The Alchemist

How good is The Alchemist on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    15
Forostar said:
Hehe, I've complaining as hell that there wasn't so much support in the Black Sabbath survivor. But I remember you there!
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Now, I remember! That's right, dude. Ahahahahahahahahahah...

Invader said:
And both of those are also Janick songs, coincidentally. :)  The thing that doesn't remind me of 90s in this song, though, is Bruce's singing.  It's way better than on No Prayer or Fear, and some parts are so high that I don't think Blaze could have handled them.
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I also think it's quite 90's (the album has a great deal of 90's, somehow, in there), but with Bruce singing with full power, without any rispid nuances in his voice.
 
Yes Invader I agree with Bruce's high singing in e.g. the chorus but I think MOTE's guitar riffs are similar to this track, and the style of singing in the couplets of BQOBD remind me a bit of this track (also couplets).
(Vice versa in both cases ;) ).
 
You put it in words better than me. :ok:  The initial guitar sound reminded me more of Futureal, but Man on the Edge is close too.
 
The actual beginning without rhythm guitars reminds me also a bit of Purgatory, (stylewise).
edit: hmm, when I compare both songs better now, I think I was mistaken, not really.
 
Forostar said:
The actual beginning without rhythm guitars reminds me also a bit of Purgatory, (stylewise).
edit: hmm, when I compare both songs better now, I think I was mistaken, not really.
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Musically it reminds me of The Village - one of my secret pleasures on Powerslave - great galloping rythmn an' all that and it just rocks - love it!!
 
Yeah. I was thinking about it yesterday, the intro reminds me of the guitar duet on Back In The Village (probably because it's in D). Back In The Village is higher than Aces High on my Powerslave songs ranking, since I was a child. That song as an opener or as an encore opener would make some fall flat on the ground.
 
What other band can take an 16th century historical figure (largely unknown to most people), and turn the subject matter into a truly excellent rocker?  Amazing.
 
The funniest thing is that he's one of the most well known represented movie carachters, but no one virtually knows he was the first one in real life.
 
I have a linguistics nerd :blush: question for you English native speakers out there: does anyone know why does Bruce's pronounce the word "Magus" as \ˈmā-dʒəs\ (with a soft G, something close to "mage-us" or "majus") instead of the regular \ˈmā-gəs\ (with a hard G, as in "guts")?

Cheers,
Cobra.
 
Invader said:
I was wondering about that as well.  I thought it's the second.
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And it is. I even went to Merriam-Webster's to listen to the pronunciation.

The strangest part is that it would fit in the song metric just as well if he said it with the hard G. Weird.

Cheers,
Cobra.
 
And I thought it was one of those words I had read, but never heard and Bruce was correcting my English.
 
Ranko said:
Maybe it's an archaic way of pronouncing it.
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I don't think that's the case: "magus" is in Latin, a language in which a G preceding A, O or U has a "hard" sound, much like in English.

Maybe it's not "magus" at all what he says there? The lyrics seem a bit off from what he sings in many TFF songs...

Cheers,
Cobra.
 
Cobra said:
does anyone know why does Bruce's pronounce the word "Magus" as \ˈmā-dʒəs\ (with a soft G, something close to "mage-us" or "majus")
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Cobra, I know nothing about linguistics, but I'm used to hearing of "Magi" (as in magician, usually a reference to the 3 wise men from Christian faith) which is pronounced with a soft G.  Magus in this case is just the singular form of the noun...
 
FriendlyFire said:
Cobra, I know nothing about linguistics, but I'm used to hearing of "Magi" (as in magician, usually a reference to the 3 wise men from Christian faith) which is pronounced with a soft G.  Magus in this case is just the singular form of the noun...
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Yeah, I know. But it wouldn't make sense for the lyrics to be "Know me, the Magi" since it's the plural form. And you can hear the "S" at the end pretty clearly.

I'm thinking this is gonna be left as an unexplained weirdness, unfortunately. Not that it detracts from the experience of listening to the song, but I'm a curious reptile :D and wanted to know the reason why. Oh, well.

Cheers,
Cobra.
 
Sorry Cobra, you misunderstand me - he most definitely does say Magus.  Apologies for not being clear, but what I was trying to say was that "Magi" is a word in fairly common usage and is always pronounced with a soft G.  Magi is the plural of Magus, which is also the origin of the word "Magician".  It's therefore no surprise to me that Magus also has a soft G.
 
Final verdict:
This song just won't go out of my head. At all. For the past 24 hours.

I think it's the best Janick rocker of all times.
 
It's been like that for me for the past week! Definitely the best Janick rocker!
 
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