Premessa: chi non ha apprezzato il precedente "The Cold White Light" ritenendolo troppo sdolcinato e melodico, può anche smettere di leggere. "The Funeral Album" infatti, è ancora più delicato e "smussato" di ogni ruvidezza (tranne qualche breve eccezione).
Questa nuova uscita gode di una produzione che avvicina maggiormente il gruppo - ahimé - ai connazionali HIM (d'altronde il produttore è lo stesso). Premesso ciò va detto che i Sentenced, anche su quest'album, dimostrano una classe che gli HIM si sognano.
Si parte con May Today Become The Day la canzone più energica dell’album: il chorus vi entrerà subito in testa e difficilmente riuscirete a liberarvene.
Ever-Frost è uno dei migliori pezzi ed è quello che ricorda più da vicino lo stile di The Cold White Light. We Are But Falling Leaves è probabilmente il capolavoro dell'album e mostra la qualità forse migliore dei Sentenced: far emozionare. Il toccante chorus ci porta inevitabilmente a riflettere sul significato della nostra esistenza. Her Last 5 Minutes viene introdotta da un delicato incipit interrotto da un breve riff alla Candlemass, ma rimane inferiore al trio precedente. Ed ecco la prima inaspettata sorpresa: Where Waters Fall Frozen, cinquantotto secondi di devastante death/black che richiama gli esordi della band.
Despair-Ridden Hearts è un altro grande pezzo introdotto da una chitarra pulita e un’ armonica alla Springsteen, per poi crescere progressivamente di intensità. Vengeance Is Mine è un altro concentrato di energia in cui la band inserisce qualche curioso accorgimento come un coro di bambini e i suoni di un carillon. A Long Way To Nowhere e Consider Us Dead non sono all'altezza della prima parte dell'album e Lower The Flags sembra in tutto e per tutto una canzone degli HIM. Drain Me riporta un pò di brio ma non coinvolge più di tanto.
Karu è un breve brano acustico ispirato forse a qualche tema tradizionale finlandese. End Of The Road (che ricorda vagamente i Tiamat di Prey) è il commovente addio della band ai fans.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 May Today Become the Day (04:00)
Rain trumps the lifeless ground
Drops as cold as Ice
The doors breaking
The trench are shaking
The fire hits us all around
When the siren cries
Forward, forward we go into attack!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I gotta say that ain't how it's like
Closing in, I'm slowing down
warren fire, blood
our lines breaking and death is taking
All our men from all around
Into pools of mud
Forward, forward, there is no turning back!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I gotta say that ain't not how it's like
The fallback calling as the soldiers keep falling
Forward, forward, I am not turning back!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I just wanna go back between my eyes
Aim high
08 A Long Way to Nowhere (03:26)
Approaching the moment now
Long hard journey in its end
Starting to loom right now,
The final round and then it hits you
It kicks you, it slicks you in hell
All the toil and all exhaustion
All those times we hated
All the losses, sacrifices
All those things were missed
All the suffering and distortion
Shit we tolerated
All that we abandoned
All for this
Our scattered hope fall down
The zeal turns to negligence
The shattered dreams all down
Crumbled around
That's when it shakes you
It quakes you, it breaks you
It kades you, it fades you
Degrades you in laughs
Enough, enough, too much is more than we can take
All those hits we took, persistence was in vain
Enough, enough, too much is all than I can feel
Down the drain
Just bitterness remains
It shakes you, it quakes you
It breaks you, it hates you
Degrades you in laughs
All the battles, all the dirts and victories we tasted
All the tension, all the misery and all the bless
All the passion, all the hurt and all the love we wasted
All the purgatories, all for this
There's nothing else...
10 Lower the Flags (03:34)
He's gone, he is dead
His remains upon the hearse ahead
As silently we wander through the mist
He's free
This is the end
Your journey's over, night descends
Below... Into the abyss
Farewell, my friend, you will be missed
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
He's gone, he is dead
Six feet of earth upon his head
Now lay your wreaths
Upon the one who lies beneath
Although you're gone
In memories you shall live on
Asleep... In peace now rest
The weight of the world is off your chest
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
That mourning light I'll always remember
And these August nights; cold as December
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
11 Drain Me (04:33)
Always pretending to want you
It's so easy to make you play my game
Always deceiving to get you
So goddamn easy to make you scream my name
No remorse, no repent
Still to you I'm heaven-sent
I don't need a reason to hate you
I don't need a reason to brake you. *
Just keep that mouth wide open
And drain me my darling
I don't need to care if you want me
I don't need to care if you need me
Just spread that pink wide smile
And drain me my darling
For so many years I've been faking
It's so hard to keep lying and smiling in vain
For so many years I've been taking
Innocence soiled, hey babe, your loss is my gain
No remorse, no repent
Still to you I'm heaven-sent
I don't need a reason to hate you
I don't need a reason to brake you
Just keep that mouth wide open
And drain me my darling
I don't need to care if you want me
I don't need to care if you need me
Just spread that pink wide smile
And drain me my darling
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Altre recensioni
Di kissarmy
I Sentenced vogliono andarsene lasciando una ferita profonda nel metal finnico e fino ad ora ci stanno riuscendo!
Le loro canzoni specialmente di questo album rimarranno segnate nella storia del metallo pesante.
