Il mai troppo rimpianto “Evil Chuck” Schuldiner, prima di sperimentare un death metal progressivo e ultra tecnico (vedi “Symbolic” e “The Sound Of Perseverance”) , ha creato un death metal grezzo, brutale e terribilmente pesante.
Quello che intendo con questa definizione è proprio questo Signor disco: “Leprosy”, pubblicato nel 1988. Il disco si apre con tre pesantissimi accordi che ci introducono alla title-track (sicuramente una delle migliori del cd) e subito le intenzione del gruppo sono chiare: poca tecnica (comunque aumentata dall’esordio “Scream Bloody Gore”) e tanta voglia di spaccare!
Il disco procede con le buone “Born Dead” e “Forgotten Past”, per proseguire con la fantastica “Left To Die” … fantastico il ritornello (“You’ll not return alive – Left To Die”). La quinta traccia è quel capolavoro che risponde al nome di “Pull The Plug” eseguita anche negli ultimi concerti dei Death (come “Live In L.A.").
Si procede con l’ottima “Open Casket” dove si nota un ottimo Bill Andrews, oltre al pesante growl di Schuldiner che urla il titolo della canzone nel ritornello. L’album termina con “Primitive Ways” e “Choke On It”, che si mantengono sugli standard di “Born Dead”. Da notare anche l’ottima prova anche del bassista Terry Butler che, non sarà l’immenso DiGiorgio, ma si mantiene comunque su buoni livelli. I testi sono ancora piuttosto immaturi (tranne “Pull The Plug” che sembra affrontare l’ancora attuale tema dell’eutanasia): morte, morte, morte!
Una voce malsana e cupa, una batteria opprimente e chitarre notevolmente ribassate e velocissime sono le caratteristiche di questo CD… un must per chiunque voglia conoscere i primi Death e il primo, grezzo death metal!
P.S.: notare nel retro copertina la maglietta degli Slayer di Butler e quella dei Sadus di Chuck!
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Leprosy (06:20)
Bodies deformed way beyond belief
Cast out from their concerned society
Flesh contorting day after day
Freak of the dark world is what the people say
Their lives decay before their eyes
There is no hope of cure
Among their own kind they live
A life that's so obscure
First an arm and then a leg
Deterioration grows
Rotting while they breathe - Death comes slow
Leprosy will take control and bring you to your death
No chance of a normal life to live just like the rest
Leprosy will spread with time, Your body soon to change
Appearance becomes hideous a sight too much to take
Tuberculoid the most severe
Decay of the nerves comes fast
Sense of feeling soon to be gone
Life will never last
No hope of recovery after the nerves are eaten away
Damage is done you feel no more pain
Bones decay deterioration grows
Origin of this horrid disease nobody knows
Their lives decay before their eyes
There is no hope of cure
Among their own kind they live
A life that's so obscure
First an arm and then a leg
Deterioration grows
Rotting while they breathe - Death comes slow
Leprosy will take control and bring you to your death
No chance of a normal life to live just like the rest
Leprosy will spread with time, Your body soon to changel
Appearance becomes hideous a sight too much to take
03 Forgotten Past (04:36)
Deep in your mind there is another side
A morbid truth one cannot hide
Unimaginable gore was your past time high
To hear people scream, To watch them die
Return back to the burial site
Face your dreams upon this night
Severed limbs not far away
Spirit past you now obey
Images of the forgotten past
Your first life revealed at last
Now you'll find to your surprise
All the corpses you left behind
A place you feel you've been to before
Where life would turn right into gore
You dig deep down through the years of decay
The truth is revealed, You found your way
Return back to the burial site
Face your dreams upon this night
Severed limbs not far away
Spirit past you now obey
Images of the forgotten past
Your first life revealed at last
Now you'll find to your surprise
All the corpses you left behind
05 Pull the Plug (04:26)
Memory's all that's left behind
As I lay and wait to die
Little do they know
That I hear their choice of life
End it now, it is the only way
Too cruel, that is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope - Why don't you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don't want to live this way
Once I had full control of my life
I now behold a machine decides my fate
End it now it's all to late
What has now been days, It seems like years
To stay like this is what I fear
Life ends so fast, So take your chance
And make it last
End it now, It is the only way
Too cruel, That is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope - Why don't you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don't want to live this way
06 Open Casket (04:55)
Approach the image filled with fear
As the image grows so clear
Future now takes full control
The one whose past you now behold
Touch - The flesh it is so cold
Turn away - You now have been told
Never to return, Memories will last
In the future, You'll think about the past
Never to forget, What you have seen
People come to pay respect
Taking pictures of the dead
That is what life comes to be
Once they lived, Now they're deceased
Death is oh so strange
The past no one can change
What you can't predict
Is how long you'll exist
Open casket - Open casket
Life will never be the same
Death can never be explained
It's their time to go beyond
Empty feeling when they're gone
Never to return, Memories will last
In the future, You'll think about the past
Never to forget, What you have seen
What can not be real you now believe
07 Primitive Ways (04:33)
Go against the ways and experience pain
Leading a life which one might call insane
Bathe in the blood of the one you killed
Slaughter to survive, Your needs are fulfulled
Using horrid waste
Some of them will taste
Removing deadly disease
With such primitive ease
Cannibals practising the art of butchery
Emotions don't exist, Pain you can't resist
Primitive ways
Conducting ceremonies to meet the ancient ones
While having an outer body experience
Celebrate the kill of the day
Then walk among the guts of the fallen prey
Using horrid waste
Some of them will taste
Removing deadly disease
With such primitive ease
Cannibals practising the art of butchery
Emotions don't exist, Pain you can't resist
08 Choke on It (05:54)
Freedom is just a breath away
Will you live to see the day
As the heat intensifies
You start to choke, Your insides fry
Seizure now sets in
Torture will begin
Twisted bodies lie
Waiting now to die
Choke on it - As your tongue goes down
Choke on it - Death is all around
Screaming fills your frenzied mind
No way out no more time
Example made from those to see
Your freedom turned to misery
World is all around
Of what they have found
Lesson to be learn
You will not return
Choke on it - As your tongue goes down
Choke on it - Death is all around
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Altre recensioni
Di jigoro
QUESTI sono i primi Death, i Death del 1988, un anno dopo lo storico 'Scream Bloody Gore'.
Un disco devastante, anche troppo, insomma, ma che segna una tappa nell’evoluzione musicale dei Death, allora quasi irriconoscibili.
Di sfascia carrozze
quando uno fa i gargarismi con l'acido muriatico, i chiodi da calcestruzzo e le sfere metalliche dei cuscinetti in acciaio inossidabile e poi vi urla in faccia con tutta la forza e la rantolante disperazione di cui dispone "STACCALASPINA" per me è il campione incontrastato di tutto l'universo (s)conosciuto in fatto di elegiaca poeticità mistoassortita.
una poetica così elevata, cangiante, melliflua come quella contenuta in questo manufatto sarebbe dovuta esser insignita del premio Nobel, dell'Oscar e del Pulitzer tutti contemporaneamente.
