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Se l’anno in cui il Thrash classico aveva sfondato con i “soliti” “Reign In Blood”, ”Master Of Puppets”, “Spreading The Disease/Among The Living”, ”Peace Sells…But Who’S Buying?” era stato il glorioso 1986, l’anno successivo, il 1987, non si prospettava certamente meno redditizio.
Nel 1987, infatti, presero vita due importantissimi capolavori senza tempo del Thrash “musicalmente un po’ più spinto”, lavorano che avrebbero partorito grandissime ispirazioni per le band più influenti a venire, soprattutto in ambito Death Metal.
Questi due “documenti storici” rispondevano al nome di “The Legacy” dei novellini Testament e “Scream Bloody Gore” dei Death del povero Chuck.
Probabilmente, anzi direi sicuramente, il secondo era più importante del primo, ma solo siccome generava con la sua uscita un filone del Thrash più estremo che avrebbe preso il nome dallo stesso gruppo.
Il primo lavoro era invece passato leggermente sottotono, vuoi per l’importanza di “Scream Bloody Gore” che attirava in pratica solo su sé gli elogi della critica specializzata, vuoi per la solamente sufficiente produzione che sminuiva leggermente l’immenso valore del capolavoro.
I Testament riuscirono in ogni caso a tornare in luce l’anno successivo, grazie al secondo lavoro che si presentava come uno dei dischi più influenti degli Anni ’80.
La produzione migliora nettamente, i Testament si rendono consapevoli di avere in formazione un autentico genio delle sei corde, Alex Skolnick, e sfruttano il vantaggio al massimo, capiscono che l’ora della vendetta è arrivata…Insomma, i Testament diventano ancora più fottutamente grandi di quello che erano già, e il capolavoro viene sfiorato.
Ci sono canzoni in questo disco che non ho mai sentito in altri gruppi e che nemmeno gli stessi Testament sono riusciti ad eguagliare: ciononostante, alcune pecche marginali ma complessivamente abbastanza influenti impediscono a “The New Order” di diventare il capolavoro dei Testament.
“Eerie Inhabitants”, l’opener del disco, conferma pienamente le intenzioni che animavano i cinque: chitarra elettrica paurosamente creativa e pervasa dal gusto neobarocco del grandissimo Alex, rabbia da vendere ma sempre condita da una gran dose di melodia, un buon bassista, Greg Christian, che insieme al batterista “italiano” Louie Clemente formava una delle migliori sezioni ritmiche dell’epoca, il tutto accompagnato dalle vocals infiammate dell’enorme Chuck Billy, probabilmente il miglior cantante che il Thrash estremo abbia mai partorito.
La formula vincente si ripete e prolunga per tutta la durata del disco, nel quale spiccano le favolose title track, ”Trial By Fire”, ”Into The Pit”, la strumentale “Hypnosis”, ”Disciple Of The Watch”, ”The Preacher” e l’impressionante “Musical Death (A Dirge), che non esito a definire la “Starway To Heaven” dei Testament, che conferma appieno le grandi capacità tecnico-compositive di Peterson e Skolnick, facendoci provare emozioni mai sentite e rizzandoci i peli del collo grazie ai magnifici, tecnicissimi, semplicemente sublimi e perfetti assoli del succitato musicista, il classico chitarrista che sa sempre suonare la nota giusta al momento giusto.
A questo punto il cinque sarebbe più che meritato, ma viene impedito da una stanca e noiosa cover di “Nobody’S Fault” degli Aerosmith, che suona pallosa già dall’inizio nonostante un’interpretazione a dir poco energica del frontman Billy, e una demotivata “A Day Of Reckoning”, che gioca troppo azzardatamente coi tempi dispari bissando il suono diretto e regolare del Thrash testamentiano.
Consigliato a tutti: metallari e non, insegnanti di chitarra classica ed elettrica, bassisti che cercano un disco Thrash dove il basso sia suonato benone e soprattutto si senta, cantanti che si credono più bravi di Billy quindi rei di aver sminuito con la loro coglionaggine la bravura del gigante.
Ma il cinque non posso davvero darglielo: quello, è meglio lasciarlo a “The Legacy” e a “The Gathering”…
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Eerie Inhabitants (04:46)
A world of chaos
A world of fear
A world of anger and corruption
When all is lost
and millions starve
Is this humanity's destruction?
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
No one to help us,
the children pray
Nobody listens to their CRYING
This great depression
when will it end?
To live like this is worse than dying
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
Your destiny is over
your fate has declined
Refuse to discover
what so many could find
Death's endless toil
as I long for rest
Life's now forsaken
condemned to repress!
No sign of heaven
No sign of hell
Just the sign of pain and sorrow
This generation inhabits all
To form an order for tomorrow
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
02 The New Order (04:19)
Takers of humanity, elders paranoid
the time is now
give up this world you once destroyed
society versus the underground
their battles fough and lost
the time has come
to rule the world at any cost
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
Cities turn to battlefields
a deadly spell is cast
corpses falling one by one
until the last
The preacher speaks of prophecy
so many years before
no one escapes their punishment
the gods of war
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
Death is like an empty space
feel no thoughts of fear
the future cries
as mother nature sheds a tear
the world becomes a prisoner
a victim of its crime
the human race is now a race
against time
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
03 Trial by Fire (04:01)
Accuse you of a crime
sentenced to endless time
the price you have to pay
won't get away!
sworn in by the stand
your rights are gone
the system's banned
they think you are a liar
a trial by fire
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
Locked in an empty cell
your life becomes a living hell
the river of fire flows
time only knows!
trapped by flames of fury
ordered unto by the jury
death is their desire
thrown in the fire!
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
Quiver the fiery light
cringing as your soul ignites
the book of law's been thrown away
starting today!
The system before the war
is gone for now and evermore
there is no sentence higher
A trial by Fire!
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
04 Into the Pit (02:41)
Deep in the pit and lying alone
Where death has reared itself a throne
We're all the good,the bad
The worst and the best
And where they land is their eternal rest
Foul plays of passion
At twilight's dim
In joy of woe of good and sin
Winds of storm and fates overcast
Darkly my presence is now your past
Join the insanity
Or die as you fall
Into the pit
The mass production
And the killing of all
Into the pit
The future screams for help
Are fading away
Into the pit
The world tomorrow
Will it die for today?
Into the pit
So in the sad,silent watches of night
The lonely pathway envisions my sight
Echoes of laughter
And boundless cries
So here I wander under infinite skies
Join the insanity
Or die as you fall
Into the pit
The mass production
And the killing of all
Into the pit
The future screams for help
Are fading away
Into the pit
The world tomorrow
Will it die for today?
Into the pit
06 Disciples of the Watch (04:52)
Cast to the fire
Banned by the light
Worship and listen to me
Condemned in his mind
In his evil place
Your fate is all that you'll see
I am the one
To show you the path
Salvation is in the fields
Listen up children and follow me
Or I'll let you pay
The price of malachi!
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
Holding the mass
The demon is cast
To resurrect your soul
Calling to him
Is like an evil sin
A prophet is what they're told
Taking the land under command
Killing friend or foe
Feel the might of his evil wrath
Desecrate your soul
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
Cast to the fire
Banned by the light
Worship and listen to me
Condemned in his mind
In his evil place
Your fate is all that you'll see
I am the one
To show you the path
Salvation is in the fields
Listen up children and follow me
Or I'll let you pay
The price of malachi!
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
07 The Preacher (03:32)
The preacher!
In days of old
When the books were untold
Speak of a world crushed by sin
"The people will mourn
Of a war to be born"
Nobody would listen to him
Think back in time
When the future you find
Is so faint that it's too hard to see
Don't disavow his word
For the truth must be heard
Cause the preacher tells visions he sees
In 1906
Like the future predicts
The city will crumble to the bay
Then what's in store
When the worlds go to war?
Peace will have come another day
Then came the one
In the year of '41
Warfare would light up the sky
He beckoned the call
Of the future for all
Blinded by what's in his eyes
Don't follow the preacher!
Preach!
In days of old
When the books were untold
Speak of a world crushed by sin
"The people will mourn
Of a war to be born"
Nobody would listen to him
Think back in time
When the future you find
Is so faint that it's too hard to see
Don't disavow his word
For the truth must be heard
Cause the preacher tells visions he sees
Listen to these words I preach
(Don't follow the preacher!)
Catastrophic lessons they shall teach
Listen to these words I preach
(Don't follow the preacher!)
Catastrophic lessons they shall teach
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