Metal Reviews

Sometimes, when I'm listening to music, I can't help but see visions that animate the music better than any artwork EVER could.

For example, Thy Catafalque's 'Neath Waters comes from an album with little un-noteworthy album art, but the song makes me picture beautiful corpses, beneath waters, in the most beautiful shallows of a forest surrounded body of water. It's dark, night only like Hollywood, dreams, or an amazing artist could manufacture. I've only seen night atmospheres in natural enviroments a few times. It was only by chance that I'd be in a place like that. Anyway, a specific image of a stone dead beauty (female) just beneath the depths of a slow moving stream catches my eye. I approach this miraculous find, knee deep in the soft flowing waters, and knowing she must still be alive, or very fresh, I reach down, and grab nothing. She's not real, or so I conclude before being pulled beneath, to another place in waters far more depthy. Fully submerged, I follow her ghostly image through the nautical dimension she's taken me to. The water, though dark by night, is lit by perfect moonlight. Or maybe it's not moonlight... May it is her soul, and the souls of the many like her that are unmoving, seemingly frozen in place all around us. I don't wanna debate the light, I'm just happy to see, and for that matter, I'm happy to be untouched by the burden of a human need for oxygen. Where she takes me is incredibly hidden... Submerged caverns, maze like. I don't really know what to imagine at the end. All I know, is that when I see it, I somehow understand (to an extent) the mystery of this place. Then I wake up lakeside, far from where I began, at the edge of the forest. The trees closest to me are lit with torches attached head level on the trunks. They form a path, uphill, and I follow that untill they lead me where I want to go. Where I need to go.

Everything is so vivid, and beyond what I ever imagined before, so all I know is that I want to see everything again. And so, I repeat the song. (Something I rarely do. ) Something important to note, it is not me that takes this journey. It is someone else whose eyes I borrow. This increases the mystery for me, because I always try to imagine some connection between the eyes and the events observed.

So, share with me, and everyone else, some of the vivid pictures you envision whilst listening to songs that aren't just for the ears.

Anything by Agalloch (windy valley), Disillusion (some sort of huge panning landscapes with volcanoes and explosions), or Canvas SOlaris (space)

Summoning is very visual. I see all kinds of majestic winter landscapes when listening to Stronghold in particular.

hmmmmmmm....

taake makes me think of forests....

ill post more when i can think of them, and in more detail. i must listen to some music to get the images.....

Interesting post OFC! I feel that the guy behind Thy Catafalque is very strong in evoking these scenes. His other project, named after himself (Kátai Tamás) shows this even stronger. It's not metal, but some songs really give me the feeling of flying over the mountains like a bird. Brilliant music it surely is!

Let me be the 3rd person to mention Katai Tamas. The man is simply a genius. He's the best in giving you visions.

A lot of music has specific colours for me, but I rarely get a full image.

Ok, this is going to sound weird, but when i listen to Arcturus's Aspre hiems symphonia, i see some weird shit. i feel like the world has gone a weird shade of green, not matrix style but more like the cover, but more of a weird blue-ish green, that seems to be coming from a light source. Its kind of like ive gone into space or something. I feel like im floating in another dimension (which is a weird green) while arcturus plays.

And i see beatiful red roses that are just sooooo red????? (I have no idea why i see this)

And, because of the very strange use of keyboards, i also imagine Doctor who. The synths really remind of that shows theme song in old series' (And doctor who always reminds of space and gives me a weird sense of mystery). The keyboard sound is just spacey to me.

So when i listen to arcturus, i go to a place in space that is green, mixed with some black as well, with a weak light source coming from somewhere. its in space but it has no stars. so i guess another dimension suits.

And the roses are in front of a brick wal??????? (I have n idea where this comes from)

hmm, here's a few

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn (side 1)

I know that this isn't a particularly martial piece of music but it puts me in the front ranks of an army marching across lush meadows, and bursting into a charge in the last two minutes.

obviously Holst's Planets Suite is ultra-evocative of exactly what it's meant to be evocative of. Mars is totally iconic..

Jean-Michel Jarre - Revolution Industriele parts one to three

..is a better portrait of dystopia than a thousand tech-death albums.

finally, King Crimson - Lizard drops me into a world of heroic fantasy and intrigue. and jazz.

mostly I find that melody is what hijacks my thoughts and suggests images to me.. listening to more rhythmic pieces is cause for introspection and just helps me think.

Imagining dead women ist gay. What are you all, epileptic or something?

Yeah, Bathory makes me see vikings and stuff.

Impressive visions NFAE. I have never 'seen' music where the visions had an actual storyline. Although Neath Waters blows me away to distant worlds as well..

A lot of music is more than just an audible experience for me. One of the most prominent albums is Drudkh's Autumn Aurora. Most of the songs have me flying over plains, lakes and forests in autumn. Sometimes I can almost feel the cool air on my face. The only song on the album that doesn't provoke these visions is The First Snow, which has me alone and frozen in a more wintry setting. A landscape of snow, frozen lakes and trees with icicles hanging from their crowns.

Needless to say that I enjoy this kind of music thoroughly..

Yup! Autumn Aurora also makes me think of forests in autumn




Lol

many songs of Eels make me wanna leave everything behind and roam across the world :?

a few BG albums make me feel like a was truly Fingon :roll:
and almost every Manowar song makes me want to grab a battle-axe and start chopping heads :twisted:

oh yeah.... Vinterriket and Paysage D'hiver makes me think ov winter, coldness and shitty weather... almost too obvious though

Lunar Aurora's A Haudiga Fluag...

I picture nothing of nature here. Instead, I picture the coolest futuristic city, dark, but dimly lit. Lit in all the places a city should be. It's pristine. Not a jumble. The buildings are of different height, and seemingly endless in number, but they are very similar. Only the occasional tacky structure stands out here and there. There are roads that swerve above ground level, and speedy vehicles that travel them, like a futuristic racing game. Anyway, the opening of the song really paints the city for me. It is a desolate place, despite being over populated. It is a paradox. A seemingly impossible city, possessed by a future's obscure beauty. It is spring. There are always clouds, and it is always raining heavily. As the song progresses, so does my venture into the depths of the imagined city, until I reach what seems like the center, a structure that looks like a "bio-lab" core. This structure reaches beyond the clouds. With a tremendous blast of lightning, I end up within this structure, that is dark inside, lit only by the likes of glowing green and blue technology, and of course, the lightning. Enormous bolts of lightning that are without thunder. Silent lightning. When the samples of voices come, I imagine the banter of the live inhabitants, who busy themselves around the emotionally dead creatures that they congregate around. Scientists around their creations. Finally, when the song comes to it's beautiful, but vocally disturbing conclusion, I picture the creatures, screaming in torment. They hate to exist. Strapped down or contained, their oscure screams progress into more peaceful ones. They finally repeat "A haudiga fluag" in their deeper, more subdued and more content cries... They slowly begin to accept their birth, though it is a slow progress.

That's it.

I'll post more and more until you all hate reading them.

Hrmm Interesting that you mention this... albums will generally evoke a certain color for me as well, but never a full fledged vision. Shit even when I was taking dissociatives in large doses I never saw anything special. Sounds to me like some of these people are bat shit hippies.

I do on the other hand try to conciously imagine a scene to go with whatever I'm listening to sometimes, but it's more like "hrmm what would a music video for this be like" more than "eww wow I see forests."

Metal isn't supposed to evoke visions and dreams anyway, it should make you feel lonely and dead inside, goddamnit!!!! :twisted:

I ain't no hippie! I'm fucking living clean, dammit! But, will say that this shit just pops into my head, no video concepts, just happens during my enjoyment of the songs. Don't know about other people.

from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060225.wxposner25/BNStory/Science/home:

Interesting... Lemme read the entire article, but I think I get "The Point."

I just thought it was interesting, too.. however the article is a bit light on the scientific details and I'm not sure if it can be used to explain a greater propensity for visualization.