I love taking the kids out to look at Christmas lights. I remember doing thsi as a child and enjoying it very much. The internet and especially YouTube has made doing this a lot of fun as well. You can see Christmas displays from all over the country. A new trend is to use electronic control modules to time lights to a piece of music. The passerby can tune to a particular FM frequency and hear the song while seeing the lights timed to it. YouTube has some interesting displays of this, but a favorite for a couple of years now has been this one. The song is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. TSO has become very popular in recent years for their Christmas albums mixing progressive metal and traditional Christmas tunes. I have followed them since they began as a progressive metal band called Savatage. Savatage began their transformation as early as 1991 with their self-proclaimed rock opera Streets. There is an interesting review of Streets here. Savatage was famous for recycling lyrics from one song into other albums songs and making it work because the theme was similar or the sentiment was the same.
For example, on their 1991 album Streets, the final song "Believe" declares:
I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you
Believe
Savatage recycled this sequence in their 1994 release, Handful of Rain, on the final track "Alone You Breathe," written for Christopher Oliva, brother of band member Jon Oliva. Shortly after Handful of Rain, Dead Winter Dead (1995) became the second rock opera released by Savatage and contained the now popular "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24." The band released another album of two after this, but mostly began the transition into the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The song, "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24" was re-released on their first album Christmas Eve and other Stories.
Besides an amazing sound, one of the things that interests me about TSO and the predecessor Savatage is their emphasis on storytelling. In a 2003 interview with Christianity Today (found here) producer, Paul O'Neill stated, "I'm a strong believer in the power of storytelling. I grew up in a large Irish Catholic home, and my parents wouldn't allow us to watch TV. That forced us to learn to read. Also, before we went to bed, my father would weave these incredibly intricate fairy tales and stories from the top of his head. Even as I got older, I'd hang around him telling stories to my little siblings. And Irish music tends to have strong storytelling."
The guys of TSO have some very interesting stories to tell, even if they aren't the most theologically accurate, they can still spin an interesting yarn. For some of us, it might be better to hear a story that is a little lacking in the theology department but makes us think in theological terms. TSO's music and stories do just this.
Give them a listen if you are into Classical and Progressive Metal fusion.
For example, on their 1991 album Streets, the final song "Believe" declares:
I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you
Believe
Savatage recycled this sequence in their 1994 release, Handful of Rain, on the final track "Alone You Breathe," written for Christopher Oliva, brother of band member Jon Oliva. Shortly after Handful of Rain, Dead Winter Dead (1995) became the second rock opera released by Savatage and contained the now popular "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24." The band released another album of two after this, but mostly began the transition into the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The song, "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24" was re-released on their first album Christmas Eve and other Stories.
Besides an amazing sound, one of the things that interests me about TSO and the predecessor Savatage is their emphasis on storytelling. In a 2003 interview with Christianity Today (found here) producer, Paul O'Neill stated, "I'm a strong believer in the power of storytelling. I grew up in a large Irish Catholic home, and my parents wouldn't allow us to watch TV. That forced us to learn to read. Also, before we went to bed, my father would weave these incredibly intricate fairy tales and stories from the top of his head. Even as I got older, I'd hang around him telling stories to my little siblings. And Irish music tends to have strong storytelling."
The guys of TSO have some very interesting stories to tell, even if they aren't the most theologically accurate, they can still spin an interesting yarn. For some of us, it might be better to hear a story that is a little lacking in the theology department but makes us think in theological terms. TSO's music and stories do just this.
Give them a listen if you are into Classical and Progressive Metal fusion.
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