• Voto:
“Questo titolo rappresenta l'ossessione umana per il peccato e la coscienza. Il rovo (Thorn) unisce l'immagine del tribolato Cristo, con la corona di spine, [...], o ancora, la protezione di un luogo segreto con l'uso di rovi e spine. Un addizione di auto-lesionismo o qualcosa allo stesso modo velenoso”.
Ecco come Dani Filth descrive il titolo, e il contenuto, del nuovo disco della sua band, i Cradle of Filth. Inutile elargire parole di lode a quanto i Cradle hanno regalato al panorama della musica estrema: dischi come “Dusk & Her Embrace” e “The Principle of Evil Made Flesh” sono delle gemme nell'ambito black-gothic-sinfonico. Inutile negare che dopo hanno sfornato altri bei lavori, anche abbastanza vari e diversi dagli esordi come “Cruelty & the Beast” o il maestoso, nonché molto bello, “Damnation & a Day”. Poi, il mezzo passo falso. “Nymphetamine” abbandonava abbondantemente quell'elemento sinfonico, che tanto apprezzavo in loro, a favore di un songwriting molto più orientato al metal e basato sulla potenza delle chitarre elettriche. Non era un lavoro del tutto brutto, ma presentava molte falle e difetti, e a dir la verità, non era il degno successore del disco “biblico” che l'aveva preceduto. Il 2006 vede la luce questo “Thornography”, che già mesi prima della sua pubblicazione ha fatto parlare di sé per via della cover del disco: violenta, offensiva, volgare e chi più ne ha più ne metta. Almeno, l'abilità di turbare fans e critica i Cradle la hanno ancora. Bisogna vedere quanto sia veritiero questo shock, se solo un'opera di marketing oppure è uno specchio del contenuto del disco. Dopo diversi ascolti, una conclusione mi è balzata alla testa: questo disco sicuramente alimenterà altre polemiche sullo stato di salute compositiva della band proprio perché, come “Nymphetamine”, continua a presentare buoni, anzi, buonissimi spunti per poi cadere quasi nel patetico. Vi dirò in tutta sincerità, che l'elemento orchestrale è accantonato proprio come lo era in Nymphetamine, quindi presente su pochissimi brani: il riffing è molto più thrash-oriented. Ma soprattutto non aspettatevi troppe novità: alle volte i riffs e le parti vocali son troppo simili al passato, il che non significa che il disco non abbia degli ottimi spunti. Infatti, il disco presenta dei brani veramente belli per poi cadere in eclatanti buchi nell'acqua.
“Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan” è la solita introduzione strumentale-sinfonica, che è ormai un classico del gruppo, una sorta di introduzione alle atmosfere del disco. E diversi cori femminili ci portano all'album vero e proprio. “Dirge Inferno” è stata sicuramente la prima opera ascoltata. Al primo ascolto sembrerebbe ripercorrere le soluzioni stilistiche di “Damnation & a Day”. L'impressione può essere anche giusta. Peccato che l'elemento sinfonico manchi del tutto e ci sono reminiscenze che riportano a “Gilded Cunt” in alcuni riffs...Un buon brano per iniziare, potente, anche se i tanto amati screams di Dani, quelli apprezzati su Dusk, ma anche su Midian, sono del tutto assenti.
Un buon riff ci porta ad una canzone che mi ha lasciato perplesso: “Tonight in Flames” parte bene, ma si sviluppa malissimo. A parte lo scream di Dani, ma la canzone nel ritornello è patetica con Dani che “canta” e non urla. Una ricerca della melodia che davvero fa pietà, e poi, sentire Dani cantare melodicamente mi fa rabbrividire e mi svilisce quanto Dani ha fatto di buono in passato. E inoltre, prevedibile la sezione centrale, con i soliti inserti di pianoforte e uno scream sussurrato per l'esplosione finale con tanto dio assolo. L'esperimento “melodico” risulta completamente fuori luogo, visto che le parti migliori del brano sono proprio quelle potenti.
Dopo questo episodio non proprio felicissimo si passa ad un'altra caduta: “Libertina Grimm”; un riff banale che fa decollare il brano ma è presente un Dani Filth inascoltabile, soprattutto quando canta il titolo del brano, e con le soluzioni vocali già sentite e risentite. Il brano rimane senza un reale sviluppo e 10 secondi esclusivamente sinfonici che sinceramente non ho capito a cosa servissero. “The Byronic Man” ripresenta Dani Filth alle prese con un cantato melodico in un brano brutto, semplicemente brutto, lento e monotono ed è da dimenticare anche la pessima presenza di Ville Valo (vocalist degli Him). Ulteriore passo falso. Finalmente si rientra in territori più decenti: “I am the Thorn” finalmente riporta i Cradle su livelli qualitativi decenti. Certo, il sound è lo stesso di Nymphetamine, ma per ora è uno dei migliori del disco. Energico, veloce e molto aggressivo. Inutile descriverlo ulteriormente perché è davvero un ottimo brano. “Cemetery & Sundown” continua un discorso che finalmente riesco ad apprezzare, e finalmente si presenta qualche piccola evoluzione: il riffing rimane potente ma scandisce buone melodie a supporto di un “growleggiante” Dani Filth. Anche “Lovesick for Mina” (che sembrerebbe essere un tributo a “Dracula” di Bram Stoker) ripresenta questo riffing melodico e il brano è di grande atmosfera, molto vario e ben sviluppato e presenta finalmente una degna orchestrazione.
Paradossalmente la parte migliore del disco è proprio la parte centrale, dopo un inizio davvero sottotono. “The Foetus of a new day kicking” ci ripresenta un cantano a tratti melodico in un brano che comincia a scendere rispetto ai grandi episodi precedenti. Buono, ma nulla di più, e fa presagire un'ulteriore caduta qualitativa. Che si avvera: dopo un'introduzione letta dal grande Doug Bradley (l'attore che interpretava Pinhead nell'immortale “Hellraiser” e già presenta in altre canzoni dei Cradle, quali “Her Ghost in the Fog”) parte una lunga strumentale intitolata "The Rise of the Pentagram". Monotona, in cui le chitarre non fanno altro che la parte ritmica, mentre ci pensa una cornamusa a fare la melodia. Ma è una strumentale che davvero lascia il tempo che trova, essendo davvero senza spunti interessanti.”Under Huntress Moon” è un gran bel brano, preludio alla completa pazzia di “Temptation”: cover degli Heaven 17, è un brano inascoltabile, ai limiti della dance, ricco di campionamenti e un ritornello disgustoso.
Per una buona metà il disco è deludente per poi rialzarsi repentinamente. Sicuramente gli episodi più riusciti sono “I am the thorn”, “Under Huntress Moon” e “Lovesick for Mina” e qualche episodio minore quale “Cemetery & Sundown”. Gli altri brani sono da evitare. In definitiva, un disco in perfetta sintonia con Nymphetamine. Proprio come il precedente, presenta episodi degni di merito, alternati a passaggi veramente pietosi. Penso che un sufficienza arrancata la meriti, ma sottolineo, arrancata proprio grazie a pochi brani veramente belli.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Dirge Inferno (04:53)
Carrion my name
For those who choose to mouth the curse
A tragic serenade
With Judas in my stride
The Gothic halls of shame
Where statues coldly hold no worse
Than the murders I reclaim
From a dark, forsaken time"
Kissing heaven, spent
He wipes lips free of his hectic discharge
Wishing to repent
For the brute that ravaged free
In slight hands beauty weeps
Conquest's deep methodical screwing
Hurt repeatedly
Like the world wound at his feet
Dirge Inferno
As it is written, damn it
So let it be wrung
From throats of those in overthrow
The past at last has come
A savage bit without respite
Pervades the freezing air
This winter chill, grist for his mill
If tears of joy will blear elsewhere
And church bells drown in the cracks of doom
The storms above us hew
As lightning runs like bifurcate tongues
Deflowering two by two
Hissing, malcontent
He storms the skies on electric discharge
Pissing in contempt
On the effigies of the weak
Killing all resolve
The great beast simmers, his scarlet women
Spit their vitriol
On the terrified face of peace
Dirge Inferno
As it is written, damn it
So let it be wrung
From throats of those in overthrow
Our past at last has come
A hellbound heart, the rose and thorn
Have locked to hasten blood
The moon disrobes, to harden droves
Of legions pouring
These rivers press, his breath adorns
Senates and enemy seats
Whilst his power takes as ingratitude
The writhing of the weak
"Wormwood my name
The poisoned star that fell to earth
And blistered free of shame
In the pits of self-rebirth
Now those caves become a farret
Overseeing endless barracks
As the waters turn to claret
And the Vatican satins burn"
03 Tonight in Flames (05:55)
When contrary winds blow across the sands
Their murmurs can be easily swayed
But when storms quicken one cannot placate
The howling of their murderous rages
Winged seraphim hold love's trembling hand
Beside our waiting graves
As war roars about out precious land
Seeking cause to subjugate
Tonight in flames
Tonight the world will fear our names
Tonight in flames
Stay my feeble heart
Our deaths will be the start
Of something glorious and vain
Tonight in flames
There is no fanaticism as virile as faith
To the blind his words are clear
Suffer not the infidel! Suffer not the infidel!
Assure your place in paradise here
Winged seraphim hold love's trembling hand
Beside her tiny grave
I will avenge her, do or damned
Her sacred mother did the same
I went to see her dance one day
In a play by a wailing wall
Now she is gone
But the song lives on
Zealous and maniacal
The Eastern sword must fall
Tonight in flames
Tonight the world will fear our names
Tonight in flames
Stay my feeble heart
Our deaths will be the start
Of something glorious and vain
Tonight in flames
04 Libertina Grimm (05:51)
Howitzer glare and spitfire blade
Wooed by Dresden serenades
Her soundtrack now a bombing raid
Bored of vaudeville
God was six days sober
On the night that she was born
To the glistening star of a bible class
An icon now in religious porn
She was Alice through the gloryhole
An ejaculate misconception
Disney-esque, the high priestess
Of greed and deepest dark deception
All best-to-bury whims
For Miss Libertina Grimm
She, that little red riding crop
Brer Werewolf at her stocking tops
Beneath the tightened leather strop
Of the basque of the houndervilles
At the stroke of midnight come
She polished verse and hearses
In a poisonous pen dipped in omen
To her surgeon full of general curses
In the hand of morgue redeemers
Though the dead always pleased her more
Squatting in their coffins
Flirting curtsies to the thirteenth floor
Tip your hats
For sweet Libertina Grimm
Fantasy and candy stores
Snow white and the seven straws
Smoke and mirrors on all fours...
Libertina Grimm
Her brothers grim, her sisters through
The final dance will be the cue
She amputates to fit the shoe
Libertina Grimm
Libertina Grimm
Mystery kindled in a blackened room
Nine candles lit to improve the gloom
She sees the dark as she feels her womb
Full of hidden secrets
No, don't go
Don't you leave me here
So alone
Libertina
No, don't you go
Don't you leave me here
So alone
Where the dead are free to roam
06 I Am the Thorn (07:06)
The needle in the eye of the hurricane
The poison in the font
The nail in the coffin of the profane
I am the lot
Maniacal the fire
That weaves inside my should
When dripping tongues of hate, envenomed, roll
Like carpet bombs in vast bazaars
My blood runs with the beasts
Though no crescent, cross
Or wandering star
Shalt witness my defeat
Born of jackal in the Vatican
To a loathsome flock I have crept behind the drapes
And a wizard there is not
Just a white flag blackened by
Singing weapons that have led
A faith that soon dominions over
Desert kingdoms of the dead
I smell the fleur du malcontent
The hellish stench
Of Judas in the dozens
Bouquets for greed and twisted law
Handmaidens of a holy war
Bring on a thousand roses more
I am the thorn
Tangled are the thickets
That spare the virgin heart
From the waking grasp of rapists in the dark
Mountaineers that strive so far
For a Heaven grown from reach
That love herself is fabled
To be missing from their peaks
Save in one sole tower
Where the presence of a rod
Stays the sleeping beauty
From the prying fingers of the mob
I smell the fleur du malcontent
The hellish stench
Of Judas in the dozens
Bouquets for greed and twisted law
Handmaidens of a holy war
Bring on a thousand roses more
I am the thorn
I am the thorn
I am the Spear of Longinus
The sword of Damocles
Kali up in arms, a bleeding sinus
The hammer of the gods in the prophet's teeth
Saint Disgustus, President Evil
Great white hopes of a shark-eyed people
Light of the world now flicker and die
Impaled in the race, in the paling face
Where forked tongues pricked the skies
Choking on these words as I slither to their ear
A lightning strikes their blinded mains
I am not the hand of god...
I am the thorn
Territorial thieves
Ever stealing thunder for religious causes
I will bring you all down to your knees
And fuck you over
07 Cemetery and Sundown (05:37)
We rise with the sun in the underworld
We suffer from a graveless name
We prise wide lids
And wounds with lips curled
Over teeth that have tasted shame
Cemetery and sundown
Against the flora of nightfall
We gather like the fauna of war
To cure Aurora so spiteful
With her stake in the coming of dawn
To conjure forth the past
Those heady nights of pain resplendent
In the service of the Goddess of Death
When her sheets ran royalty red
Moon lengthen or crypt-kept silhouettes
Shadows dance, eyes flicker in descent
Unveil the greed, our needs are bitter, spent
On upturned mouths and haunts of wickedness
We walk this Eden, a secret
Faces hidden under Leonine pride
In dusk's embrace
We find it hard to keep it
When blood and lust and waking worlds collide
Too long have we skulked like drifters
In the cities of the neon sun
Vagabond dogs and graveyard shifters
Mona Lisa's where the paint has run
I miss our glorious past
Our nightly flights on fear dependent
Like phantoms in the eaves for Miss Christine
When the song bird broke her neck
Wolves howl their fogbound serenades
Churches arch their backs with balustrades
Praise be to the shedding of masquerades
When we hunt these vestal vermin unafraid
Of the covenant made...
Draw the blinds on the floors of raw meat
There is murder in the thirst
Rich red vascular tapestries
Hung in gilded frames of nuns asleep
In dreams where themes of bestiality
Are a blessing on their Sunday sheep
Sermons hang a black gown
Over cemetery and sundown
Now the clock is harrying midnight
And the ghost of yet-to-come
Will she show rewrites of dark delight
Or the sewers we've overrun?
I see a winter palace
Cut diamonds at a porcelain neck
When Swan Lake crushed poor sanity's spirit
As I threw her to it bled
We rise with the sun in the underworld
We suffer from a graveless name
We prise wide lids
And wounds with lips curled
Over teeth that have tasted shame
We walk this Eden, a secret
Faces hidden under Leonine pride
In dusk's embrace
We find it hard to keep it
When blood and lust and waking worlds collide.
08 Lovesick for Mina (07:00)
One might see in Mina
My disease
But it was She who has infected me
For all eternity...
As the sun slips the tearaway stars
Into the scented scheme of night
I kissed her mouth like a dark red rose
Set upon a marbled dream of white
So pure of thought like a Vestal statue
Jewelled with a God-lent grace
I was close to coming when she bid adieu
Fuelled by heartache rent upon her face there
On Mina, obscener
Thoughts obsess my days
Oh Mina, obscener
Thoughts possess me
That I must now obey
They say the darkest hour
Is that before the dawn
When nothing in one's power
Can dissipate the great forlorn
Shadows of fire that haunt me
Like risen whispers of her name
For dawn is a dusk
Wherein needs must
Erupt from the grave, aflame
Written in the dead of night
And riding on the burning wind
Smitten by her read delight
My words alight like leave of sin
Stepping through a mirror
The princess of the emerald glass
Brought me on sip nearer
Love's infernal past...
They say Hell hath no furies
Like a woman scorned by life
When the Heavenly Judge and juries
Participate to chain this wife
With forced virtue, Her secret needs
On warm we nights, with storm-wracked bites
I gave her Eden after the flood
Written in the dead of night
And riding on the burning wind
Smitten by her read delight
My words alight like leaves of sin
Verona, Marishka, Aleera
Brides of old and goddesses all
Forgive my wishes to be always near her
Forever or whenever seas recall
The Aphrodite from my embrace
For as Mars (whom her lips placate)
I tore these shores with wars of hatred
Before our Paris wet his fate
In Helen, one might find mistake
In winning tragedy
For all eternity...
I am still lovesick for Mina
I am still so lovesick for Mina
09 The Foetus of a New Day Kicking (03:43)
I'm chaos international
The writing on the wall
A Lazarus in parable
A dark and sullen lullaby
Whispered softly as you die
Promising torments are nigh
Danger warning levels hissed out loud
I saw the silver lining hidden in a mushroom cloud
Now I'm reeling from the shock at ground zero
If yesterday you would have stood up proud
Then why tonight have you thrown in with the stoning crowd?
I'll breathe through the foetus of a new day kicking...
The foetus of a new day kicking
It's true that Jesus cannot save
I'm rising from the grave
To put my double cross to shame
A poison rush, a heart attack
A white assassin painted black
You'll fear this reaper coming back
Danger warning levels hissed out loud
I saw the silver lining hidden in a mushroom cloud
Now I'm reeling from the shock at ground zero
If yesterday you would have stood up proud
Then why tonight have you thrown in with the stoning crowd?
I'll breathe through the foetus of a new day kicking...
On a night like this
You laid the serpent's kiss
In this garden of Gethsemane
You played the traitor well...
In a dawn to come
I will blind the sun
To grant you pardon as my enemy
Before damning you to hell...
11 Under Huntress Moon (06:58)
With the snow fallen thick
And bonfires alit
And shooting stars portents of rips
I ascended to spur
A mere glimpse of murmur
From her precious celestial lips
Be it sun to your moon
"Be it moon to your sun"
Together we promised to come
With a turn of the screw
And a slip of the tongue
We eclipsed one another undone
Through the mist, through the woods
With the night-wraiths I''ve stood
Atop murderous peaks calling you
On storm-lashed beachheads
Where the fisherman dread
The things your bewitchments accrue
Those deep creatures bring
Her cut diamond rings
A girl with a pearl necklace her
Advancing in fevers
Tsunamis and myrrh
Will she wreak bloody vengeance or purr?
She lights the skies
Dressed in silver scales plucked from the ocean
To spite her thighs
That Lucifer snuck inside
And with his pride
Enclaves were upgraded to Goshen
So paradise
Could shine from out her skirts
"I adorn myself at dusk
With ornaments to close the noose
A kiss as red as blood and cold as hell
My body glows with lust
Anemic as the flag of truce
I raised at dawn to catch you in my spell"
With every twist I cannot resist her
Fertile female mind control
This wanton witch, white rapids sister
To whom I pour my wine and soul
From a copse of black yews
Where the moon was drawn through
Like a sword through a Gordian knot
She descended to me
Claiming swift victory
Over the heart I had near soon forgot
With every kiss this huntress whispered;
"Yield to my sweet embrace
One night of bliss". I could not dismiss her
Once her beauty shot me a darker face
You mesmerize my soul Diana
You mesmerize my soul
12 Temptation (03:47)
I've never been closer
I've tried to understand
That certain feeling
Carved by another's hand
But it's too late to hesitate
We can't keep on living like this
Leave no track
Don't look back
All I desire
Temptation
Keep climbing higher and higher
Temptation
Adorable creatures
Temptation
With unacceptable features
Temptation
Trouble is coming
Temptation
It's just the high cost of loving
Temptation
You can take it or leave it
Temptation
But you'd better believe it
You've got to make me an offer
That cannot be ignored
So let's head for home now
Everything I have is yours
Step by step and day by day
Every second counts I can't break away
Leave no trace
Hide your face
All I desire
Temptation
Keep climbing higher and higher
Temptation
You can take it or leave it
Temptation
But you'd better believe it
Step by step
Day by day
Every second counts
I can't break away
Keep us from temptation [x3]
Lead us not in temptation
All I desire
Temptation
Keep climbing higher and higher
Temptation
And you can take it or leave it
Temptation
But you'd better believe it
Step by step and day by day
Every second counts I can't break away
Keep us from Temptation [x3]
Lead us not in Temptation
Trying to find it
Temptation
You've got to get up behind it
Temptation
Put your dime in the hot slot
Temptation
But it's a million to one shot
Temptation
You think that you're right
Temptation
Your gonna face it tonight now
Temptation
Give me a breakdown
Temptation
Because it's time for a shakedown
Temptation [x16]
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Defender85
"Non ci sarebbe una spiegazione valida per il suo inserimento nell'album, se quest'ultimo non avesse l'aria di essere una colossale trovata di marketing."
"I testi... sono solamente parole gettate lì proprio a caso, a formare vaghe assonanze e rime assurde."
Di Starblazer
Un disco dei Cradle Of Filth: forte, duro, emozionante e morbosamente poetico.
Questa stupenda cattedrale gotica di suoni è un'autentica fucina di emozioni abbacinanti.
