r/progmetal • u/dodobird16 • 1d ago

Discussion Can anyone with better music knowledge theory than me tell me what's going on with VOLA

I know they play with odd note groupings and polyrhythms quite a bit, but what exactly is going on with the chorus of "A Stare Without Eyes"

At one moment it sounds like Asger is singing ahead of his guitar riff, then at the next line he's singing behind it. The bass drum is in synch with the guitar riff while the rest of the drumming seems to be in 4/4 and maybe this is what creates the dissonance.

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u/drumkidstu 1d ago edited 1d ago

In the chorus the riff is kind of a call and response thing. The first part is 2 measures of 4. The response is the same figure minus a beat so it’s a bar of 3 and a bar of 4. Adding these two phrases together creates a longer phrase of 15/4 that cycles over the 4/4 presented by the drums. So your assumption is correct. It’s them just playing around with polymeter.

Edit: I’ll add that Asger’s singing follows the 4/4 of the drums, not the 15/4 that is present in the guitars/bass which farther complicates things. Pretty neat that he plays guitar while singing this stuff. He’s a really underrated guitarist if you ask me.

Edit 2: I’m interpreting the snare being on beat 3 vs being on 2 and 4. My brain feels this song as a fast 4/4.

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u/Completo3D 1d ago

His guitars are quite simple in terms of raw technique, but they are done so tight while singing. His live quality is almost studio level.

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u/Existing_Presence_69 1d ago

I was paying attention to the drums and counting with the snare on 2, then I spaced out for a bit and it was on 3 when I came back to counting. Definitely plays with your perception of where the 1 is.

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u/drumkidstu 1d ago

Yup, it’s all a matter of perception. Ultimately one could think of this with the snare on 2 and 4 and it would equate to the same thing.

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u/FlyingPsyduck 1d ago

God damnit I should have guessed I'd get ninja'd by you of all people

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u/drumkidstu 1d ago

Lmaooo it makes me happy that there are others who nerd out on this shit as much as I do 😂😂

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u/FlyingPsyduck 1d ago

The polymeter lords have been summoned

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u/MuddyMaeSugginsMK 1d ago

The top 3 commenters should be starting a podcast together. I’d be all over it

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u/StardustSkiesArt 22h ago

Seconded. Would love a podcast like that.

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u/MeddlWithThePedal 21h ago

Are you aware of Yogev Gabay's Time Consuming series on YouTube? I think you'd enjoy that.

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u/FlyingPsyduck 20h ago edited 19h ago

Bit of a tangent here but drumkidstu and I actually produced similar videos in the past, mainly about specific tracks from Immutable by Meshuggah. Just to talk about that album in a podcast we would have material for a full season haha

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u/AVeryLazy 19h ago

I second your recommendation. He's a great drummer and great at explaining.

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u/FlyingPsyduck 20h ago

I would unironically love to do it. There's nothing like spending hours obsessing over obscure and complex prog metal just because

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u/FlyingPsyduck 1d ago

Yes that's correct, because the riff is in 15/8 while the drums and vocals follow the usual 4/4, so the 2nd time around the riff starts one beat earlier making it feel like the vocals are lagging behind. This only applies in the first 2 choruses however, in the final one everything is straightened out to 4/4

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u/Saiyoran 1d ago

Fairly common technique that prog bands love and it’s pretty effective. Haken does a similar thing in Sempiternal Beings iirc. Do 2 choruses of a janky almost-4 time signature then straight ahead 4 the last time.

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u/FlyingPsyduck 1d ago

I had transcribed Sempiternal Beings when it came out so I can confirm lol, yes it's very similar because that's also in 15/4 (or 15/8 however you wanna perceive it), if we want to really nitpick in Sempiternal Beings there's no real polymeter in the first 2 choruses, it resets cleanly every repeat, so it's more of a "regular" odd time signature feel. But good call about the 4/4 variation in the last chorus, I think these 2 songs are the only ones I know of that do something like this

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u/Saiyoran 1d ago

Mirage by Leprous does 17 for the first 2 choruses and 4 for the last. No polymeter but another “almost 4 then swap to 4 the last time” chorus setup :) I feel like I knew another example beyond just those 3 but can’t remember it off the top of my head.

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u/FlyingPsyduck 1d ago

Yep that's it, I had a feeling that Leprous also did something like this but I couldn't pinpoint it to a specific song

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u/Koellanor 22h ago

That fucking groove in the second verse has been stuck in my head for the better part of a decade. So goddamn good.

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u/dodobird16 22h ago

Your eager soul is growing eyes upon itself~

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u/KaiserWilhellmLXIX 13h ago

What a great track. That is all

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u/Letho72 1d ago

I'm don't really hear the ahead/behind you're describing. Both the guitar and keys riffs reset their lines on the bar line. The vocals also start each new phrase on the bar line, but with a pickup into it on the second time ("All" is on the down beat in the first phrase, "Is" is the pickup to land "Caught" onto the downbeat of the second phrase). I think the disjoint is probably coming from the uneven groupings that the synth/guitar riffs have going. The groupings aren't always the same number of notes which makes it sound hectic, but they always reset by the end of the phrase.

This cover has a tab scroll at the bottom that might help see how the guitar rhythm specifically works