Album Summary

"Dancing Under Glass"

SONG BY SONG

THE SOUND OF HER WINGS -

Short, simple, melodic, catchy, uptempo li'l metal opener. Just sort of begins to set the scene. One of our more melodic tunes, Mark wrote the music, and there's a couple of subtle neo-classical type things going on in some places. Monsta groove kicks in half way through to take this beauty home!

SHED NIGHTWARD BEAUTY -

Dig's fave apparently. Builds from a bass and keys intro into a driving rhythm, aggressive verses and choruses, before everything drops back to bass and keys near the end before building into a rousing end. Lyrically; about when you realise there's actually more to a particular relationship than sex (believe it or not), and you actually care about the person. (all together now - ah!!!!) Classy song, though.

UNDER A KILLING MOON -

Slowing things right down; imagine ruined castles, moonlit, and gleaming against the stars. Right, that's the feel for the first half of this. Some very clean singing keeps the tone, then half way it begins to mutate, and builds and builds, before everything gets pumping. Sublimely melodic, with some gorgeous harmonies from Lee, this one grows from the barest sound to full on classic metal riffery. Cool.

THE FORGOTTEN -

Kicks off with a locked in metal groove, before bursting out of the restraints into an upbeat, catchy vibe-led toon with a simple structure. Very strong chorus, and a perfect headbangable beat all through. Great live opener, and one that always raises a smile from me. Last song written for the album, probably more an indication of where we're going (along with 'Heaven...').

A MOMENT'S SADNESS -

Probably the hardest song we've got, in terms of aggression and technical playing. Express train start into a locked down mid-paced gallop, before building into a hugely epic - but very aggressive - end piece. Hardest piece of riffery on the album. If you like it hard and upbeat, with a fist full of melody you'll love this. Potential rock club hit (if it's played LOUD!!!)

THE SACRIFICE OF SPRING -

A bit more reflective, this one, but still very metal! Lyrically about growing up, like we all are at the moment, and the things you have to leave behind before you can get to where you're going. Has my favourite bit of music on the whole album on the last riff, when Lee plays a harmony that's so layered it'd put Gorham, Sykes, Lynott, Robertson etc. to shame.

RED WINTER -

The only song to survive from the demo days, but has been given a complete overhaul. The end piece is a prime example of groovy hard modern riffage, and the first half has more bite than the demo version. We tidied up the middle a bit, but the monk sample is still there, and it sounds well haunting!

HEAVEN RISE -

Coming into the studio, this was my least favourite song, but with Efemey's help we re-wrote the chorus, and it gave everything else a cool direction, and vocally re-wrote itself. Came out one of my favourites! About some guy having a dream his dead lover has come back to life, but better than it sounds! Besides, what's wrong with a bit of fantasy from time to time... Very tight, very catchy piece of metalwork!

XIII -

An instrumental that we weren't going to close the album with, but it seemed to fit so well here, it just had to go last. We were looking to get away from that whole 'pointless' instrumental, which is either - shit! Look how technically good we are, or um, we need a filler, lets have an acoustic/keyboard outro. We wanted to get back to that Maiden 'Transylvania' or Metallica 'Orion' type feel of having an instrumental that is really a song that stands up on its own, without lyrics, that is slightly different from the rest of the stuff. And I think we pulled it off.