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Eccomi a parlavi di uno degli album forse più sottovalutati dei Queensryche: trattasi di "Tribe", uscito nell'ormai lontano 2003 per la Sanctuary Records. L'opera chiude il "trittico maledetto" del combo di Seattle: "Hear in the Now Frontier", "Q2K" e "Tribe", per l'appunto, cioè tre dischi mal digeriti da critica e fans, forse perchè successivi ai precedenti tre capolavori della band, "Operation: Mindcrime", "Empire" e "Promised Land".
Difficile fare meglio dopo l'epocale "Operation: Mindcrime", la perfezione commerciale (ma non solo) di "Empire" e quella enigmatica di "Promised Land", album fantastico per testi ed atmosfere. Eppure, a distanza di quasi dieci anni, "Tribe" mi appare diverso dai primi ed ormai remoti ascolti: allora mi era scivolato addosso senza lasciare altro se non la brutta sensazione di aver perso la mia band preferita, finita in qualche remoto territorio musicale e palesemente a corto di idee. La vena d'oro dei Queensryche si era esaurita? Lo pensavo sinceramente, avendo ancora nella testa le composizioni regali di "Operation: Mindcrime", i meravigliosi barocchismi di "Empire" e la ruvida introspezione di "Promised Land". Dieci anni dopo, proprio mentre il futuro dei Queensryche è incerto, colgo l'essenza di un album non paragonabile alle migliori produzioni di Tate e compagni ma comunque dotato di una propria dignità musicale e pienamente degno di essere riscattato dalla nomea di pecora nera della loro produzione. Vale la pena di analizzare ciascuno dei dieci pezzi che lo compongo, non prima di aver ricordato che insieme a Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson e Scott Rockenfield, suonarono nell'occasione, Mike Stone (poi parte dei Queensryche di "Operation: Mindcrime II") e l'immenso Chris DeGarmo, anima e mente della band, alla sua ultima defilata apparizione.
Si parte con la cadenzata "Open", segnata dal riff ossessivo delle chitarre e dalla voce imperiale di un Tate che non conosce l'avanzare del tempo. Il chorus possente e il giro di basso di Jackson spezzano l'incedere regolare del brano fino al secondo episodio dell'album, quella "Losing Myself", nella quale il tappeto ritmico steso dalla batteria di Rockenfield e ancora dal basso di Jackson preparano il terreno al coro melodico e po' ruffiano di una song fatta apposta per scaldare la platea. Arriva "Desert Dance", senza dubbio il brano migliore dell'album: intro orientaleggiante presto squassato dagli "sfregi" sapienti delle chitarre di Wilton, Stone e DeGarmo. Melodie sfacciatamente arabe ci accompagnano fino al coro acido di Tate, lasciando immaginare fuochi di bivacco nel deserto al chiaro di luna. Pezzo possente, degno dei migliori Ryche. Una melodia ancora orientale ci accompagna nella ballad "Falling Behind", dalla quale emerge trionfante il lato dolce e rassicurante della voce di un Tate amaramente riflessivo. Da brividi il bridge piazzato nel bel mezzo di una canzone autenticamente gradevole nella sua semplicità. E' tempo ora di "Great Divide", la song numero cinque, volontariamente piazzata giusto nel mezzo dell'abum. Belle le chitarre che la aprono; orecchie al testo magistralmente interpretato da un Tate sempre più disilluso ("is hope for America?"). La successiva "Rhythm of Hope" è forse l'episodio più basso di "Tribe", ma è comunque un pezzo che lascia traccia come la speranza che dovrebbe sempre albergare in ciascuno di noi. Dopo la caustica title track "Tribe", il brano più metal dei dieci, nel quale Tate continua a ricordarci che noi tutti apparteniamo alla stessa tribù ("I see myself in every man"), passando per "Blood", pezzo senza infamia nè lode, arriviamo alla meravigliosa "The Art of Life", non a caso composta da Tate e DeGarmo. Atmosfere rarefatte che ricordano quelle di "sp00L", ci spingono all'interrogativo principe: qual'è l'arte del vivere? Chitarre che aprono e chiudono porte musicali accompagnano Tate fino alla risposta finale: "The art of life is...". "Tribe" muore con "Doin' Fine", l'ultima perla composta da DeGarmo, una mid tempo che si offre alla speranza ("And I know that we'll all be fine"), chiudendo il viaggio ancestrale di Tate e compagni nelle paure e nei limiti dell'umanità.
Chiunque ami i Queensryche non può prescindere da un ascolto attento e ripetuto della loro produzione. Il combo di Seattle avrebbe potuto godersi gli allori dei grandi successi di "OM", "Empire" e "Promised Land", limitandosi a replicare una formula rivelatasi vincente. No, questa non è mai stata la preoccupazione dei Ryche: sperimentare suoni e melodie nuove in una sfida personale con se stessi, ecco ciò che li ha sempre animati. Dalle vette di "Eyes of a stranger", ai flop grunge di "Hear in the Now Frontier" (altro album da rivalutare), i Queensryche hanno sempre imboccato il sentiero più tortuoso, non badando alle critiche ma misurandosi solo e sempre con la propria capacità di creare musica "nuova" e diversa. I cinque di Seattle, divenuti poi quattro ed ora, dopo il litigio con Tate, tre, non hanno mai avuto rimpianti, dimostrandosi sempre autentici musicisti e spiriti liberi.
Chiudo questa recensione con il pensiero che compare sulla brochure del cd di "Tribe": "The chain around the neck of humanity is our tendency to pass judgment on others". Mai verita fu più autentica.
Andrea Antonio Colazingari
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Open (04:32)
You're an angel with your wings broken,
wearing sandals that I tripped in.
You're a holiday already taken,
a cocktail that's stirred never shaken.
Your heads in overload.
You've reached your threshold
and you're about to explode.
Open your eyes. Just say what you want to say?
Open your eyes, you see yours isn't the only way .
Open your eyes. To you everyone is blind.
Open your eyes and your mind.
You're like a hand gun that's fully loaded
making idle threats of violence.
Your heads in overload.
You've reached your threshold
and you're about to explode.
Open your eyes. You take what you want for free,
Open your eyes. and you see what you want to see.
Open your eyes. To you everyone is blind.
Open your eyes and your mind.
Open your eyes. Just say what you want to say?
Open your eyes, you see yours isn't the only way .
Open your eyes. Do you really think I'm blind?
Open your eyes and your mind.
Open your mind.
Open your eyes. and you see what you want to see.
Open your eyes. To you everyone is blind.
Open your eyes and your mind.
Open your eyes. Just say what you want to say?
Open your eyes, you see yours isn't the only way .
Open your eyes. Do you really think I'm blind?
Open your eyes and your mind.
Open your mind.
02 Losing Myself (04:12)
There's a thunder in my head,
a roar I can't escape.
I can't ignore this certain fate
I'm experiencing something.
I can't explain.
There's a frame of reference fragile at best.
An itching fear that's stronger than the rest.
Follow the black ribbon into the sun.
Push it further baby, careful with this burnout now.
I'm losing myself in you
and trying to get back to me.
But I'm so far away, I'm losing myself.
The sand in my mouth,
the wind and heat I feel numb.
Ten days on the road and it feels
like where I've been ain't so bad.
Gotta get back home to you.
Gotta get back home to you.
Gotta get back home.
Throttle back slowly there's no time like now.
Red line it baby I'm pushing to the edge now.
I'm losing myself in you
and trying to get back to me.
But I'm so far away, I'm losing myself.
I'm beating down this desert highway
one hundred miles an hour times two.
But I'm so far away, I'm a million miles away.
I'm losing myself in you
and trying to get back to me.
But I'm so far away, I'm losing myself.
Get me off this desert highway.
Gotta get back to you but I'm so far away.
I'm a million miles away.
03 Desert Dance (03:57)
With a simple wave,
her hand creates my universe.
She spins and dances around the fire.
Eyes search the open road,
caught up in the sound of
transmissions burning down the wire.
We reach out for the sky
and were never coming down.
We reach out for the sky
and were never coming down.
Live life in extreme
better then any magazine could ever hope to describe.
Ripped, we sweat this desert dance, baby do your best.
We're on our way to higher consciousness.
We reach out for the sky
and we're never coming down.
Keep reaching, keep reaching.
We're never coming down.
High on a million breaths of her,
I surrender to the magic all around me.
We reach out for the sky
and we're never coming down.
05 The Great Divide (04:01)
I'd reconciled my anger got outside of danger.
I was waiting for some signal, a sign from angels.
When the tide turns against you
it's a strange sensation, a revelation of imagination.
I could change my course and face the flow,
reap the seeds that I had sewn or follow that old river south.
Here's what I found out.
I was standing on the Great Divide looking out across America.
Trying to find my truth, define it for myself.
I died the day when I saw this place.
I saw what I could lose.
A very simple mechanism separates the fool from wisdom.
The lines between us are not real.
Conditioning is what makes us feel ignorant.
And apathy will feed our hate.
So we can never give in.
There I was standing at the Great Divide, looking for the truth in America.
For all that time I searched, when I closed my eyes,
I found the thing I was looking for.
I had it all the time.
So are we standing at the Great Divide?
Is there hope for America?
Take the flag we wave, the freedoms that we sing.
Without respect for one other,
it doesn't mean a thing.
06 Rhythm of Hope (03:31)
Lying here awake again.
Minutes before dawn I hear your breathing,
your heart beat like a song.
Lately I've been feeling a little less then good but
seeing things for the first time like I never could.
I've had my head down against the door,
trying to get to something I couldn't find before.
That special something, that feeds my soul,
is a rhythm to live by, it's a rhythm of hope.
Something drives us onwards.
Something gives us strength.
What makes our judgment falter is the questions we think.
Who am I to fly so high?
What gives me the right to dream of what could be,
keep reaching for the light?
I've been standing in front of that door,
basing my happiness on what' I knew before.
Searching for something that moves my soul.
A rhythm to hold to, a rhythm to live to.
Have you been down like this before?
I guarantee there's something waiting for you just open that door.
A rhythm to live by, that moves your soul.
A rhythm that holds you.
A rhythm to live to.
And if there's one thing we all need now,
it's a rhythm to live by, a rhythm of hope.
Lying here awake again.
07 Tribe (04:39)
Taken to a place underground,
a cavern, ten thousand steps down.
The only light was fire fly glow,
reflecting in the blue crystal show.
Feeling in the darkness surrounding me,
roots of giant Sequoia trees
anchor the canopy of life that's above.
The answer to the mystery of life is _
Traveled through the jungles of the Yucatan
and drank the potion from the magic man.
Held the starlight inches from my face,
pushed the door open, # 7.
I walked the path way to heaven.
Saw the same face of God.
Seems every where I go
I see the same face, I feel the same flow.
With every one I meet and every hand I shake,
I'm every man, trying my best to get to know
because everything's at stake.
We're the same tribe.
Passing through Morocco for the faithful is a trip.
Hallucinating visions drives my desert ship.
For a thousand miles we could not fail,
can't enjoy if you can't inhale.
Clearly a lifetimes need of some experience and
for the record, peace.
Seems every where I go
I see the same face, I feel the same flow.
With every one I meet and every hand I shake,
I see myself in every man, trying my best to get to know
because everything's at stake.
We're the same tribe.
08 Blood (04:13)
Thank-you for the lies, the lies you sold us.
Thank-you for this vision of violence.
Thank-you for this song you gave me to sing.
Thank-you for the capping day
of a culture that lay dying.
Yes it's us dying.
Maybe it won't be long,
now that it's all gone on.
It's all gone wrong and
there's blood on our hands.
We saw them lying there
with their arms around each other,
staring through their fear and
the miles between our heads.
You could have told the truth.
It was your decision to
sacrifice integrity and compassion for greed.
Now it's all gone wrong and
there's blood on our hands.
10 Doin' Fine (03:52)
Have you noticed The way people seem today?
Look in their eyes, you can feel their uncertainty.
Working hard for what they fear others would think.
Empty hearts are afraid to break away:don't be afraid.
We could all use a little sunshine
Take the day off :outside.
Hey look around, everything's better now
And here we are and we're doin' fine.
If we look inside, breath deep, and count to ten.
We'll find what we need to see us through
All the way to the end.
We'll know all the answers
Once we stop this judgment game
And realize deep down we're all the same.
We could all use a little sunshine
Take the day off and smile.
Hey look around everything's better now,
And here we are and getting along fine.
Yeah, we're doin' just fine.
We could all use some sunshine
Take the day off and smile.
Hey look around, everything's better
And here we are getting along just fine.
Next time we could try a little harder
And quickly put out the fire,
By working out our differences and
Finding truth we can all believe in.
We're looking at life from a different side.
We're looking at like from a different side.
And I know that we'll all be fine.
And I know that we'll all be fine.
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di silian87
Eh sì, perché di casino ed urla ce ne è ben poco in questo album; ci sono piuttosto ottimi riff di chitarra elettrica, ed una voce stupenda, quella di Tate, che è sempre in primo piano.
"Tribe" non è un capolavoro, ma è un album in grado di mostrare come i Queensryche del 2000 sono validi quanto i Queensryche degli ’80.
