It's like... well...

Do you remember when you discovered The Phantom of the Opera?

I’m talking Andrew Lloyd Weber, Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, and all the rest.  Perhaps that discovery was just a generational thing…

I remember.  I think I was a freshman in high school.  I don’t recall exactly what my first exposure was.  It might have been the excerpts we played in symphonic orchestra.  It might have been tidbits in the choir.  Eventually, I laid hands on the ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK!  I remember how the music resonated in my soul!  I remember how I wanted to be able to sing every note of each part.  I knew the soundtrack word for word.  I knew the timing.  I could pick out any of four parts going at the same time, all following a different musical tangent and combining to form a chaotic and frenzied whole that crashed to a dramatic climax!  I couldn’t just start wherever in the middle somewhere.  I mean, I could, but I desired the full experience.  I would start at the beginning of the first tape and make sure I had a full couple of hours to listen all the way through to the end.  I felt driven to listen to it over and over again.  The music MOVED me!

OK.  Fast forward.

Let’s not talk about how many years later it is now.

I have moved through all sorts of music in the interim.  I stumbled close to a particular genre when I ventured into listening to Evanescence.  Perhaps they were merely a gateway band?  Fearless Leader recruited me for a recording project.  I loved it.  Then, Fearless Leader recruited me for a full time singing position!  I’m beyond flattered, and thrilled.  He sends some music my way.  I eat it up.  He sends some more music my way.  I eat that up, too.  I find more music on my own, and I’m really digging it.

I quietly delighted in the Kamelot/Nightwish Concert at the end of September 2012.

Finally, the Silverthorn album is available in the United States, and I download it.  I listen to it once through, and import it into my Kamelot playlist.  I’d play the list on ‘shuffle’ and one of the new songs would randomly pop up from time to time.  But these new songs were different…

Whatever I was doing, I had to stop and savor the sound when one of these new songs popped up.  Once it was over and we moved onto something else, I felt a little emptier.  What was going on?

Aside:  I’m a Virgo.  I have to analyze EVERYTHING.  Why do I like this?  Why don’t I like this?  Why does this work?  Why does this not work?  What makes ‘this’ different from ‘that’?  How?  What?  Why?
You get the idea.

Back to the playlist.  The music is DARK.  I love it.  It resonates with me.  But Kamelot has always made dark music!  What’s the big deal?  Unable to take the emptiness, I pull up the Silverthorn album and play it from beginning to end.  The story is complete.  I can now move on.  Um, not so fast.  EMPTY!!!

“FINE!”  I shout to my soul.  “There you go!”
I set the album to ‘repeat all’.  Soul is now sitting back and nestling into its place the way one nestles into a cozy chair in front of a fire with a good book.  Lost in the story.  Lost in the music.  Lost in the DARKNESS.

Aside:  I **LOVE** dark music.

I have not felt this sort of musical obsession pull since my personal discovery of Phantom of the Opera.  Les Miserables came close.  Rent was catchy, as well.  And, of course, there was my general introduction to the world of Symphonic metal…

Thank you, Kamelot, for this musical ecstasy experience.  More, please?