"The strangers came and they were not like us. Something else, but wearing the skins of men, the eyes of men, their hands. We took collecting the sounds of them in our flesh, the aorisms of power, without substance, yet entirely substance; an unexplored integrity of sound. In these waveforms of kelestic symmetry, we felt the remote passing into definite. We saw the wings of change form within the ichor of their sounds; a thick smoke, sweet upon the tongue, curling into unimagined shapes that suggested surrender, ecstasy, pain, renewal.......
Our bodies begin to pulsate to a subliminal rhythm and we feel the imminence of contained energy, soon to be released. We dilate our throats to the air and resonate the ancient names. We convoke the Nephilim, and they come to us, strangers with the eyes of men..."
Extract from "The Coming of the Watchers", Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC.
"Earth Inferno" ha un sapore davvero particolare, vuoi per essere stata l'ultima pubblicazione dei Fields of the Nephilim in formazione originale (lasciatemelo dire, sia "Zoon" a nome Nephilim che l'ultimo lavoro datato 2005 intitolato "Mourning Sun" nulla hanno a che vedere, anzi infangano, il nome di una leggenda ormai morta e defunta e per questo ancora più fascinosa ed avvolta da un alone di polvere e tenebra) vuoi perché è un live album che raccoglie in soli nove brani, della durata complessiva di circa 78 minuti, l'epopea di una band che in soli tre full lenght (più una miriade di singoli, Ep e raccolte "postume"), ha, a mio avviso, saputo regalare alla musica moderna qualcosa di infinitamente originale, trascendentale, inclassificabile ed etereo nel contempo. Dagli esordi conditi da forti retaggi bluesy e western, con tanto di rimandi allo spaghetti western di Sergio Leone, fino al maestoso ed epico gothic rock "sumero" di "Elizium", i nostri sono stati capaci di distinguersi clamorosamente all'interno di una scena new wave/dark/gothic ancora fortemente in debito verso la tradizione di rottura di derivazione post punk/electro e di lasciarsi alle spalle numerosi proseliti che comunque mai seppero raggiungere le vette compositive dei nostri (vedasi i pur ottimi Garden of Delight).
Il live album in questione è stato registrato unendo le performance dei Fields of the Nephilim in tre diverse date a cavallo dell'autunno 1990, cioè al Brixton Accademy, al Wolverhampton Civic Centre ed all' Hamburg SportsHalle e rappresenta la sublime testimonianza della loro capacità di creare atmosfere suggestive, a volte catartiche, a volte cosmiche, variando tra ritmi frenetici, sciamanici e/o riflessivi, passando per chitarre pulite capaci di disegnare arpeggi che sanno evocare le suggestioni di un antico passato (vedi prologo) o distorte, per assoli al fulmicotone di chiara matrice blues/rock anni '70, il tutto legato dalla presenza carismatica, profonda, perfettamente dominante di un mostruoso Carl McCoy alla voce, baritono e rauco narratore/sommo sacerdote del trascendentale suono dei nostri.
Credo sia perfettamente inutile descrivervi song by song "Earth Inferno" (immagino che il possibile fruitore di questa recensione conosca abbastanza bene la discografia del gruppo, nonché la loro proposta sonora, altrimenti meglio iniziare dall'alfa, quindi da "Dawnrazor" e non dell'omega, cioè l'Lp in sede di recensione), quindi mi limiterò a riportarvi la track list:
•· Intro (Dead but Dreaming) - For Her Light (At the Gates of Silent Memory - Paradise Regained)
•· Moonchild
•· Submission
•· Preacher Man
•· Love Under Will
•· Sumerland
•· Last Exit For The Lost
•· Psychonaut
•· Dawnrazor
In conclusione, dal punto di vista prettamente tecnico, la qualità audio dell'album è elevatissima (fin troppo, tanto da destare qualche dubbio sull'effettiva realizzazione live senza l'uso di overdub post produzione), la tecnica individuale è sorprendente così come la coesione e la compattezza delle singole componenti strumentali, orchestrazioni comprese. Notevole e suggestivo anche l'artwork, in cui si può trovare un estratto di un' antichissima testimonianza di uno scriba del tempio di Ishur Ninku inerente l'invocazione alla figure mitologiche dei Nephilim (vedasi prologo), peraltro presenti e citati anche nella Bibbia.
Nulla da dire, un prodotto di altissimo livello che pone fine al lungo viaggio artistico di una grandissima band.
Da avere.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Intro (Dead but Dreaming) / For Her Light / At the Gates of Silent Memory / (Paradise Regained) (16:10)
02 Moonchild (05:25)
Moonchild...
Well it's a righteous dream
But out of mind, yeah
A righteous dream
But out of mind, yeah
Tend the horses
Let 'em crawl
Put 'em in their cages
That's righteous for the soul
Open your eyes
And despite what's deep
Longevity
Well, that's righteous for the weak
Moonchild
Lower me down, lower me down
Moonchild
Lower me down down down down down down
Well it's a righteous day
But out of mind, yeah
And I give your last rite
Oh, it's a righteous day
Never return, I will wait no more
Take no prisoners in the promised war
You'll die for this
Die for this
Take them
Moonchild
Lower me down, lower me down
Moonchild
Lower me down
Moonchild
Lower me down,
Moonchild
Lower me down down down down down down
Moonchild
Here come the silver pieces
Can't you see
You're losing me
Moonchild
Lower me down, lower me down
Moonchild
Lower me down
Moonchild
Lower me down,
Moonchild
Lower me down down down down down down
Moonchild
Lower me down,
Moonchild
Lower me down down down down down down
Revisit to an empty hall
You can't see I've been burned before
Well they tear you down and they'll bear your shame
Longevity hear my pain
Moonchild (lower me down)
And I'm waiting, and I'm raging,
And I'm waiting, and I'm raging,
And a white moon falls, a black moon calls,
Waiting to defy the One
Moonchild (lower me down)
Longevity, longevity,
I melt down where I burned before
Longevity, longevity,
I melt down where I burned before
And I know where you lay
I melt down where I burned before
And I know where you lay (down, down, down)
Okay
Moonchild
04 Preacher Man (04:51)
Well he talks in confusion
and he faults your point of view
You talk about his apparition
and he talks
hear him laughing at you
Contamination and radiation
Let it crawl while the city sleeps
Your turn to lay for bait for a while
Now you're melting through your burning fields
and all my people say oh
Stop!
When he talks
connected scars reopen
A thousand fingers
reach out for you
We don't feel no contamination
We don't feel no contamination
We don't feel no contamination
We don't feel no contamination
Oh keep talking
You're a hunter I'm a wolf
Yeah keep talking
I'm the preacher you're a fool
Contamination and radiation
Let it crawl while the city sleeps
Your turn to lay for bait for a while
Now you're melting through your burning fields
That's when my people say oh
We don't feel no contamination
Radiation, contamination
Radiation, contamination
Radiation, contamination
Radiation
07 Last Exit for the Lost (10:19)
Would you pay life's pleasures to see me
Does it hurt for I want you to remain
I run your hair through in another decade
Sumerland holds me in sumerian haze
Pain in places where the lovers mourn
Arranging the play things up and down the hall
Forever remain for every day
My honour remains
Forever remain
Between the spaces along the wall
Appearing faces that disappear at dawn
We're getting closer I can see the door
Closer and closer Kthulhu calls
Forever remain
Forever remain
You'll seek it it'll take a while
You'll seek this if it's a thousand miles
Take what fate brings eternal and desire
I'll change those faces then I take their smile
We're getting close to you I can see the door
Closer and closer or is it there at all
Forever remain
Forever remain
This could be my last regress
Last exit for the lost
This could be my last regress
Last exit for the lost
This could be my last regress
Precious for the lost
08 Psychonaut (09:05)
Wildly guessing:
pray now for how long we're falling from ecstasy like changelings freedom returned for new souls hereafter well enrapture me and i'll change this temple i'll hold inside you this temple i'll hold beside you let it spill from my mouth sweet nectar for a thousand young are you ready for this here i come pray now for hours pray for me could you love we're falling from ecstasy you did suffer leviathan you did suffer leviathan we are children now but our curses come and glory days our kingdom come you look older turned to stone freedom sold us pray now for how long pray for me could you love we're falling from ecstasy you did suffer leviathan you deserve us leviathan pray for me let us gather hallucinations from our private minds let us witness the reincarnation of the sun may the mountains shake you to the core xi dingir anna kanpa xi dingir kia kanpa pray for leviathan leviathan pray for leviathan leviathan pray for leviathan leviathan pray for leviathan i hear him call pray now pray now yes I do pray for me pray for me and you did suffer and you did suffer
09 Dawnrazor (09:08)
Cutting razors and violence
Recalling cutthroats razor sin
Ee're watching heaven as the sun goes down
I watch the sun burst it hits the ground
You've gone too far
Dawnrazor's falling brush their skin
Dawnrazor's falling brush their skin
Dawnrazor
Dawnrazor well now
Dawnrazor
Dawnrazor well now
Only dreams survive
Been lost before
Only dreams survive
Been cut before
Cutting razors and violence
Recalling cutthroats razor sin
You've gone to far
Dawnrazor's falling brush their skin
Dawnrazor's falling brush their skin
Dawnrazor's falling brush their skin
Our dark angel has fallen brush their skin
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