Voyager - The Meaning of I

November 3, 2011

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As metalheads, we’ve grown accustomed to a few things. One is that our music is awesome. The second is that most people don’t like our music. At best they see it as a loud, angry, stupid joke. At worst, it’s crude, evil, knuckledragging noise. To the average listener, we’re inured to heavy metal’s sonic violence.

Sometimes, a bit of perspective is necessary. Listen to John Zorn’s “Speedball” track sometime. Without commenting on the worth of the music, “Speedball” is what most people hear when they listen to heavy metal: clattering, formless, exploding noise with tortured screams.

Case in point: a few years ago, I drove to pick up an aunt. I arrived, turned the car off, and went in to greet her. I thoughtlessly left my 1st gen iPod Shuffle playing in my car through the tape deck. When we got into the car and I started it, she was appalled at the hideous racket churning out of the speakers. And what was I listening to? The Amenta? Blut Aus Nord? Converge?

Iced Earth. Iced fucking Earth.

If I’d left some Voyager on Shuffle, I think her reaction might’ve been different. Voyager is definitely heavy metal, but it’s metal with all the edges rounded off and sanded away. There’s sonic heft, but it doesn’t bludgeon the listener at all. The melodies find an unusual middle ground; they’re unconventional without being warped a la Carcass, and yet they aren’t Top 40 Pop dreck either. Voyager even use vocal harmonies. Daniel Estrin has a very smooth, calming voice, and never uses the typical power metal/true metal falsetto screams that sometimes grate on the nerves.

Now for the bad news: Voyager is unconventional, but they are definitely power metal. Voyager uses synths and keyboards. Voyager never moves much faster than a mid-paced trot. Voyager’s music has a delicate quality and does not possess the typical chest-beating energy we’re used to. Some people will inevitably find the vocal lines cheesy or affected.

None of that matters for me, though. The songwriting is excellent, the riffs are complicated but catchy, the lyrics are intelligent, and it all just works. It’s refreshing to be able to listen to metal without being on the receiving end of yet another sonic artillery barrage.

— Richard Street-Jammer

HEAR THE MEANING OF I

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