Gentle Storm, The diary

Being a huge fangirl of Arjen and of Anneke and being delighted by their live show I attended a few weeks ago, you can imagine how excited I was about their new project, Gentle Storm. The diary is a beautiful spread of forces, with emotion and complexity, wonderful vocals and a captivating story, as Arjen always manages to create, but as amazing as certain parts are, there are other moments where the album falls a bit short (sometimes in surprising areas).

The first thing that drew my attention regarding this album was the incredible instrumental. No disrespect towards Anneke, who is a magnificent vocalist, but the instrumental completely steals the show. Using less traditional instruments (at least in metal), such as contrabass, French horn, Irish bouzouki or other wind and percussion instruments, Arjen manages to create a wonderful symphony. Add to that the flute, the amazing piano in The Storm and above all the string instruments that create a background so rich and moving and dress the main melody so delicately and yet overwhelmingly and you can understand why I am so excited about this.

The style of the songs is similar in a way (more likely the mood is rather similar) and I love the unity of this album, but unfortunately the lack of variation becomes a bit burdening by the time I get to Eyes of Michiel. It’s a bit intriguing, because the songs are supposed to be very different from one another, as Endless sea is epic and bombastic, Heart of Amsterdam is a curious but interesting mix between folk and jazz, Shores of India is exotic and intriguing and The moment is a heartbreaking ballad. And strangely, at the same time, things become repetitive and I find myself wanting a change of pace.

The vocals are of course top notch, this is Anneke van Gierbsergen we’re talking about. With a crystal clear voice, full of emotion and charisma and with the power to make rocks cry, Anneke carries the story with her story-teller voice and just listening to her beautiful timbre is enough to propel this album to the list of favourites (yes, it is a favourite, despite the critics). If you think I’m exaggerating, listen to the storm version of Endless Sea or the gentle version of The moment, where she really shines. The only problem I have with her vocals is that sometimes she seems like she’s holding back a bit, especially in the gentle version. I suppose that it’s because she wanted to have something to add later on during the storm version, but as a result her voice is a lot more interesting and has a lot more personality on the second half of the album than on the first half. Also (and I can’t believe I’m saying this), I feel like she could’ve done so much more during The storm; she seemed contained, I expected more from her, the song needed more. Still, it’s only a small complaint, not enough to taint the rest of her otherwise gorgeous performance.

And if I mentioned the instrumental and the vocals, it’s only fair to talk about the lyrics as well. And surprisingly, the story is one of my favourite parts of this record. It’s just like Arjen to get me to invest into his stories and pay attention to them a whole lot more than I normally do. Even though most of the story appears in the album leaflet and not in the actual lyrics, the songs are enough to get me hooked and start caring about the main characters, feeling their pain and joy and wondering if they will ever be reunited. And what I find the most fascinating is how the gentle and the storm versions start telling a slightly different story by the end of the album. Of course the lyrics are exactly the same, but from the way the melody and atmosphere are built up, you can catch a different layer of the story depending on the version you are listening to, or at least that’s how I felt. Take Brightest light, for example: in the gentle version, it seems like Joseph is coming home a bit penitently, realising that this journey and the time and space that had been put between them have hurt their relation and that Susanne should forgive him for the pain he caused her by leaving; in the storm version, however, it seems like he’s coming home triumphantly, after he exercised his male-given right to explore and not be tamed by his woman. On the other side, in New horizons, Susanne seems to look at her illness with resignation and appears to know she will never see her beloved again during the gentle version, but the storm version comes with determination and optimism and what seems to be a desire to conquer all that stands in the way of their love.

And speaking of these differences, I cannot refrain from comparing the two versions of the album. I can’t pass on judgement as to which CD is better overall, as each of the songs has a version in which it shines and a version where the full potential is not reached. Sometimes these moments are actually very surprising, as I was expecting the gentle version of The moment to be more heartfelt and overall better when in fact, in the storm version, even though the echo added to the chorus takes something away from the raw pain of the vocals, the instrumental is more captivating and the explosion and growth near the ending make the culminating point even more passionate. Same with Cape of storms, one would imagine that a song about storms would sound better in the storm version, but peculiarly, it does not. The variety of the instruments is larger in the gentle version and in fact the whole instrumental part makes the song more moving and has bigger impact, while in the storm version, some of the instruments feel a bit out of place. For example, the bass:  I understand that he wanted to add a kick to differentiate the two versions, but if a song is gentle to begin with, no amount of metal instruments will ever change that. In fact, that’s the biggest problem I have with this separation (or duplication, however you want to call it), I have the feeling that some songs were made to be gentle and others were made to be stormy and sometimes the reinterpretation in the opposite version is done a bit forcefully.

There are moments where the storm version augments everything that is good in the gentle version (like in Endless sea, Shores of India or The moment) and there are moments where the simplicity of the gentle version works better (like in Heart of Amsterdam). Most of the time, however, the storm version falls a bit short and lacks the richness and emotion of the gentle version. The rare times where the less conventional instrumental from “gentle” is kept during “storm” as well, the beauty of it is covered by the noisy metal instruments, which is a shame. I guess I consider the duplication a bit useless, but to look on the bright side, I can choose my favourite version of each song and create the perfect album, or I can enjoy both separately depending on my mood.

Highs: definitely The moment. Hearing this song live was one of the most heartbreaking and full of emotion moments I have ever witnessed, and surely none of the album version could ever top that performance, but it’s still an intense and moving song, full of sorrow and regret and whirlwind of sentiments. Also Endless sea, which got me hooked from the first listen and made me keep the song on repeat for days, even though I normally don’t do that.

Lows: Eyes of Michiel (it’s not necessarily a bad song, but in the context of the album, I felt a strong need for a change of pace during this song) and The greatest love (maybe some people need to be bashed over the head with the refrain to remember it, but I don’t. Repeat something too many times and you lost me, even if you are Arjen Lucassen)

A special mention goes to Shores of India, which must be the most frustrating track of the album and could easily fit in both the high and low categories. The beginning and the verses are so great, intriguing and perfectly capturing the exoticness of India, everything is so flowing and foreign and the instrumental intro is typically oriental and the music is as exotic and alluring as India must be and then the chorus comes and I die a bit inside...it’s sooooo incredibly cheesy and appears into the middle of the song like a nut in a wall, it sounds like it’s from a different picture altogether, even if it wouldn’t have been so bad when placed in another song.