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1995, anno cruciale per il metal inglese. In particolar modo, la scena doom toccava picchi notevoli: gli Anathema raggiungevano la piena maturità artistica (The Silent Enigma), i Paradise Lost, coraggiosamente, abbandonavano le reminiscenze death del proprio suono (il raffinato Draconian Times), i tristi My Dying Bride erano al vertice della loro fama.
Nella stessa scena, differenti da tutti gli altri, i Cathedral confezionavano un diamante grezzo: The Carnival Bizarre è tuttora uno dei loro vertici, uno scrigno marcio di sonorità intensamente pure nella loro commistione bastarda. Fregandosene di orpelli gotici, decadenti, romantici, il gruppo raccoglie dalla nuda terra un frutto mutato di puro rock, nella concezione originaria del termine; una musica mastodontica, densa ma orecchiabile, scandalosamente debitrice di chi la "musica pesante" l'ha presa e riplasmata, vent'anni prima.
Gli onnipresenti Black Sabbath vengono saccheggiati nella forma e nel contenuto, i minuti scorrono e sprizzano di creatività e fantasia, presentando riff hard rock ultracompatti e rallentamenti doom-death, testi immaginifici di streghe e magia, declamati da una voce sporca ed alcolica. Ed ancora cembali, mellotron, percussioni che sembrano provenire da antri nelle profondità. Un festival grottesco di fantasmi e goblin, le suggestioni fantastiche tipicamente anglosassoni che vengono vomitate dal frontman Dorrian, un puro metaller che scopre il flower power.
Gaz Jennings è un chitarrista rumoroso ed un compositore di talento, e nella potentissima "Utopian Blaster" viene affiancato dall'idolo-mentore Tony Iommi. C'è spazio per la lugubre "Night Of The Seagulls", doom fino all'osso, per la festosa title-track e per la splendida opener "Vampire Sun". In conclusione, una orgasmante esplosione strumentale con "Electric Grave". Un album decisamente corposo, dalle suggestioni psichedeliche, omogeneo e privo di cadute di tono.
Rimarranno sottovalutati da molti, anche per il loro rimanere alla larga dai canoni sempre più consolidati della voce femminile pseudo-lirica, orchestra (campionata e non) ed amenità varie che hanno colpito e affondato il vecchio doom nel nuovo millennio: un esempio lampante di come si possa fare della musica al tempo stesso cupa e solare, libera.
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01 Vampire Sun (04:06)
Skull of god with the devils eyes
Crowned in fire sodden sky
Beaming rays of genocide
Into virtues magic lie
Illusive myth of light enslaves you
Vampire sun it drains you
Beg the sword for liberty
Fall before the king of flies
Delirium is flowing free
In our obedience disease
The gift of life is reaped of value
Vampire sun it drains you
Gaze into the face of fire
Dreams descend into the pyre
Monolithic angel
Unveil your king to this planet disabled
Mummify the cosmos
With the vision of divinity yeah!
Electric vulture flying high
Through the universal eye
To cleanse the heavens with earth soul
The excretion of mankind
Feeding from the fangs of virtue
Vampire sun it drains you
Gaze into the face of fire
Dreams descent into the pyre
02 Hopkins (The Witchfinder General) (05:19)
She rides to the sabbath
Veiled under silver light
To make love to the devil
necromancer of nyte (a vampire child at night)
Within the mystic forest
She sets your world alight
Her covern conjure the demons
Herald the sacrifice yeah
Lucifera Vampirella
She bares the mark of the devil
Queen of the witches
Her kingdom is your hell
black masses in the convent
Priests under her spell
The crops have withered
The sky bends upside down
Her name is lucifera
The mutant preachers yell - yeah
My name is hopkins
I'm the witchfinder general
My impotence deceives me
Your beauty turns me pale
Winds haunt the village
Satans ghost awakes
The world falls into darkness
As she melts at the stake - yeah
My name is hopkins witchfinder general
Your soul condemned to hell
03 Utopian Blaster (05:41)
Today the sun refused to shine
On this war infested land
Beyond our sky, the lord of life
Sending crossbones tumbling down
Citadel on a traveling stone
Magic wisdom our only home
As flesh impostors fight the master
Of forces to them unknown yeah!
Blinded by the power
Life spell castor
Utopian blaster
Peace your master
Sculptured space in plastic hands
Evil empire of mankind
Blazing light from the sword of mars
Shall destroy this utopian farce
Giant mass of the children high
Sleeping on beds of air
Limitations we've unbound
Come and join us well take you there - yeah
Struck ever after
Lifespell castor
Utopian blaster
Peace your master now!
Legend of Earth after
Sleep in dusted grace
Time has ceased our fortune shall begin
Bathe in fountains of laughter
Cleansed by endtime rapture
Embrace the final dawn
Fatal glow - sirens in the wind
Conquest oh we shall capture yeah!
We race upon the unicorn
To a land of towers green
While soldiers march into the void
Guided by mans funeral hand
Golden souls riding on the wind
From the path of nature sinned
Cosmic army military
Our weapons be only love - yeah
Struck by the power
Lifespell castor
Utopian blaster
Face your master now
04 Night of the Seagulls (07:01)
We are the blind dead
No eyes inside our head
Our senses lead us to your nightmare
Centuries of death we wear
Pharaoh's cross in dust we bare
Immortal horses slowly ride us to you
Through the black mist
They ride
Knights templar - arise
The shores unearthly dead
Mournful mothers chilled with dread
Leave their offspring to knights templar
They rise from the sea
At midnight the prize you see
Tied to the post - a virgin screaming
Through the black mist
They ride
Knights templar - arise - oh!!!
Into our castle led
Seagulls howling overhead
The ritual you face
You shall no after
Your blood we drink for eternity
Flesh unto the crabs we leave
And feed your heart unto Aquarian master
Through the black mist
They ride
Knights templar - arise
08 Blue Light (03:27)
Waning autumn, winter blue
Tonight we dance in praise of you
Oh reaper scream a silent serenade
Of tunes above earths grave
Enigma bites our world in grey
To kill the morning jester fade
Our host of nocturn is the ghost of day
The cosmos for you paved
The milky way pours over me
We own the stars and night
Angel of death has set us free
Blue light of pure insight
Planetary suicide
From violence of red sun we hide
Long live disciples of eternal night
In praise of moonlit sky
The milky way pours over me
At one with stars and night
Angel of death has set us free
Blue light of pure insight
Take his hand
To the land of dreams
Fear not his purple might
Truths unfold
With the grace of death
Iron lace ties our embrace
09 Palace of Fallen Majesty (07:44)
We are guided by the moon
Into our palace tomb
Shrine of dead king Midas
Whose gold turned into stone
Children of the grave
Entombed in a faceless day
Are we the ones insane
To carry a spirit flame
Skeleton of centuries
Oh solemn majesty
You'll stand again
Unveil the key
Grant life to we
On this violet night
We await your sight
As the splendour falls
Upon these naked walls
In the haunted garden
A velvet raven calls
Temples born of ice
Release a solemn chime
Into twilight thunder
Within the sands of time
Skeleton of centuries
Eternal mysteries
Released from pain
Again we die
To breathe in vain
Seared wealth of truth
By your touch restored
Summer seized in the grip of twilight fair
As we conceive to retrieve our rightful fortune
Mourn not we, in lost shapes of time reborn
To bathe in seas of you - oh blackest dawn
We find salvation in a palace of dead kings
Hold a knife to the dawn - climb into the dream
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