A friend of mine recently asked me if I considered writing about music more often. I told him that doing such a thing was too difficult, as I lacked the vocabulary and literacy to critique and analyze the more technical aspects of music. Simultaneously, music is perhaps the most subjective artistic medium there is. To me, a good song evokes emotions in a way that words cannot. How do you convey a response to emotions that are too complex for words? A fool’s task, for certain.

Yet here I am, writing up a post purely due to some errant thoughts I had comparing two songs. If I were to evaluate them on a technical level, I would regard them as both following the same template. That Demons & Wizards – a band formed by Iced Earth’s guitarist and songwriter Jon Schaffer and Blind Guardian’s vocalist and lyricist Hansi Kursch – had such songs on each album would cause me to be skeptical of their creativity. It’s not a mere matter of the “token” acoustic song, as I felt became so popular following Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”. Even the progression of the song is the same.

To use an example, DragonForce’s debut album Valley of the Damned provided a bit of an “intermission” with the slower-paced “Starfire”. A welcome break from the constant, high speed wailing of bloody battlefields and gleaming steel. When they released their following album, Sonic Firestorm, they placed a very similar song in almost the exact same midpoint of the album. “Dawn Over a New World” not only follows the same progression, it also has the same tempo. If you were to remove the introductory sound of rainfall from “Starfire” and played the tunes side-by-side, not only would the first verse end at nearly the same time, but that’s precisely when the electric guitars and percussion would kick in.

By time Inhuman Rampage landed I was unimpressed by the speed at which they played. Of course, by then they dropped the pretense of “variety” in their songwriting and counted on relentless pace of their songs to amaze those unfamiliar with the two-plus decade-old genre of power metal.

We’re not here to discuss that unimaginative group of shredders, though. We’re instead here to discuss the difference between “Fiddler on the Green” and “Down Where I Am”, two very similar songs on Demons & Wizards’ self-titled debut album and its follow-up Touched By the Crimson King.

On the surface, each of these tracks follows a similar basic template. They’re acoustic for at least half of the song’s length, kick in with heavily distorted guitar halfway, and tell a sad story.

If I were to evaluate these songs cynically, I would say that they’re some obligation to “vary up” the album. Or perhaps “Down Where I Am” is an attempt to follow-up on the success seen by “Fiddler on the Green”. While both of these pessimistic takes could be plausible – I mean, I wasn’t present in any conversation regarding the writing of either track – actually listening to the two songs would reveal greater substantial differences.

To begin with, “Fiddler on the Green” has a greater pace due to the rhythm of its acoustic guitar. A greater emphasis of triplets on each beat gives it an energy that then impacts the mood of the listener*. You’re likely to imagine the bright and sunny day as Hansi sings of a young girl leaving home to start her day. If you were to remove the lyrics and vocals, you may not necessarily envision the tragedy the song is about to convey.

This is because the song is not from the perspective of the girl, or even anyone that knows her. It’s from the perspective of the “fiddler on the green”, a colorful descriptor of the Grim Reaper. There is sorrow in the voice of Hansi as he sings of the violent demise of the young girl, but it is nowhere near the heavy sorrow you’d expect from someone with a personal attachment. It’s the pity of a detached observer reflecting upon another child that had similarly passed on too early.

When the heavy guitars kick in, the emotion conveyed is not one of sadness. There are sorrowful tones in there, certainly, but it is more the sound of passing through a doorway. The young girl is leaving this life and entering a new one – one where she can keep the spirit of the deceased young boy company. As such, the song has a bit of a bittersweet, melancholic tone, but it also bears happiness.

The difference in tone and mood is apparent the minute you begin listening to “Down Where I Am”. That pace is far more slow as Schaffer strums the guitar, hitting chords that I would describe as “minor key” if I wanted to pretend I knew what I was talking about*. The song never builds the same energy that “Fiddler on the Green” manages. When the electric guitar kicks in, it feels far less explosive. This is in part due to the percussive build-up, but also in part due to the vocals of Hansi Kursch.

Blending the lyrical content with the emotions of the song is a skill I feel far too many bands not only lack, but are unaware of. It sounds silly to say, but so many power metal bands try to convey a sense of epic scale through over-dub and a bombastic assault of the ears while the words lack any sense of poetry or emotion. When the guitar kicks in on either song, Hansi’s tone not only changes, but so do the nature of the words. In “Fiddler of the Green” he stops speaking sorrowfully and instead conveys that sense of welcome. “Take my hand,” the reaper says as he extends his (skeletal) hand to the young girl. “Your pain will go away,” he promises.

“Down Where I Am”, on the other hand, is a very different relationship between the narrator and subject. It is the sound of a parent that, for whatever reason, despises their child. As the song progresses there’s a combination of self-loathing mixed in with that outward hate. As the guitars kick in, it’s in a moment where the harsh words towards the child are suddenly turned inward. The singing becomes more powerful to match, and as such you can feel those sad but loathsome emotions the narrator bares.

It may be unfair to credit the success of such a song to Hansi. In the past he has spoken of his teamwork with Jon Schaffer being similar to that of Andre Olbrich, lead guitarist and songwriter of Blind Guardian. He would write the vocal melodies and lyrics after being given a portion of the song. However, I believe the strength of these songs to stand equally side-by-side is because Hansi understands the power vocals can bring. If you remove him from “Down Where I Am”, it truly does feel like a less ambitious follow-up to “Fiddler on the Green”.

Hansi Kursch was able to capitalize on those unique traits of music in order to not only tell a story, but convey that emotion with the song. However, the same holds true if you remove Jon Schaffer’s contributions. Isolate the vocals and you’ll still have beautiful melodies and imagery, but the strength of that sorrow, loathing, or welcoming gesture will be lost.

If we look back at those two DragonForce songs, “Starfire” and “Dawn of a New World”, it’s easier to see that the problem dwells deeper than mere templates. It’s that both songs are, emotionally, the same. Their lyrics are meaningless. The story being told is insufficiently conveyed, assuming they care to convey it at all. This makes such songs forgettable, which is a poor thing for art to be.

Moral of the story: DragonForce is overrated, and now that Century Media has re-released both Demons & Wizards albums on digital platforms you should go buy them.

*See what I mean by lacking the technical terminology and literacy?

**Look, man, I was a drummer in concert band, and by time I was learning about all these keys and stuff on the xylophone I quit.