NIGHT CASTLE

I already encountered T-SO once, even their first album. And I was quite afraid because of what I heard. Rockin' the X-Mas, that's not my cup of tea, not my dream about how prog should look like. Never worked with Neal Morse before, I don't like this Christmas madness things.

But I'm horrified here again. This is simple rock, fortunately not X-M rock (please, no more of these, why I should want to listen music for season? why anybody should want to). For example Night Enchanted sounds exactly as from Rhapsody's album (guess which one, guess which song), Spark is the most prominent rock example, even with this raspy voice (nothing against raspies, but with these guitars, it's obvious), solos reminds me of some publicly loved TV series like Friends.

I still don't know if I should cry, or laugh myself of the chair to the cold ground and think there in peace about better future. No, this is just too much for. Metal opera, that's OK, we all know these. But rock opera, it sounds simply funny. And rewriting classical songs worked well with "Beggars Opera", but not here.

Somebody wise (irony) gave this 5 stars. I ask: "why 5, why so much. Where are the reasons why to rate this high.". OK, I don't ask at all, but I rather ask myself if there's something that gives reasons to rate this high. And I instantly answers to myself.

2(+), there is nothing worth of interest. I though that it's because of their Christmas themes, but in this release, this excuse of theirs is no longer valid.

Very disappointed.

Not much has been said about this album yet, so I hope to be able to inform those curious if Trans-Siberian Orchestra's new album is worth purchasing.

Fans of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, including myself, have been eagerly awaiting this album for some time. Expectations were high, for a variety of reasons.

For one, their previous two albums (Beethoven's Last Night, and Lost Christmas Eve) had been their best to date. Beethoven's Last Night, in particular, had been stellar because it was good year round instead of just around Christmas time. Furthermore, it had had a better story than any of their Christmas album, and arguably their best music and vocals. It had truly been an inspired album, and it was what lead me to this band and made me interested enough to buy each and every one of their Christmas albums, although none of them were quite as good as it was.

This one, not being a Christmas album, was also an exciting feature.

And on top of that, this album had been pushed back over a year so they could continue to perfect it and make it better. What we ended up was unique among Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums. It was two discs, where all their other albums had been only one, and at the end, there were five tracks that had nothing to do with the story.

This album arrived in my hands three days after it had been officially released, and I had to listen to it immediately. I found the packaging to be a mixed bag. I loved the look of their previous albums, and the way they looked side by side; they really looked like they matched (even Beethoven's Last Night seemed to fit with their previous work). So having a new logo made the album look a little less cohesive with their previous albums, and the new logo is a bit more plain, in my opinion.

The cover art itself is great (and gains an additional emotional impact after you know the story), although the high amounts of cold colours make it stand out less than their previous covers on its own.

Inside, there are some more beautifully drawn pictures, including an image of Erasmus (one of the characters in the story) tossing letters out his window. They add a lot of appeal to the packaging, but best of all is the booklet, which has over 60 pages of lyrics and outlining the plot. The cover of the booklet is also quite beautiful.

The story in this one follows similar motifs that their Christmas albums did, with heroic characters and human characters with flaws that discover the errors of their ways. It is perhaps the best execution they have had of this type of story, and is a fair contender with the story of Beethoven's Last Night.

The Music - Short version

The music on this album does not reach the lofty heights we had come to expect in the previous two albums. It is still strong, but at the end it seems to draw out, when the story could easily have fit in a single disc, giving us a second disc of bonus tracks. This would have been preferred, but overall, it still has what most Trans-Siberian Orchestra fans have come to expect: theatric music, a nice story, epic moments, great instrumentals.

The Music: Detailed

The album starts with Night Enchanted, which pretty much demonstrates everything that fans of the band had hoped to find in the album. Here we have a big, theatrical, orchestral song with operatic vocals, energetic musicianship, and some heaviness. Many fans got a preview of this song on their 2008 tour, but it still sounds amazing to hear it starting off the album.

Next is Childhood dreams, where we are introduced to one of the characters of the story. It is not quite as strong as the opener, but it moves the story along nicely, leading into Sparks. Sparks is a nice rock song, and although I would hesitate to say there is anything progressive about it, it is definitely a nice part of the album. The Mountain brings us, once again, to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's strong point: heavy instrumental adaptations of classic pieces. This one is on par with previous adaptations they had done.

Night Castle is another rocking song, driving the story forward in a catchy manner. It leads into "The Safest Way to Tomorrow",which is pretty typical of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's first two albums. It is essentially a dialogue song, and while the instrumentation is pleasant, it is nothing interesting, and the song outlasts the listeners interest without conveying the emotion they are trying to hit with their lyrics. A Trans-Siberian Orchestra album can typically hold one or two of these songs without being dragged down too much, as their songs are generally short.

Mozart and Memories is another nice instrumental piece, although this one is a little weaker then The Mountain. It does feature some nice strings near the end, however, where the mountain was more of a guitar-oriented track.

Another Way You Can Die is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's first attempt at mixing rap-style vocals with their music. It actually works quite well for the song (which is supposed to occur during the war scene), and leads nicely into Toccata, which is another great, heavy-guitar based instrumental piece with a lot of energy.

The Lion's Roar starts with a military horn playing sad-sounding music, which is appropriate for this part of the story, as one of the main characters has just been captured by enemy troops. It develops into a heavy guitar part with military drumming, but the ending kind of loses the energy.

At this part, the best part of the story, in terms of events, is told, and what happens next is basically how certain characters meeting each other react to each other. Reading the booklet as you listen to this part, it actually remain pretty interesting, especially if you love character-based storytelling (which I do). Unfortunately, the next handful of songs are (with some exceptions) not quite as good as what has been in the album up to this point. They follow the same formula as The Safest Way Into Tomorrow, being vehicles for exposition and dialogue, where they attempt to convey emotion through the lyrics. I find this kind of music to be rather flat, and although the songs do have some catchy parts, overall, until the end of the disc, the music takes a mostly downward turn at this point.

Mother and Son is a perfect example of this. If you are reading the booklet as you listen, then it has a pretty good emotional hit, but otherwise, it's gibberish without any music (unless you speak Chinese or whatever language the voices are speaking). There Was a Life demonstrates exactly why this type of song is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's weakest ... it follows the exact same formula as Dreams We Conceive: Vocals singing with emotion, with a sudden build up with a guitar building up volume underneath, and then a loud chorus, followed by more lyrics.

The fact that this type of song got so much play on this album disappoints me. On Beethoven's Last Night, they had similar moments, where characters had revelations or expositioned their emotions, but it worked well there because they did interesting things musically (think Mephistopheles' Return). They did not rely on formulaic song structure and overwrought vocals to attempt to make up the emotion lost by the flat music. Given the extra time that they took to record this album, you would think that the band had had time to improve these pieces. There Was a Life is particularly painful, as it is almost ten minute songs, but sounds tired after about two minutes.

Disc 2 attempts to recover with Moonlight and Madness, which is another excellent instrumental, featuring more piano then their previous instrumentals on this album. It is not quite as good as Wish Liszt (Toy Shop Madness) from The Lost Christmas Eve, but it is still an excellent song. Unfortunately, Time Floats On finds is another mediocre exposition song again, albeit with a catchy bit in the middle. Epiphany is slightly better, having a bit more energy and a neat break in the middle, feeling less formulaic than the others. It is still too long, again at ten minutes long. Unfortunately, even the story seems to be grinding to a halt as we listen to these songs. We've gone from covering a war and battle in three songs (with two instrumentals), to listening to seven songs about how two characters reacted to each other with only two instrumentals in that break (and the second one, Bach Lullaby, is really rather short and not too interesting). To be fair other stuff happens in the story, but this part of the album is a bit overlong, and could easily have been trimmed, and some of that space could have been used to tell other parts of the story.

For example, multiple pages of story happen between Bach Lullaby and Father, Son & Holy Ghost, yet Father, Son... only covers the results of all of that. Surely we could have had some more music about that instead?

The end of the album is almost as overdrawn. What could have been done in a song or two is done instead in four. I think this may have been a result of the 2 disc format; the band felt obligated to fill the CDs up, and included more material than they really had, tossing in extra exposition to fill it in. It is a shame, as it lessens the value of this album. Without the slower parts, if the story continued to move as swiftly as it did initially, this album could have been almost as good as Beethoven's Last Night; the story was certainly strong enough, and it certainly had enough good moments. As it stands, the story part of the album fall short of that lofty mark.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is actually a pretty good song, with some good female vocals (the album might have benefited from more of these, for the two main male vocalists sounded almost the same, further making the exposition feel longer) and nice instrumental bits. Remnants of a Lullaby is pleasant, if unnecessary. The Reprise of The Safest Way Into Tomorrow is also unnecessary, but thankfully short. Embers passes by quietly, and it is a nice quiet way to end the album, if not as good as A Final Dream on Beethoven's Last Night.

The album could easily have been one disc with 14 songs, and been superior to what we got instead. I would outline the track listing as:

1.Night Enchanted 2. Childhood Dreams 3. Sparks 4. The Mountain 5. Night Castle 6. The Safest Way Into Tomorrow 7. Mozart and Memories 8. Another Way You Can Die 9. Toccata - Carpimus Nocturn 10. The Lion's Roar 11. Moolight and Madness 12. Epiphany 13. Father, Son & Holy Ghost 14. Embers

The band could then have put the bonus tracks on a seperate disc, which would have been much better, as they would have been appropriately separated from the story, instead of jammed onto a disc after it.

The bonus tracks themselves are pretty good, except for Believe which sounds pretty boring to me. Child of the Night has nice, child-like choir vocals, which is nice. Carmina Burana is good, although it sounds like a worse version of the classical version (where Trans-Siberian Orchestras adaptations usually sound like their own distinct versions). Nutrocker is the closest thing they have to a Christmas song on this album, and wouldn't sound out of place on any of their Christmas albums. Tracers is a good song, although not one of their best instrumentals.

Overall, I'd give this album three stars. I expected more from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but although this album is flawed, it does contain a lot of good stuff. It could have been four stars if it had been a little tighter.

The long awaited double album by the TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA was released this week just before they embark on their 2009 tour which includes an impressive 138 shows.

If you're a fan of the band, getting the actual CD is recommended on this one. Comes in a double digi-pack with 68 page booklet, double CD. We've grown accustomed to a full story and detailed booklet from band leader Paul O'Neill and this one does not disappoint.

Band consists of over 25 musicians including Paul O'Neill, Chris Caffery, Alex Skolnick, Al Pitrelli, Johnny Lee Middleton, Jeff Plate, Anna Phoebe, Robert Kinkle. Writing credits are dominiated by O'Neill and Oliva, with contributions by Pitrelli, Caffery, along with Mozart, Chopin, Orff, Beethoven, Grieg and Bach.

The double album includes a mesh of genres with Theatrical type pieces, intense vocal - piano performances, a great acoustic guitar track, and of course, some heavy rockers. The first few tracks set the stage of the story of the 7 year old and her wise grandfather, full story is quite interesting and worth taking a read. Then on track 4, "The Mountain", the Savatage in TSO crawls out with a nod back to the classic "HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING"! Very cool. Other Savatage "moments" include "Mozart and Memories (from Dead Winter Dead album), and "Believe" (first appearing on the "Streets A Rock Opera").

There a number of high energy "classical / Rock- metal" pieces TSO is famous for, including Bach's Toccata - Carpimus Noctem, Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King, Mozart on Mozart and Memories, Beethoven and Chopin on Moonlight and Madness, Orff's famous Carmina Burana, and what I consider the "hit anthem" on this record "NUTROCKER".

Overall a 9/10.

Antonio // LoudTrax.com

This year we are graced by reunion of Transatlantic and the release of TSO's new album. Both are long, long overdue and fans have high expectation. In the case of TSO, the band has claimed at some points during the 7 year hiatus (sorry I'm not the US and any of their thousand of christmas tours is irrelevent to me) that the album was delayed due to some sort of perfectionism of the band's masterminds.

Well, production-wise this album is as perfect as can be; the mixes are crisp and the three fold digipak seems good. Two bad things about the packaging are that the cover art looks really ugly, and the CD falls off the left slot far too often.

Composition-wise, Night Castle seems to suffer a creative block. The story is great (but with some flaws), but the music doesn't seem to wander very far. Only a few moments in the two disks promise brilliance such as the Child of the Night section in the first track "Night Enchanted" which is so haunting and reprises nicely near the end. The rest is too repetitive and many of the songs seem to drag on to oblivion. Another thing I don't get in this album is, the drive for O' Neil and Oliva to resurrect Savatage pieces. "The Mountain" is a Hollywood-ish remake version of Prelude to Madeness in Hall of the Mountain King. This "new" version suffers the untimely death of Cris Oliva and it is a note-for-note reproduction of the original version, but the speed is reduced for some reasons. There are a few more examples of this, but I just don't want to go back and listen to it too much. In short, musically it's not progressive.

Now the story. this young soldier comes across and mystic island and Dumbledore-like character who gives him a gift. He then goes on to fight the war in Cambodia and is captured and eventually dies. However, whilst in captive he writes some lullabies for his newborn daughter in the US, floats them in the bottles to the river. In the investigation he tells his life story and the strange encounter to a communist general and in the process turns this man to see the evil side of the war. This general, finally gathers the bottled messages and goes to the USA to deliver them to the US soldier's daughter, then he leaves to find the enchanted island. Long story, eh? Here comes a sad truth; there is no focus in the story! In Classical Drama class one learn to pay respect to the classical unities (time, place, and action). Beethoven's last night achieved this, but Nightcastle seems to lose track of this, and therefore does not make much sense as a thetrical piece. The writer might have rather than followed Hollywood movie structure in mind. The communist general may seem the most well-rounded character but sadly too little research has been conducted into the cultural beliefs of Cambodian (well, not all Asians are Chinese, and Confucianism is practically inherent with Chinese). There is also a cold-war stereotype that all communist is evil.

I can't give this as much credit as Beethoven's Last Night, which was truly amazing and has a wonderful mix of vocalists, thanks for the amazing vocalists who contributed to that album, which makes it a good 'rock-opera' piece. If you want to explore TSO, go for Beethoven's Last Night instead. This CDs are good, but not essential.

Night Castle by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

A sound that was exciting almost twenty years ago despite any sense of subtlety is now officially old hat enough to be dull. The aspects that made TSO so interesting in the 90s, their ability to rock out the classics in the context of a story or two is all but gone. What we get is an endless series of plodding power ballads and triteness intermixed with classic pieces usually played delicately but which also have no real place in the story. Whatever that story may. I can't tell what it is about. At least with their first two albums, Christmas Eve and Other Stories along with Beethoven's Last Night, the classical interludes fit in and enhanced the stories being told. And even though this is not a Christmas album, it might as well be with all its references to childhood and "this night." The story seems quite a bit darker than their usual holiday fare, but then their other albums are not exactly full of light brightness. A Christmas story can be dark. I am reading the second Christmas novella written by Charles Dickens called The Chimes, and it is very dark indeed. Yet it is also effective, something which Night Castle is not. The biggest problem is the sheer size of the release. At two solid hours, it is at least one hour too long, perhaps an hour and a half. There are some good pieces here and not all are the classical interludes. The presence of bonus tracks also presents some problems. If these come on the release they are not bonuses. They are, however, tracks that are not part of the story, so I guess they had to be called something. That one of them is a version of Nutrocker, only confuses the issue. Eliminating these five would give a halfway decent album which could have easily fit on one disc even if it would be far from their best. It would have been better to use these five recordings on a further release, but then that would not be telling a story. To be honest, that should not present a problem since their story telling is obscure and scattered at best. A solid half hour of good tunes could be extracted from this but none of them will be anything new for TSO; they just demonstrate what the band does best. The production is lavish and quite good, with good performances all around. But good production without good material does not a good album make. This is not a good album, especially given that several of the better tracks are the bonuses and these are rocked-out classics. Long passages go by which sound more like a group of hired singers and symphonies than a band production. Now, that has always been a distinctive characteristic of TSO, but at least on earlier releases there was a band squarely in the middle of all that. Here, they are just one part of the proceedings, and usually the best parts. This is an album that presents all that can and has gone wrong with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and almost none of what they do best. Some of it deserves to be heard, but one has to trudge through endless dreary corridors of the night castle to find them. When found, they offer relief from the drudgery but are really not the jewels one would hope for.

Mystic Mamba Review #1: TSO - Night Castle

For my first ever review on Prog Archives, I'm going to be talking about an album that's very special to me. I've been a loyal fan of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for more than half of my life. Furthermore, Night Castle was the album responsible for getting me into the world of prog, as it inspired my mother to introduce me to Yes (keep in mind that I'm only 20 years old at the time of this review). But you don't want to hear about me, so let's dive right in to this massive album. I will attempt to be as non-biased as possible.

What do I like about this album?

Night Castle is a double concept album, meaning there is a lot of music to absorb here (more than 2 hours). There is also a very detailed story that goes along with the album. If you're going to listen to the album all the way through for the first time, then you absolutely have to follow along with the story booklet. It simply isn't the same emotional experience with just the music. With that in mind, I'm not going to be revealing the details of the story in this review; that is for the individual listener to discover.

It should be noted that Night Castle (as with most TSO albums) can be clearly divided into two categories of songs: instrumentals and non-instrumentals. The strongest moments on this album definitely occur in (most of) the instrumental tracks, so I'll talk about them first. Also worth mentioning is the fact that TSO has around 20 musicians covering 5 instruments, so it's very hard to tell who is playing what at any given moment.

The Memorable Instrumentals:

"The Mountain" is a dark and ominous piece with a remarkably heavy tone throughout. The song is a reworking of Savatage's "Prelude to Madness". It features some insane guitar solos, and is one of the most iconic tracks on the album.

"Mozart and Memories" is one of the album's proggiest songs, featuring tempo changes and brief moments in 7/4 time. The piano and strings really take center stage in this piece. It doesn't have as much of an intense impact as "The Mountain", but its diversity and dreamy atmosphere make it my favorite track on the first disc.

"Toccata" is another heavy song filled with shredding. Frequent tempo changes keep things alive and interesting in this all-too-short piece of prog metal goodness.

"Moonlight and Madness" opens the second disc, and what an adventure it is! Beginning with an excellent Beethoven piano solo, the song transitions into a dark prelude before the main song kicks in. Such a cool piece!

"Embers" is the final track in the main story, and is a very pleasant acoustic guitar piece.

"Nutrocker" (bonus track, originally arranged by ELP) is just all around fun, and has a few brilliant keyboard solos. Of all the songs on the album, this one has the most Christmas vibes.

"Tracers" (bonus track) is the big prog jam that finishes off the album. The highlight has to be the quiet interlude where acoustic guitars and strings shine through. It might be the best instrumental on the album, however it does lack the tempo changes that make songs like "Toccata" and "Moonlight and Madness" so great.

Now on to the non-instrumentals, many of which are quite excellent. Since this is a rock opera, many different singers are present. All of them are fantastic vocalists without a doubt, but many people criticize TSO vocals as being too cheesy. The singing style really is "love it or hate it", but personally I find the vocals to be quite enjoyable. Only Tim Hockenberry's raspy voice grinds my gears here and there.

The Memorable Non-Instrumentals:

"Night Castle", sung by the brilliant Jeff Scott Soto, almost sounds like something out of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is quite operatic, and features a fun keyboard solo followed by a quiet ending section.

"Another Way You Can Die", another JSS piece, is absolutely the heaviest non-instrumental on the album. It is complex and intense, utilizing multiple tempo changes to its advantage.

"Dreams We Conceive", yet again featuring the vocals of Mr. Soto, is a very emotional rock ballad. It might not have the structural variation of the some of the other songs, but it is a much needed break after several heavy tracks in a row.

"Time Floats On", the final JSS song, appears to be just another ballad at first. However, this song has a very unexpected instrumental bridge with fantastic piano work.

"Epiphany", sung by Rob Evan, is the crowning jewel of the entire album. This is an outstanding 11 minute prog ballad that doesn't get boring for a single second (at least for me). I would have to say that this is my personal favorite TSO song as of this review. Like I said earlier, knowing the story is an absolute must for truly feeling the emotion within this song. The brief choir parts are particularly fantastic.

"Father, Son & Holy Ghost", sung by Jennifer Cella, begins calmly with just piano and vocals. However, 2.5 minutes in the song becomes dark and angry, before returning to a calm state at the end. This is another song that is very much enhanced by the story.

"Child of the Night" (bonus track), sung by Alexa Goddard and Valentina Porter, is the most beautiful and relaxed song TSO has ever arranged. Using only strings and vocals, it is a very ethereal piece.

"Carmina Burana" (bonus track) is a metal rendition of Carl Orff's "O Fortuna", and the choir sounds completely epic on this track. It is a shame that such an excellent piece of music is only 3 minutes long.

What do I dislike about this album?

With the sheer quantity of music present here, there are bound to be filler and/or subpar songs on this album, and that is indeed the case. Now, there aren't too many things that I truly dislike about Night Castle, but there are definitely criticisms worth mentioning. Most are simply minor complaints.

The Subpar Tracks:

"Night Enchanted" is a great opening track, and I love the choir vocals. However, I found it entirely unnecessary for the song to literally repeat itself after the short "Child of the Night" interlude. It merely makes the album longer than it needs to be.

"Childhood Dreams" and "The Safest Way Into Tomorrow", both sung by Jay Pierce, aren't terrible, but they seem like such simple rock songs compared to so many of the others. The latter of the two does have a very nice guitar solo.

"Sparks", sung by Tim Hockenberry, is not bad at all, and has great guitar work. But after seeing this song played live with added orchestration (and cleaner vocals, no offense to Mr. Hockenberry), it makes me wonder why they didn't just orchestrate it in the first place.

"The Lion's Roar" has a promising start, with the rock band coming in after a unique trumpet solo. However, everything in this instrumental feels like it was forcibly cut short (which was my main issue with their newest album, Letters From the Labyrinth). The piece could've easily been expanded by 3 minutes to allow for more musical exploration.

"There Was a Life", sung by Rob Evan, has exactly the opposite problem; it drags on for far too long. This 9 minute rock ballad could've easily been trimmed by 3 minutes, and that probably would've made it more enjoyable.

"Mother and Son" and "Bach Lullaby", the two filler tracks, don't really have any emotional impact on the listener unless they are following along with the story, and could've been left out.

"Remnants of a Lullaby", sung by Jennifer Cella, is a quiet song that's fine within the context of the story, but musically it's just uninteresting.

"Believe" (bonus track), sung by Tim Hockenberry, is a very solid rock ballad, however it isn't anywhere near as good as the original Savatage version (specifically the vocals). In my opinion, it is a very unnecessary inclusion on this already overpacked album.

My final bone to pick with this album is that there is a secret track titled "The Flight of Cassandra" that is only available with the Amazon MP3 version. It is a glorious 7 minute instrumental with sections in 7/8 and 5/4 time, and the album could've benefited tremendously had it been included with the CD version. I highly recommend buying the CD and then downloading this song separately, as it is the proggiest piece TSO has ever written. I would go so far as to place it alongside songs like Frost*'s "Hyperventilate" or even Rush's "YYZ". Yeah, it's that good!

What are my overall thoughts?

Night Castle is a colossal album, to the point that there are almost too many songs for the listener to take in. I like what reviewer TheGazzardian said about condensing the music of the story onto one disc, then having a smaller disc with bonus tracks. Sometimes, a short album with "all killer, no filler" is better than a long album with "a lot of killer, a lot of filler". This is just constructive criticism, of course. I love Night Castle, and you have to respect TSO for crafting such a big and bold musical adventure.

TSO is known for being one of the most accessible prog bands in the world, so of course Night Castle isn't as proggy of a concept album as something by Ayreon or Neal Morse. That being said, this album is absolutely essential for TSO and/or Savatage fans, and a very enjoyable listen for anyone who likes good crossover prog with a mixture of heavy songs and ballads. In conclusion, I would give Night Castle 3.5 stars on the PA rating system, which I will gladly round up to 4.

The Essential Tracks: "The Mountain", "Mozart and Memories", "Moonlight and Madness", "Epiphany", "Tracers", and "The Flight of Cassandra"