Alan
Sort of a "Welcome to My Nightmare" kind of thing, lyrically and musically. A scene-setter for the album as a whole, with a nice orchestral intro which builds into this iconoclastic "sturm and drang". The bottom line is that when you drop off to sleep you never know where your dreams will take you. And that's true of life generally.
Graeme
Nice Pastoral orchestral piece by Niall to open the album, and set the scene of a day gently slipping into night to lull the listener in to a dream like state, and then... pulverise the poor unsupecting bastards with some PALLAS POWER.!!!! This track seemed to pick itself as the album opener. I particularly enjoy the skull crushing guitar with the walking bass line; strange combination! I came up with a lyric to try and "set the scene" for the whole album. The theme being the many ,varied and sometimes strange and scary dreams of men, and OF COURSE WOMEN. I imagined a snake oil salesman or Ringmaster delivering the opening vocal to a willing audience inviting them into our world of Dreams....and nightmares. I think this track really kicks ass and cant wait to play it live!
Niall
I had written a short classical piece, just an exercise in orchestration really, and I played it to people, they seemed to like it. I took it to one of our Pallas writing sessions and let the guys hear it and here it is at the front of the first track of the new album. As far as I remember the main riff of Bringer came from another piece that I took to the band, which was then called "Angry man". We then developed the idea a bit further and it grew into Bringer. I'm personally quite pleased with the guitar work on this one. I discovered that one of my guitars has a squeaky wammy bar, and if you put some modulation delay on this it sounds quite eerie. I also like the solo because you’re not sure where the guitar solo ends and Ronnies synth solo begins.
Colin
We initially played a version of this at Rotherham that no-one in the band was happy with, so we took the whole thing apart in the studio and tried to find something inspiring with it. Niall decided to go to Banchory for Cake and Tea, whilst Ronnie and I tinkered bout with an instrumental idea in 7/4 until he came back. It sounded really powerful, so we programmed it all into the computer and we all liked it. The drum part in the 7/4 part is quite a complex pattern, utilising EVERY part of the kit. The pattern is across the toms whilst maintaining a pumping Kick and snare part and as the intensity increases it moves from 7/4 into 4/4 and back, moving from Hi-hat, Ride to China type as it concludes. This section repeats again at the end to finish the track off bombastically.
Ronnie
Niall’s orchestral arrangement for the opening of this track remains one of my favourite parts of the whole album. The rest of the track was pretty much a team effort built around the seeds of one of several sketches by Graeme and Niall. We played this track live a couple of months before beginning the recording process, which assisted its development.
Lyrics
Welcome! Step inside the waiting room
Just relax they'll be here quite soon
Now if you could just let yourself go
You'll soon be starring in your own freak show
Thet know you're here, your own dark fears
You know you can't stop the show
You're at the mercy of the bringer of dreams
A dream or a nightmare tell me what will you choose
No way of knowing if you'll win or lose
Perhaps you'll find your hearts' desire
Or burn forever in your own hellfire
Let the show begin, just become them in
You know you can't stop the show
You're at the mercy of the bringer of dreams
Sleepless demons approaching fast
They bring you gifts from your subconscious past
Ride with Rhiannon on her snow white horse
Morpheus plots a darker course
Time to dream
Be at peace within your dreams
You know it's not all that it seems
Like Alice down the rabbit hole, I'm falling, falling, falling
I feel like I'm all alone
I feel so far from home
I hear a distant telephone calling, calling, calling
They know you're here, you own dark fears
Let the show begin
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