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A due anni di distanza da "Peace Sells. . But Who's Buying?", I Megadeth tornano sulla scena con un'album più maturo, più elaborato e meno acerbo dei due precedenti: "So Far, So Good. . . So What?". Il titolo è il classico e palese di sempre, tenendo di base il discorso sulla guerra, sui morti ecc. . La copertina invece sembra fatta apposta per un videogame, che seppur mettendo questo paragone, è indubbiamente unica nel suo stile. Parlando dei brani, nel complesso risulta un buon lavoro. C'è chi dice che questo disco sia il migliore mai stato prodotto dai loro, ma a mio parere non è così, e spiegherò perchè: la prima canzone "Into the Lung Of Hell" riesce a far capire più o meno com'è strutturato l'album: brano più elaborato, che seppur avendo qualche spruzzo di quello che ne era un tempo il grezzo, qui Dave e i compagni sembrano aver centrato l'obbiettivo. Ottima partenza strumentale.
"Set The World Afire" è la "migliore" dell'intero lavoro: Il brano ha una partenza devastante, dopo 2 minuti di riff alla Megadeth si arriverà alla polpa di questo gioiello, e descriverne non è poi così tanto complicato: Dave vanta di una voce meno scandalosa ma dannatamente alla James Hetfield, anche l'intera esecuzione sembra catapultarci ai tempi di "Kill'em All". Queste influenze sono fin troppo evidenti, e se il brano protebbe alzare bruscamente la media, non si potrebbe dire invece che Dave sia stato (anche qui) originale e colto di idee. La terza è la cover "Anarchy in The Uk": a me sembra assurdo mettere una cover in un'album di inediti, dovrebbe minimo dimezzare il costo dell'intero lavoro, il peggio è che questo lavoro è fatto di soli 8 brani, il che porta un danno ben più pesante. Buona la cover, ma ripeto: povertà di idee. Dalla quarta traccia fino alla fine, troveremo tutto quello che ho detto all'inizio: un'evoluzione e una maturità musicale che porta Mustaine con due nuovi componenti come Jeff Young(chitarra) e Chuck Behler (batteria), un suo genere. Queste evoluzioni le possiamo notare in un brano come "Mary Jane": riff e assoli più ragionati, una composizione buona e giocata a mille modi. Dave dimostra finalmente di saper anche sfruttare le sue capacità di musicista, a tratti geniale. "502" è un brano con dei riff intricati e molto veloci che finisce con degli assoli spacca-casse, seguito da un lungo rullo di batteria. Alla numero sei troviamo "In my Darkest Hour": dedicata a Cliff Burton, è un'altra song che ricorda molto i suoni, i riff e gli assoli desolati di "Ride th Lightning". Segue "Liar": il caro leader del gruppo è un'ammiratore punk, lo si capisce in questa canzone, le cui ritmiche si nascondo dietro a degli amplificatori Thrash. Perla di questa canzone è l'assolo. Infine troviamo "Hook in Mouth", una specie di inno alla libertà, inno dal contenuto martellante, eseguito da riff più lenti e dalla voce accattivante ma non di certo eccezzionale.
"So Far, So Good. . So What?" è quello che io considero un buon album Thrash metal, ne più nè meno. Migliore dal precedente, ma con ancora dei punti a sfavore da migliorare. A parte quell'inutile cover e le patetiche influenze, il resto è l'inizio di quello che si espone in tutta maestria col seguente (capo)lavoro.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Set the World Afire (05:50)
Red flash clouds choking out the morning sky
They said it'd never come, we knew it was a lie
All forms of life die now the humans all succumb
Time to kiss your ass goodbye the end has just begun
Distorted figures walk the street, it's 1989
Weeds once underneath your feet have grown to vines
Bodies melted like a candle, a land without a face
No time to change your fate, no time left, it's too late
The arsenal of Megadeth can't be rid they said
And if it comes, the living will envy the dead
Racing for power, and all come in last
No winning first stone cast
This falsehood worldly peace
It's treaties soon will cease
No one will be left to prove that humans existed
Maybe soon the children will be born open fisted
We all live on one planet it will all go up in smoke
Too bad they couldn't see this lethal energy
And now the final scene, a global darkening
Dig deep the piles of rubble and ruins
Towering overhead both far and wide
There's unknown tools for World War III
Einstein said "We'll use rocks on the other side"
No survivors set the world afire
03 Anarchy in the U.K. (03:02)
Right now
I am an Anti-Christ,
And I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it,
I want to destroy, possibly?
Cause I want to be Anarchy
No dog's body
Anarchy for the USA
It's coming sometime it maybe
I give a wrong time, stop a traffic light
Your future dream is a shopping spree
Cause I want to be Anarchy,
In the city
Of many ways to get what you want
I use the best, I use the rest
I use the enemy,
I use anarchy
Cause I want to be Anarchy,
It's the only way to be
Is this the MPLA?
Is this the UDA?
Is this the IRA?
I thought it was the USA, or just another country
And other cunt-like tendencies
Cause I want to be Anarchy, cause I want to be Anarchy,
You know what I mean?
Cause I want to be an Anarchist,
Again I'm pissed, destroy!
04 Mary Jane (04:27)
Forgive me father for I have sinned
I'm a child of the air, I'm a witch of the wind
And I'm still awake... Mary Jane
From the earth, up through the trees
I can hear her calling me
Her voice rides on the breeze
Oh, it's haunting me
No, I can't get away
No, there's no escape
If I know I'm going crazy
I must not be insane
Beware my friends, as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you must be
Prepare my friends to follow me
Forgive me father for I have sinned
I'm a child of the air, I'm a witch of the wind
Fingers gripped around my brain
No control, my mind is lame
I'm in the astral plane, and I'll never be the same
Never, never, never, never, never, never
Never, never, never
Beware my friends, as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you must be
Prepare my friends to follow me
It hurts so bad I can't breathe
Prepare to follow me
05 502 (03:30)
Pull over, shithead, this is the cops
Full tank, pockets lined with cash
Full throttle, gonna rip some ass.
Drive all day, and through the night,
Romance the road, winding left and right.
The stars above guide me, the moonlight is free.
A feeling inside me, and the whole world to see.
Driving fast makes me feel good,
The speed of light trapped under my hood.
Breaking laws, 'cause there's nothing to do.
Driving the interstate, stopped for a 502
Hundreds of miles rolled off today.
Signs lose their meaning, minutes tick away.
Dirt roads to interstates, I must have drove them all.
Cigarettes and burgers, caffeine and alcohol.
Drive until daybreak, always on the go.
Life on the freeway, night shift till dawn patrol.
Driving fast makes me feel good,
The speed of light trapped under my hood
Breaking laws 'cause there's nothing to do.
Driving the interstate, stopped for a 502.
Stopped for a 502, next time it's gonna be you.
Stars above guide me
This feeling inside me.
I drive until daybreak.
Life on the freeway is Hell.
I'm coming through.
06 In My Darkest Hour (06:18)
In my hour of need
ha! no, you're not there...
and though I reached out for you
wouldn't lend a hand.
Through the darkest hour
grace did not shine on me.
It feels so cold, very cold
no one cares for me.
Did you ever think I get lonely ?
did you ever think that I needed love ?
did you ever think to stop thinking ?
you're the only one that I'm thinking of...
You'll never know how hard I tried
to find my space and satisfy you too.
Things will be better when I'm dead and gone
don't try to understand, knowing you I'm probably wrong.
But, oh, how I lived my life for you!
still you'd turn away
now as I die for you,
my flesh still crawls, as I breathe your name
all these years I thought I was wrong
now I know it was you!
Raise you head, raise your face your eyes
tell me, who you think you are?
I walk, I walk alone
into the promised land.
There's a better place for me
but it's far, far away
Everlasting life for me
in a perfect world
but I gotta die first,
please god send me on my way !
Time has a way of taking time,
Loneliness is not only felt be fools.
Alone I call to ease the pain,
yearning to be held by you.
Alone so alone, I'm lost
Consumed by the pain
the pain, the pain, the pain.
Won't you hold me again?
And you just laughed, ha! ha! Bitch !
My whole life is work built on the past
but the time has come when all things shall pass
this good thing passed away.
In my darkest hour.
07 Liar (03:22)
You take great pride in never having lived up to anything
Lie, steal, cheat and kill, a real bad guy
Your daddy is a wino, and your mommy is quite insane
From altar boy to sewer rate, you don't give a damn
Your sister's a junkie, gets "it" anyway she can
Your brother's a gay singer in a stud leather band
Your girlfriend's got herpes to go with your hep and AIDS
There ain't one person you know you ain't ripped off yet
Look deep in the mirror, look deep into its eyes
Your face is replaced, a creature you despise
But I know what you're made of, it ain't much I'm afraid
I know you'll be lying until your dying day
Make up your stories, the truth's so hard to say
Brain is numb and your tongue will surely dig your grave
Your mind is sickly from Alzheimer's Disease
And decadence and debauchery killed your memories
You're a liar, liar, liar, everyone can see
You're a liar, liar, it's all you'll ever be
Liar, liar, liar, it's what you mean to me
Liar, liar, lies....
Start trouble, spread pain
Piss and venom, in your veins
Talk nasty, breathe fire
Smell rotten, you're a liar
Sweat liquor, breathe snot
Eat garbage, spit blood
Diseased, health hazard
Scum bag, filthy bastard
Greasy face, teeth decay
Hair matted, drunk all day
Absessed, sunken veins
Rot gut, scrambled brains
Steal money, crash cars
Rob jewelry, hock guitars
Rot in hell, it's time you know
To your master, off you go
You're a liar
A fucking liar
Filthy liar
Liar
You fucking liar
Liar
08 Hook in Mouth (04:40)
A cockroach in the concrete
Courthouse tan and beady eyes
A slouch with fallen arches
Purging truths into great lies
A little man with a big eraser
Changing history
Procedures that he's programmed to do
All he hears and sees
Altering the facts and figures
Eventus and every issue
Make a person disappear
And no one will ever miss you
Rewrites every story
Every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence
And those who break the laws
Follow the instructions of the New Ways' Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs
The files and records in the schools
You say you've got the answers
Well who asked you anyway?
Ever think maybe it was meant to be this way?
Don't try to fool us
We know the worst is yet to come
I believe my kingdom will come
F is for fighting
R is for red, ancestors' blood in battles they've shed
E we elect them
E we eject them, in the land of the free, and the home of the brave
D for dying
O your overture
M they will cover your grave with manure
This spells out freedom, it means nothing to me
As long as there's a P.M.R.C. (repeat)
Put your hand right up my shirt
Pull the strings that make me work
Jaws will part, words fall out
Like a fish with hook in mouth
Rewrites every story
Every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence
And those who break the laws.
Follow the instructions of the New Ways' Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs
The files and records in the schools
I'm not a fish
I'm a man
Hook in Mouth!
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di So che?
In tre minuti e mezzo di pura musica si capisce che la band è in gran forma, sezione ritmica precisa e puntuale, con Mustaine e Young sempre precisi.
Al di là del mattino a sgobbo mi è tornata la carica per la serata: album consigliato prima di uscire la sera a rozzeggiare.
Di FlavioMetal
La magia dei primi due dischi, tra i massimi esempi di quanto il metal possa essere originale ed eterogeneo, è quasi del tutto scomparsa.
Per capire cosa avessero in mente Mustaine ed Ellefson quando licenziarono Poland e Samuelson dovremmo chiedere direttamente a loro.
