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I gruppi che riescono ad inanellare una serie di dischi di alta qualità sono una merce rara, indipendentemente dal genere musicale, che si voglia spaziare dal rock classico alla più brutale versione del metal. I Nevermore penso rientrino appieno in questa setta per pochi adepti: dal loro esordio nell'ormai lontano 1995 partendo dalle ceneri dei Sanctuary, la band di Seattle si è mantenuta su livelli sempre elevati dando alle stampe capolavori assoluti come "The Politics Of Ecstasy" e "Dreaming Neon Black". Credo che il pregio maggiore dei Nevermore sia quello di aggiungere al concetto di metal estremo, molto spesso ricco di dettami che sfiorano il valore di dogma (guai a violarli!), un gusto particolare: se in "TPOE" era la violenza esecutiva accompagnata da altrettanta violenza a livello di invettive sociali sul piano dei testi, e in "Dreaming.." la ricerca introspettiva che sconfinava nella filosofia e nella religione, in "Dead Heart In A Dead World" a colpire è la spinta rinnovatrice, volta a dare una vesta più moderna e attuale al concetto di thrash metal.
Il disco inizia potente e deciso con "Narcosynthesis" e subito si comprende cosa intendevo x spinta innovatrice: la produzione risulta più pulita che in passato e il suono più compatto, quasi a voler strizzare l'occhio (ma senza andare oltre) al fenomeno nu-metal che imperversava nell'anno 2000 negli States; per il resto si rimane ben ancorati alla tradizione, riff e assoli sono semplicemente da manuale. Un'altra traccia che segue questa via è la stupenda "The River Dragon Has Come": inizio dolce e sognante interrotto bruscamente da un turbinio che si scaglia feroce contro la stupidità che secondo il nero giullare Warrel Dane regna sovrana al giorno d'oggi.
Più simili al sound classico dei Nevermore si presentano "Inside Four Walls" e "Engines Of Hate": la prima è un'aspra critica al sistema americano e alla coercizione a cui questo sottopone l'individuo, la seconda colpisce per la parte centrale caratterizzata da assoli vertiginosi e riff tellurici.
L'album presenta poi tre ballad (o simil-ballad trattandosi pur sempre di Nevermore) "Evolution 169", "The Heart Collector" (forse un po' troppo ruffiana) e "Insignificant": tutte di livello eccelso anche se personalmente preferisco la prima con il suo cambio di tempo centrale e il suo finale sfumato...
La chicca è sicuramente la cover di Simon & Garfunkel "The Sound Of Silence": da soffice ballata a canzone devastante e spaccaossa, il tutto senza forzature: anche da questo si vede il valore di un gruppo (tra l'altro nella versione limitata del disco c'è un'altra cover "Love Bites" dei Judas Priest, perfetta anche questa).
A chiusura troviamo la title-track, cinque minuti che ben descrivono il mondo Nevermore: oscuro pessimismo, malinconia, rabbia, frustrazione che si tramutano in un vortice di voce, chitarre, basso e batteria; ordine e chaos che camminano assieme mano nella mano.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Narcosynthesis (05:31)
Hypnotize me, mesmerize me
Drain the color from my eyes
Patronize me, energize me
Change the world, internalize
How did it come to this,
Narcosynthesis
How did it come to this,
Narcosynthesis
Alienate me, learn to hate me
Crucify your ideals the flesh is the swine
We are the last ones and we're bleeding
For an unseen god
How did it come to this,
Narcosynthesis
How did it come to this,
Narcosynthesis
Turn my blood to sand
Lives fall through the hourglass and grow cold
What are you searching for?
Turn my dirt to gold
Time the healer the great concealer
Please salvage my soul
Victimize me, vilify me
Vilipend and amend the sins you condign
Vou are nothing and you speak for
All that never was
Turn my blood to sand
Lives fall through the hourglass and grow cold
What are you searching for?
Turn my dirt to gold
Time the healer the great concealer
Please salvage my soul
Vou are nothing and you speak for
All that never was
Turn my blood to sand
Lives fall through the hourglass and grow cold
What are you searching for?
Turn my dirt to gold
Time the healer the great concealer
Please salvage my soul
02 We Disintegrate (05:11)
within the dark communion of self awareness
there lies a void called ego
an endless fusion of stillness and chaos
to bring its death can bring rebirth
I want to freeze the time
(dissolve into gray)
as we disintegrate the light
let the rain come down,
let the solitude surround
I want to change the lines
and purify the divide
are we ever free or slaves to technology
Outside the fallen walls of pride and prejudice
there is a voice that speaks in circles
empty illusions still fall before us
there is no future so profess your pain
03 Inside Four Walls (04:39)
Inside four walls I live my life,doesn't matter what I've done
The governement's always right
They tell us what to be they tell us what to believe
They're wrong my friend is gone
Inside four walls,
Inside four walls
The day they took away my friend
Injustice made it's mark
All the political whores only come out after dark
If anyone knows the way
Build me a bridge so I won't fall astray
Inside four walls,inside four walls my friend
They took away your freedom
And the pigs still preach their lies
The system falls apart
The pigs still laugh feeding off our broken lives
Can anyone tell me why
Some violent criminals do far less time?
Inside four walls,inside four walls my friend
They took away your freedom
And the pigs still preach their lies
Inside four walls,inside four walls my friend
They took away your freedom
And the pigs still preach their lies
Inside four walls,inside four walls my friend
They took away your freedom
But they'll never take your mind
04 Evolution 169 (05:51)
Welcome to the pleasure dome
Now take a seat the crowd is watching you
Just rats in this experiment
Now learn the maze
But don't tear yourself in two
Don't let it pull you down
And one by one we crawl, and two by two
Into the mouth of madness
We seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
You can touch but never taste the answers
Like the way that I want you
Today I killed my ego, if hell is real
Dear God please tie my noose
And then he pulled me down
And one by one we crawl, and two by two
Into the mouth of madness
We seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
And one by one we crawl, and two by two
Into the mouth of madness, we fly away
Don't set your mind to one side
Don't set your mind to one side
05 The River Dragon Has Come (05:05)
Today the warning came in the flood
Architects and fools never cared for poor men's blood
Cursed to repeat the past they are
The river dragon swims upstream
They've built another wall
The three will
Save us from the flood
Washed away we drown
The three will fall
The river dragon
Has come
Souls wash away
The earth has spoken and taken them to their graves
Those who cannot remember the last
Fall away,far away
The distance meets its task
The three will
Save us from the flood
Washed away we drown
The three will fall
The river dragon
Has come
Souls wash away
The earth has spoken and taken them to their graves
The river dragon has come
At first light of dawn
The earth has spoken
And in the crush they are gone
The three will
Save us from the flood
Washed away we drown
The three will fall
The river dragon
Has come
Souls wash away
The earth has spoken and taken them to their graves
In the mass destruction the bringer shows his form
Technology the beast
The seventh crown
06 The Heart Collector (05:55)
to see the actor without tears
Dark rivers carve the years between the lies of self control
In my psychotic karmic fear I own your tears anyway
And I am you and we are not afraid
And we won't be here for long
The heart collector sings his song thats slowly boiling over
Nevermore to feel the pain
The heart collector sang
And I won't be feeling hollow for so long
Nevermore to feel the pain
The words fall out like fire
just believe when you can't believe anymore
The stage is empty now
We hope we hold and cannot allow the corrupt ecletic
Takes his fatal bow
And we won't be here for long
The heart collector sings his song Again
Nevermore to feel the pain
The heart collector sang
And I won't be feeling hollow for so long
Nevermore to feel the pain
The words fall out like fire
just believe when you can't believe anymore
07 Engines of Hate (04:42)
Can I be your personal demon
Sit back absorb the words
And feast on my mind semen
Can I be the devil on your shoulder
We all fall down as the world gets colder
I uncreate, I desecrate
I spit the truth into the engines of hate
Can I be your chemical pariah
The world's such an ugly place
It seems useless sometimes trying
Will you watch the hate machine spin evil
Or will you look away and plead apathy again
I uncreate, I desecrate
I spit the truth into the engines of hate
We sing into the sky on the production line
We are the holly swine,impurity defined
You can't ignore us anymore
You cannot judge us anymore
The sheep are made to follow
Choke back the puke and swallow
The sheep are told to divide
The engines of hate still grind
I uncreate, I desecrate
I spit the truth into the engines of hate
08 The Sound of Silence (05:13)
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping!
And the vision
That was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
The sound of silence...
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp!
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
It split the night...
And touched the sound of silence.
The sound of silence...
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
Fools. said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening (listening)!
System check!
Neon black!
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered...
In the sound of silence.
The sounds of silence...
The sounds of silence!
The sounds...
Fools. said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
09 Insignificant (04:56)
Ours is not to question the reasons why
Crippled indecision repeats the path I once denied
Insignificant, am I?
The color of sundown,of crimson sky
The beauty that breaks down
And gives the day unto the night
And then one day you'll realize
Just a speck in the spectrum
Insignificant, am I?
And then one day you'll realize
The beauty that breaks down
never knows the reason why
scan my horizon as blue turns to black
the sky is gone again
and all beneath are born to die
insignificant, am I?
And then one day you'll realize
Just a speck in the spectrum
Insignificant, am I?
And then one day you'll realize
The beauty that breaks down
never knows the reason why
10 Believe in Nothing (04:21)
Into a strange new world,
Into the after all, your tears,
Might find you've fallen too far
Take another look,
Take another ride
Can't we make them leave the hate behind
And I still believe in nothing
Will we ever see the shape of tomorrow?
Into the empty storm,
Into the formless loss of hope,
Where we can forget the game
And I still believe in nothing
Will we ever see the cure for our sorrow?
Nothing is sacred when no one is saved
Nothing's forever so count your days
Nothing is final and no one is real
Pray for tomorrow and find your empty still
Nothing is sacred when no one is saved
Nothing's forever so count your days
Nothing is final and no one is real
Pray for tomorrow and find your empty still
Nothing!
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Altre recensioni
Di TheSilentMan
Never say never… Nevermore… Dead heart in a dead world… Un disco un capolavoro...
I musicisti sono tutti tecnicamente ineccepibili a partire dall’oscuro “giullare” Warrel Dane che con il suo modo di cantare “teatrale” è marchio di fabbrica Nevermore...
