The album starts with the album starts off with "The Introduction" which adds more of a theatrical edge, building your suspense for the rest of the album. When the the title track "Welcome To The Masquerade" starts you can that the song is going to be great. With killer guitars and a strong beat, this song is a great way to start the album. The next song "Fire It Up" kicks the album up a couple notches with the aggressive vocals and TFK's signature guitar riffs, this song is a highlight of the album. This song is also incredible live!
Keeping the momentum going the next song "Bring Me To Life" happens to be one of my favorites. Although this song doesn't have as much of the aggressive vocals it does include some hard rock screams towards the end, which actually happens to be my favorite part of the song! Starting off slower and then exploding into the chorus, the next song "E For Extinction" adds a bit of mystery to the album. The lyrics don't have a definitive meaning and they can be perceived many different ways, as the chorus says "When we move / We camouflage ourselves / We stand in the shadows waiting / We live for this and nothing more / We are what You created".
The next song "Watching Over Me" slows the album down a bit, with more of a worshipful sound. The lyrics of this song say "I know your out there, and I know you care / I feel you like an angel, watching over me". This song has a nice sound but it isn't my favorite on the album. The next song "The Part That Hurts The Most" is a little bit slower and has more of a pop/rock sound. Towards the end of the song it goes back to hard rock for a little bit with edgier guitars and screaming vocals. The highlight of this song for is the drums, there are some really cool beats in this song if you listen for them.
The message of the next song "Scream" is pretty straight forward, the lyrics talk about being pushed to the edge or being at the end of your rope and instead of giving up or losing hope, just SCREAM! This song really is a good song when you are having a bad day because it is very therapeutic if you yell SCREAM along with the song! The next song "Look Away" is possibly my favorite song on the album. Although slow, this song is incredibly encouraging and the vocals are beautiful. I have gotten so many different things out of this song, so it is hard for me to say that it is about just one thing.
Continuing the encouraging lyric theme, the next song is "Forward Motion". This song still has more of a pop/rock sound, which isn't bad there is just a big block of songs similar in sound to this. The chorus of this is the best part saying "I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life... But / Let's keep it moving in a forward motion / If we can hold on, we can cross this ocean / There's no sense in lettin' our emotions / Get in the way, until the door keeps closin". Getting back more of the hard rock sound the next song is "Outta Control". This song has the pounding drums and tough sounding guitars that I have come to love. This song also has some great lyrics that you can get different messages from.
The next song "Smack Down" is probably the most underestimated song on the album, in my opinion. I love this song so much, but I haven't heard many other people even talk about. I don't know if they haven't listened all the way through the album to find this song or what! This song has a strong anthem sound with an absolutely amazing beat! I really wish that TFK would play this song live, because it would be EPIC!!! Seriously if you haven't heard this song you need to check it out! The next song "Already Home" slows things down with some violins and piano. This song is one of the deepest songs on the album. Although I really like the sound of this song, I kind of wish that "Smack Down" would have been the last song and "Already Home" could be the second to the last. The message of this song is a good way to end the album though.
Welcome To The Masquerade is incredible and one of my all time favorite albums. The music is very diverse which I love, it is sometimes the edgy rock sound that gets you pumped up and other time the beautiful and more mellow pop kind of sound. Lyrically this album is very encouraging and thought provoking. I would happily give this album 5 stars!
- The Introduction
- Welcome To The Masquerade
- Fire It Up
- Bring Me To Life
- E For Extinction
- Watching Over Me
- The Part That Hurts The Most (Is Me)
- Scream
- Look Away
- Forward Motion
- Smack Down
- Already Home
1 comment:
Masquerade is one of my favorite CDs in my collection. One of the few that I've had for a couple of years, listened to over and over, and still am not sick of it.
Smackdown is one of my favs off the album too. Sure, it's not profound, but it'd be freakin awesome live!
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