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Sesto disco in nove anni per i Lamb Of God, che, dopo aver sfornato un capolavoro come "Ashes Of The Wake", sembravano aver perso un po' di vista la strada che li aveva portati al successo tramite un'evoluzione del sound mai radicale ma sempre percepibile.
Con "Sacrament" i 5 di Richmond sembrarono in leggera flessione, quasi si avessero accarezzato l'idea di adagiarsi sugli allori; l'album manteneva la solita carica groove, ma una fondamentale staticità dal punto di vista delle strutture e la pulizia eccessiva del suono dell'album deluse molti fans (me compreso) che si aspettavano una violenza fresca come suono ma immutata come impatto. "Sacrament" ebbe l'effetto contrario, tanto che si cominciò a pensare che i LOG avessero già imboccato la via del tramonto.
Niente di più sbagliato. Se da un lato la firma con una major dava finalmente ai nostri il giusto compenso per gli sforzi compiuti, dall'altro dava ulteriore adito ai dubbi di miolti fans, rassegnati ad una formula che privilegiasse la commercialità a discapito della verve dei nostri.
Fortunatamente "Wrath" fuga praticamente tutti questi dubbi; l'album è, come al solito, potentissimo, il tappeto sonoro steso dalla batteria di Chris Adler è sempre più perfetto e tecnico senza mai cadere nell'autocelebrazione, le chitarre suonano leggermente più alte come tono, dando maggior chiarezza sia ai riff granitici sia agli assoli incrociati dei due pazzi alle asce (Willy Adler & Mark Morton), il suono è tornato quello grezzo che evita di mettere troppo in risalto uno strumento su un'altro, Randy Blythe ha sempre il solito growl spaccasassi e stavolta non esita a cimentarsi in vocalizzi sempre estremi ma più vari, che passano da un growl quasi death ad uno scream metalcore evocativo e tecnicamente ineccepibile, senza dimenticare inserti acustici che calzano a pennello prima delle inevitabili sfuriate.
Quest'album sembra avere solo pregi rispetto ai precedenti; tuttavia alcuni lievi difetti, alcuni dei quali opinabili, ne precludono secondo me la definizione di capolavoro: il ritorno alla produzione grezza ha penalizzato la qualità di alcuni suoni, soprattutto il rullante; le chitarre, nonostante la maggior comprensibilità raggiunta con l'innalzamento di tono, spiccano forse un po' troppo, facendo comparire crepe in quel muro sonoro, nelle precedenti edizioni, indistruttibile; oltretutto, a parte qualche traccia in classico stile LOG, la maggior ricercatezza nelle composizioni fa perdere quella immediatezza che, nonostante le grandi idee sempre registrate dal quintetto di Richmond, era sempre stata al primo posto.
L'album ha in se diverse anime, fra le quali spiccano quella "Panteristica" di "Set To Fail" , quella violenta in "Contractor", fra le più dirette di sempre, l'anima complessa con annesso ritornello memorabile in "Fake Messiah" e quella più trasheggiante in "Everything To Nothing". Menzione doverosa per le due chitarre in "Grace".
In sostanza un bel disco, un must per i fan dei LOG, che ne rimarranno letteralmente affascinati, ma la sensazione che l'evoluzione ulteriore iniziata con "Sacrament" non sia ancora terminata permane.
Elenco tracce testi e video
04 Contractor (03:22)
Chopping lines in international sand,
Feeding blood junkie habits of the elephant man
Quench his thirst with black water rising,
Executive outcomes on a burning horizon
Yeah motherfucker, let's take a ride
We're rolling Route Irish, someone has got to die
Trick or treat, it's IEDs,
So roll the dice as we leave,
Cuz it's eight miles of pure luck
With more bang for Sam's buck
Guaran-fucking-teed, someone will bleed
Privatize to conceal all the lies,
Big business is booming like it's the Fourth of July
No need for all the formalities,
Jump the kangaroo courts
And plant the lynching trees
Yeah motherfucker, let's take a ride
Running red lights in a green zone,
someone has got to die
Hidden aegis, nothing here to see,
So load the dice for me please
and let's snort the bottom line
crude cashed into refined
Guaran-fucking-teed, just sign the deed
Guaran-fucking-teed, Someone will bleed
Someone has got to die
Ours is not to reason why,
Ours is but to do if the pay rate's right
Black liquid assets, fuck the mujahideen
Paint their picket fences red with the American dream
Lay the hammer hammer down, get the job done right
Jacked up and clocked in into a fire fight
Covert reactions and you never saw me
A glass parking lot in the American dream,
They all die.
Fucking Murder.
05 Fake Messiah (04:33)
Everything you've ever begged me to be
Could never have meant any less to me
Everything you've ever asked me to say
It's so far away from the truth
So far away from the truth... (So far away)
Fake messiah
Stitches sewn in your eyes
Fake messiah
Prophecy now denied
Over and over and never again
Defending your insignificance
Useless intent hidden behind your mask
A cowards voice... Anonymous
So far away from the truth
Fake messiah
Stitches sewn in your eyes
Fake messiah
Prophecy now denied
Fake messiah
Open mouth, drawing flies
Fake messiah
Prophecy now denied
Generation failure.
Suspended in irrelevance.
Slit you wide open
Just to see what you're made of
So far away from the truth...
Fake messiah
Stitches sewn in your eyes
Fake messiah
Prophecy now denied
Fake messiah
Open mouth, drawing flies
Fake messiah
Prophecy now denied
08 Dead Seeds (03:40)
And you may tremble before Hell's gates
You may watch as the heavens fall
And you may slight the hands of fate
You may heed the siren's call
And you may reach every golden shore
Witness repent in the heathen
And you may dance in the sands of the war
You may sleep in the cradle of Eden
Betrayed your prophets
Dead seeds buried deep
An army of none
We'll prey on the weak
And you may walk through the river run dry
You may strike down the giant with stone
And you may never again speak a lie
Confess every sin and atone
And you may drink from the infidel's blood
As their civilization collapses
You may rejoice in the cleanse of the flood
And stare into the face of apocalypse
Betrayed your prophets
Dead seeds buried deep
An army of none
We'll prey on the weak
You will not comprehend
Or find words that will describe
The will of God and man
Until you watch someone die
Betrayed your prophets
Dead seeds buried deep
An army of none
We'll prey on the weak
09 Everything to Nothing (03:50)
Then you wake
Another body bag, pathetic,
Picture frame obituary faded in the attic
A shadow of someone you used to be
You've seen so many in these flames
And swore that you'd never become the cliche
A long forgotten memory
And when you wake
Everything you ever wanted
Everything you never had
Everything learned forgotten and dead
Everything turns to nothing
Another day, a little dirt for the grave
Is it worth everything that you gave
What a beautiful way to waste away
Consumed by dependency
A lesson in despondency
A long forgotten memory
And when you wake
Everything you ever wanted
Everything you never had
Everything learned, forgotten and dead
Everything turns to nothing
And then you wake
How quickly the master
Turns into the slave
Slowly succumbing more
Every dying day
Everything you ever wanted
Everything you never had
Everything learned forgotten and dead
Everything turns to nothing
10 Choke Sermon (03:20)
Sermon sung me slow to sleep
Faster if I had a choice
With every breath another death
Still so in love with your own voice
Idle threats to hide regrets
Excuses serve to bide the time
Cover tracks, double back
We summon silence so divine
Greeted with a thundering absence of applause.
Choke on your own words
Lies are venom in your veins
Burn from the inside
And never speak my name
Jesus complex, gag reflex
Trigger happy redundancy
No thrill, no chase, no saving grace
Hypnotic in monotony
Loaded with a salt rock shot
You say you're everything you're not
What might have been is all you've got
From here and now you're dead to me
Greeted with a thunderous absence of applause
Choke on your own words
Lies are venom in your veins
Burn from the inside
And never speak my name
Nothing will ever erase
Or undo your disgrace
A lonely self-embrace
They've long forgotten you
Still cling to what it was
A lost and hopeless cause
Forever mourning your loss
They've long forgotten you
Murdered slowly in minute increments of time
Pissing up a rope
Another moment passes by
Choke on your own words
Lies are venom in your veins
Burn from the inside
And never speak my name
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