Nel febbraio 2002 decido di regalarmi un bel discone per il mio compleanno. La scelta non può che cadere sul nuovo nuovo album dei Dream Theater; questo causa la notevole spesa di L. 49.900, ma considero anche il fatto che sia doppio.
A prima vista "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" può sembrare un album alquanto impegnativo da ascoltare. Lo è.
Il lavoro intero ha una durata totale di quasi cento minuti: il primo disco consta di 5 canzoni, che hanno una durata media di dieci minuti; il secondo è occupato addirittura da una sola canzone da quarantadue minuti, divisa effettivamente in sette parti.
Chiunque abbia ascoltato il precedente album "Scenes From a Memory" non può che lasciarsi sfuggire un sorriso accorgendosi che il primo brano, "The Glass Prison", inizia là dove quello, con "Finally Free", si era concluso: un leggero fruscio come d'interferenza. Poi due rintocchi di campana. Al terzo ci siamo, si comincia.
Colpo di chitarra distorta e Portnoy che non vede l'ora di far cantare la doppia cassa: "The Glass Prison" è potente e veloce e avvia l’ascolto alla bella "Blind Faith", che poi lascia spazio alla più calma "Misunderstood". Martellante "The Great Debate" riferita ai fatti dell'11 settembre 2001, infine "Disappear", lenta, affascinante, stupenda.
Il problema è che a mio parere tutto ciò sarebbe stato sufficiente, e invece no, i Dream ci mettono un secondo disco con un brano, delimitato da "Overture" (ci hanno preso gusto) con melodia copiata da Bach (carina, comunque) e "Grand Finale", quindi un'altra specie di testo teatrale messo in musica. Ma non mi esalta.
E allora? Per quanto riguarda i cinque, sono cambiati nelle capigliature, ad eccezione del sempre folto LaBrie, che peraltro decide di riposare le corde vocali mirando a note non più altissime alle quali ci aveva abituato; dal punto di vista musicale si nota l'inserimento di alcuni "scratches" da dj in una occasione. Il resto è sano prog-rock che tanto ci piace.
Dunque: trattasi di disco molto bello e sicuramente degnissimo di acquisto, ma che ha un punto debole insidioso: la quantità. L'album a mio avviso è "troppo", e questa volta la quantità rompe un po' le scatole alla qualità ("The Test that Stumped Them All" non mi piace proprio, ma tutto il Disc2 sembra pervaso da una trascuratezza di fondo).
Inoltre ciò impedisce quasi all'ascoltatore di comprendere appieno il lavoro nella sua totalità. Troppo sfilacciato, eccessivo. Un passo indietro rispetto al 1999.
Elenco tracce e testi
02 Blind Faith (10:21)
Hear me, speaking
Asking why I even bother
Tell me, how you
Live from day to day
Take your time and look around
Is this utopia you've found
Sick of all of this
The suffering and we just carry on
Isn't it time we care and lose the hate
Understand our fears
But we do all that we can
Justify the means to an end
Sorry you must excuse me
I've painted my own Mona Lisa
She's fixed everything
Now I'm spoiled beyond my wildest dreams
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Take the streets, the beaten path
Our system works for whom I ask
Yeah I have it all
The bigger house
An iron fence to keep you out
When did we all let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Our human spirit drowns
Don't think you hear me now
No sign of you around
What is it you hope to see
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Give us something we can use
Desirable
Cause you've done all you can do
Regrettable
And still life pushes on
With or without you
We've got to carry on
Our will, will guide us to
A place where we belong
Know there lies the truth
I am the believer who gives purpose on to you
I don't think we let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Throw us a pure lifeline
I hope that you hear me
Too proud to be around
There's more to us than we see now
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Self ignorance, abuse
Desirable
Cause you've done all you can do
Incredible
03 Misunderstood (09:32)
Waiting
In the calm of desolation
Wanting to break
From this circle of confusion
Sleeping
In the depths of isolation
Trying to wake
From this daydream of illusion
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
It challenges the essence of my soul
And leaves me in a state of disconnection
As I navigate the maze of self control
Playing a lion being led to a cage
I turn from a thief to a beggar
From a god to God save me
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
Playing a lion being led to a cage
I turn from surreal to seclusion
From love to disdain
From belief to delusion
From a thief to a beggar
From a god to God save me
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
04 The Great Debate (13:45)
What if someone said
Promise lies ahead
Hopes are high in certain scientific circles
Life won't have to end
You could walk again
What if someone said
Problems lie ahead
They've uncovered something highly controversial
The right to life is strong
Can't you see it's wrong
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
Anarchistic moral vision
Industries of death
Facing violent opposition
Unmolested breaths
Ethic inquisitions breed
Antagonistic views
Right wing sound bite premonitions
In a labyrinth of rules
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Taking life to save life
This embryonic clay
Wrapped in fierce debate
Would be thrown away
Or otherwise discarded
Some of us believe
It may hold the key
To treatment of disease
And secrets highly guarded
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Life to save life
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
We're reaching
But have we gone too far
Harvesting existence
Only to destroy
Carelessly together
We are sliding
Someone else's future
Four days frozen still
Someone else's fate
We are deciding
Miracle potential
Sanctity of life
Faced against each other
We're divided
Should we push the boundaries
Or should we condemn
Moral guilt and science
Have collided
Turn to the light
We defy our own mortality these days
Turn to the light
Pay attention to the questions we have raised
05 Disappear (06:45)
Why, tell me the reasons why
Try, still I don't understand
Will I ever feel this again
Blue sky, I'll meet you in the end
Free them, free the memories of you
Free me, and rest 'til I'm with you
A day like today
My whole world has been changed
Nothing you say
Will help ease my pain
Turn, I'll turn this slowly round
Burn, burn to feel alive again
She, she'd want me to move on
See me, this place I still belong
Give chase, to find more than I have found
And face, this time now on my own
Days disappear
And my world keeps changing
I feel you here
And it keeps me sane
So I'm moving on
I'll never forget
As you lay there and watched me
Accepting the end
I knew you were scared
You were strong, I was trying
I gave you my hand
I said it's okay letting go time to leave here
And I'll carry on
The best that I can without you here beside me
Let him come take you home
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Piccio
Solo dopo molti ascolti si riesce a carpire la sua bellezza.
La splendida 'Solitary Shell', canzone acustica da ascoltare e riascoltare.
Di Dreamtheater
"Solo quest'ultima traccia vale il prezzo del cd."
"Negli ultimi 4 lavori dei Dream Theater è venuta fuori la loro vera anima progressive."
Di splinter
Questo „Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence“ segna una seria svolta nella musica dei Dream Theater.
Un album degno dei migliori Dream Theater, quasi alla pari dei vari „Images And Words“, „Awake“ e „Scenes From A Memory“.
Di mauro60
Lampo di genio! un album stupendo, uno dei loro migliori che contiene tutte queste form.
Lo aspetti, dopo l’assolo di tastiere, e quando arriva è estasi pura.
