Acracy (continued)

Acracy

Doorways to Destiny

April 5th, 2019

1.Liberation (Control Denied) 6:29

2.Aging Desires (9:35)

3.Book of Faces (9:26)

4.On My Own (6:09)

5.A Love Least Expected (9:25)

6.Come with Me (11:05)

This time around let's talk about songs number three and four. In you are interested, the first two songs were discussed here: metalbulletin.blogspot.com/2019/04/acracy_13.html

“Book of Faces” has two very distinct sides. The first half is one of the album’s most traditional heavy metal moments: it does not throw too much at you; it’s catchy; it has a bit of a circular vibe. The band can and does write short, chorus-centered segments, and this is a great example. This one is likely to remain in your head after the album stops playing. The rhythm section keeps the song close to the foundation; that helps to make things memorable and easier on the listener. There’s a certain comfort and sense of fun in the catchiness of it all. Thus, you are comfortable and rocking along, thinking you know what’s up: “I got this now, I’m with it”, you may thinking.

No, you don’t. What happens? Well, what had happened was that I thought I knew where I was, but then the spaceship went into a different dimension, and I needed a paper bag right away. A little trip to magic electric guitarland where it rains sideways and the guitar strings become roller coasters. However, before that, the drumming does warn you that something is on the horizon, and then it’s guitar time. This second half of the song goes full progressive. The first solo is melodic, while the second one is slower and bluesier and lasts longer. Very nice work. Let’s just say that they did not improvise the solos in the studio, but had to craft them with premeditated intelligence.

Next is “On My Own.” A six-minute song that is Acracy showing a progressive band’s efforts to not overwhelm the listener. Effectively, this is the album’s single, and was the band’s first preview of the album to the fans. Like everyone else, this is the first song that I heard from the album before the release.

This is the album’s most direct and ear-friendly song. It’s a good track to ease fans into Acracy. The band shows that not only do they write some catchy segments, but that they do also have some full songs that stay on a more direct path. On the whole album there are no ballads, but this track is the closest to a power ballad, or a prog power ballad, if you will, at least in the beginning. Then, however, the drummer is doing the double kicks and dexterous fills, and down the stretch the song will move into power thrashing mode. Of course, the vocals change mood according to the action: the singing starts out mellow and soft, but by the end it’s the singing of prog power. One way to think of it is that it has three moods: the power ballad, the transition, and then the power thrashing, uptempo last section to which the song had been building up all along. At the beginning of the song, I had reached for my lighter, but I had to put it away midway through the song because it’s difficult to hold a lighter when you are headbanging.

Alright, friends, I’ll leave it there for now. I’ll tell you about the last two songs next time. In the meantime, I have some Power Rangers episodes to check out.

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