Razia's Shadow: A Musical

Remember that one time when I promoted Jack's Mannequin's new album and it was weird and totally not in the format of this blog?

Well, I'm gonna do something like that again right now.

Only even weirder cuz this album I'm about to promote came out in 2008. So it's not even new. The band that created it isn't even a band anymore. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy this masterpiece.

Forgive Durden, or rather, Thomas Dutton is the genius behind Razia's Shadow: A Musical. It's like a rock opera, but better.

The album is a story, with a whole cast of singers (13 in all) including Max Bemis (Say Anything), Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) and Greta Salpeter (The Hush Sound).

It starts off with the creation of the world by O the Scientist (Casey Crescenzo) with the help of his angels, his best being Ahrima (Dutton) and Nidria (Lizzie Huffman) but Ahrima gets angry because he isn't given the credit he deserves, so he is talked into destroying the light by Barayas (Bemis). Upon destroying the light, he is cast out to the darkness, causing a rift between the two worlds which won't be closed until one of his blood from the darkness reunites their worlds.

A hundred years later, Adakias (Also voiced by Dutton) questions being a prince of the darkness and leaves, even after his brother, Pallis, (Urie) threatens to find him and make him pay. But he goes into disguise and leaves anyway.

From there, Adakias finds his true love, Princess Anhura (Salpeter), unfortunately being around him makes her sick, because he's from the darkness and she's from the light.

He takes her to Doctor Dumaya (Shawn Harris) who will save her, as long as Anhura stays with him forever. But after he heals her, Pallis shows up and outs his brother as well as tries to kill her.

Adakias protects her, and gets stabbed instead. And he dies.

Now, I know that was a really quick run down of what happens, and you can't POSSIBLY understand this album without actually listening to it yourself. But it, personally, one of the most perfect albums I own. The story is gorgeous and I can't even begin to tell you just how much I love the moral of it.

The production is stellar. Many of the parts were recorded by the artists and sent back to Dutton to put on the album and the majority of the orchestral parts are from a software due to budgeting. So yeah. Knowing this, the sound is mindblowing.

Dutton did a WONDERFUL job and I can't speak more highly of this album. I love it so much that I tweeted him about how I wished to personally thank him for creating it.

Seriously though. Go check it out. It will change your life.

"The unrelenting constancy of love and hope wil rescue and restore from any scope."

Go Download: The whole album because you can't just get one song.