Artist: Metaphor
Label: Trope Audio
Released: 2004
Rating: 4.2/5
After a long hiatus, American progressive rockers Metaphor decided to make a comeback in 2004. After the superb Starfooted, which became something of a cult classic, a lot of people had high expectations. It often happens that nothing good comes out of expectations like that. How many bands have made one brilliant album, only to follow it up with a thoroughly average one? Given how much Starfooted blew me away, I was pretty skeptical myself. On Entertaining Thanatos, lyricist John Mabry decided to tackle a pretty important aspect of life – death. As usual with Metaphor, you can expect deep, inventive and sometimes wickedly funny musings on deadly serious topics.
The first time I listened to the album, I was seriously disappointed. Where are those magical melodies that graced the debut? Where’s the catchiness and the magic? But the more I listened, the more I liked it. Metaphor really know how to pull the listener into their music. Every track is packed with interesting twists, and there’s no shortage of beautiful melodies either. The more avant-garde approach (a bit like Gentle Giant) probably felt a little strange to me at first, but later that side of it grew on me big time.
The very first track shows that this isn’t the same Metaphor from the Starfoted days. Sure, the lineup is practically the same, but the sound is almost completely different. There’s more avant-garde in the mix, and the melodies don’t flow as smoothly. If I judged the album by the opening track alone, it wouldn’t get a high score, but luckily the tracks that follow are way better. Socrates wonders what happens to us (or to Socrates) when we die. Is everyone treated the same, the great thinkers and the biggest idiots alike? Socrates may not be the best way to kick off an album, since I think it’s the weakest piece here, but in terms of concept and lyrics the choice makes sense. At first it really rubbed me the wrong way, but somehow it grew on me, and even though I still think it’s the weakest link, that says a lot about the quality of this album.
Galatea shows the real Metaphor side right away. The music is much more melodic and flowing, yet still playful enough. The lyrics are once again hugely important. In this story, an artist (Pygmalion) sculpts a statue of the perfect woman because he only cares about her looks, not her mind. Aphrodite is furious about that, so she decides to give the statue life. The artist is over the moon when he sees that his creation has come alive, just like Frankenstein’s. But his excitement doesn’t last long, because the angry “perfect” woman soon kicks him right in the groin.
When It All Comes Together is about that period when there’s no war in the world and death has to wait around for new victims. Here we can again hear moments as wonderful as those on Starfooted. A handful of really good melodies, instrumental parts and avant-garde leaps make the song feel much longer than it actually is. I don’t mean it drags, just that it’s more structurally intricate than you’d usually expect from such a short song.
Raking The Bones is based on the fifteenth chapter of the Finnish epic poem the Kalevala. A mother finds her dead son and is determined to bring him back to life by any means. She tells a bee to bring her nectar so that its energy can revive her son. She sprinkles the nectar on him and the son slowly comes back to life. When he wakes, he says he was in a lovely place and that his rest was peaceful. Even though he returns, he’s never truly alive again, and his thoughts are far away.
The next song is probably the wackiest in the band’s entire history. It’s built on just one avant-garde melody and lyrics steeped in black humor. A gentleman is trying to convince everyone he’s not boring and monotonous, and as proof, people should take a look at the collection of human bones he keeps in his backyard.
Yes and No is the only epic these guys have written so far. The lyrics deal with whether murder in the name of religion can be justified. In an inner dialogue with Krishna, the protagonist tries to work out whether killing the very people you’re trying to save is justified. Krishna convinces him that physical death doesn’t mean real death. So the message of this complex (musically and lyrically) piece is that deities do more harm than good. Yes and No is a real symphonic treat with plenty of great ideas and lovely melodies. There are fewer avant-garde ideas here than elsewhere, and the second part of the piece is based on a melody by Gustav Holst. For me it’s the best work on the album, and I’d even put it right up there with the stuff from Starfooted.
The last track again asks what exists after death and is once again full of emotional passages. The saxophone is back at the end, carrying the record to a beautiful finish.
Right from the start you can tell the melodies won’t be as pleasant as they were on Starfooted. But we can count that in Metaphor’s favor. They simply didn’t want to repeat themselves. Personally I wouldn’t have minded if they’d made another Starfooted, but it probably could have turned out really badly. If they’d gone down the road of making a similar record, it could easily have fizzled out and ended up a proper flop. In the end I come to the conclusion that it’s better to create something new and fresh, even if you risk losing the people the first album won over.
The music on Entertaining Thanatos is quite original. On Starfooted the Genesis influence was much more noticeable, but here they’ve stood on their own two feet. There are still plenty of Genesis tricks (mellotron, guitar, etc.), but they’re no longer so obvious. Interestingly, they sometimes sound like Van Der Graaf Generator too, especially when the saxophone shows up (on Raking The Bones), and sometimes like Gentle Giant (in the wackier parts and the multi-part vocal harmonies). To claim that Metaphor merely combine these influences would be unfair. They have plenty of their own ideas when it comes to sound and structure, so at no point does it feel like something was lifted from another band.
Vocalist John Mabry has once again proven himself with outstanding lyrics. To me he’s without a doubt one of the best lyricists in modern symphonic/neo prog. He often takes on religious themes, but unlike some better-known artists, such as Neal Morse, Mabry knows how to poke fun at religion and be critical too, albeit in a very metaphorical and sometimes witty way. A lot of people probably won’t like his voice (I do), but for those familiar with the better-known Echolyn, it helps to know that his voice is reminiscent of Ray Weston. At first I felt his lyrics didn’t fit the music, as if he were trying to cram too much information into a short time. In the end I realized it’s probably a deliberate attempt at a more avant-garde way of writing, since the other aspects of the album are more avant-garde too. In his solos the guitarist again uses a typical Hackett-style approach, which doesn’t bother me at all, since I think Hackett’s style is one of the most pleasant around. On this album Metaphor have a new bass player, who shines with some good lines. Spooner’s style is once again classic Banks-like restraint, but brilliant nonetheless. You don’t always have to play full throttle, as many neo bands trying to imitate Rick Wakeman’s fast moves tend to do. This time there are two drummers. Bob Koehler officially left the band already, but he still plays on two tracks. The drums are the least noticeable instrument on the album. I think it’s sometimes good when drummers don’t show off too much and subordinate their playing to the band. This is certainly one of those moments.
Entertaining Thanatos has shown that Metaphor are still breathing and that the shadow of Starfooted no longer looms over them. They deserve all the praise for not repeating themselves and still managing to make an album that, like Starfooted, sucks you in with its charms. The melodies are generally not as strong as on the debut, but an album like Starfooted doesn’t happen twice just like that. I think Starfooted will always be the yardstick for all their other albums and that they’ll never reach such heights again (I truly hope I’m wrong). Still, you can look forward to good things from Metaphor, and Entertaining Thanatos is undoubtedly one of them. A seriously underrated album and band.
Lineup
John Mabry – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Marc Spooner – keyboards, backing vocals
Malcolm Smith – electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synthesizer, flute, backing vocals
Jim Andreson – bass
Guests: Jeff Baker – drums (all tracks except 1 and 3), Bob Koehler – drums (1 and 3), Tony Abena – saxophone (4 and 7), Tony Abena, Bob Acosta, Brooks Gregory, Ernest Herrera (The Hitmen Horns) – woodwinds (1)
Production
Metaphor
Tracklist
1. Socrates (7:59)
2. Galatea 3.3 (7:43)
3. When It All Comes Together (4:17)
4. Raking the Bones (7:43)
5. Call Me Old and Uninspired or Maybe Even Lazy and Tired, but Thirteen Heads in the Backyard Says You’re Wrong (3:31)
6. Yes and No (17:49)
7. Wheel of the World (7:55)
