Down, ovvero: il Phil Anselmo che non ti aspetti.
New Orleans è la tana della stretta alleanza sancita sulle sponde del Mississippi, terra di bluesmen, ma anche del puro southern rock dei Seventies, tra due delle bands più notorie nella scena metal statunitense dei primi anni '90: Corrosion of Comformity e Pantera. E sono proprio i due leader di queste bands, Anselmo e Pepper Keenan, a dirigere le operazioni di questo che doveva essere solo un side-project, ma che negli anni si sta rivelando per entrambi il figlio prediletto, quello da cui poter ancora ricavare stimoli e forze per andare avanti nonostante le delusioni dell'ultimo lustro.
Costruito su una solida base sabbathiana, Nola è un album che non deluderà i fan del rock pestato duro, composto di riff intrecciati ad altri riff, dal sapore inequivocabilmente sudista (non a caso... Eyes of the South) e quindi con riferimenti a Lynyrd Skynyrd e, di contrasto, addirittura ai Led Zeppelin del 3° e 4° disco. Non manca una buona dose di orginalità però, perché una voce come quella di Anselmo sopra riff alla Jimmy Page/Tommi Yommi non si era mai ascoltata altrove, e il risultato è un disco apprezzatissimo più dai fan delle vecchie glorie dei leggendari 70's, che non dai fedelissimi dei CoC e dei Pantera.
Lifer, Temptation's Wings, Losing All... Pepper non si muove dalla stessa matrice, ma è in grado di incendiare la voce di Anselmo come non accade più né nei Pantera (ormai sciolti), né nei Superjoint Ritual. Ma è probabilmente Stone the Crow, oltre all'atmosfera paludosa di Jail, la traccia destinata a essere ricordata come uno dei vertici massimi della carriera dei componenti di questa band. Una melodia irresistibile ci accompagna, per tutta la durata del brano, da un angolo all'altro dell'amata/odiata New Orleans, lasciandoci quasi l'amaro in bocca al suo terminare. Splendida.
Rimediate questo disco, o anche il suo seguito datato 2002, se il dottore vi prescrive una cura a base di riff di chitarra.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Temptation's Wings (04:24)
I feel the pressure, it lightens
to judge this spirit of mine
to be like the judgement
to be the king that is left behind
to hell with I miss you
I said I 'd do it alone
ripping apart from you
a broken vision to call my own
I gave my life to reason
so now I'm watching my life go
my wit is falling apart
I can't shake temptations wings
I can't shake temptations wings
I bury my head with frustration
and I look at others and wonder why(?)
I'm feeding my cancer
A broken vision that stole my sight
I gave my life to reason,
So now I'm watching my life go -
My wit is falling apart
I can't shake Temptation Wings!
temptations wings...
temptations wings got me pale
why?
02 Lifer (04:36)
free at last, I'm the past,
undone in unknown prison,
I'm holding on. Peace and need?
A mouth to feed?
I'm standing way on
the other side. I'm staring
right back at myself,
and through it's frozen image,
I'm laughing right back
at my health - Lifelong
Arms in knots, never spot,
My blood is fading
on the world. Stealing keys?
Soul to me?
and to the BrotheRhood with what
writes the pain.
I'm staring
right back at myself,
and through it's frozen image,
I'm laughing right back
at my health - Lifelong
I'm a lifer.
I'm staring
right back at myself,
and through it's frozen image,
I'm laughing right back
at my health
I'm a lifer.
03 Pillars of Eternity (03:57)
Crumbling world falls through my hands
In my mouth taste bitter sands.
Grass is burning, pulse is slow.
Drip by drip my backwards growth... crawl.
Fade to hate.
And I'll die within my fade
Wine, song, women, birth
This deflowered mother earth
Planting, plowing, how she grieves.
The seeds that grow these dying trees
Fade to hate
And I'll die within my fade
Fade to hate
And I'll die within my fade
05 Hail the Leaf (03:28)
That brave river, I can't sail.
Because of that lone feeling,
That I might fail.
So {fuck it.}
I just smoke-
Let me feel stoned
6th hour.
I still fail to rise,
And I cower in
Reality's eyes, so I
Just smoke-
Let me feel stoned
{let that paranoia cut
My head off.
I'm low down
Crying shame today}
Smoke-
Stoned
I have fallen
Scattered the wave
Alone I'm crying
Broken shade
So I just smoke-
Let me feel stoned
I can't feel you
You can't brave(the river?)
No more sadness no more pain
Not what feeds you but what raves
No more sadness no more....
06 Underneath Everything (04:46)
Woe to me, battered man
raise the monolith
deitize my spirit rise
like days the world forgets - down the
drain - laid to lame
a fool-ass hearty bliss
borderline suicide,
celebrate before my death
your promised land divide,
that's why the world lies.
I give up.
That's enough. I give up.
I'm underneath my life.
dog in heat, beware the street
its there you'll meet your end
poverty is not for me,
but I'll take her back again
to prove a point,
to laugh it off, to cross you off my path,
grip the night, pull the cord,
a much inspired wrath.
your promised land divide,
that's where the world lies.
I give up.
That's enough. I give up.
I'm underneath my life.
carry me back from the war
and from the lord.
10 Stone the Crow (04:42)
A bout of deep depression.
Can't seem to move it forward.
My lying eyes lie awake.
Not sure what I am after.
I never died before.
Can't live what happened yesterday.
I never stoned the crow, no.
Flip through endless stories.
A life of hand-written pain.
No one can share this hurt that is mine, mine, mine.
I never died before.
Can't be what happened yesterday.
I shouldn't stone the crow, no.
Ride on!
Same old city, same old pain
No matter how I try,
No matter what I say
I'm blamed
I'm Shamed
I'm judged unfairly
So now I've died before
it feels as bad as yesterday
i never stoned the crow
You to have died before
i'm not as stoned as yesterday
I never stoned the crow, stoned the crow no, no...
13 Bury Me in Smoke (07:04)
Windows are closing key is locked away
No chance was given to find myself today...
My time of aging... wonder when I'll die...
But When My Time Will Come I Know The Reason WHYYYY!!!
I have to Risk It... Alone it keeps me safe and in my home
I have to use it... To keep me satisfied until Im gone
Dont regret the rules I broke... When I Die Bury Me in smoke!
Under the world I wait for my fate
My bodies lying benesth my blissful state
My time of aging wonder when Ill die
But when my time will come, I know the reason why
I have to risk it... alone it keeps me safe and in my home
I have to use it... to keep me satisfied until im gone
Dont regret the rules I broke, When I die bury me in smoke
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Cobray_
Ascoltare un loro album equivale a ricevere un colpo di fucile a canne mozze da 5 cm.
Sono incazzati come bestie... con i Down, essere incazzati non è mai stato così divertente.
