I was meeting up with my friend Ryan for lunch. After lunch he asked if I wanted to run to the record store across the street from the Sports bar we were at because he wanted to pick up the new Early November album. In his car he was listening to Boys Night Out: Trainwreck and about 2 minutes into Dreaming I decided I was going to buy this CD. And I did right then and there while he was picking up Early November.
This second album is a bizarre concept album (far more tight knit then most concept albums) telling a story of a Doctor and his weird patient. The doctor talks about how the patient in a violent nightmare killed his sleeping wife next to him and it put him in a catatonic state. He’s been released from the hospital though in a state of Non-responsiveness.
The next track takes us back to the night in which the patient killed his wife and immediately followed by Waking where the Patient wakes up and realizes what he’s done. He’s sent to court and the judge and doctors most decide if he should be put in jail for murder or hospitalized. Eventually he’s sent to the hospital where he begs the doctor to let him go (Doctor! Doctor! What am I in for? Can’t you see that I don’t need this place? I don’t need these walls! I’m not threat at all). The Doctor agrees and releases him (Doctor I can’t thank you enough! Doctor You regret this!).
This is where the album really turns dark. On Purging the Patient has to deal with people are shocked/scared by how quickly he was released based on what he did. In order to avoid killing again the Patient cuts off his own hands. On Relapsing the Patient is haunted by his wife’s voice and begins mentally writing a song in order to stay sane. The Patient begins taking more and more doses of medication and painkillers in order to shut out the entire world (except the song in his head).
The Patient decides that he must compose the song by killing more people. He convinces the doctor he needs to see his friends and family to recover and then poisons them all. After he’s killed everyone his wife’s voice tells him that he can’t see her until he kills the Doctor and then himself. He calls the Doctor with the intention of killing him but The Doctor finds The Patient slumped up against the wall with an infection from cutting off his hands going all the way up his body, as the Patient dies he sings ‘We Were Inseparable”
I’m a big fan of concept albums in general but this is probably my favorite concept album. It’s so dark and the story can easily be followed by the lyrics and narration. It creates such a horrific imagery throughout, but unlike many other concept albums it never allows the concept to stop the songs from being super catchy.
Relapsing is one of the catchiest choruses I’ve ever heard. With it’s haunting female vocals for the chorus. Beyond the horrifying aspects of the albums story it still manages to be really sympathetic to it’s main character The Patient where you feel bad for him more than hatred.
I never got into other Boys Night Out records perhaps because this has continued to haunt my CD player since the day I bought it.
I never got into other Boys Night Out records perhaps because this has continued to haunt my CD player since the day I bought it.
When he’s not watching Rock and Roll Musicals Matt Kelly is hosting The Saint Mort Show, Co-hosting the Reddit Horror Club Podcast, Writing for Geekscape,Tweeting and running Dollar Monday Promotions.
<------ 77. Anathallo: Floating World
75. Billy Joel: The Stranger ------>
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