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L'ultimo lavoro del Machine Head intitolato "The Blackening" è una gradita sorpresa per tutti le persone che considerano la band una delle tante ramificazioni di quel nu-metal così popolare tra la fine degli anni '90 e l'inizio dei '00, e così disprezzato dai metallari legati a sonorità old school. La gradita sorpresa nasce dai meriti di una band che ha messo in questo ultimo prodotto tutta la sua esperienza per la creazione di uno dei migliori album del 2007.
"The Blackening" è strutturato in otto tracce racchiuse in poco più di un'ora di sfolgorante velocità, riff rocciosi e violenza sonora: l'accattivante e aggressiva voce del frontman Rob Flynn si fonde nel modo più completo con le "note" prodotte dagli strumenti elettrici, in una armonica continuità "veloce-lento". La cosa più sorprendente per chi, come me, è legato alle sonorità tipicamente ottantiane del Thrash statunitense e in generale a tutti i padri fondatori del Heavy Metal, è l'esplicito richiamo a mostri sacri come Slayer e Testament; ed è proprio questa lotta latente tra "vecchio" e "nuovo" che caratterizza tutto l'album, all'interno del quale Flynn e soci cercano con cura di unire queste due correnti, spesso con risultati soddisfacenti ed entusiasmanti, ma in alcune occasioni in maniera disarticolata e poco efficace.
Il full-leight si apre con la traccia che si intitola "Clenching The Fists Of Dissent", gloriosa cavalcata Metal di circa 10 minuti che rappresenta degnamente la fiolosofia dell'intera opera con il sound roccioso e l'abbondanza di assoli "testamentiani" che si uniscono ud una insolita lunghezza che però non risulta mai scontata: infatti i cambi di tempo non sono mai improvvisati e il passaggi ben studiati. La seconda e la terza traccia, rispettivamente "Beautiful Morning" e "Aesthetics of Hate", rimarcano quanto sopra detto rendendo ancora più accattivante l'ascolto, trasferendo all'ascoltatore un senso di naturale violenza. La traccia numero 4 ("I Lay The Down"), a mio parere, rappresenta il punto più basso di tutto l'album, legata troppo agli sterotipi del nu-metal ormai caduti (fortunatamente) nel dimenticatoio della storia musicale. Ma i Machine Head si riprendono subito con la successiva "Slanderous" e soprattutto con la meravigliosa "Halo", le cui linee vocali ricordano in alcuni suoi punti maestri come Iron Maiden e Judas Priest, e che soprattutto fondono in un modo perssochè perfetto la suddetta commistione tra "old" e "new". La traccia numero 7 intitolata "Wolves" è quella che più a me ricorda il fastoso passato del thrash della bay area, una realtà fatta di aggressività sonora e grandi maestri del rock. "The Blackening" si conclude con un'altra traccia molto lunga ("A Farewall To Arms"), passionale ed intima che alterna momenti di pura violenza a momenti melodici e sonoricamente accattivanti.
Sostanzialmente quello che non è riuscito ai Metallica di "St. Anger" e riuscito ai Machine Head con quest'ultimo prodotto, cioè il ritorno alle origini senza uno snaturamento del percorso musicale intrapreso, cercando di accontentare i fan delle varie fasi della band, aggiungendo alla scena metal prospettive per una maturazione artisticamente soddisfacente, verso sonorità meno divorabili dall'industria discografica ma più valide dal punto di vista artistico.
Dottor Zero
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
03 Aesthetics of Hate (06:30)
You tried to spit in the eye of a dead man's face
Attacked the ways of a man not yet in his grave
But your hate was over all too soon
Because nothing is over, and nothing's through
'Til we bury you
Chorus:
For the love of brother
I will sing this fucking song
Aesthetics Of Hate
I hope you burn in hell
The words I read on the screen left me fucking sick
I felt the hatred rising
You son of a bitch
You branded us pathetic for our respect
But he made us Driven
such deep reverence
Far Beyond the rest
(chorus)
Solo: Demmel, Flynn, Demmel, Flynn, Flynn & Demmel
Long live memories
Live his freedom vicariously
Defend tenfold
his honor we'll always uphold
For the love of brother
I will say these fucking words
No silence against ignorance
Iconoclast, I hope you burn in hell
May the hands of god strike them down
05 Slanderous (05:16)
I’m wasted and ugly, I am the underbelly
A fat fuck and a fairy
The reject they wish to bury
They want to
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
I’m a meth head and alkie
Dumb cunt been called a junkie
A retard and a pussy
And I embrace the names you call me
They want to
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
I’m a redneck and a faggot
The asshole ignorants
A wetback and a nigga
And I raise my middle fingers
to those that
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you
I hate myself
Love
Hate
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
06 Halo (09:03)
This is our call to arms, will you stand beside me?
This is our time to fight, no more compromising
And this blackened heart will sing
For sad solidarity
Halo over my demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
This is our right to life, not the Religious Right's act
This is abortions knife, aiming at the womb of
The Christian conspiracy
So open thine eyes and see
The Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
Our time, will come
Our time, will come
Our time, is now
Our time, is now
And I won't pray for you
And I won't pray for you
And I won't pray for you
Halo
Follow
Shallow
Swallow
The Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
Set me free
The words will never hold us down
Prayers won't be spared on you
Satisfaction denied
'Til you're dead and gone
Gone
Dead and gone!
You’re gone!
07 Wolves (09:01)
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Look in the eyes of rage
A loyalty bred of suffering
The fire inside it burns eternally, victory
Look in the eyes of pain
The scars on our souls forever remain
Calling the sheltered of the broken
wing, join the fray
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Look in the eyes of hate
A circle of hell they come to pray
United against all that come threatening,
lay to waste
Look in the eyes of the free
Bound to each other’s longevity
Guarding the back of alpha’s dignity,
savagely
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Come closet, walk with me in hell
Dear rival, fear in you I smell
A fist to face is all fair game now
The pack attacking, the sacrificial
Pray for the prayers
Reaping the sour seeds of death’s bread
In touch and claw the scent of the dead
Come closet, walk with me in hell
Dear rival, fear in you I smell
A fist to face is all fair game now
The pack attacking, the sacrificial
Pray for the prayers
Spreading our population
far across the land
Loving to fornicate,
respecting the command
Rally the warriors and
Tally the score,
in every victory is solace but there’s
No satisfaction!!
There is no satisfaction!!
And there never will be!
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules now
The night will fall
Beware the call
Dominate ALL
08 A Farewell to Arms (10:12)
Can you hear their cries?
Nowhere can the children run to hide
Crimson rivers
Flow down hills
Atone our ills
And woe to all her songs of love
A farewell to arms
Mutilated lives
Blackening as coffin line the sides
Filled with fathers
Who has won?
When only sons
Hold their grieving heads and mourn
A farewell to arms
Always our souls entwine
Erase this vast divide
Deaf ears our voices rest
Tyrant, this is protest
Who has won?
Yes, who has won?
Chorus:
I'll wave this flag of white
So the venged see the light
We'll pay for closed eyes
With our genocide
Pissing the masquerade
March to death parade
Trade not humanity
For pearls of the slavery
In the depth of mind the heart will find
the truth of our leaders
We'll try the facts so through the cracks
may fall the lying cheater
Who has won when we're all dead?
(Chorus)
So is this how we live?
Or is this how we die?
Black blood dripping from platinum fangs
Rich blood flees while
our poverty hangs
Shepherds they herd the mindless trance
As the flock follows the puppet's dance
In a fatal romance
All that they needed was
a pretext, war's next
Heads to the chopping blocks
and our necks are next
For those who died
Who fought for our rights
Whose children now slaves
They're turning in their graves
War hawks and senators
they sit right, so trite
Never their sons will know
what it's like to fight
But soldiers are dead
And children have bled
And the silence is numb
What have we become?
God save us
A farewell to arms
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Altre recensioni
Di thetrooper
"Rob Flynn aveva annunciato al mondo che 'The Blackening' sarebbe passato alla storia come il 'Master Of Puppets' del nuovo millennio."
"Il disco si presenta compatto, ma non abbastanza per far sì che tutte le 8 song risultino dei capolavori al pari di 'Master Of Puppets'."
