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Qualcuno ha scritto, da qualche parte, che questo è il loro capolavoro. Boh…
E allora, con questa premessa da che parte cominciare a parlare di questa (penultima) fatica della band di Liverpool? Ma anche, da quale angolazione inquadrare questa ben strana creatura del rock d’oltremanica, anche in considerazione del fatto che chi scrive li conosce solo dall’anno scorso e comunque dal disco in questione? Ancora boh…
Già, perché pare (come confermato anche da altri debaser in varie recensioni di materiale piu’ datato) che prima di AFDTE – anzi, x la precisione prima di quel Judgement datato 1999 – gli Anathema fossero, dal punto del vista del sound, tutta un’altra band. Dedita ad una musica molto (doom) metal, con tanto di cantato in ‘growling’ style.
Ohibò.. per chi – come il sottoscritto – giunge al loro cospetto solo in tempi recenti, pare impossibile. Si perché in queste 9 tracce non c’è niente, ma proprio niente che richiami il metal e men che meno le sonorità feroci e ammantate di cupa disperazione del doom. Si parla, molto più semplicemente, di un rock molto personale e malinconico, in cui non è difficile scorgere echi di Pink Floyd. Il tutto però è condito da una buona dose di melodia, mai banale o melensa e da un cantante che asseconda gli umori della musica, mantenendo quel suo timbro profondo e malinconico, vero ‘io narrante’ che tratteggia e detta la rotta del disco.
L’apertura pianistica dell’iniziale (bellissima) Pressure potrebbe richiamare da vicino certe cose dei Radiohead, ma sarebbe oltremodo fuorviante pensare di essere di fronte all’ennesima clone-band dei 5 di Oxford. Infatti la successiva Release (forse la migliore del lotto) imprime già una sterzata al disco; partenza in sordina con i fraseggi della chitarra acustica in primo piano, per poi ‘aprirsi’ verso la metà del pezzo e diventare una autentica cavalcata rock, con bellissimo finale a sfumare dopo un assolo di vago sapore ‘grunge’.
Le canzoni si assestano quindi su un registro decisamente piu’ ‘soft’ ed il mood si fa piu’ introspettivo (bellissima Barriers, con l’ugola femminile di Lee Douglas a fare la seconda voce) fino alla veloce e punkeggiante Panic, a conti fatti l’unico pezzo davvero ‘tirato’ dell’album (oltreche il più immediato).
In chiusura, altri due gioiellini come la title track e la conclusiva Temporary peace – ancora a due voci – che rimandano un senso di quiete trascendentale.
Un disco sicuramente molto gradevole, che conosco forse ancora troppo poco per dare un giudizio più esaustivo e decantare come veramente eccellente. Di certo, un album (ed una band) che mi riprometto sin d’ora di conoscere più approfonditamente e che per quanto mi riguarda meriterebbe miglior sorte, specie in considerazione del fatto che dalla Gran Bretagna ultimamente si sono affermati dei gruppi nettamente inferiori in quanto a qualità della proposta, e dei quali francamente si potrebbe tranquillamente fare a meno (vere Oasi(s) di mediocrità).
Che sia forse colpa del nome?
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Pressure (06:44)
As the pressure grows and these feelings flow
trample on bodies, bodies in holes of faith
times I've asked the lord for forgiveness
while kept under a spell of a sweating locust's breath.
No need to tell me 'cos its written on your face
sliding down now with the black lights shining
I don't care where you go you won't get away from me
black as the night is day filled with no sympathy
marching down the hall for a misery
I don't care where you go you won't get away from me...
Mouth tastes of sick stomach twisting inside
everything's wrong and I can't get away
the gravity of fear you can feel it coming near
it's coming straight for you it'll twist and drag you down
I don't care where you go you won't get away from me...
02 Release (05:47)
Seeing is believing but I don't want to know
Walk on through the wasteland
I just can't let go
Face down I just break down,
When I see you cry all the time
Hold on please
Behind those grey and lonely eyes
Hold on to me
Unforgotten by time
Tempt fate release
Reality is dawning
Escape
Some one now is screaming
As the flames fly high
Think now that we're lost here
But we don't know why
Face down I just break down
When I see you cry all the time
Hold on please, behind those grey and lonely eyes
Hold on to me, unforgotten by time
Tempt fate, Release, reality is dawning
Escape, spirit is awakening
Hold on please, somewhere in the hurricane
Hold on to me, hope is waiting
Tempt fate release, crying in the distance
Escape, calling out your name
04 Leave No Trace (04:45)
Born to the glare of the senses
Spoon fed reality infused
A new inherent
Passive contentment
You are so easily amused
Here and now
We are gone in a heartbeat
A dream in the
Passage your time
Chances are fading
This world isn't waiting
The moment is passing you by
Questions lie beneath the surface
The fools are fooled once again
Benign coincidence
We stole our existence
And gladly cast it to the wind
Here and now
We are gone in a heartbeat
A dream in the passage of time
Chances are fading
This world isn't waiting
The moment is passing you by
Slowly spinning on the wind back home
05 Underworld (04:09)
There's always something you won't dare to say
your good intentions, are boring, take me away
if it keeps you sane, well then it's ok
but, if I played it safe, would it save me?
I'd like to get some rest now, if I can just ignore the truth
scratching at my window, this time I got to make a move
ego ibliteration, stand back and watch me melt away
dissolve all recognition
but, I got to, Burn this wait, out of my mind
running through my veins, until I dissapear
This feeling is over, this felling is over me
There's always something, you won't dare to say
(Climbing up my wall, gonna creep between the cracks,
get out on my skull, tie the rope around my neck)
your good intentions are boring, take me away
(Destroy all emotion, wanna rip my face to shreds
cut my eyeballs open)
you know, i got to, Burn this wait, out of my mind
running through my veins, until I dissapear
This feeling is over me.
06 Barriers (05:45)
Floating with nowhere to hide
unspoken twist back inside
How did we get here
Life don't belong here
Feel like I just never tried
to find a way back to the outside
it stops me from breathing
kills all the dreaming
TALKING TO YOU FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF A WALL
IN MY MIND AND IT'S CLEAR THAT YOU'RE NEAR TO ME.
THINK I FOUND A WAY TO UNDERSTAND WHY I COULDN'T SEE WHAT
WAS HAPPENING THE FEAR OVERCAME ME.TOOK A TRIP ON THE INSIDE
I TOOK A TRIP ON THE INSIDE I TRY TO HOLD ON 'TIL THIS FEELING
IS GONE.BREAK THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE NEED TO BREAK THROUGH
TO THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING...
I just can't lay down and die
it takes a lifetime to understand why
it seems that you need me
but you don't seem to hear me
Talking to you from the other side of a
wall.......
07 Panic (03:30)
You know you ain't going nowhere
you're stuck inside while the mind is flying
you said you'd help me in the morning
twisting on pins into my eyes
and we driving on the ceiling below you
facin' up the walls with your crocked hands
while you're miles away...
I don't think at all end up like this
there's spiders on the wall and they stink of piss
dead heads lying in the corner
staring at me making me feel bad
I put my hands up to my eyes
but the holes in my palms let me find a way
to corner you...
I can't feel my chest because it ain't much
sucking through my skin into my brain
oxygen pushing on the window
cracks in the glass let it slip away
I start to cry and I keep on laughing
I close my eyes at what's left inside
and then I'll ran away...
For all the time this land
for all the time in my hand
circle around in depth
found calmness fall once again...
Razor blades floating in the warm bath
air bubbles in your veins turning my hands black
whispers coming from the next room
window cleaner keep on spying
I put my hands up to my eyes
but the holes in my palms let me find a way
to corner me...
Twelve ton hammer for my breakfast
slipping of the edge in catatonic blood
multiple decibel inscriptions
trying all they can in miles an hour
all face grey and looming downwards
sniffing all the time for a ounce of silence
screaming all the way...
Numbers counting down inside me
solar system thoughts circle round my head
false teeth hanging from the ceiling
feet looking of the goms of the 2nd son
I eat my hands 'cos my legs are crying
you broke my neck 'cause I snapped my spine
I wish you would die away...
For all the time this land
for all the time in my hand
circle around in depth
found calmness fall once again...
08 A Fine Day to Exit (06:49)
Long way from home
Nowhere to go
What made the river so cold?
The sweat of thoughts
Trickle down my brow
Soaking and stinging my eye
You've got to face it head on
So you can turn this thing around
'cause this ain't right
Tell tale sighs and cries
Of dreams unfulfilled
And time is running, running dry
Panic-stricken bloodshot hearts
Try to restart
But no longer build the well
To survive sweet oblivion
You've got to face it head on
So you can turn this thing around
'cause this ain't right
I've got these feelings and I don't know why
I see all my fears in the darkness of light
What made the river so cold?
Never anyone to rearrange and fall to
Time inside the empty
Call to the blameless, I am faithless
Placid dying eyes
You've got to face it head on
So you can turn this thing around
'cause this ain't right
You have to go eye to eye
Raise your face to the sky
'cause this ain't right
I got to believe when I say
Only this is the way
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