Weylin's Slayer Orchestra - Journey

Hear The Track Here

Now I'm probably going make my usual right royal cockup about this, but here's the deal... Either I have the complete Journey (because it is after all some eighteen minutes long and is marked Journey12) or these three tracks are utterly enormous and - to be blunt - I can't be arsed to go online and check whether this is true or not. It's enough to have listened to the monster I have, surely? Aaaahhh, but this is Weylin we are talking about and he is - how can I put this delicately? - musically verbose. That means a lot of notes for the musically challenged among you. Weylin's Slayer Orchestra had a pretty good 2011 in my books scoring no less than six Must Have's and Tracks Of The Year 2011.

A far cry from my first meeting with this Orchestral Metal (I kid ye not) musician when I reviewed Flight Of Sideria (October 2010) which, to be honest, didn't really impress me much. Consequent tracks soon changed that impression, and I urge you to have a listen to any of those aforementioned Tracks Of The Year. In the meantime let me share this monster with you... After an orchestral intro of a 1min+, I assume Part 1 kicks in and I do mean kick. Seriously, whatever genre this musician dabbles in, I like it best when he gets the axe out and starts giving it some. I like the darker side of his guitar style, it's one of the main reasons I like him and Part 1 has some very nice examples of the man's technique. Its also undoubtedly a soundtrack but this is another area where Weylin manages to slide it by me because - after all - it actually works.

Soundtracks (orchestral or otherwise) occupy much the same venom level in my world as prog rock so you can imagine the slaughter. Weylin's Slayer Orchestra have supplied all of these things and yet remain standing, even lauded in the Stevie's for 2011. So what gives? Is the sky going to fall on our heads? The answer to this modern conundrum is one word: ideas. You'd have to have a few of them to fill up 18 minutes. More to the point, it would have to hold a listeners attention and that's gonna take a shedload of twists and turns; a musical journey even. Hey, maybe that is why this track is called Journey innit? (Ed: good grief!) Whatever else it is, it's a massive achievement and Weylin carries it off in spectacular fashion - all eighteen minutes of it.

Long, but strong. Highly Recommended Soundtrackery