The Truth Before The Dawn Wiki

The Truth Before The Dawn

Studio album by The Last Aurora
Released January 2009
Recorded June-September 2008
Genre Symphonic Metal
Length 64:57

The Truth Before The Dawn is the third studio album of Singapore metal trio The Last Aurora, released on January 21, 2009 in Singapore. It is the first The Last Aurora album with the band's new member, Sarah Cheung, and the first album not featuring former member Chen Yun, who was dismissed in August 2008.
Lead songwriter Shen Le has referred to it as the 'greatest album that I wrote’.[3]
The album has spawned five singles. "I Wish For A Rainy Day", “Eternal Longing”, “A Great And Terrible Beauty”, “Say My Name”, “Face My Fears”.

Title Origin

According to Shen Le, the band's pianist and main composer, the album's title was originally intended to be Genesis Of Hope, a title which has been pushed back to their fifth album. The Truth Before The Dawn became the title when Shen Le decided that the dark era “teenage life” is not over yet. The new name, though, has nothing to do with the album's tracks.

Recording
The Last Aurora began recording the Aria For Ariel of Dark Passion Play in the winter of 2007, and were finished by autumn 2008. A total of 13 songs were recorded.[9] As with their previous studio album, Old Shadows Linger, the band collaborated with BMI freeplaymusic for their music. Notable composers include Scott P Schreer, Guillaume Wilmot, Vivaldi, Patrick James Slattery, and James Galway. Vocal recordings ended in September 20078, after Anette Olzon had been chosen as the band's new lead singer. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Shen Le’s house.

The album's production took nine months, making it the longest time we took to make an album. “Usually we take two months to make an album, so we can make an album a year. However, as the songs get longer and more epic, it takes longer too,” Shen Le said.

New vocalist

“The Truth Before The Dawn” introduced Sarah Cheung to take Chen Yun's job as part vocalist.

In August 2007, after an argument between Shen Le and Chen Yun over Chen Yun’s long absence in the band, Chen Yun was dismissed via an SMS. In search of a replacement, Felicia Lau suggested her friend, a wannabe singer Sarah Cheung. Sarah’s demo tape was alright, and Shen Le inaugurated Sarah into the band. However, Sarah Cheungwas no more committed than Chen Yun, who had since repented, so they kicked Sarah Cheung out for Chen Yun again.
Shen Le said they had made the decision in September 2008 based on the impression Sarah made while performing a Japanese song. “However, the moment she sang “Angels” by Within Temptation offkey, I knew something was wrong,” Shen Le said. “She doesn’t even knew she was out of tune!”

Music style

Before the album's release, band leader Shen Le said that the album will have a lot in common with the last album Old Shadows Linger. For example, the band have kept the new kind of more instrumental epic songs (such as "Within Temptation", “1001 Nights As An Undead”, “Aria For Ariel”, “Face My Fears”, “Say My Name”), dark songs (“Witch Child), piano ballads (“Sadako’s Threnody”), but that additionally there will be harder rockers (such as “Eternal Longing”, “A Great And Terrible Beauty”, “I Wish For A Rainy Day”). Also that there will be 2 very long symphonic track (“The Songwriter And The String” on Old Shadows Linger), (“1001 Nights As An Undead” and “Aria For Ariel” on The Truth Before The Dawn). The new album includes lots of guest lyricists and orchestral parts.

She also claimed there was going to be "shockers" that she didn't want to reveal. The long track, “Aria For Ariel”, is a song that according to her is a very beautiful, epic piece that is a lot like film score music, is the longest song in the band's history, 13:25, 2:27 minutes longer than the song that used to occupy that position, “The Songwriter And The String”Another film-score epic, “1001 Nights As An Undead” lasts almost 11 minutes.

“ The extremes are there more than ever before. So it's not going to be like Old Shadows Linger 2. There is more hope in some of the new songs.
-Shen Le, band leader, keyboardist and main composer[21]
”

Shen Le also said that there are darker pieces reminiscent of Old Shadows Linger, such as “Witch Child”, and some others. It will be a dark album, both musically and lyrically. Even though the album is much more upbeat than Old Shadows Linger.[22] Songs that reflect this mood are for example “Eternal Longing”, “A Great And Terrible Beauty”, and “I Wish For A Rainy Day”.

Just like the album Old Shadows Linger, The Last Aurora included many new influences and experimentations in several tracks. On Old Shadows Linger, much inspiration came from piano, especially “Lavia” and “Our Farewell”. However, on Dark Passion Play, much inspiration comes from orchestra as this can be clearly heard on “1001 Nights As An Undead”

“Within Temptation”, “Witch Child”, “1001 Nights As An Undead”, “Aria For Ariel” are the songs featuring Shen Le’s male vocals. Shen Le is generally known for her operatic and sometimes talking in the songs.

The album's average track length (with 10 songs) is 6.5 minutes, with most of the songs lasting for about four minutes. Two tracks are over eleven minutes long, which is long for a The Last Aurora record, a band that mostly had songs about 2-3 minutes
and one or two longer per album.

Band members
Shen Le - Lead vocals, Piano
Felicia Lau - Backing vocals
Sarah Cheung – Backing vocals

Guests
Scott P Scheer “Eternal Longing”, “A Great And Terrible Beauty”, “1001 Nights As An Undead”, “Face My Fears”, “I Wish For A Rainy Day”
Guillaume Wilmot “A Great And Terrible Beauty”, “Witch Child”, “1001 Nights As An Undead”
Patrick James Slattery “Witch Child”, “Say My Name”, “1001 Nights As An Undead”
Vivaldi “Eternal Longing”, “A Great And Terrible Beauty”
James Galway “Say My Name”, “Aria For Ariel”
D Difonzo “Eternal Longing”
Robert L Klein “Eternal Longing”
Paul Andrew “All In All”
Jim Klein “A Great And Terrible Beauty”
Jean-Pascall Vielfaure “A Great And Terrible Beauty”
Pete Calandra “1001 Nights As An Undead”
Pierre Langer “1001 Nights As An Undead”
Phil Garrod, Reed Hays “Face My Fears”
Dimitrios Hatzisavas “Face My Fears”
David Rolfe, T Loeffler “I Wish For A Rainy Day”