![]() ![]() All the technical skill, experience and songwriting chops are there. It’s because I hear so much that could have made it a very good record. If this all sounds like I’m frustrated with The Day the Clocks Stopped, well, that’s because I am a little. While it’s always at least somewhat enjoyable to listen to, rather is it ever more than vaguely pleasant, and for a 75 minute record, that just doesn’t cut it. Even the lengthy “No Can Do” mainly stands out because of its size rather than its content. When comparing each track to the next, though, they frequently lack a face of their own. The individual tracks have plenty of dynamic writing, moving through peaks and valleys effortlessly and transitioning beautifully from one mood to another. Again it’s “The Pulse” which impresses the most with its call-and-response between De Wit and the choir, and the many solos strewn across the album (most of which performed by a spreadsheet worth of guest musicians) are lovely. With the emotional connection lackluster at best, it falls to the technical aspects to dazzle and hook, but while there is certainly a wealth of ideas among De Wit’s compositions, it just doesn’t impress enough to stretch into double overtime. When it finally does fully commit to a lunge for the heartstrings, it does so with all the subtlety and complexity of a Hallmark movie’s grand finale, celebrating De Wit’s restored health and return to society with layered choirs and major chords that illustrate clouds parting and rays of sunshine pouring down in such a deluge of danablu, it could put the lactose intolerant in the same hospital bed our protagonist just clambered out of. On the occasion that it does, which includes “The Pulse” for its frightened, panic-stricken energy, the track is that much stronger for it, but it happens far too rarely for a record that’s supposed to be grounded in real life. As such, De Wit’s tale largely does not land, as the emotional connection dial barely nudges off 0 through the elaborate stage production. When laying out the deeply personal and intimate story of a harrowing disease, this is not the case. When concocting an album about the meaning of life, the universe and everything, such as, for example, Devin Townsend is wont to do, more can definitely be more. Where the album falters is the ever present principle of less is more. These cover a wide range of styles, from quiet interludes that lean on vocals and acoustics alone, to symphonic grandeur with theatrical flair, and even adopting the pummeling quality of melodic death metal. De Wit has a very clean timbre in a pleasant baritone range with which he tells the story of his illness and delirium through a maze of complex, multi-layered compositions. ![]() The Day the Clocks Stopped is a thoroughly polished slab of bombastic prog metal, with bells and whistles to spare, including some classical instrumentation, choral arrangements and a 17-minute track that’s not even the closer. Well, not exactly, though it is by no means a bad album. ![]() Does a more intense disease and death experience translate to a more intense disease and death album? ![]() But TDW’s album is 5 minutes longer and instead of almost dying just once, Tom spent a long time on his sick bed, fighting bowel disease, sensory processing sensitivity and medical mistakes, and he almost died twice! Take that, Daniel! But In the Passing Light of Day was, believe it or not, album of the year 2017. Hey, remember the infamous manbun album, where Pain of Salvation‘s Daniel Gildenlöw sang about his experience lying in the hospital and almost dying for over 70 minutes? Well, The Day the Clocks Stopped has TDW’s frontman Tom de Wit singing about his experience lying in the hospital and almost dying for over 70 minutes. ![]()
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