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Группа из Рио-де-Жанейро, играющая готик-дум. Вставляешь диск в проигрыватель, и тут же на тебя из динамиков обрушивается стена дождя, и из нее плавно выплывает красивейшая клавишная мелодия. Уже ставший классическим прием здорово помогает погружению в атмосферу альбома. Затем начинается основное действо. Две самых сильных стороны Venin Noir - клавишные партии и вокал. Они несут основную мелодическую нагрузку и дают возможность выделить звучание группы из сотен банд, играющих в этом же стиле. И это притом, что клавиши сочинялись сначала одним человеком, затем другим, в студии же дописывались вообще третьим. Кстати, проникновенное интро сочинено девушкой, что навело меня на мысль о том, что этот стиль здорово бы выиграл, будь в нем побольше композиторов от слабой половины человечества. Все-таки мягкая манера, характерная для них, позволяет создавать очень сильные контрасты с более напористой мужской мелодикой. Когда вступает вокалистка, первая мысль – Тарья запела готик-дум. Ну очень похожий тембр. К счастью, потом различия становятся очевидными, никто никого не копирует, тем не менее, хитрые маркетологи в свое время нарезали для демо-версий именно те куски, где сходство максимальное. Альбом вышел достаточно ровным, очень понравились «Desperanter» и «Vile Pledge». А припев «Buried Alive» вообще оказался хитовым.
Глубокая атмосфера, хорошие мелодии, интересное звучание, прекрасный вокал, неплохая лирическая составляющая. Казалось бы, при таких условиях результат должен быть как минимум отличным, но есть несколько моментов, которые едва не убили запись. Претензия первая: я просто не припомню ни одного альбома в этом стиле, где настолько бы явно выделялся бас. И с точки зрения сведения, и с точки зрения абсолютно лишней навороченности партий. Претензия вторая: к чему эти дурацкие вставки в быстром темпе с гитарными рифами из 80-ых? Когда одна из таких вставок сменила обалденное синтезаторное соло на волшебной “Naughty Elegy”, я чуть не потерял дар речи. А все потому, что на задней стороне диска почти посередине отдельной статьей гордо красуется надпись «Produced by Ricardo Piccoli». Как этот пафос стыкуется с тем, что на диск попали такие откровенно провальные моменты, для меня загадка. Что самое смешное, он еще и басист в нескольких группах. Если именно он и есть автор внесения разнообразия в музыку отмеченными выше способами (лейбл, кстати, хитро извратился и назвал их «прогрессивными элементами»), то ему стоит дать по почкам, так как он просто угробил талантливую группу. Если авторы – сама группа, то его прямой обязанностью как продюсера было объяснить ребятам, что именно они делают не так. Короче, будь Venin Noir, например, скандинавской группой, я не сомневаюсь, что знающие люди сделали бы из них маленький феномен, а так имеем то, что имеем. А именно: группа выпустила еще один альбом (к слову получивший весьма неплохие отзывы, но у нас его так и не издали) и канула в лету. |
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distressful decisions take charge of thee
the ones who deny to dare and measure the risk
passive suicide fight for the dimmest kind
praising to pleasure, immunizing my mind
I embraced so many oceans
I defeated darker storms
I have scorned your beliefs
I wilt not live through this
nourished by lies, chains that vindicate
thou took back on what was consumate
hemispheres collide and mists refuse
to roam in the void is for the obtuse
bear the denial of the naugthy elegy
damn the unborn and adore who flee
you shall see that I dwell in a nightmare
red stained furious eyes unable to stare
3. Damsel Of Grief
["This is a very straight song. It was meant to be this way. Because although it feels really complicated to understand why strong things such as deep feelings just vanish, they usually do due to simple reasons. This one is about how apart we can do ourselves from dear people. About the meaning of regret and the need for tolerance, sincerity and understanding. It all comes through freedom and a deep look at the past. It brings a person willing to be hopeful. But just cannot. Yet".]
farewell, damsel of grief
you have never been so nigh
sadness is your birthmark
tearstained fate's beginning to writhe
faltering steps from the cradle
lead me to these grasping thoughts
life could be just a fable
neverending pile of knots
harlot, crumbles on her knees
flawless skills brings anything you please
mundane, insane cult of fall
securing peace by clinging to lies unheard
willing to bestow all her memories
don't feel sorry for my plight
her eyes shudder with all she sees
dirges are sung whilst I dispel the night
4. Desperanter
["Desperanter means "hopeless" in Latin. It says that the more you think, you question, you try to find a way out, the bigger is the distance between you and the answers. It is a total state of loneliness. It is about those days you hardly say a word, you regret your feelings, your acts, and feel cursed by them. Those days in which you wish for nothing but crying, to release the pain".]
wrath is your native tongue
for you dwell in a supressed soul
notes in crimson - sad song
feebled man dies... where is hope?
can you figure out what intolerance alights?
will we live to see every shadow departs?
desperanter, thou shalt forevermore
remain deprived of hope
I am forever damned
you could not understand
that you made my dream come true
a feeling has been vain
and life has lost its pain
forever damned
anger flows within me
only petals fall through my eyes
yelling laments remain unheard
I only recall your lullabies
5. Reap The Grand
["This one shows a person who needs help, but does not want to be helped. Everyone has gone through this, which makes this situation something understandable and weird, at the same time. It is about one's fear of being helped. When you do not trust anyone, being helped means being enslaved. When you feel everyone is there to take advantage of your weaknesses, you are always getting even with yourself. Then, you can only reap the same bitterness that you sow".]
clairvoyance bewilders me
beholding what I shall deny
fulsome vertigo, balmy spring
whithering, slipping through my eye
once a saviour, always a slave
what's she weeping for?
I have been to this scene before
life refuses to change the end
the end refuses to reap the grand
fear not my taintless acts
for they should set me free
quarrels on future tense facts
another backslide reverie
only love could make us even
need your eyes to reveal what's hidden
between darkness and light
6. Buried Alive
["This song brings basically the longing for reaching the end, no matter what will be next. When redemption takes too much time to come, peace is the air we breathe, and there is no more complete peace than death. It's a way to eternalize moments that were never meant to be over. But, soon, we realize that there's no use in carrying on with things that are already over. It's about the hard task of dealing with the loss of faith, and accepting that even eternal moments may also be over."]
I wish I had been buried alive
to find some rest in peace
in the fluid of life that brings death
I wish this night would last forever
to find a bloody kiss
in the fluid of death that brings joy
you lay far beyond my wishes
I learn from all this silence and I wither
envying your peace
eternity has taken everything from me
even those small things that we take for granted
eternity is nothing but a useless memory
it made me lose everything I ever wanted
I wish I had been buried alive
to bring beauty to death
if only someone could hear my cry
I wish this night would last forever
to find another bless
in the fluid of joy that brings fear
the angel fled away (no one came to bury me)
carrying all my faith with him
what's left to pray?
in a world that's free behind the bars
risible quest of yours, illusioned by freedom
dreams are just a pretext to breathe scars
blaming everything on the nightmares inside this cage within
the pain of giving love
makes this fear feel so real
I'm alive but no one came to bury me
7. A Deeper Gray
["There are times in which we can read in somebody else's eyes things we wish we could never read. If you are any sensible, you can predict these unsaid things. Deeper Gray is the daylight that does not shine. Another day is born, nobody cares about our defeats. Nobody is supposed to, anyway. The chorus lyrics is a desperate person's claim to be abandoned by life. Deeper Gray is when all feelings get out of control. It is almost as if we could die a causeless death, and then, resurrect".]
daylight is closing my eyes for the last time
I can barely see what you seek
I can barely hear what you speak
daylight is coming to end my suffering
I can barely live as I lived
I can barely cry when I breathe
my eyes can see just a deeper gray
blood is burning inside of me
pain is dancing in front of me
lies are laughing at my tears
harm is increasing throughout the years
so give up on me
shall I now say farewell
for our future has been denied
for our tears have all been cried
the dawn is about to come
daylight will bring deliverance and my payback
I can barely wait for my last
I can barely move from my chair
daylight is near me but I can't hear
I can barely keep track of time (I can barely hear)
I can barely ask what is mine (I can barely hear)
my eyes are blurred by this deeper gray
so give up on me
shall I now say farewell
for our lives have done us apart in me
shall I now say farewell
for our lives have done us apart
the dawn comes so alone
all I can see is a deeper gray
8. Vile Pledge
["As the title suggests, this song is about promises we make throughout our lives. Fortunately or not, we always end up being not able to fulfill most of them. And it happens not because we want it to be this way. It just happens. Noone makes a promise that sounds impossible to themselves. Life is chaotic. And nothing stands up the same in chaos. Keeping that in mind, there should not be thoughts such as "forever". All pledges are vile in this chaos we call life".]
bitter ode that gradually wilt
an immense abode for the mentally ill
by the hands of mishap it was built
an irony that smoothly undoes the seal
cure me evoking labored truths
as I am prostate under this log
lure me into following you
devious words coming from the fog
I watch you from the slits in desolation
I call you through the ripples in immolation
I stalk you through the woods in desecration
I foresee your flickering self-obliteration
vile pledge (to be forevermore secluded)
diving into idleness (bereavement's cold caress)
this excuse, released through the fever
chosen sufferings playing the deceiver?
plagues are fast, the dews keep aching
spells are cast, parasites procreating
but the rain is gone