album review ! :3
alesana - the emptiness (2010)
xxherlastwalkxx 03/07/2024
let's be real. this is easily one of the greatest emo albums ever written. it's artsy, it's edgy, and, of course, it's sad. the opener, "curse of the virgin canvas," establishes the theme of the album with its opening monologue. my only complaint with this song is that it doesn't fit very nicely onto playlists because of the little spoken word bits that sandwich the song; that being said, it makes the album even better, so it's a net positive. the lyrics also set up the story of the album (and are just really well written), so much so that basically the whole thing is one giant genius annotation (lmao). the ending monologue, which i'll call "the mirror never lies" for the sake of brevity, is particularly haunting and is SUPER important to the album. it's beautiful writing, but if you're familiar with this album then that's what you should expect by now.
"the artist" starts describing the delusion of the album's protagonist, and if you read the lyrics, i think the use of screaming vs. singing was deliberate, with the two vocal styles emphasizing the lyrics in their different ways. something i find really interesting is that, for a band with a dedicated screamer (that is, a member that screams and does not sing or play another instrument), there's relatively little screaming. maybe the band's sound is too "sweet" for a ton of screaming to be happening, but i think it's deliberate. the third song, "a lunatic's lament," is one of my favorite songs on the album. it's such a pretty song, with a really interesting chord progression in the chorus and some really beautiful lyrics to match. "we can count the stars that disappear / i wish you could see, you're the only girl i've ever dreamed of" is such a tragic line that i'll never get over. i also want to point out the ending monologue, which you don't have to be a poet to appreciate.
The depths of a man's soul cannot be measured
In a manner of meters or fathoms
But rather it is, in my opinion,
Only quantified by his proximity to Heaven and Hell.
i'll try to move through the rest of the album more quickly, but it's hard not to appreciate eavh song individually. "the murderer" immediately brings back the energy after "a lunatic's lament," again with some really poetic lyrics, perhaps my favorite being the haunting "looking in i see a lonely man etching tallies into a bar / looking on i see a desperate man repeating something to the floor." this is one of the songs that is less quiet or less subtle about its delusion, yet is still rather dynamic. "hymn for the shameless" has another one of my favorite choruses on the album. a lot of emo (a decent amount of alesana songs included) has really similar chords progressions, if not the exact same, which is something that i do actually enjoy, but songs such as this one with unrecognizable chord progressions that still sound effortless and unforced always stick with me. the lyrics on this song are, like the rest of the album, amazing, but i'm not going to quote anything because you should really just read the whole thing.
"the thespian" is a classic and has another notable chorus. it feels sort of like the "ambrosia" of this album, which tbh is probably a thought that doesn't make sense anywhere other than my own head. "heavy hangs the albatross" is another one of my favorites from the album, where the melody and harmony is as haunting as the narrative itself. PLEASE read the little genius annotation that explains the reference in the title because it's amazing.
i feel that by now i don't have much left to say about the last few songs on their own. if you get nothing else from this review, i hope i'm able to impress on you how incredibly cohesive yet dynamic (and just well-written) the album as a whole is. the songs on their own are great songs, many of which have made their way onto The Erin Playlist (*cough* link at the top), but it's impossible to fully appreciate any of the songs on their own without the context of the album. i didn't even talk about any of the interludes, which deserve analysis as much as the actual songs. i probably didn't do the songs justice, they deserve a lot more than just my "the chord progressions were pretty" comments, but i really can't praise this album enough. if you haven't heard it already, go do that. thanks.
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