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Secondo i dizionari, per classico si intende ciò che costituisce “un modello esemplare”, o, con riferimento alle formalizzazioni di una teoria o di uno stile, la sua “sistematizzazione” anche in contrapposizione a indirizzi più moderni.
Credo sia l’aggettivo che meglio si attaglia al quarto album ufficiale dei Judas Priest, le cui canzoni hanno per la prima volta definito le caratteristiche dell’heavy metal, già abbozzate nei precedenti lavori del quintetto di Birmingham, come Sad Wings of Destiny e Sin After Sin: è in quest’album che le intuizioni dei precedenti trovano la perfetta sintesi formale e l’eleganza compositiva che caratterizzerà il gruppo per il resto della propria carriera, e che vengono codificate, sul piano prettamente estetico ed iconografico, le linee salienti dell’heavy metal. Basti osservare la copertina riprodotta a fianco: indecifrabile, aliena nella sua modernità, ed al contempo legata alla tradizione per la posa di tre quarti che assume la testa del soggetto rappresentato, come nelle migliori sculture dall’antica Grecia.
L’importanza di Stained Class per la carriera dei Priest non è, del resto, concepibile su un piano strettamente musicale, ove si rammenti come l’album abbia acquisito, dalla metà degli anni ’80, una fama sulfurea, per essere al centro del suicidio di due fan statunitensi del gruppo, a causa dei pretesi messaggi subliminali contenuti fra i solchi dell’album: va detto che la Corte investita della controversia, nella quale furono imputati gli stessi membri del gruppo per istigazione al suicidio, si concluse con l’assoluzione dei Priest, comunque segnati da quella vicenda umana e processuale. Ciò non toglie che su internet, anche su siti italiani, fioriscano continuamente leggende su SC e sul contenuto dei suoi brani, caratterizzate da logiche per lo più speculative sulle quali è meglio soprassedere.
Sia per contenuto che per forma, Stained Class cristallizza il linguaggio metal che verrà successivamente rivisitato da miriadi di gruppi inglesi ed americani a cavallo degli anni ’70 ed ’80: chitarre taglienti con interscambi solistici, sezione ritmica quadrata anche se non particolarmente inventiva, sempre a servizio dei riff prodotti dai due axemen, e, su tutti, lo stagliarsi della voce di Rob Halford, ora declamatoria, ora più violenta. Rispetto al coevo Killing Machine, di qualche mese successivo, SC taglia recisamente i ponti con l’hard blues delle origini, accelera i ritmi e semplifica gli arrangiamenti, compattando notevolmente i brani. I testi, con riferimenti al medioevo, alle presenze aliene, alle esperienze extrasensoriali, colorano le musiche di un’aurea maudit, senza sovrastrutture o messaggi da lanciare, all’insegna di un linguaggio autoreferenziale e privo di riferimenti culturali che sono il limite stesso della proposta musicale dei Priest (analogamente ai Black Sabbath e a differenza dei Blue Öyster Cult).
Venendo al contenuto dei singoli pezzi, l’album si apre con il classico Exciter, con arrangiamenti ridotti all’osso e la voce di Halford che raggiunge vette inaudita, dando senso di claustrofobia e rabbia (non a caso uno dei gruppi più influenti dei primi anni ’80 prenderà nome da questo brano); segue l’altrettanto stordente White Heat, Red Hot, con un ritornello spezzato e martellante, che aumenta i battiti cardiaci dell’ascoltatore, con effetti quasi disturbanti. La terza traccia, Better By You, Better Than Me – cover degli Spooky Tooth – vira su un rock magari più ordinario, ma orecchiabile ed incalzante che ben contrasta con i pezzi che precedono, grazie ad un Halford in grande spolvero. La titletrack, dalle soluzioni ritmiche più raffinate, specie nella progressione armonica che porta al ritornello, è uno dei pezzi più riusciti dell’album, anche nel testo, senza nulla perdere in impatto emotivo e durezza del suono. Il terzetto rappresentato da Invader, Saints in Hell e Savage va considerato unitariamente, trattandosi di pezzi dell’andamento similare, estremamente tesi nella strofa ed esplosivi nei ritornelli, in un perfetto connubio fra grinta esecutiva e melodia che appare come il lascito fondamentale del gruppo a favore della nascente NWOBHM. La successiva Beyond the Realms of Death, scritta dal batterista Les Binks, è il cuore emotivo dell’album, sterzando verso un dark sound memore della lezione Sabbath e simile ad alcuni pezzi di Sad Wings of Destiny, anche se caratterizzato da una maggior coesione ritmica ed efficace sintesi sonora: al di là degli aspetti prettamente musicali, si tratta di un pezzo che comunica all’ascoltatore un senso di autentico disagio ed inquietudine. La conclusiva Heroes End, con una bella ritmica, compendia al meglio lo stile del gruppo nella prima parte del ’78, unendo i toni indiavolati del cantante agli sferraglianti riff delle chitarre di Downing e Tipton, ben adiuvati dal basso di Ian Hill.
Album da avere, senza meravigliarsi se alla fine dell’ascolto si sarà pervasi da una certa ansietà… ma it’s only heavy metal.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Exciter (05:35)
Racing' cross the heavens
Straight into the dawn
Looking like a comet
Slicing through the morn
Scorching the horizon
Blazing to the land
Now he's here amongst us
The age of fire's at hand
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation bids to ask
Everything he touches
Fries into a crisp,
Let him get close to you
So you're in his trip,
First you'll smoke and smoulder
Blister up and singe
When ignition hits you
the very soul of your being will cringe.
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Here he comes now
Fall to your knees and repent if you please
Who is this man?
Where is he from?
Exciter comes
For everyone.
You'll never see him
But you will taste the fire upon your tongue
He's come to make you snap out
Of the state that you are in
Looks around and make you
See the light again
So much self-indulgence
Results in shattered eyes
Predominant complacency
Leads to beguiling lies.
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation bids to ask
When he leaps amidst us
With combustive dance
All shall bear the branding
Of his thermal lance,
Cauterising masses
Melting into one
Only when there's order
Will his job be done.
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Here he comes now
Fall to your knees and repent if you please
Who is this man?
Where is he from?
Exciter comes
For everyone
You'll never see him
But you will taste the fire upon your tongue
Racing past the heavens
Straight into the dawn
Looking like a comet
Slicing through the morn
Scorching the horizon
Blazing to the land
Now he's here amongst us
The age of fire's at hand
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
03 Better by You, Better Than Me (03:25)
You could find a way to ease my passion
You listen to the blood flow in my veins
You hear the teaching of the wind
Tell her why I'm alive within
I can't find the words
My mind is dead
It's better by you better than me
Guess you'll have to tell her how I tried
To speak up thoughts I've held so inside
Tell her now I got to go
Out in the streets and down the shore
Tell her the world's not much living for
It's better by you better than me
Everybody
Everybody knows
Everybody
Everybody knows
Better by you better than me
You can tell what I want it to be
You can say what I only can see
It's better by you better than me
Guess I'll have to change my way of living
Don't wanna really know the way I feel
Guess I'll learn to fight and kill
Tell her not to wait until
They'll find my blood upon her windowsill
It's better by you better than me
Everybody
Everybody knows
Everybody
Everybody knows
Better by you better than me
You can say what I only can see
You can tell what I want it to be
It's better by you better than me
Better by you better than me
You can tell what I want it to be
You can say way all they can see
Better by you better than me
05 Invader (04:16)
I came across a smoking field, pulsating afterglow
I saw a searing flash of light erupt and skyward go
I staggered back in dazed surprise
What was it I had seen?
And as I stood there mesmerised I heard my spirit scream
Invader invader nearby
Invader, invader is nigh
This is the first of more to come in carefully planned attacks
If it is so we must prepare defences to fight back
The call is out throughout the world
United we must stand
To build a line, strategic force, they will not take a man
Invader invader nearby
Invader, invader is nigh
When they come to take control every man must play his role
They won't take our world away when the children we leave
Will have to believe in today
We warn you now you things out there
Whatever you may send
We won't give in without a fight, a fight until the end
With vigilance by day and night our scanners trace the sky
A shield is sealed upon this earth, a shield you won't get by
Invader invader nearby
Invader, invader is nigh
07 Savage (03:27)
Who gives you the right to come here and tell me
I have to leave this place my home
To you it's a jungle, to me it's a kingdom
Where (my) people are free there to roam
Born with the stars we are happy and peaceful
'Til now we were left undisturbed
But you rupture the forests our gardens
And fill them with filth from your cities unheard
Savage, who is savage
Leave your morals, stake your claim
Savage, you are savage
Modern man can take the blame
You poisoned my tribe with civilized progress
Baptizing our blood with disease
You christened our bodies with sadness and suffering
Saying then that your God is well-pleased
What have we done to deserve such injustice
Explain to us please if you can
But you can't, no you can't, we can see it in your eyes
Of us both who's the primitive man
Savage, who is savage
Leave your morals, stake your claim
Savage, you are savage
Modern man can take the blame
You poisoned my tribe with civilized progress
Baptizing our blood with disease
You christened our bodies with sadness and suffering
Saying then that your God is well-pleased
What have we done to deserve such injustice
Explain to us please if you can
But you can't, no you can't, we can see it in your eyes
Of us both who's the primitive man
Savage, savage
Savage, savage
Who's the savage
Modern man
Who's the savage
Modern man
08 Beyond the Realms of Death (06:54)
He had enough
He couldn't take anymore
He'd found a place
In his mind and slammed the door
No matter how they tried
They couldn't understand
They washed and dressed him
Fed him by hand
Yeah! I've left the world behind
I am safe here in my mind
I'm Free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life
I'll decide not you
Withdrawn he'd sit there
Stare blank into space
No sign of life
Did flicker on his face
Until one day he smiled
It seemed as though with pride
The wind kissed him
Goodbye - and then he died
Yeah! I've left the world behind
I'm safe here in my mind
Free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life
I'll decide not you
Keep the world with all its sin
It's not fit for livin' in
Yeah! I will start again
It can take forever, and ever, and ever
And ever, but I'll still win.
SOLO (Glenn)
How many like him
Are there still
Who to us all
Seem to have lost the will
They lie in thousands
Lank and lost
Is nothing worth this bitter cost
Yeah! I've left the world behind
I'm safe here in my mind
Free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life
I'll decide not you
Keep the world with all its sin
It's not fit for livin' in
SOLO (K.K.)
Beoynd the realms of death.
09 Heroes End (05:03)
I heard a human voice who sang like no one else
I heard a proud lady singing loud
Lived her life as she liked, didn't give a damn
But soon she found she was underground and wasted
I watched her hitting notes as she strutted stage
Her body shook oh, she did her stuff
She screamed and quake, give and take, maybe took too much
If you take the smooth you gotta take the rough
Why do you have to die to be a hero
It's a shame a legend begins at its end
Why do you have to die if you're a hero
When there's still so many things to say unsaid
I heard a man's guitar electrify a crowd
I felt the sound shower 'round
And he would take you with him where no music's been before
As you merged the power surge together
His music knew no limits if you were in it's wake
You had no choice, no, but hear its voice
And you would listen hypnotised, and in a dream
But once so strong survive or become weak
Why do you have to die to be a hero
It's a shame a legend begins at its end
Why do you have to die if you're a hero
When there's still so many things to say unsaid
If you gaze across timeless years you'll find them always there
And many gods will join the list compiled with dying care
Hungry mouths are waiting to bite the hand that feeds
And so the living dead carry on immortal deeds
I saw on silver screen an actor's rise to fame
But fast car user lose
That legend's born from death and that is such a shame
'cos every year new ones appear
Why do you have to die to be a hero
It's a shame a legend begins at its end
Why do you have to die if you're a hero
When there's still so many things to say unsaid.
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Cronos
Un album da avere perché ha segnato la storia dell’Heavy Metal.
L’album è un forte saldo della discografia prestiana e raccoglie alcuni grandi capolavori amati dai fan.
