ANALYSIS: Empyrium’s (Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays) as a Dynamic Reflection of Progressive Sorrow
Shocking title! Right? In fact, it is not only shocking but it is also strange! What’s the dynamic reflection of Progressive Sorrow? Simply, it is the musical atmosphere and the psychological mood of Empyrium’s “Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays” (1999)!
That’s what I felt while listening to the album for many years! But I caught this feeling, and scripted this title through this night (7/11/2018 - 2:30 am).
Sitting alone, sinking in waves of darkness and negativity, crying, thinking of destructive thoughts, so I grabbed my headphones and played this darkened masterpiece! plus, I am lucky enough that I have a scenery from my window as the portrayed one of the album's cover art.
It is not only one of the closest pieces to my heart, or the favorite piece for my dearest one but also this album hides a lot of unnarrated stories inside its tunes, lyrics, and references.
That’s what I felt while listening to the album for many years! But I caught this feeling, and scripted this title through this night (7/11/2018 - 2:30 am).
Sitting alone, sinking in waves of darkness and negativity, crying, thinking of destructive thoughts, so I grabbed my headphones and played this darkened masterpiece! plus, I am lucky enough that I have a scenery from my window as the portrayed one of the album's cover art.
It is not only one of the closest pieces to my heart, or the favorite piece for my dearest one but also this album hides a lot of unnarrated stories inside its tunes, lyrics, and references.
READER, You will get the answers you seek but give me a chance to speak up! Give yourself a chance to get closer to my wounded soul to understand what I am going to explain here! It is not an ordinary review! It is deeper than a review! It is a vivid connection between man, soul, and art!
Empyrium’s “Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays” as a Dynamic Reflection of Progressive Sorrow
By: Rana Atef (Dark~~KniGhT)
Introduction
“Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays” is one of the definitive marks in Empyrium’s career. Its pure sorrow, folk riffs, and dramatic vocal style attracted the depressed whether Metal listeners or not from all over the globe.
And, I am lucky that I entered this “Empyrium Mood” (I am quoting this phrase from my dear friend Ramzy Mayas) tonight as it is time-wise! Empyrium will celebrate with the album’s 20th anniversary in 2019!
SO, through this article (blog post) you may have a deeper understanding for the album, in addition you may find a lot of literary and artistic references (of course, you may have another different point of view, hey! welcome to the world of art of 0 exact correct answers :D :D :D)
PS: I prefer to listen to the album while reading to catch the image, and to be involved in this "Empyrium Mood"!
And, I am lucky that I entered this “Empyrium Mood” (I am quoting this phrase from my dear friend Ramzy Mayas) tonight as it is time-wise! Empyrium will celebrate with the album’s 20th anniversary in 2019!
SO, through this article (blog post) you may have a deeper understanding for the album, in addition you may find a lot of literary and artistic references (of course, you may have another different point of view, hey! welcome to the world of art of 0 exact correct answers :D :D :D)
PS: I prefer to listen to the album while reading to catch the image, and to be involved in this "Empyrium Mood"!
The Body
I am analyzing the album in terms of music, themes. It is like building a bridge between fine arts, music, lyrics, and literature. PLEASE, Be Patient (I know you may find it long, but I hope you like it! Spend some minutes to widen your horizons!!!).
In general, the album is highly folk influenced, especially with the acoustic folk style of the northern cold lands which have rich, eco-critical, natural heritage. The major players in the album are the acoustic guitars, the vocals, and the flute! those instruments reflect contemporary forms of the primary forms of musical instruments in the past! It is like reviving native northern music away any kinds of outsider cultural or musical elements!
The first track of the album is "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays", it is one of the most known tracks for Empyrium, and it is the inspirational flame for this article. This track is a vital example of what the title of the article means.
Starting from the title "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays", Empyrium here not only sets a geographical identifier for the music's mood, but also it sets an exact day-period. Simply, the Wood Grouse is a kind or group of birds that is driven from the Phasianidae family.
The Phasianidea is a family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, jungle fowl, chickens, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl.
Mostly of Grouse kinds live in forests, jungles because they are mainly fed on plants, grass, and herbs. The Grouse have very special sound which could be easily identified, especially the sound produced by those who live in the cold northern lands.
So, we have a place which is forest and the time which is the night! and the season which is most probably winter as the track opens with sounds of strong winds, shortly amusing broken notes of acoustic guitar joined.
They are so descriptive, especially when the flute starts to sing. The music brings this emotional, natural taste of the forest: Images of high trees, hanged branches, the sounds of dozens of night creatures hiding within the grass. Being in a forest is a high symbolism for isolation, and solitude.
What is really impressive is "Starry Night"! It could be a detailed discription for the sky, but it could be a hint for "Starry Night" by Van Goch.
Next is "Dying Brokenhearted"! The track is considered as a first chapter of the story narrated by the bird. You can trace the usage of third person through the lyrics "she". The story begins with the death of the girl.
In my point of view is another kind of progressive sorrow. The acoustic tunes start as fading in, so it is a sign that the sorrow is already around but it is in progression. The tunes is getting more sorrowful, more painful as suffering and pain dig into the soul, sneak into the body cells, describing the feelings of surrendering to loneliness, and death, listening to the shattering of the heartstrings.
"The Shepherd and the Maiden Ghost" could be classified as a shifting point technically, and lyrically. The story is turned from narrated to performed! firstly, we know that the one who is walking around, towards the heart of the forest is a shepherd! then, the narration is turned from a bird to a shepherd to actual dialogue between the shepherd and the dead maiden's ghost which is shock! just, the bird prepared the ground of the story, then it turn ends.
The ghost here takes the same role of "Hamlet's ghost", it clarifies some incidents, it explains, it speaks! there is no wonder why the music starts in fading in technique with rising sounds gradually. The vocals wanderer between low narration, different pitch to differentiate between different narrators the low one in the beginning is the bird, then the stronger, darker one is the shepherd and the sweet-female like whispering is the maiden's ghost.
The music is kept on one style, with sweet flute riffs to enrich the music with more dramatization. The track is ended with gloomy chanting to reflect the shocking mood and story he got.
"The Sad Song of the Wind" is a short, instrumental, death-warning track. It is heart-rending carried weak broken whispers reflect the incident of death.
"Wehmut" is just another progression for the maid's tragic death consequences as sorrow, sadness, suffering, and gray world. The sounds of flute are like an epitaph for her, are like welcoming from the nature to her free soul that will dwell eternally in the forest.
The sounds of chanting, and choirs are like the death-prayers of the church but in folk, native style. This style is highly enhanced with the short consistent "Pastoral Theme" and "Abendort". They carry simple, conflicted folk tunes of acoustic guitars to express the feelings of the maiden's ghost while feeling free, dancing between the trees of the forest. "Abendort" is just carries more intimate feelings as it expresses the lights of the afterglow.
"Many Moons Ago" is a special track for me! I am telling you why! In one of postgraduate studies classes the prominent Drama professor Karma Sami asked my group to bring songs that may carry the elements of drama according to Aristotle! And, nothing is better than "Many Moons Ago". Aristotle explained that "Play" should contain certain elements: theme, plot, setting, dialogue, characters and music! WHAAAT! YES! "Many Moons Ago" carries the whole six elements!
Theme: The Story of Death
Plot: the progression of the story itself, and the narrative part in the lyrics starting from the light walk in the forest to the end of the story
Characters: the maiden ghost, the shepherd, and the bird, the narrator, and his friends
Setting: the forest as a place, and the night as time
Dialogue: it is already exited in the lyrics
Music: it is represented in the shifting between major and minor guitars tunes.
What's really special with "Many Moons Ago" is the mood of the song itself. It gives the impression of more freedom, more cheerful! which is ironical, but expressive. The cheerful, happy mood represented in flying flute vibes with high major guitar tunes give you the confidence of the narrator, and how he was happy when he watched this beautiful lady dancing under the moonlight (at this moment it reminds me with a line from "Highwayman" poem -"Watch for me by the moonlight").
The other part when the flute dances with the vocals give you the feelings of the shock (OMG! I see her ghost, not just listen to her glimpsing whispers) so, it is really smart that Empyrium used this gear shift to give you this sorrowful shocking mood, ended with mournful chanting.
"When Shadows Grow Longer" (my favorite track) is also a dynamic reflection for progressive sorrow through its images "when shadows grow longer, our sorrow is stronger". It expresses the general concept of heavy, burdened nights. I like this version more than the one in "Songs of Moors and Misty Fields". I can see degrees of gray color within its chanting, funeral like riffs, aching, painful singing.
Starting from the title "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays", Empyrium here not only sets a geographical identifier for the music's mood, but also it sets an exact day-period. Simply, the Wood Grouse is a kind or group of birds that is driven from the Phasianidae family.
The Phasianidea is a family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, jungle fowl, chickens, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl.
Mostly of Grouse kinds live in forests, jungles because they are mainly fed on plants, grass, and herbs. The Grouse have very special sound which could be easily identified, especially the sound produced by those who live in the cold northern lands.
So, we have a place which is forest and the time which is the night! and the season which is most probably winter as the track opens with sounds of strong winds, shortly amusing broken notes of acoustic guitar joined.
They are so descriptive, especially when the flute starts to sing. The music brings this emotional, natural taste of the forest: Images of high trees, hanged branches, the sounds of dozens of night creatures hiding within the grass. Being in a forest is a high symbolism for isolation, and solitude.
What is really impressive is "Starry Night"! It could be a detailed discription for the sky, but it could be a hint for "Starry Night" by Van Goch.
The oil-on-canvas painting is dominated by a night sky roiling with chromatic blue swirls, a glowing yellow crescent moon, and stars rendered as radiating orbs. One or two cypress trees, often described as flame-like, tower over the foreground to the left, their dark branches curling and swaying to the movement of the sky that they partly obscure. Amid all this animation, a structured village sits in the distance on the lower right of the canvas. Straight controlled lines make up the small cottages and the slender steeple of a church, which rises as a beacon against rolling blue hills. The glowing yellow squares of the houses suggest the welcoming lights of peaceful homes, creating a calm corner amid the painting’s turbulence. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
It is so close to the scene Empyrium describes in the track, and the lyrics. Even, the movement of the musical tunes, and vocals structure could be highly influenced by the orbiting figures in the painting. You can trace the dynamic progression of the sorrow through the painting, the lyrics and the music.
The track starts with amusing acoustic guitar accompanied with flute work as an interlude for the mood with describing the sound of the night bird sings its song!
Shortly, this gloomy image is progressed to a deeper meditation or a comparison between a wounded soul, and naked gloomy nature that's why the sound of the music is getting higher with choirs bleak singing and mourning voice.
The climax represents falling lost in the inner mazes of the wounded soul, and find everything is orbiting in the sky, revolving around your head as a cloud of negative thoughts! so the mourning, aching is getting higher reflected in the last vocal part in the song.
You see, the feelings of sorrow is already existed but its progression occurred due to the surrounded dynamic factors.
Simply, "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays" reflects a story within a story similar to the Brachten meta-dramatic techniques: The main story is the story of the lost man who dives into a forest and into his killing sadness while the other story is the one that the "night bird" sings with.
Simply, "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays" reflects a story within a story similar to the Brachten meta-dramatic techniques: The main story is the story of the lost man who dives into a forest and into his killing sadness while the other story is the one that the "night bird" sings with.
Next is "Dying Brokenhearted"! The track is considered as a first chapter of the story narrated by the bird. You can trace the usage of third person through the lyrics "she". The story begins with the death of the girl.
In my point of view is another kind of progressive sorrow. The acoustic tunes start as fading in, so it is a sign that the sorrow is already around but it is in progression. The tunes is getting more sorrowful, more painful as suffering and pain dig into the soul, sneak into the body cells, describing the feelings of surrendering to loneliness, and death, listening to the shattering of the heartstrings.
"The Shepherd and the Maiden Ghost" could be classified as a shifting point technically, and lyrically. The story is turned from narrated to performed! firstly, we know that the one who is walking around, towards the heart of the forest is a shepherd! then, the narration is turned from a bird to a shepherd to actual dialogue between the shepherd and the dead maiden's ghost which is shock! just, the bird prepared the ground of the story, then it turn ends.
The ghost here takes the same role of "Hamlet's ghost", it clarifies some incidents, it explains, it speaks! there is no wonder why the music starts in fading in technique with rising sounds gradually. The vocals wanderer between low narration, different pitch to differentiate between different narrators the low one in the beginning is the bird, then the stronger, darker one is the shepherd and the sweet-female like whispering is the maiden's ghost.
The music is kept on one style, with sweet flute riffs to enrich the music with more dramatization. The track is ended with gloomy chanting to reflect the shocking mood and story he got.
"The Sad Song of the Wind" is a short, instrumental, death-warning track. It is heart-rending carried weak broken whispers reflect the incident of death.
"Wehmut" is just another progression for the maid's tragic death consequences as sorrow, sadness, suffering, and gray world. The sounds of flute are like an epitaph for her, are like welcoming from the nature to her free soul that will dwell eternally in the forest.
The sounds of chanting, and choirs are like the death-prayers of the church but in folk, native style. This style is highly enhanced with the short consistent "Pastoral Theme" and "Abendort". They carry simple, conflicted folk tunes of acoustic guitars to express the feelings of the maiden's ghost while feeling free, dancing between the trees of the forest. "Abendort" is just carries more intimate feelings as it expresses the lights of the afterglow.
"Many Moons Ago" is a special track for me! I am telling you why! In one of postgraduate studies classes the prominent Drama professor Karma Sami asked my group to bring songs that may carry the elements of drama according to Aristotle! And, nothing is better than "Many Moons Ago". Aristotle explained that "Play" should contain certain elements: theme, plot, setting, dialogue, characters and music! WHAAAT! YES! "Many Moons Ago" carries the whole six elements!
Theme: The Story of Death
Plot: the progression of the story itself, and the narrative part in the lyrics starting from the light walk in the forest to the end of the story
Characters: the maiden ghost, the shepherd, and the bird, the narrator, and his friends
Setting: the forest as a place, and the night as time
Dialogue: it is already exited in the lyrics
Music: it is represented in the shifting between major and minor guitars tunes.
What's really special with "Many Moons Ago" is the mood of the song itself. It gives the impression of more freedom, more cheerful! which is ironical, but expressive. The cheerful, happy mood represented in flying flute vibes with high major guitar tunes give you the confidence of the narrator, and how he was happy when he watched this beautiful lady dancing under the moonlight (at this moment it reminds me with a line from "Highwayman" poem -"Watch for me by the moonlight").
The other part when the flute dances with the vocals give you the feelings of the shock (OMG! I see her ghost, not just listen to her glimpsing whispers) so, it is really smart that Empyrium used this gear shift to give you this sorrowful shocking mood, ended with mournful chanting.
"When Shadows Grow Longer" (my favorite track) is also a dynamic reflection for progressive sorrow through its images "when shadows grow longer, our sorrow is stronger". It expresses the general concept of heavy, burdened nights. I like this version more than the one in "Songs of Moors and Misty Fields". I can see degrees of gray color within its chanting, funeral like riffs, aching, painful singing.
Conclusion
"Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays" is like a shifting point in Empyrium career, as the musical style of the band is shifted to be more into neo-folk, dark music based on a gentle, expressive natural and eco-critical landscapes. Also, reviving forgotten tunes from the north, and mixing it with inherited local myths give the music a deeper artistic direction. As it was explained above, this is album is unique in not only in terms of intimate, catchy style, but also in terms of dealing and giving a dynamic images and sounds for sorrow, and enhanced its presence with forms of progression represented in starring, deep overthinking, meditation, listening, dying, chanting, mourning, and lamenting.
This album will still a brighten sign in the history of the Metal industry as it will always stay a shelter for the alone, the brokenhearted, and for the depressed!
Originally Published on 6/11/2018 at 5:41 am
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