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| Mortanius |
If you've listened to their latest album, Till Death Do Us Part on Rockshots Records, you probably know that they spent most of their days learning how to play their instruments.
Now's a great time to check it out HERE.
Now, that we've got that established, what about their favorite recrods?
1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?
Lucas: My favorite concept album is Abigail by King Diamond. Not only is the music among the best in the band's discography, but the story is also actually very clearly told and easy to follow through the lyrics.
I often find that many metal concept albums have messy stories that are poorly realized lyrically and are thus very hard, or impossible, to follow. Abigail also has a perfect track order.
I feel that the opening and closing tracks are especially important to the impact an album makes a listener, and this album has the most perfect choices for such things.
Jesse: For my favorite concept album, it's probably a toss-up between Temple of Shadows by Angra or Kezia by Protest the Hero. For Temple of Shadows, the story of a religious crusader is heavily supported with powerful choirs, dense orchestrations, and interesting lyrical phrasing.
Not only is the story of the album written well, but the music itself is also diverse and fantastic. Easily my favorite Angra album. Our band is also influenced by Angra so I could say this album is a strong contender for my favorite.
For Kezia, I found that the message of the album is easily timeless as the story hardly is pinned to an era in time. The use of multiple characters perspectives on the album is interesting as well.
There's not a bad song on this album and I have listened to it beginning to end hundreds of times. Protest the Hero is easily one of my biggest influences in the progressive metal genre, so this album will stick with me for a long time as well.
2. My very first album was Live Evil b Black Sabbath. Since then I've had a strong affinity for the live record, even if they're a bit fake. KISS set the bar with Alive!. Surely, it was fake, but it's got the best concert feel of any one. Tell me about your favorite live record?
Lucas: My favorite live album is Angra: Rebirth World Tour - Live in Sao Paulo.
The performances are perfect and full of energy, and Edu Falaschi was at his peak. He was easily one of the top rock/metal singers in the world at that time.
Jesse: My favorite live album is Casiopea vs The Square Live. These two bands are among some of my favorites in the Jazz Fusion genre and having them perform together is absolutely incredible.
For me, live records don’t do much unless they have some grab (like guest artists, unreleased songs, change in musical structure, or improvised solos).
I can listen to this album on repeat for hours on end. The band's trade solos on nearly every song and everything always stays so fresh, especially with repeated listens. I absolutely love this album for its bass as well, as the two bass players have phenomenal groove and support for the whole band.
3. There are a great number of records I've turned to for my moods. What do you listen to when you're angry? Sad?
Lucas: Actually, my moment to moment emotions rarely tends to influence which albums I listen to. My mood is typically influenced by the albums instead.
So instead of putting on an album when I am sad, I will put on an album and make myself sad. No albums really make me angry, but if I feel like being put in a more solemn or melancholy mood, I find Angst by Lacrimosa to be a good choice.
The sparse arrangements, low vocals, and focus on early 90s synths always gave it a very nostalgic and sad feeling to me, like a lost memory that breaks your heart upon remembering.
Jesse: Although I don’t really have a particular album for when I feel angry or sad, there are particular artists/songs/genres I’ll turn on which help out as well.
When I’m angry I like to listen to heavier technical death metal music. My typical picks would be bands like Between The Buried and Me, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Protest The Hero.
As far as music that I like to listen to when I’m sad, the end of the album Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold still is pretty sad to me. Otherwise, I’ll pull up Art of Life by X Japan or other ballads by bands I like. For me, harmony and message are really important to the song having power in my emotions. I have to have a strong emotional connection to a song or artist for this to be true.
4. One of my friends laughs at me, routinely, for loving the Misfit Toys of albums by major bands. Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed, Carnival of Souls by Kiss, Diabolous En Musica by Slayer, etc. What's the strange one that you love?
Lucas: Life by Adagio has received a lot of flack from fans of the band and prog metal listeners due to the djent influences the album and is definitely the black sheep of the band's discography due to this.
I, however, love the album. I don't like djent, but the genre's influence on the album is only felt strongly in a few spots. Honestly, there is probably a total of 10 minutes of djent riffs altogether out of a 50 or so minute album. It's not that bothersome.
The album has great vocal melodies and hooks, there is a lot of track variety, the solos are amazing, and the bass is great.
Jesse: I often find it hard to name guilty pleasures because I think music is highly subjective, but it’s almost impossible for me to think of a specific album that fits this narrative.
I will be the first to admit that I enjoy various cultures of music and various genres of music that some would never expect to find in the same collection.
My death metal albums sit right next to my jazz and j-pop records, so I suppose you could say that these genre choice are somewhat of a misfit assortment of music types.
5. It's almost fashionable to release live versions of albums or re-record the old ones. King Diamond is releasing a concert with Abigail front to back. Roger Waters has done The Wall twice. Which ones do you have in your collection?
Lucas: I'm not drawn to live full album concerts or rerecordings unless they are very different from the originals. This isn't a full album of recordings, but The Watchers by Royal Hunt contains many studios and live remakes of older Royal Hunt songs with their 2001 vocalist, John West.
His voice is very different from the two vocalists that performed in the band before him, so his takes on the songs were fresh and sometimes better than the originals, not to mention that the production was also much better on the rerecordings of the songs from their first two albums.
Jesse: Like I mentioned before, I don’t have many live albums, but one that caught my ear was the live version of the Parallax II by Between the Buried and Me.
The extra pieces to album between songs help add a lot of character to the already dense concept album. The production done by Jaime King is phenomenal as always and the album has a very warm feeling to it.
Hearing all the extra auxiliary instruments done live as well as having the band provide the backing vocals rather than Tommy Giles overdubbing on the real album adds an interesting side to this album. Unfortunately, I never saw this album performed lived, so watching it on the DVD and listening to it occasionally is really special.
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