I remember first hearing this album on vinyl when I was about 12 and it was scary, well anything is scary for a 12 year old. A few years ago I saw the CD version in a shop; it is still as good as I remember it to be.
For those of you that are uneducated and do not know what this is about then I will try to enlighten you.
The war of the world’s story is set, where all good stories should be set, in England the time is Victorian times so the best technology at hand is the steam engine. One night a flash of green gas is seen erupting from the planet Mars, this is caused by the firing of a huge gun that fires a cylinder containing Martians. This cylinder falls upon sleepy Woking and the people there have no idea of the problems that are about to fall upon them. The story then goes on telling you about the war that is being fought. If you would like to know more about the storyline then read my opinion on the War of the Worlds book by H. G. Wells.
The musical version is narrated by Richard Burton with appearances by other people in the roles of other characters in the story. This version copies the storyline of the book with a few differences, these are due to there is no way of putting all of the information across in music as there in text. It comes on 2 CD’s just like the vinyl version, but the CED version comes with 4 re-mastered bonus tracks, well bonus if you like the original tracks being butchered.
The way the music is performed really makes the story come alive as if it was not as good as it is this would be nothing, the music contains all of the important parts of the story, E.G. the unscrewing of the cylinder is captured in the music with an actual sound of a cylinder unscrewing, this is just one of the examples of how the music complements the story, the best way that you can find out about it would be to listen to it, if you do then you will not be disappointed.
You also get a little booklet with the CD’s which contains all of the words form the stories and the songs with some nice pictures of key events in the story, the best picture in my opinion is of “Dead London”. There is also some information about the people who played characters in the storyline.
CD 1 Track 1: The Eve of the war This track starts the whole story off with the narator opening the story with the background.
Track 2: Horsell common and the heat ray This track is the one in which you catch the first glimpse of the Martians and their destructive power, it also contains the unscrewing of the cylinder that I have talked about.
Track 3: The artillery man and the fighting machine This track is where the main character meets the artilleryman whom he will take a journey with and who describes what has happened.
Track 4: Forever autumn This track is where the main character finds that his love has disappears and decides to leave the country but he does not make it, but his love has.
Track 5: Thunder child This is the end of any organised resistance to the Martians as the Martians destroy the ironclad “Thunder child”.
CD 2 Track 1: The red weed The vegetation that gives mars its red glow takes root on earth, the main character falls in with the curate.
Track 2: The sprit of man The journalist, main character and the parson are trapped as a house that they are in is buried.
Track 3: The red weed (pt 2) This shows us how the Martians feed upon; it is also the death of the curate.
Track 4: Brave new world The artillery man makes an appearance again and tells us his plan of how to save humanity.
Track 5: Dead London This is the most moving track in the whole story at the journalist walks through the streets of London which is totally empty except for a few Martians whom are dieing.
Tracks 6 and 7: Epilogue These track tell us how England comes alive again and also nice touch that is present day, with a Mars landing and a green jet of gas erupting from Mars again.
The music is hard to describe but with out it this would be nothing.
A good part of the whole story is the ending which leaves it open to a continuation of the storyline.
This is probably one of my most listened to CD’s and hopefully you will find it the same if you were to get it.
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How does it compare to the artist's other releases
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How does it rate alongside the competition
Outstanding
Cover / Inlay Design and Content
Outstanding
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