Demons & Wizards — Touched by the Crimson King

intothewellsabyss
Jun 27, 2023
5 min read

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

18 years ago today, we were “Touched by the Crimson King”!

On this day (June 27) 2005, Demons & Wizards released their second full-length studio album, “Touched by the Crimson King” in Europe via SPV/Steamhammer (June 28, 2005 in USA).

The album contains a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." It was also released as a limited edition digipak in Europe with an alternate cover and four bonus tracks on a second disc. For the North American release, all fourteen songs appeared on one disc, which had the limited edition cover in the form of a sleeve around the jewel case.

Jon Schaffer said in a 2009 interview that he felt "Touched by the Crimson King" was a "bit rushed".

It is believed by some that this is a concept album based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series. However, only a few of the songs relate to the series and there is no overall concept to the album.

In an interview with metal-rules.com, Jon Schaffer discussed what made them decide to tackle Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series and more;

“ Well, that was Hansi. I haven’t read the series. I donít know really. He was finishing it when we were doing our thing there in early November (2004). He was telling me that he wanted to use some of those ideas and we talked about some of the songs that might work thematically with that and the concept of “Blaine the Mono”. There’s only three songs about it. “Crimson King”, “Terror Train” and “The Gunslinger” are related to that and everything else is really a story of its own.

When Hansi was telling me about “Blaine the Mono”, this apocalyptic train that just hurtled towards destruction, I was pretty sure that this piece of music that I had written was pretty intense and had the feeling of this train speeding and going out of control. Itís probably one of the most complex rhythm guitar songs that I have ever written. It’s just ripping the whole way through, well there is a solo there so the melody structure there is a bit of a break, but it just pushes the limit all the way through. That’s the one we ended up doing the video for. I actually saw the final edit just this morning and it looks pretty killer, so I’m happy about it. But it’s just Hansi, he’s always looking for stuff to write about and a lot of his lyrical stuff is influenced my literature.

“Beneath These Waves”, the first song we wrote together for this album, was based on Moby Dick. Then you’ve got “Love’s Tragedy Asunder” which is based on a real story about a man’s wife who is terminally ill and he assists her in suicide and ends up killing himself. It’s pretty dark. “Down Where I Am” is about a baby born with Down’s Syndrome and the struggle of his father and the emotions going in and out of his mind. It’s all pretty heavy despite all the acoustic guitars and it doesn’t matter if the music came first or the lyrics came first or if it was written all together. The way I define heavy is that it creates a moving emotion inside you. If the piece of music can bring tears to your eyes, that’s heavy. It doesn’t have to be D-tuned music with cookie monster vocals to be heavy. That to me is D-rated cheese Metal compared to really moving emotional music. I think that a song like “Down Where I Am” is very heavy. You listen to it and most of the song is acoustic. But if you listen to what it is about and if you think about it, me being a new parent and everything, itís just very moving. That shit is reality, not just “I’m gonna fuck a dead corpse!”

More Details About the Songs:

• "Crimson King" is a reference to the Crimson King, the main antagonist of The Dark Tower series. The song also strongly references Randall Flagg, one of the King's many servants. Hansi in an interview has also stated that the Crimson King is Satan.

• "The Gunslinger" is referring to Roland of Gilead, the protagonist of the Dark Tower series. The song refers mainly to the plot of the final book of the series.

• "Terror Train" is a reference to “Blaine the Mono”, from the third and fourth novels of the Dark Tower series.

• "Beneath These Waves" is based on Herman Melville's MOBY DICK.

• "Seize the Day" is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

• "Love's Tragedy Asunder" is about a man whose wife is terminally ill, and he assists her suicide, and ends up killing himself.

• "Wicked Witch" is about the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz.

• "Dorian" is about Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

• "Down Where I Am" is about a baby born with Down syndrome and the struggle of his father and the emotions going in and out of his mind.

Critical Reception:

In his review for AllMusic, Greg Prato writes;

“Comprised of Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer and Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch, the duo issued their second album in 2005, “Touched by the Crimson King”. Picture a modern Metal soundtrack accompanying a triumphant ride through a forest on horseback, and you have an idea of what such songs as "Crimson King" and "Terror Train" sound like, as well as the album-closing cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." But not all of “Crimson King” is riff-based, as evidenced by the tranquil ending of "Beneath These Waves" and the beginning of "The Gunslinger." But by and large, “Touched by the Crimson King” is a modern-day Prog. Metal fan's dream.”

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to “Touched by the Crimson King (Remastered 2019)” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/touched-by-the-crimson-king-remasters-2019/1457568464

Click this link to listen to “Touched by the Crimson King” via Spotify: Touched By The Crimson King https://open.spotify.com/album/5RGWoBofMO6zbjP4yQWz4N

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Terror Train”: https://youtu.be/N1ZVN2Z2uzo

Click this link to watch the official music video for “The Gunslinger” - Lyric Video: https://youtu.be/2FDEcZ5ETA8

Click this link to follow the Demons & Wizards on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/demonsandwizardsofficial

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Demons & Wizards — Touched by the Crimson King

More Details About the Songs:

Critical Reception:

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

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