La carriera degli svedesi In Flames si può a grande linee dividere in tre periodi: gli esordi, improntati ad un melodic black metal molto innovativo (di fatto ne sono stati gli iniziatori), un periodo intermedio nel quale il suono si è un po' ammorbidito, accogliendo influenze heavy metal, e l'era attuale, la peggiore.
Come tanti altri gruppi, gli In Flames si sono svenduti alle nuove mode, sfornando 3 dischi nella migliore delle ipotesi anonimi e banali; "Reroute to Remain", "Soundtrack to your escape" e l'ultimo "Come Clarity" sono tre dischi sostanzialmente inutili, colmi di influenze metalcore/nu-metal che hanno determinato ondate di sdegno nei fan di tutto il globo terraqueo metallico.
Per fortuna questo live si pone come conclusione del secondo periodo della carriera della band nordica, e per questo racchiude tutti i loro pezzi migliori; il risultato è, in sostanza, un greatest hits con il plusvalore della carica dal vivo dei 5 vichinghi. Registrato a Tokyo nel 2000, durante il tour mondiale per il bellissimo "Clayman", il disco presenta una successione perfetta di pezzi nel più puro (o meglio, allora puro) stile In Flames: voce in scream con occasionali parti in clean, riffoni ultra distorti ma sempre ammorbiditi da tagli melodici,ritmica serrata, più o meno veloce. Esaltanti i numerosi assolo firmati dal leader Jesper Stromblad.
La scaletta abbraccia come già detto il fertilissimo periodo compreso tra il capolavoro "The Jester Race" e il validissimo "Clayman", passando per gli ottimi "Whoracle" e "Colony". Apre lo show "Bullet Ride", caratterizzata da una strofa acustica, ben interpretata dal cantante in clean, e, come contrappasso, un ritornello tiratissimo. Si sente subito la partecipazione dei tanti fans nipponici, che per tutta la durata del live sottolineeranno con boati le prodezze della band. Prestazione impaccabile infatti: il cantato mantiene sempre il caratteristico timbro metal con grande espressività, la precisione dei chitarristi è assolutamente chirurgica, alla pari della sezione ritmica. Il sound, pur trattandosi di un evento live, è assolutamente soddisfacente: forse meno tagliente e aggressivo che negli album di studio, ma in compenso ottimamente bilanciato e decisamente "potente"; a mio avviso molto bello il rimbombo del suono nel palasport! Unica nota leggermente negativa è forse la batteria, che perde un po' in incisività.
La scaletta è una goduria per qualunque fans: "Embody The Invisible", veloce e aggressiva, "Jotun", "Moonshield", bellissima, lenta e ipnotizzante, "Clayman", al contrario implacabile dall'inizio alla fine grazie alla doppia cassa continua, "Gyroscope", capolavoro da whoracle con grandi riff cadenzati, "pinball map", "episody 666" entrambe molto aggressive. Questi a mio avviso i pezzi più significativi del live, che comunque si dimostra coinvolgente ed emozionante per tutte e 15 le tracce.
Il Giappone è terra di metallari a quanto si può capire, data la mole di live registrati in quella lontana terra (Children Of Bodom, sonata arctica per citarne solo alcuni recenti...) e il calore del pubblico, anche se un po' mitigato dalla compostezza "zen" orientale è costante per tutta la durata del concerto, ma una canzone scatena un entusiasmo straordinario: "Only for the weak".
Traccia numero 4 di Clayman, è un mid-tempo sorretto da un orecchiabilissimo riff di chitarra e tastiera ma un analisi tecnica non può spiegare la potenza di questo brano. 2 colpi di crash e parte l'implacabile riffone, sorretto dagli incitamenti del cantante, "jump jump jump". Se non vi è mai capitato di vederne uno, cercate un video live di questa song: impressionante. Migliaia di persone che saltano in aria a ritmo con il chorus, che agitano le loro teste in un ossessivo head bang nelle strofe, per poi esplodere in un boato al cambio di tonalità seguente all'assolo. Il pezzo è reso in maniera straordinaria e si pone come vertice di quest'ottimo disco live.
Vero metal, tecnico e senza fronzoli, potente e ingegnoso, emozionante e carico. Non lasciatevi respingere dalla deludente svolta recente, gli In Flames per quasi un decennio hanno rappresentato una realtà importante e innovativa nell'ambito floridissimo del metal svedese e nordico in generale.
The Tokyo Showdown è la summa, un riassunto perfetto, della loro "Golden Age".
Elenco tracce e testi
04 Jotun (00:00)
I often dream of huge numb buildings
Jet-black sinister architecture
Being installed when nobody sees
Their appearance so sudden
That few would take notice
And when I wake up
I imagine being crushed by one
Imagining its weight its silence
And the absence of excuses for a havoced life
And the privilege of a 22-kilometre tombstone
Jotun
A body of black
That carried no reflection
Defying its own room
Un-earthly eggs of decreation
There would be colonies
Mushroom-scattered forever out of context
Rising spores from a dying world
To pollute to chase away what's left
Sun-white pulverised desert stone
And serpentine lizard mouths
Pales away the pyramids
Rewriting 4500 years of history
Raping the statue of liberty
Outplays the acropolis
Inverting the fjords
Invades the NY skyline to
Dream its own existence in one single final word
Jotun
Can we identify them
As the flint buried in our reptile skulls
Or the time-bomb coded in our DNA
05 Food For The Gods (00:00)
Shame marries the guilt
introduces itself to the
concept of total loneliness
Sensations repressed
make friends with
Suicidia, and
and here the leeches begin to
suck away the lust for life
Escape takes lead
into a world unknown uncontrolled by all
where borders are erased and potential infinite
Chosen cells, glands and transmittors
blast the body with joy
Astral feet running
up to dimensions covered with gold
stairs of glowing electroplasma
safir onyx and buzzing vibrations
A dead men�s banquet
food for the gods
There's only 1 real world
our earth is but a shadow
Created from a child�s heart, a living jewel
from now on abode for a soul in its setting
Escape takes lead
into a world unknown uncontrolled by all
where borders are erased and potential infinite
Chosen cells, glands and transmittors
blast the body with joy
Astral feet running
up to dimensions covered with gold
stairs of glowing electroplasma
safir onyx and buzzing vibrations
A dead men�s banquet
food for the gods
Cutting the bloodline
re-tie the bleeding roots
to heavenly ship of glass
and let it drift in passive arrogance
in a one-word dialogue with the stars
06 Moonshield (00:00)
Tired of dull ages, I walk the same ground,
collecting the tragedies still
Hollow ambitions in a hollow mind
carried my cross to the hill
And how I lust for the dance and the fire
taste of the nectarine sunset to drink
spill me the wind and the fire
to steal of the colors-I'm the moonshield
Shattered hope became my guide
and grief and pain my friends
a brother pact in blood-ink penned
declared my silent end
Naked and dying under worlds of silent stone
reaching for the moonshield that once upon us shone
And how I lust for the dance and the fire
taste of the nectarine sunset to drink
spill me the wind and the fire
to steal of the colors-I'm the moonshield
07 Clayman (00:00)
Your self control makes me feel alone
I've tried confidence, had it for breakfast today
I've lost the perfection, a mess without words
As the seasons change I'll continue to ignore
The image I project is me without me
The picture that I scanned is borrowed
After the education you stopped making sense to me
Seems to me that it's all the same, time and time and time and time again
Slowly, What I believed in, turning into a lie
To aim and miss, my supernatural art
Spending too much time with myself
Trying to explain who I am
How come it's possible
I wish there was a way
I feel so invincible
I'm the sculpture made out of clay
I need someone to break the silence
before it all falls apart
I need something to cling onto
before I break you in parts
So afraid of what you may think
And all the plastic people that surrounds me
I have to find the path to where it all begins
To teach the world my supernatural art
How come it's possible
I wish there was a way
I feel so invincible
I'm the sculpture made out of clay
08 Swim (00:00)
As we build a brand new planet
Lets reconstruct and get it straight
Unlock forgotten skills
Travel to a new dimension
Souls from the dark seduction
(Take heed), we are the new invention
We're the settlers of year zero
Lets reconstruct and take it back
*chorus*
Leaders of our time
Heading for a downfall
The threshhold of revolution
(Take heed)The last freedom call
Blanked out fire etched on the chrystal display
The seas are deep
You better swim
Don't go numb
Collect the word, add some gold and give it back
The seas are deep
You better swim
Don't go numb
From a thousand branches
Spreading the new voice
(guitar solo)
As we're heading for the throne
Connect, evolution will begin
*chorus*
09 Behind Space (00:00)
Call me by my astral name
Breeding fear through wordless tounge
Heavenly thirst - unspeakable pain
Emptied from all human motion
Confront the faceless wrath
Beckoning silent from a sphere behind space
Through twisted ruins of uncompleted dreams
Sights of towers reaching for the moon
Clawing at the skies - they gonna pull it down
Intensity - I feel the lava rushing through my veins
Stars are reforming - to enter the fourth dimension
Beyond all galaxies
Through timeless eons of frost
Unearthly hunger - angels descent
We are entering dimensions behind space
Beyond all galaxies
Through timeless eaons of frost
10 Only For The Weak (00:00)
I can't tolerate your sadness
Cause it's me you are drowning
I won't allow (allow) any happiness
Cause everytime you laugh, I feel so... guilty
I feel so guilty
Am I forced to have any regret
I've become the lie, beautiful and free
In my righteous own mind
I adore and preach the insanity you gave to me
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
I've lost the ability to paint the clouds
Cause it's me you're draining (you're draining me)
I'm stuck in this slow-motion dark tale
Cause everytime you run, I fall.. behind
I fall behind
And so I hear my voice again
The tale of the bitter man who I am
Shake the silence and hear what it says
The tranquil pride that become the lie
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
Sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
On bleeding knees, oh, I accept my fate
[instr. part]
Sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
On bleeding knees, oh, I accept my fate
Sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
On bleeding knees...
11 Gyroscope (00:00)
Geology is digging through my brain
A manta engulfing the world
To throw it up once again
To a guild of lifted daggers
Neo-wolf, but older again
Than the Lupus itself
Linked its fur to the Gyroscope of time
A collection of failures
A diabolical sequence of stabs
Written in cutting stone
From the fossilized den of thieves
Our lives die
Neo-wolf, but older again
Than the Lupus itself
Linked its fur to the Gyroscope of time
A collection of failures
I see the nursing all mother
Spitting out a trail of termites
In the mouth of her first born hope
With smog-filled rebellion
Apathy dressed in violence
White, insectoid legs
Curse her lips and her mouth receptive
Only to pain
Neo-wolf, but older again
Than the Lupus itself
Linked its fur to the Gyroscope of time
A collection of failures
12 Scorn (00:00)
I perish and nobody will know
as my mouth remains still
my heart awaits me. filled with gravel
as the pain grows with each touch
since I marked her out from my tower
reality focused through forbidden lenses
she owns enough of preciousness
a penalty given by the source
but I still have no choice through
the hinderens freighten
a labyrinth closing at the edge of space
but they never allow
she's shut... for all beings but one
I give, I scorn, I threat
13 Ordinary Story (00:00)
egoism dictates human relations
a world where fashion outshines morality
here success is written in blood-red colours
designed by the thirst for power
gather the faithful and propose a toast
to the epoch of indifference
an all to ordinary story
with aftertaste so bitter
forced to be someone I don't want to be
I'm losing myself. sinking deeper down
I'm caught in the world wound web
a time represented by the void
an excuse without content
stuck in the abyss of existence
with a content void of excuse
an all to ordinary story
this is my story
with an aftertaste so bitter
sinking deeper down
I'm caught - I'm cage
I'm gone
14 Pinball Map (00:00)
As I aim for that bright white day
Conflict serum is my aura
It seems that life's so fragile
I guess I'll fly some other time
I lack from superhighway thoughts
Won't live as long as the city lights
Soaked by underwater times
Electric splash on a midnight drive
Wish I could rape the day
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who's gonna take me widely?
Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Before we injected this common pride
Sometimes I don't belong
Release me from your world
Pacified by the small things in life
I wait for earthquakes to rearrange
Never been able to use the force
I only have it read to me
Despite all the misguided faith
I'll find a place in this mess
Wish I could rape the day
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who's gonna take me widely?
Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Early morning moments
A glimpse of joy
But soon it's over
And I return to dust
As I try to be
Everything and everyone
I shrivel up and waste away
-Solo-
Wish I could rape the day
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who's gonna take me widely?
Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Before we injected this common pride
15 Colony (00:00)
In your world, the day is no threat
in my world, there is an absence of light
"genetic superiour cell" controled
by fathomless and undearable
A radical new form of plastic and rage
biologically optomized
but with a strangling pulse
In your world, you find me worthy
in my world, I "parashoot" my life
a virtual drogstore populated
by the fathomless and unbearable
Machine, meat and blood
in an intimate relationship
the new - superior -
more effective than all the preceeding
Where we can no longer
cry and reality is torn
then it's easy to forget
that the responsibillity lies on us all
In your world, the night is no threat
in my world, the darkness
transforms to a vision of hell
populated by fathomless and unbearable
18 Strong And Smart (00:00)
One lie was all it took everything ended right there
You didn't seem to care One lie
I walked away weight on my shoulders was heavy
Barrel to my head
Will you give me a good excuse
Will you let me die right here and now ?
I can't think of another way
But I'm open to any good advice
Everything is falling apart
Trying hard to be strong and smart
One day was all it took
Start to get back on my feet heart begin to beat
One week I'm feeling great dancing around in the street
Feeling young and free
Will you give me a good excuse
Will you let me die right here and now ?
I can't think of another way
But I'm open to any good advice
Everything is falling apart
Trying hard to be strong and smart
21 Goliaths Disarm Their Davids (00:00)
Bible Arm on social hell spins its downward spiral
with each year of unprogression a fine of failure is added
closer than ever to the edge, a faith in resident martyrs
strong object track my body, my body down.
eyes, disappearing rebirth of light
between a labyrinth of errors and the key to the suicide era
digging through the graves of giants, words fly to me
a lonely load, like a promise failing miserably
running through like an alphabet of hate
to shake the entire organism, closer than ever, ever to the edge
eyes, disappearing rebirth of light
between a labyrinth of errors and the key to the suicide era
i kill for the code, to disarm this mess
of psychotic chaos that once i mixed up myself
disarm
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