[Azzi_Kahlila]

TORI AMOS
NIGHT OF HUNTERS
(DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON)
Released: September 2011
Chart: UK No.27 / US No. 24

• Shattering Sea
• Snowblind
• Battle of Trees
• Fearlessness
• Cactus Practice
• Star Whisperer
• Job's Coffin
• Nautical Twilight
• Your Ghost
• Edge of the Moon
• The Chase
• Night of Hunters
• Seven Sisters
• Carry

I think Night of Hunters is a compilation of experiences that Mark & I have had for over 16 years... We're still together, knock on wood. And we work together & we play together. And we're trying to be parents together. And it's difficult sometimes when you have to be the grown-ups. ... So the song cycle in a way, I would say, I understand the man and woman very well in it. It's not exactly a play by play of me & Husband, but there is a bit of us in there here & there.
Night of Hunters is a song cycle that begins with a shattering of a relationship as the sun begins to slowly disappear and dusk moves in.

Shattering Sea

Alone in an old Georgian House on the river Bandon on the outskirts of Kinsale Co Cork Ireland, tori begins to piece together what has just happened in Shattering Sea. The "him" in tori's life we learn carries the force of tide and wave as she carries the force of fire.

SnowBlind

She soon meets a shapeshifting creature named Anabelle who appears firstly to tori as a fox and explains to her that only with the night and darkness can we truly begin to see with our inner eyes. Anabelle suggests that a missing fragment in the couple's story lies back in ancient Ireland. She encourages tori to allow herself to cross time and space and go back in time mentally to where this couple walked these same hills, but in Ireland's mythic past.

Battle of Trees

With Anabelle's ability to see the past tori reclaims a key fragment of her past with "him". This epic battle took place possibly around 3,000 years ago. The battle was not only for those with physical weapons but always included poets on both sides who used the ancient tree [Beth-Luis-Nion] alphabet to fight each other. The power of the poet in ancient Ireland was unlike anything in our modern world. But a poet's wrath, if skillfully turned on a ruler of an opposing army, could shame them to such an extent that a psychological advantage could be achieved for the poet's army.

Eventually in ancient Ireland, as invasions grew steadily on the island, the respect for the Goddess in all her aspects was supplanted by those who worshipped the Thunder God in all his many forms. Our couple fought on the same side as poets against these invaders. We all know that the goddess-worshipping culture was subjecated by the Thunder God and then by Christianity, which suppressed any inkling of the goddess culture even further.

Fearlessness

tori collects another memory of her recent past with "him". Doubt and Blame seem to have come between the couple. Here their life on the sea comes to life. On their recent Atlantic Crossing on his sailboat from the new world to the old world Outside Forces begin to pull them apart so that by the end of the song we hear: "Then that was when the Blame began, what were once two forces joined in Fearlessness."

Cactus Practice

Anabelle then shares her view of the couple and makes tori aware that "Every couple has a version of what they call the truth." Anabelle tells tori to call all that lies beneath both stories back to her own fire and to embrace the truth of what she finds. Anabelle has turned into her goose shape. Anabelle offers tori an elixir of cactus to open up tori's vision and her heart so that she can actually claim her part in this shattering separation from "Him". As with any elixir, it's job is to take the participant to a depth of feeling and understanding that they have not been able to achieve in the cold light of day.

Star Whisperer

Star Whisperer is where tori begins to sing directly to his soul. She refers to "him" as you for the first time in our song cycle. "He" begins to have a voice and perspective as he speaks to her through different instruments. The elixir Anabelle has given tori has taken her into the dimension of Star Whisperer which is over 9 minutes in length and becomes an emotional discovery whereby tori realizes that, "you saw a me I didn't want to see" as well as, " I saw a you I didn't want to see".

Job's Coffin

Next, Anabelle, as fox, asks tori about the day she abandoned her force of fire. She also warns us that "There is a grid of disempowerment" and that, "All forces are being called to dismantle this". As the constellation Job's Coffin looks down on Earth, we learn that Anabelle is here to call all forces, "back on line". She explains that looming in our present reality, "There exists a power of old who wanted Earth to be controlled".

Nautical Twilight

tori reveals when she turned her back on her own force of fire - "I abandoned it rupturing a delicate balance when I left my world for his". She now sees what this has done to imbalance their relationship. She expands on the idea Anabelle planted in Job's Coffin about " a power of old who wanted earth to be controlled". The consequence of any force turning their back on their own power is no different than using it for destructive purposes. tori realizes she must make the choice to reactivate her inner life force.

Your Ghost

tori is singing to "him" after having met his ghost. "Your Ghost has shown me our primroses could survive the frost if a gentle rivulet of flame is sustained tenderly." She acknowledges she created a forest of glass and that she understands now that he was also wounded in the shattering of their relationship. She also tells him that both of their forces have the power to "heal what was cut and bruised".

Edge of the Moon

Edge of the Moon reveals a vow that "he" made to tori. She begins to remember what their relationship was like before the two of them allowed outside forces to pull them apart. In both Your Ghost and Edge of the Moon, we hear that there is a depth of feeling that still exists between the couple. The blame and the anger each had towards the other is transmuting itself into a place where the depth of their love for each other is stronger than the damage that was done to their relationship.

The Chase

With that understanding of how she really feels, during The Chase, Anabelle announces she must go and leaves tori with the Fire Muse. The Fire Muse reveals herself through an actual flaming life-size fire that Anabelle dances around getting tori to show the Fire Muse the riddle she has been taught. Anabelle explains that she, in her fox/goose form, is the hunter and the hunted which carries the force of duality and neutrality. Although a different kind of hunter/predator force seems to be closing in around them, Anabelle must continue on her mission of calling all forces to wake and to use their powers to out-create the forces who have chosen to use their power for destructive purposes. The riddle Anabelle has taught tori is old magic and is teaching her the skill of shapeshifting from the hunted to the hunter, Anabelle's power. She warns tori that "out there", in order to survive the predators, she must out think them, out create them, and apply everything Anabelle has taught her, or she could literally lose her head.

Night of Hunters

The Fire Muse begins her message to tori with, "rose so red this night of hunters, find love instead of their blood by your thorn." The Fire Muse acknowledges that some of the dark forces gathering hunt for power, others, to invade children's dreams. tori's first instinct is to for revenge against these dark forces. The Fire Muse explains that the children's dreams must be reclaimed. With the assistance of the Seven Sisters, a frequency is put in place to watch over the children's dreams and guard them against the dark forces that would invade these children.

Seven Sisters

The Seven Sisters bring tori to the force Love and for the first time she has gratitude for the people that have come into her life and even though they may leave, for whatever reason, they are not truly gone.

Carry

With the dawn comes Carry, and the sentiment, "you will not ever be forgotten by me in the precession of the might stars your name is sung and tattooed now on my heart here I will carry carry carry you forever."

Tori Amos July 2011





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Sin Palabras thread

Classical Inspirations

Reviews, Interviews, Live Performances

Fan reactions

Pre-release news thread

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[Kryfamid]

What was the tentative title? Night Sweats or something like that?

[XarokLasa]

Restless Night

[Zvmwissq]

The artwork, concept, and videos for this album are so fucking lol-worthy. It's funny that this project doesn't get as much shit visually as Midwinter did, because it's every bit as ridiculous. Is that pic of her standing in front of the Georgian an offically released shot? It looks fucking crazy.

Also, I think it's so incredibly cynical for Tori to pretend this album is about *marriage issues* and offer up some fake-narrative about her relationship to satisfy fans need for personal revelation. So tacky and sad.

Anyway, it's all a shame because the music itself is more interesting than what she's been doing on the last few albums.

[clorkergo]

i think the visual of this album, and the concept is one of her strongest in years, shows she's putting in a bit more effort.

[Gastonleruanich]

Im not crazy about the album cover, but I love the rest of the visuals in the cd booklet. I fell in love with Night of Hunters again this weekend. It's lovely. Very odd. But lovely

[Kryfamid]

The thing about this record is that its a collaboration more so than her previous albums, so I don't think it's an indication that her future releases will be good. The music was written already, and Shenale did the instrumentation, etc. The lyrics aren't that great, so we'll probably get AATS2, 3 and 4 in the future. The most positive aspect of this album is that Tori's voice isn't entirely baby, and she does reach some deep notes. Whatever kind of sound Tori goes for in the future, if she doesn't change her singing method, it'll still sound terrible (this is why Sin Palabras is so good, because T isn't ruining it with her voice). Having said all this, she might once again work with a new team, collaborate greatly, and come out with something strong. The artwork, on the other hand, will keep getting more embarrassing. There's no doubt about that. As much as I like Tash's voice, enough of her and Tori's family in general.

[jhkjurter]

Just for kicks, someone should include Tori's (or tori's) Amazon "detailed concept" dribble here.

[JonDopl]

Yeah, the images weren't all terrible.

This should have been the album cover. It's a gorgeous shot.

[Zvmwissq]

It's a good publicity shot. It looks nice and has some atmosphere and she doesn't look completely stupid with the posing and photoshop like the others from that shoot.

But in the context of the album's alleged themes, it's totally irrelevant. Listen to Tori describe the Boys for Pele artwork here, and the amount of symbology and thought that went into it: (from 16:19 to 18:10)




The NOH shot above is just serviceable, it's not inspiring or interesting. But I don't want to derail the thread, this thread should be for people who enjoyed NOH or have constructive criticism.

[JonDopl]

But tell us how you really feel, NUHN.

[kristloken]

The artwork, concept, and videos for this album are so fucking lol-worthy. It's funny that this project doesn't get as much shit visually as Midwinter did, because it's every bit as ridiculous. Is that pic of her standing in front of the Georgian an offically released shot? It looks fucking crazy.

Also, I think it's so incredibly cynical for Tori to pretend this album is about *marriage issues* and offer up some fake-narrative about her relationship to satisfy fans need for personal revelation. So tacky and sad.

Anyway, it's all a shame because the music itself is more interesting than what she's been doing on the last few albums.

Tori hasn't had decent album art that relates to the album since Scarlet's Walk. After the awfulness of Midwinter Graces, the fact that I wasn't embarrassed by most of these pictures was a major step in the right direction.

I don't think Tori was pretending that the album was related to marriage issues, I just think this album is related to issues in the past, not things that happened from 2009-2011. The way the album's story progresses from "tori" (ugh) dealing with personal issues, then having her mind expanded and realizing she has to move beyond her personal life and tackle "bigger" problems/issues makes me think she's singing about something that happened in between TVAB and SW and made Tori shift her writing style to dealing more directly with political/religious topics. Tori's also talked about exploring with heavy duty drugs much less since Tash was born, and although she could definitely still be doing whatever she wanted, it makes sense that her mescaline/ayhuascha/peyote days are largely behind her, meaning Cactus Practice would be coming from past experience as well.

The music on this album is leagues above TBK/ADP/AATS and it's the only time since SW a concept of Tori's has even somewhat worked on an album. Overall, that's what really matters (plus the tour, which was amazing), and her interviews or promo photos are just extra entertainment.

[JRixlcvF]

I think that picture of her in black outside the house is better than some, but fuck, she looks dead. I also agree that the photo doesn't fit with the "story" (although...as much as I love NoH...the narrative is the least compelling part for me).

[Azzi_Kahlila]

Just for kicks, someone should include Tori's (or tori's) Amazon "detailed concept" dribble here.

It's in the first post, under the spoiler.

Now that NOH has been out for seven months, what do people think of it now?

[wiweimeli]

I think it has lovely moments, but like her other recent releases, it's a lovely 10 track album stretched too thin.

[anfuckinggs]

Night of Hunters is a great album for what it is, but it's not an album that I go to when I want to listen to Tori Amos.

[JonDopl]

In terms of showcasing Tori's musicianship, it's a lovely return to form. The vocals, however, still largely mar most of it.

I wish that Sin Palabras had been the primary release. Now that's a tour de force.

[HBPujWBe]

I love to annoy my boyfriend by singing "rose...so red... this niiiiight of hunters" at random times. He HATES this album. Actually he is very prejudiced about anything made after Scarlet's Walk.

Out of all the crap albums Tori has done in the last decade, I think this is her most embarrassing. The artwork, the lyrics, the promotion, the videos... the CONCEPT. If there is a more retarded concept for an album, I have not heard of it. The music is actually not bad, but the fact is that she didn't write it. It's just another sad chapter in the tragedy that is Tori. AATS sucks too, but at least that one didn't have a shape-shifting fox that sings "through fox's eyes, I've been watching you". I underlined that because I'm almost sure that what's Tori did when she was trotting out the story.

[Ruiceara]

I think it's brilliant, moving and beautiful. I still listen to it constantly. And I prefer it with words. I think the mixing in SP is horrible and has no life in it. The story isn't so much what's important because it's a clusterfuck of ideas that never gel into a solid narrative, but I think it's one of her most daring works and the musicianship and arrangements are astounding.

[Ruiceara]

Not to mention the wonderful tour that brought her out of stagnation.