Live Version: http://youtu.be/JnYW1xeixAE
Comments: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the four hundredth entry of Stuck In My Skull! I first started this blog on July 16, 2011, and it's been quite a journey for me. This blog is nearly two years old, and I've loved every second of it. Throughout the last (nearly) two years, I've posted some of my favourite songs on this blog, and I confess, there are a few songs that I don't feel I really did justice at the time -- this week will be a week of Songs Revisited, so I can go back and really talk about those tracks that I slighted the first time. Way back in Entry 52, I posted the song "Memento Mori" for the first time. I said when I wrote that entry that I was using that song as filler, because I felt too sick to write anything else or find anything new. "Memento Mori" is one of my favourite songs of all time, and it deserves better than being a filler entry.
"Memento Mori" is the 12th and longest track on Kamelot's seventh studio album, The Black Halo. Released in 2005, The Black Halo is a concept album that finishes telling the story began in Kamelot's previous album Epica. Epica and The Black Halo are a rock-opera telling the story of the alchemist Ariel, whose story is losely based on Goethe's Faust. In "Memento Mori," Ariel's interplay with Mephisto is beautifully concluded in a three-voice ballad of eye-watering beauty, featuring then Kamelot vocalist Roy Khan voicing Ariel, Mari Youngblood (wife of Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood) voicing Helena, and Dimmu Borgir vocalist Shagrath grunting the part of Mephisto. The song opens with a piano and vocal number at slow tempo, before the guitars and drums are introduced with an up-shift of the tempo as the action begins to unfold. As Ariel realizes his control of his own destiny, the song shifts between descending chords and mellow melodies, leading up to simultaneous introduction of Mari and Shagrath as Mephisto grunts and Helena sings in overlapping Latin, joining together on the line "memento mori." Ariel, in his last moments, rejects the evil of Mephisto. Helena intercedes and asks God to save him, and Mephisto loses his bet and is cast into hell as Ariel's soul ascends to heaven to be with Helena's. Finally, the action settles to a calm out-tro, mirroring the vocal and piano intro to the song. The last note hangs as someone (probably Helena) whispers "Ariel... Ariel... Ariel..." into the silence.
There are not words for how much I love this song. Seriously, this song moves me like few other tracks can. The album version is my favourite, but the live version (recorded in Belgrade, Serbia) is also excellent. It features a slightly faster tempo; a more prominent, chugging guitar; and the voice of Shagrath is far more prominent, with Helena's being either occulted or missing. The live version is slightly rougher yet more adrenaline-pumping, whereas the album version is a slightly calmer piece, and a refined and beautiful work. If you've never heard the song, you absolutely must check it out. Enjoy!
0 comments:
Post a Comment