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Alec Olsen
Mrs. Rutan
Creative Writing
10 November 2017

Narrative Piece

Music has a very special place in my heart. While some people casually listen to music
on the radio and have a few songs on their phones, I listen to music pretty much every moment
of the day - practically religiously. Ill listen to music when Im at school, driving, or while at
home. In doing this, I listen to a large variety of artists and songs, in pretty much any genre,
every year. Each year, I find music that either disappointed me, found me wanting to pull my
own hair out (which is exactly how I feel whenever I hear that new Taylor Swift song; God is that
obnoxious), or I just found enjoyable. These 5 albums are well beyond both of those categories.
These albums blew me away, put me in an emotional state Ive never been in before, and have
push the boundaries of not just the genre they confide in, but perhaps music itself. These are
my 5 favorite albums that have come out this year.

5. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

By far the longest (and slowest) album on this list, Mirror Reaper is a very emotional,
slow listen that takes a lot of patience and close attention to detail to get through and get the full
experience.

Up until recently I hadnt heard of Bell Witch - I found out about them through Facebook
promotion. I dont normally pay attention or listen to bands I find on Facebook, but one thing
gripped my attention immediately: the album has only one song on it, and that song is 1 hour,
23 minutes, and 15 seconds long. Im a huge fan songs that exceed the 10 minutes mark, so as
soon as I saw this, I pulled up Mirror Reaper on my phone and began to listen.

This album (or just song, I guess?) is just one emotion all the way through: sadness. Its
not your typical man, my girlfriend broke up with me kind of sad. Its the watching every dog of
the face of this planet get shot kind of sad, but the emotion hits 10 times worse. Even as I have
the song playing as Im typing this paper, I feel my stomach sink as my head goes into a state of
melancholy sadness where its never been before. Listening to this makes me feel alone,
heartbroken, and hurt. What helps create this mood is the very minimal, almost nonexistent
instrumental passages throughout many parts of the album. In these sections, all you hear is the
lone bass guitar, playing a very pained, sorrowed bass line - and the emotion comes off as very
genuine, and not forced. Its almost like hes telling you what hes going through, on his
instrument, without a vocalist. Every note played during these parts, and the whole album, are
placed so perfectly. Nothing is wasted. When all the instruments come back in, they hit you like
a pickup truck on a highway - they seem to come out of nowhere. Each drum hit is like an
earthquake in my ears.
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Like I said before, Mirror Reaper is a very, VERY slow album - this isnt something you
want to listen to when you want to dance. To get through this album, patience is key. The
experience you get from being patient is very rewarding - Bell Witch add an abundance of cool
musical textures that you wont really notice if you arent paying attention.

Mirror Reaper isnt something you listen to while driving to work, or going on your
morning run. Youre sitting down, putting it on,and going through this emotional journey with the
band, as they descend into what seems like a neverending cavern, for over an hour.

Favorite Lyrics: um, there really arent lyrics to this song. The vocals are just very
distant screams and growls. Its odd. And cool.

4. Converge - The Dusk In Us

As our last album had the emotion of sadness backing it up, The Dusk In Us is almost
the complete opposite; the feeling this album gives across is similar to when youre family is
making something you absolutely LOATHE for dinner, and then you stub your toes on the couch
as you were storming away, furiously.

You know what Im talking about, dont lie.

Converge are known for being pretty off the wall when it comes to making music,
creating insane instrumentals topped with throat-shredding shrieks and screams. Despite the
seemingly basic metal formula, they actually manage to create some very interesting songs,
fronted with very poetic, powerful, and sometimes dark lyrics.

The song A Single Tear opens the album up, and from the very start you get these
speedy drum fills and quick guitar and bass passages - it feels almost dizzying. Its by far the
catchiest song on the album. Then the vocals enter, outlining themes of love for your family and
giving love to those who need it, specifically when he says Then you gifted me with such a
precious thing, a chance to be someone who deserved love. Given the vocalist recently
becoming a father, this makes sense. Under Duress starts with probably the grooviest rhythm
on the album, with the heavy bass making me want to bang my head more than ever. I Can
Tell You About Pain is for sure the darkest, and my personal favorite, song on the album. The
lyrics seem to outline an abusive and unstable relationship that this character wants to escape
from - the lyrics your dysfunction rips the roots from my heart and I just need to leave, just
have to find my way out certainly reflect this. The refrain You don't know what my pain feels
like is so powerful, and will always stick in my head.

The album isnt all head-throbbing metal, as the band slows things down on the songs
The Dusk In Us and Thousands of Miles Between Us. The Dusk In Us has spaciest vibe out
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of all the songs here - the mix feels so open in the beginning with only the guitar playing). As the
song goes deeper into its 7 minute length, we get more instruments, more wild performances,
and has the most climactic ending of all the songs on the album - lots of screams and lots of
slow, heavy guitar passages. Thousands of Miles Between Us doesnt feel as empty, as there
is more instruments throughout this song. This song features no screams and favors sung
vocals, and has some great guitar hooks in the beginning and end of the song. This song
transitions PERFECTLY into the final song, Reptilian, which has some of the best lyrics on the
whole album - depicting war and violence among man (Futile wars for fruitless words, written
by shadow kings.).

The Dusk In Us is aggressive and fast (I Can Tell You About Pain, Under Duress),
but at the same time it manages to be dynamic (A Single Tear, Thousands of Miles Between
Us) and even gentle and intimate at times (The Dusk In Us). With great lyrics and amazing
performances, this album is one for the books.

Favorite Lyrics: I swear that Im trying, I swear that Im trying, but you dont know what
my pain feels like. You dont know what my pain feels like. (I Can Tell You About Pain, The
Dusk In Us)

3. Forever - Code Orange

Much like The Dusk In Us, Forever is very aggressive and angry, but this album
seems to have a more unhinged anger to it. And anger is the name of the game here, because
this album is exactly that - its like the feeling of your family FORCING you to eat what they
made that you hate, then you BREAK your foot on that couch while storming away. Yeah, its
THAT intense.

Much like Converges last album, Forever is fast, brain-battering, and abrasive - Ill be
referring back to Converge a lot, mainly because these two albums are so similar in style. But if
theres one thing Code Orange does better than Converge, its the level of insanity and energy
they can put into a song/album. While Converge seem to have a grasp of their anger and can
control how much to emit, Forever is 35 minutes assault of guitar, drums, and vocals on the
ears. Its actually insane - theres almost no breaks.

The songs that embody what I just described perfectly are Forever, Kill the Creator,
Real, The New Reality, Spy, and No One Is Untouchable. All of these songs make me
want to bang my head, without a doubt, and for pretty much all the same reason: their speed
and quick speed changes (almost out of nowhere), the raw anger coming from the lyrics and
vocals, and the general insanity and lack of control the songs seem to have.

Now much like The Dusk In Us, Forever doesnt shy away from writing some slower
and less aggressive songs. Bleeding In The Blur is the first song to do this, and sounds like an
alternative rock song from the 90s. How they pulled this off in a hardcore metal album is
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beyond me. This, and the song dream2 (more on that one later) are the only songs to feature
sung vocals from the guitarist of the band. They sound surprisingly good and mix very well with
the instruments. While not a completely non-metal song, Ugly is another great example of
Code Orange being able to make a song that isnt 100% anger. With some great guitar lines
and some gang singing from seemingly every member of the band, its a great break from the
madness. But an even better break from the madness is the final two songs, Hurt Goes On
and dream2.Both songs feature no heavy guitars at all, no screamed vocals, and has vibes
like no other songs theyve written. Hurt Goes On has very boomy and huge drum hits backing
the almost spoken words of this song, seeming to depict hurting someone that hurt them, (I
wanna watch the lights go out, I wanna see you fade to black. I wanna feel you calling out when
no one answers back).

But by far my favorite song is the song The Mud. This song has it all: massive
chugging riffs (near the end), an eerie, off-kilter intro, and haunting verses. Oh, and lets not
forget the part where the song stops just to play static and have the words suicide repeated
over and over until the massive drums take over. Its pretty depressing.

Basically, if you enjoy your music so insane and out of control, listen to this. You wont
regret it. (Oh, and dont see these guys live if you get hurt easily. I got kicked at their shows. It
wasnt very fun.

Favorite Lyrics: THIS IS REAL NOW, MOTHERF***ER! (Real, Forever)

2. The Great Collapse - Fit For An Autopsy

I know this bands name might scare you away (as if the music already didnt do that),
but stick with me for a bit. Fit For An Autopsy made something truly new to their genre, which
isnt easy to do now-a-days.

Fit For An Autopsy is in the deathcore genre. This means youll expect a lot of fast and
aggressive drums and guitars, growled and screamed vocals, and very dark lyrics. Since the
genre's inception back in the early 2000s, its grown very stale, repetitive, and predictable.
Pretty much all the bands sound the same; theres been little to no want to change or do
anything different. And thats where The Great Collapse comes in. This album takes what
made the genre stale and morphed it to create something completely new. They add a layer of
emotional depth that completely set this album apart.
One of the main things that The Great Collapse add is singing; pretty much no album in
this style of music uses singing in their music, and when done its VERY frowned upon - they
usually come off as over dramatic, and really annoying. But on this album, they come off as very
aggressive, - because there is still quite a bit of grit in his voice when he sings - angry, and very
passionate about what hes saying.
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Where I normally discuss the music on these albums, here Im going to mainly discuss
the lyrics, because they evoke so much emotion and pain in them. Some examples are on the
songs Heads Will Hang and Black Mammoth. Both of these songs have passionate lyrics
and strong messages behind them, so it makes what hes singing even more powerful. On
Heads Will Hang, the chorus of the song seems to discuss war and thinking about how the war
affects both sides, not just the side youre on: War is now the will of your God, the profits hands
are strained and Peace is merely a gift for the privileged, safeguarded from the pain. This
indifference is pain and blood, all hands are strained. Black Mammoth seems to be discussing
oil spills in Native lands and how we are taking care of your planet: Rejoice in masses, the tribe
collapses. The mother weeps in her dying breath. Rise from the ashes, oh foul black mammoth.
Dead in spirit, now dead in flesh. The theme of destroying our planet is also prevalent on the
song When The Bulbs Burn Out, which talks about the entire planet being destroyed because
of how we treat our water: Red rivers fill the rift, poisonous pools emit, and how our air is
becoming unsafe to breathe: an atmosphere just barely not fatal. The lines feed the fire, until
it expires and when he repeats the phrase when the bulbs burn out stick in my head, and they
have for the almost year this has been released. Too Late talks about how we wait to long to
achieve our dreams and aspirations: Dreams of love, dreams of sex, dreams of joy, dreams of
peace, lie in sick-beds with sweat stained sheets. It got me thinking about what Im going to be
doing in the future, because theyre right: we cant just let our dreams sit and waste away, we
need to fulfill them.

While all of those songs were good and got people talking and thinking, I bet you didnt
expect to cry while listening to a deathcore album. Well, you are. The song Empty Still is so
dark, its hard to even type out what the themes are. This song touches on being left alone -
abandoned - by some father figure, who he never seemed to see him as with him, or a part of
his life: Leave the room, it was empty before and it is empty still. This is even further
strengthened when he says I never wanted to live in a world that wouldnt forgive me, I never
wanted a father that wouldnt forgive me. The gorgeous guitar in the background doesnt help
the fact Im trying to contain tears. The way he belts out the words Love to dust, Ive given up
makes my stomach sink.

When I first heard The Great Collapse, everything lyricly blew me away. The incredible
messages, statements, and thoughts they put through on here are amazing. Nothing feels
forced, it lets you take it in as much as you want. It made me tear up a few times, especially
during Empty Still. Please, listen to this. Hear what they have to say.

Favorite Lyrics: All your material things mean nothing, when the bulbs burns out. All
your material dreams mean nothing, when the bulbs burns out. All the oil and blood will seep
back into the mud, when the bulbs burns out. You will see what youve done as it comes
undone, when the bulbs burns out. (When the Bulbs Burn Out, The Great Collapse).

1. Clairvoyant - The Contortionist

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Ill be straight up: this album is a masterpiece. Ive never heard such mind blowing
beautiful, emotional, and thoughtful music and lyrics in my life. There isnt a single bad, or even
weak or boring, song on this album. With each listen I discover something new about each
song, making me love it even more.

To start, The Contortionist wasnt always making gorgeous rock music. When the band
formed in 2007, they were making pretty aggressive metal music, with a little touch of their soft
side thrown in; but they were an aggressive band before anything else. After a few band
member changes, they became a completely new animal. They released Language in 2014,
which added more of the beautiful parts that drew me to their music to begin with, but didnt
really stick with me for long. After a while I fell out of love with this band and didnt really listen to
them for a while.

That all changed.

There are barely any screams on this album, and where there are screams, theyre so
distant they can barely be heard. Clairvoyant is all sing, almost completely abandoning their
aggressive roots; there are a few heavy riffs, like on the title track, but thats really it. The rest is
just beautiful. The Monochrome (Passive) interlude leads masterfully into the song
Godspeed, a very fast song, full of beautiful moments with the synths and guitars. The song
Reimagined is by far the catchiest, while throwing some odd grooves at you near the end, and
ending the song almost unresolved on a weird guitar chord that left me on edge, almost wishing
they kept going. The Center starts with beautiful (Im using that word a lot, huh? Get used to it)
batch of guitar notes that lead into a swarm of synths and drums that are just euphoria to the
ears. Absolve is another catchy tune, with a chorus that wont get out of my head, no matter
how hard I try.

The songs Return To Earth and Monochrome (Pensive) are my favorites on the
album. These two seem intertwined in the album, and rightfully so; these two are about the
vocalists friend who started up a drug addiction, and died, after his mother passed away. Both
of these songs have the best instrumentals behind them and the best vocals on the whole
album (which is kinda hard to beat, seeing how everything about this album is amazing).

This is by far the best album Ive heard this year, and dare I say, the best album this
decade. The Contortionist have created something that isnt even music anymore; its an
experience all its own.

Favorite Lyrics: I gave too much, as if there was something to gain. (Godspeed,
Clairvoyant).