• Voto:
A parte l’artwork orrendo, questo è il primo vero disco heavy metal dei Sabbath. Il genere l’avranno anche inventato loro, ma sino al ‘92 si sono sempre fermati al rock, a prescindere dall’ aggettivo qualificante di volta in volta il sottogenere (hard, prog, stoner, doom, ecc.). “Dehumanizer” venne presentato come l’album della reunion. In realtà si è trattato di un ritorno al passato più recente, cioè quello dei Sabbath del primo rimpasto di line-up (con Ronnie Dio alla voce e Vinny Appice dietro le pelli). Ozzy, negli anni del lungo divorzio con Iommi, intervistato dai giornalisti non si trattenne (quando mai) dal far commenti sarcastici su questa formazione:i Black Sabbath? Chi? Butler e quelli altri tre italiani?. Ed appunto, chi considera il madman imprescindibile per la riuscita dei lavori della band, può ben risparmiarsi l’ ascolto di “Dehumanizer”.
Come nei primi anni ottanta (che restano tuttavia ineguagliati) quest’album risulta essere troppo tetro, distante anni luce dal retrogusto freak che si poteva assaporare nella decade precedente. Sul disco, inoltre, non risulta nessuna indicazione riguardo le lyrics, ma sono chiaramente state partorite dalla sola mente di Ronnie Dio. Anche se meno legate alle tematiche a lui care, versi come: computerizziamo gli dei, la nuova religione/programmiamo le menti, ma non i battiti del cuore, sono senz’ altro farina del suo sacco. Ed è appunto “Computer God” ad aprire le danze: grezzi rumori di martelli ed incudini riecheggiano nei primi secondi del pezzo, quasi a richiamare la cadenza e la pesantezza di “Headless Cross” (1989). Gran pezzo.
Altrettanto non si può dire della successiva “After All”, in cui i nostri tirano il tutto un po’ troppo per le lunghe. Non malvagio l’episodio scelto come singolo “Tv Crimes”, di cui invito a dimenticare il video, compendio d’approssimazione e stupidità. Si ritorna alla scuola hard‘n’haevy sullo splendido solo di “I”. Ruggisce invece Ronnie, su “Buried Alive” e “Master Of Insanity”. Episodio, quest’ultimo, che è decisamente un gradino sopra gli altri. Di tanto in tanto, Terry “Geezer” Butler (uno dei bassisti più eleganti della storia del rock, lo dico senza timore d’esser linciato) intarsia pregevoli abbellimenti sui granitici riffoni iommiani. Anzi, mi sono su di lui già dilungato troppo: i maestri si ascoltano, non si commentano.
“Dehumanizer” per tutti i metallari doc, è un ascolto necessario. Per i vecchi fan dei Sabbath una valida proposta d’ ascolto. E per gli altri? Meglio incominciare da “Heaven and Hell” o “Vol.4”.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Computer God (06:15)
Waiting for the revolution
New clear vision - genocide
Computerize god - it's the new religion
Program the brain - not the heartbeat
Onward all you crystal soldiers
Touch tomorrow - energize
Digital dreams
And you're the next correction
Man's a mistake so we'll fix it, yeah
Take a look at your own reflection
Right before your eyes
It turns to steel
There's another side of heaven
This way - to technical paradise
Find it on the other side
When the walls fall down
Love is automatic pleasure
Virtual reality
Terminal hate - it's a calculation
Send in the child for connection
Take a look at the toys around you
Right before your eyes
The toys are real
There's another side of heaven
This way - to technical paradise
Find it on the other side
When the walls fall down
Midnight confessions
Never heal the soul
What you believe is fantasy
Your past is your future
Left behind
Lost in time
Will you surrender
Waiting for the revolution
Program the brain
Not the heartbeat
Deliver us to evil
Deny us of our faith
Robotic hearts bleed poison
On the world we populate
Virtual existence
With a superhuman mind
The ultimate creation
Destroyer of mankind
Termination of our youth
For we do not compute
No !
04 Letters From Earth (04:17)
Well it's a cold world
And I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here
So I'm writing to you
It's wrong here
Where I'm sending you some
Letters from earth, yeah
Well it's a new world
And now I'm a stranger
Stranger than you know
I don't belong here
And I'm writing to you
With blood on my hands
What if I send you madness
What if I send you pain
And letters from earth, ooh
All right
Come on it's another game
But you gotta play on
Cause they say it's just pretend
Ask them why they say you'll never, never die
Come on - the game is called the end
Well it's a cold world
And I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here
So I'm writing to you
Hey let me explain
What if I send you confusion
What is the time and the pain worth
Oh no no
I'm only sending
Letters from the earth
Letters from earth
05 Master of Insanity (05:55)
Look all around
Can't you open your eyes
Voices are calling
Killing rain falling down from the sky
Crying with nightmare tears
Out on the street
You'll see blood on the ground
Cities are burning
Feeling the pain cutting right to your soul
Goodbye now
You're caught in his spell
Your freedom is gone
He's taken everything
You ever had
But if you're strong you'll survive
You've got to hold on
Open your eyes
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Innocent minds
They're the victims of shame
Staring in sorrow
Promises lying there
Broken and crushed
Confusion-just disappear
What can you give
To be left all alone
When there's nothing at all
Your freedom is gone
He's taken everything
You ever had
But if you're strong you'll survive
You've got to hold on
Open your eyes
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Behind the lies you will find
He's trying to get inside you
Just open your eyes and you will see
The master of insanity
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Between the lies you will find
that he's trying to get inside you
Out of the night into your mind
He's always right beside you
Yeah, between the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Open your eyes or you will be
The master of insanity
10 Buried Alive (04:50)
Once upon a nightmare
Once upon a time
You're running from temptation
You got lost
And found that you don't
Belong to anybody
You're all the same
Just another number
Cross it out
Whenever you don't behave
Someone got the doctor
He knows what to do
Throw some bones and mumble
The devil's inside of you
It might be contagious
It might change the plan
Get back in your tiny boxes
Even if you can't
We say you can
Join the congregation
Everybody's got to get in line and
We never justify
The choir sings a never-ending lie
When you thought you were free
You didn't need a reason
No reason to survive
As the big door closes
And you waiting for the nail
Somebody tell the world
You're buried alive
Once upon a nightmare
Once upon a time
You're running from tomorrow
You got lost
And found that another
Day has turned to ashes
Taken by the wind
Frozen seeds of sorrow
Never to begin
Join the celebration
And everybody's got to get in line and
We never justify
The choir sings a never-ending lie
When you thought you were free
You did not need a reason
No reason to survive
As the big door closes
And you waiting for the mail
Somebody tell the world
You're buried alive
One more nightmare
Just one more time
Join the congregation
Everybody get in line
Celebration
The choir sings a lie
As you call
The hammer falls
And no one hears you cry
I'm buried alive
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Di ez
«Dehumanizer è l'unico post Ozzy a contenere alcune peculiarità che fecero dei primi Sabbath un gruppo in grado di influenzare il futuro heavy metal.»
«Ronnie J. Dio è la grande novità di questo album, con testi proiettati alla vita di tutti i giorni e un'interpretazione vocale in grande forma.»
