away
Fall in Line
Break the Silence
Hide and Seek
The Black Parade

...they're all excellent.

 

[SonataFanatica]

Sonata,
of course, i'm not trying to force you to like 'WITW' but give it some time, my german friend..... this one's a masterpiece as well!!
Do you have the 8-track album or do you have the one with 'Pieces' on it?
'Pieces' is a brilliant soft song with a LOT of emotion in it. Also the soft middle part in 'Devil's Inc' is absolutely awesome in my opinion.
Personally, I do get sucked into the stories so the emotional impact is definately there for me..... for example, 'The edge of my blade' has an awesome story in which i can almost feel the hate of the boy towards his father's/family's murderer.

I'm definitely continuing to try. At the moment I must confess I don't own the originals of WITW or Become but I already ordered them from LionMusic along with some Mercy Falls Special Editions! (

) I hope they'll arrive soon so I can really enjoy them (in my opinion, MP3s f%$&ing suck)!

A friend told me I, as a Sonata Arctica fan, should start with "Not An Angel" - well... the track didn't do that much for me but if the album 'lasts' so long as a masterpiece as you say, I'm a little more optimistic now.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

A friend told me I, as a Sonata Arctica fan, should start with "Not An Angel"

Eh... never cared for that one too much. The music's cool but the vocals aren't my cup of tea.

 

[tommidt]

Well, my few thoughts about this AMAZING piece of music after quite several spins...

I have been a metal music fan from since 1980´s and Images & Words was THE album that turned me towards the world of prog-metal. Since then there has been only a few albums in that category that have been absolutely mindblowing to me. Scenes from DT was one for example. Now after hearing "Mercy Falls" it has immediately become one of my all-time favourites in any music. This album just grabs you right from the beginning and won´t let you go until the last note of The Black Parade. And after that you just have to listen the whole album again.

MF contains all the aspects I enjoy in metal/hard-rock music today. Great musicianship, classy arrangements, classy and tasty soloing/shredding, great vocals, extremely catchy choruses, great production and on top of it all, awesome vocals. I can say the same many have said before me that this album is among the classics in this genre among DT´s Scenes From A Memory and the alikes.

Thank you SW for creating this ear candy. I really hope your success will grow to the levels you totally deserve after creating this masterpiece!

 

[heavym]

I normally never register in these type of forums. In order to try to encourage seventh wonder i had to make an exception. My english skills is somewhat limited so I just want to say that this album (and witw as well for that matter) is fantastic, amazing and every other superlativ you can imagine.

I listen to a lot of music and there is no other band that gives me the same shivers. Can not wait for a chance to see you perform live.

 

[Kazar]

I normally never register in these type of forums. In order to try to encourage seventh wonder i had to make an exception. My english skills is somewhat limited so I just want to say that this album (and witw as well for that matter) is fantastic, amazing and every other superlativ you can imagine.

I listen to a lot of music and there is no other band that gives me the same shivers. Can not wait for a chance to see you perform live.

.......Yes, I can clearly see that your english is very limited.................


Welcome, enjoy your stay!

 

[TheWicked]

I adore and love the music, but think the lyrics sometimes falls through and are bit to "imature" and easylistening.
Sounds stupid to say that the lyrics could be more complicated, but dont know anyway else to put it.
Perhaps more usage of synonyms and word-play would make this album even greater
but dont get me wrong! I think the lyrics work out nice most of the time, its just sometimes.
what do you guys think?

 

[TheWicked]

Sonata,
of course, i'm not trying to force you to like 'WITW' but give it some time, my german friend..... this one's a masterpiece as well!!
Do you have the 8-track album or do you have the one with 'Pieces' on it?
'Pieces' is a brilliant soft song with a LOT of emotion in it. Also the soft middle part in 'Devil's Inc' is absolutely awesome in my opinion.
Personally, I do get sucked into the stories so the emotional impact is definately there for me..... for example, 'The edge of my blade' has an awesome story in which i can almost feel the hate of the boy towards his father's/family's murderer.

Agreed, Pieces is such a diffrent song than the rest of the album, but my god it's powerful and stunning! A song that really puts Tommy's talent up on display again, and beautifully delivered piano playing by Johnny