THOMAS BERGERSEN & NICK PHOENIX (Two Steps from Hell)

Good one

What does this app do?

It is fantastic their new website. I love it. Better than the last one!

This app will give you updates, you receive news, promotions, exclusive new music, browse discography, videos, photos and albums. You can also get the album Demon’s Dance when downloading the app. This album will be available for a limited time only. Sounds worth it for TSFH fans!

sounds great, shame I haven't got a smartphone but I shall do something about it....

This album makes me very happy. "Forever More" and "Heart" are outstandingly beautiful tracks.

http://youtu.be/LmPVHL0x_nA
http://youtu.be/tZvKXDtTXjc

Thanks for the heads up that this is available now. Their new* "Halloween" album too!

*although sadly it looks like this is mostly previously released music.

My littly review-opinion of Halloween: releasing it was a nice gesture, but features some of their most run-of-the-mill effects music. Good for Halloween, not great for the rest of the year. They've done so much more interesting stuff. There are 48 tracks though, so there is still a very good album under all that:

-Power of Darkness
-Calamity
-Moving Shadows
-Hunter's Moon
-It Lives
-Black Assassin
-Exhumed
-Deck the Halls with Blood
-Red Omen
-Decimator
-Waltz of the Willows
-Welcome to Willow Woods

Power of Darkness is one of my favorite tracks from their album of the same name. Calamity is a simple track, a build of strings and choir, but perfectly executed and catchy. Moving Shadows is another simple build, this time with electronics, strings and horns, but is once again very well done. Hunter's Moon is old school TSFH action; it's fun, but also shows how much their sound has evolved and progressed. Everything after that is the best of the rest of the album, but not up to par with tracks they've released for Invincible and Archangel.

(Deck the Halls with Blood is also worth listening to; it's a song, but if you like the Nightmare Before Christmas you'll probably like it.)

In short: just buy Power of Darkness and Calamity and you'll miss some, but not much. Especially in light of the Skyworld release.

Is that a good oh good dubstep or a bad oh god dubstep?

No one? Ok, I'll do it: "Dubsteps from Hell"

Thank you, you've been a great audience!

Hmm. Yeah, not bad. When it backs off again at 3:30 it gives a nice haunting effect. But it's mixed really, really loudly. He's done it a lot better in stuff like Reborn from Illusions. But good on them for continuing to be innovative.

All the King's Horses is fantastic. I could listen to a whole album of epic a capella/scat choirs. I haven't even been able to pick my other favorites yet. There are some so-so tracks on here (I feel like Nick Phoenix is becoming the popcorn and Bergersen is become the meat and potatoes on these albums), but most are a ton of fun! I'm enjoying this at least as much as Invincible!

Absolutely LOVE the dubstep part. It's one of the best tracks on the album, IMO... apart from "El Dorado" and "Skyworld"

Yes! It's the boldest track. Grand brass melody with pounding percussion is the norm, then he turn convention on its head with the dubstep mix to take it to the top. I mean, if the whole album is like this, then it'd be too much. But as a necessary punch in the gut to start the album, genius.

I find that SkyWorld is in the same league as the previous albums, as in I don't love the full album, just some of the tracks. All Is Hell that Ends Well was just surprising and bold enough to make me like it alot. It has all the ingredients that I find interesting, the juxtaposition of the banks of drums and brass melody with inspiring Baroque/Classical string passages then kicks it into gear for the finale with a very trendy modern dubstep. Dubstep has gotten a bad rep, what with the like of Skrillex ruining it for everyone.

Anyway, moving on... Here are the tracks I like. I'll repost this in Now Playing as well (cause my writing is important and must be read).
SkyWorld seems like a track that is so promising, like it's gonna go above the route it took, but alas. It's still missing something to really cinch the deal and because I keep waiting for it, it feels much longer than it has to be.
El Dorado has an interesting start with the Gypsy-esque violin (cause it certainly doesn't sound like something from Spain). The brass melody is reminiscent John Powell's theme for the DreamWorks movie, if only because of the MV/RC-inspired nature. But the shifting bass line melody is quite interesting.
All The King's Horses is certainly in my wheel house. It starts with a Mozart-ian string line backed by percussion before adding that the choral scat section. Very memorable, if not shorter than it should have been.
Winterspell incorporate some of that Hans Zimmer choral writing for the Robert Langdon stories, but adding a nice twist of the Irish jig and a huge choir with the requisite pounding percussion to match. It's quite entertaining and big, if not slightly predictable.
Dark Ages reminds me of something from Alan Silvestri? or maybe it's from an early album? I like it, though I don't like how short it is. It feels like it ended before that brass melody got developed a bit more.
Blizzard is another good track. Love the string melody and how the brass develops it. It tells a good story, but, once more, ends way too early for my liking.

NOTE: I don't like Blackheart because of how it tries rearrange the Jack Sparrow stuff in a Yanni style of easy listening. I actually like some of Yanni's stuff, but this feels really wrong to listen to. It's attractive enough, but too subversive for me.

I'm on something called "Ignorance" I've never really heard dubstep before (I've been living under a rock, so I had to google it, to find out what is was ), but I really like how it's used in "All is Hell that Ends Well". But I agree, a whole album with dubstep, would be too much.

Interesting thoughts, guys.

Anyway, I really dislike the Back to the earth song. Sounds like something out of a musical to my ears; i.e. the last thing I would expect on a TSFH album. Would be nicer with an instrumental version. In fact most of Phoenix' material on this album does little for me (except for Big sky which I find rather interesting). Contrary to this, it's curious how I enjoy every single track by Bergersen on this album.



Yep, it's from their Nemesis album. The only track on the Skyworld album that isn't new. It does indeed sound somewhat like modern Silvestri, kinda Van Helsingy.

Peter

Then my friend I envy you cause indeed as they say, ignorance is bliss.

One thing is for sure though, those two steps from hell guys do well-once again, as with every album they release in fact, to keep a good grip onto all the cheap current musical trends from the crappy world of teenage-winning pop garbage and unfortunately, also succeed (with the help of some higher profile composers) to inject those trends into film music in general from time to time. So yeah. Yay.