Hearthside Lullaby, Ebonshire: What a gorgeous piece.It’s also peaceful and mystical, like “The Hidden Realm.” It’s a very different vibe from the autumnal forest of Grimm Tales and Season of the Witch. This piece definitely calls to mind the image of a spooky, silent forest with tall, straight black trees and slight snowfall. Ebonshire, Winter’s Knight : Back before Ebonshire was an album unto itself, there was this track from Winter’s Knight.I love the violin solo in the middle, which sort of acts as the “bridge.” My one complaint is that it’s much too short to actually recite “The Raven.” Its melody is simple and repeats over and over again, but it works, almost resembling the verse-refrain structure of a song (or the meter and rhyme of the poem). This was the first Nox Arcana track I downloaded once I rediscovered it, almost by accident. The Raven, Shadow of the Raven : The title track, named for Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem.It’s also definitely got a fantastical flavor to it, like you’re exploring secret parallel dimensions with dark fairy-tale castles. It’s spooky, but also kind of calming and peaceful. The Hidden Realm, Legion of Shadows: One of two pre-existing tracks to be used on the Doctor Arcana soundtrack.It also has the same “aesthetic” of silent falling snow that permeates this album. Echoes of Elise, Ebonshire: Nox Arcana’s haunting rendition of “Fur Elise,” which sounds very ethereal and eerie.This piece is just everything you’d expect in a Nox Arcana track. I like its melancholy, lilting melody, and I also like the organ that underscores it in places. The title of this piece sounds like it could be Part 3 of Soma Cruz’s story, but I think it’s kind of an underrated gem. Legacy of Sorrow, Shadow of the Raven: When I discovered this piece, it quickly became one of my absolute favorite Nox Arcana tracks.If you knew nothing about this piece, you could easily guess that it was about noble knights setting off on a quest, couldn’t you? I love the drums, and the dramatic vocals work really well. This piece is unique for how unusually optimistic it sounds. The Quest Begins, Blood of the Dragon: Nox Arcana has a tendency to start sounding the same after a while, but about once per album there’s a piece like this one, that sounds completely unlike anything else they’ve written.This piece in particular epitomizes that. Season of the Witch sounds kind of like a Spiritual Successor to Grimm Tales, with that same distinctly autumnal and Halloweeny atmosphere. I like a lot of Season of the Witch tracks. Shadow Dance, Season of the Witch: This is the best Season of the Witch track, in my opinion, and that’s a tough call.It’s relatively simple, but it’s got the creepy piano and the chimes and the one-woman wail. When Darkness Falls, Blackthorn Asylum: This track is used in the Grimstone Manor puzzle on youtube, from last Halloween, and that’s how I encountered it for the first time.I love it for its fast pace, and I think it sounds both unsettling and exciting.
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