Enslaved’s Below the Lights and Primordial’s The Gathering Wilderness are two of the absolute finest metal albums of this decade we’ve just watched fade into steam as our future-bound train pulls out of the station (shades of Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler…). Very different albums, of course, but one striking similarity is the way that each album’s opening song sets the perfect tone for the remainder of the album.
Beyond that, the opening couplets of each song actually put me in a similar head-space:
Enslaved:
“I close my eyes / As fire swept clean the earth.”
Primordial:
“One day, I stood / With my back to the wind / And the rain fell down.”
The sole, perhaps somewhat Nietzschean individual witnessing some great naturalistic cataclysm, right? Anyway, all of this mystic bullshit is beside the point. All I’m really trying to get at is, these songs are, on their face, almost entirely dissimilar. Both spring from the loins of bands with black metal roots, but which, by this point in each band’s career, have been largely shaken off in favor of finer genre accoutrements. So, answer me this question: Which song is the better opening track? Keep in mind, of course, that this is an entirely separate question from which song is better.
Enslaved, “As Fire Swept Clean The Earth” (2003):
Primordial, “The Golden Spiral” (2005)
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The danger of these songs is that they may just force one to spend a few hours listening to the entire albums for which they serve as midwives. Still: Which is the better album opener? What’s your favorite album opener?
I’m not qualified to answer to the main question as I don’t really like Enslaved. I just wanted to doff my hat to the Italo Calvino reference. Love that book, even if it took my 21-year-old self about 5 attempts to finish it.
Favourite openers? Tough one… Battery is the obvious one. Perhaps Angel of Death, although I prefer Raining Blood? Or in less orthodox manner, Ulvetid by Kvelertak as it’s an absolute screamer? I also think Prowler on Iron Maiden really sets up the album.
Oh man this is a tough one, but I think I’d give the slight edge to Primordial, if only because I listen to that album more regularly. They’re both pretty perfect and do a great job of setting the tone for their respective albums, as well as drawing you into the worlds those bands create.
My personal favorite opener of all time has to be “Angel of Death”. It doesn’t get much more brutal than kicking your record off with “Auschwitz, the meaning of pain / the way that I want you to die!”. The song is a lyrical/musical punch in the face.
@ Kuz – Calvino’s one of my favorite authors, and that book’s far and away my favorite of his. Good point with “Battery,” but honestly, Metallica killed it with the opening track on all those first four records. And yeah, you’re right on Kvelertak – hell of a way to go barreling into a punk metal party.
@ Josh – I think I might go with Primordial, too, but for different reasons. I actually think that Enslaved track is SO ridiculously good that it blunts the impact of the rest of the album somewhat. The whole album’s still a real treat, but it’s that searing guitar lead that always gets stuck in my head. Because of that, “The Golden Spiral” I think does a better job of easing the listener into the album, which just keeps getting better from there.