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 Наконец-то – The Black Dahlia Murder перестали быть группой-парадоксом, главным “козырем” которой было наличие пары потрясающих боевиков посреди кашеобразно-долбёжного варева, обильные мелодии которого имели свойство не цеплять и не запоминаться. Меня, признаюсь, всегда бесила эта манера усердно работать мозгом N-ное количество минут, отдавая остальное пространство альбома во власть рефлексов и моторики. Но “Abysmal” буквально с порога показывает, что они всё-таки способны не только не отключать воображение в течение почти 40 минут, но и наслаждаться процессом созидания. Если на пальцах показывать, то сабж в моих глазах выглядит альбомом-компиляцией всех тех удачных идей, что были тонким слоем размазаны по предыдущим альбомам, играя унизительно-привилегированную роль “оттенителя” основной массы треков. Какие-либо перемены если и есть, то несут лишь точечный характер, а усердная работа была направлена исключительно на огранку риффов и мелодий, что называется, до отказа, на прививание им яркости и настроения. Сами же мелодии вонзаются в мозг, подобно галлюцинациям: от бесподобных гитарных плясок на главном хите “Threat Level no. 3”, до надрыва и ощутимо тревожно-тоскливых гармоний почти везде. Собственно, комбинация обильных “роняющих сердце” мотивов с традиционно задорной в целом музыкой и маньячными текстами (та же “Threat Level no. 3” повествует о химической кастрации) и выделяет альбом из ряда своих предшественников. Но чем больше в мелодику проникает эмоциональный аспект, тем сильнее я жалею, что группа отказывается сорваться в откровенную драму или трагедию хотя бы раз за альбом, хотя предпосылок для этого немало. Попытки, предпринимаемые на, например, “The Fog”, так и остаются попытками, островками нетипичной тревоги, поглощающимися типичной скоростной вакханалией. Но это ладно, есть проблема посерьёзнее – традиционный эпик. Его попросту нет. Венчающая альбом “This cannot Die which Eternally is Dead” выглядит нормально в его контексте в целом, но не на месте таких монстров, как “I Will Return” и “Map of Scars”. Та же “The Fog” смотрелась бы в этом статусе куда убедительнее, просто за счёт размеренности и связанной с этим глубины, но этого недостаточно. В целом, концовка – ахиллесова пята “Abysmal”. Последний хоть что-то значащий взрыв происходит на “Asylum”, да и тот затухает после вступительной части, а “The Advent” - средней паршивости реверанс в сторону тех, кто видит в мелодэте группы, с блэковым тремоло и рваным риффажом, металкор, чаще всего за этот риффаж и цепляясь, как за аргумент.
И напоследок не могу пройти мимо одной вещи. Решив одним махом проблемы в плане композиционном, парни не забывают постепенно решать проблемы в плане техническом. На “Everblack”, например, было завезено больше “железа”, за счёт чего звучание приобрело трэшевые нотки, огрубело и стало монолитно-монументальным, потеряв, правда, в мелодиях. Прогресс продолжился и здесь, коснувшись, наконец-то, ударных. Их подсушили, накидали грязи, убрали пошлый глянец – и теперь действительно слышно, что играет живой человек, а не бездушная программа. Ламповость звучания барабанов - это одно из тех достижений, за которое стоит ценить “Abysmal”. А главное достижение – лучший за 15 лет альбом группы и мой улетевший на орбиту котелок, как наглядное тому подтверждение. |
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Failure, I renounce our tenure
This venture has drained me
I ask thee grant self murder’s bliss
My conscience has begged me to end this horrendousness
Wrap rope so tightly ‘round my neck and twist
Suicide be my guide
The only thing I will get right in this life
My appeal shall not be denied
My place - now secured
My home - the other side
I never belonged here
I never did ask if I could join this world collapsed
A hell hath awakened and now I choose sleep
So let this razor get the better of me
[Solo]
Suicide be my light
The only wrong I stand to right in this life
To the ear of the Reaper confide
His blade offers mercy
May it tear me wide
I never belonged here
I never did ask if I could join this world collapsed
My hell hath awakened and now I choose sleep
So let this gesture do the talking for me
Dear Mother and Father, now look what you’ve made
More eager fodder for the depth of a grave
For the sweet gift of life you’ve both bestowed upon me
You’ll wish that you’d felt inclined to keep the fucking receipt
2. Vlad, Son Of The Dragon
Raise up the traitors
Higher higher
By order of rank then spark their funeral pyres
Smelling the sumptuous stench of bowels emptying as my message is sent
String up purveyors of weakness and lie who would seek to betray no pardons eye
For eye torture a past time of bloodiest sorts
I feel I should be thanked for those fiends I abort
They will fear my very name
I am the dragon’s son
High on a stake
Higher higher
How shameful a game to’ve watched such life expire
Cleansing my own holocaust
Tremble they will at the feet of their gods
Hang up subversives who question my guile who should seek to oppose man woman beast or child
Enemies sleep with half open eyes
I shall reign all Wallachia with God on my side
They will fear my very name Dracul
I am the Devil’s son
You will burn
How I choose
You will burn
Kill them all
My righteous hand
Rumor of my cruelties
A wildfire through the lands
To control the fear of your enemy
You must bore your way inside their heads
You will burn
How I choose
You must burn
They will learn
Those like you
I’ll make them learn
Kill them all
My righteous hand
3. Abysmal
The world has turned and left me here
Alone with nothing but my fears
I feel the stiff of age it cracks
Mirror reflects just what I lack
I am standing here dying to be
To mean anything to anyone but me
I am naked now bereft of life's meaning
I am a shadow of what was
Plummet to sunken depths
There will be nothing left
Secrets of my being are being from me kept
There will be no resolve
For this wreck of nerves
Cheers to the axe that falls to the end
that I deserve
I am standing here dying to be
To mean anything to anyone but me
I am naked now bereft of life's meaning
I am a shadow of what was
A shadow of what was
You are dead to me
I am dead to me
My pulse has stopped you see
The butcher's waiting meat
And for eternity
As Satan laughs
we'll burn together
and scream abysmally
The work has turned and left me here
Alone with nothing but my fears
I feel the stiff of age it cracks
Reflects just what I lack
I am alone
I live alone
I'll die alone
Beneath a nameless stone
I am standing here dying to be
To mean anything to anything but me
I am naked now bereft of life's meaning
I am a shadow of was
I'll try this noose on just because
Signed "Your Friend, Abysmally"
4. Re-Faced
Incriminate Impersonate
All power to humiliate
Videotaped, duct taped, and raped
I’ll fool them all and masquerade perversely in your place
I prefer to leave the facial tissue still connected to the scalp
A woman I am not but flowing locks will surely help
Rifling through your belongings
Gratuitous make up is applied
In the mirror I stop to masturbate
All while looking through your eyes
I’m you, sad but true
Your faceless body to turn blue
Take a long hard look at yourself and tell me what you see
Promiscuity
Perversion of your sanctity
I’ve framed the scene for forced pornography’s throes, you’ll see
I utilize your charms as bait
May you break a leg here upon this stage
A posthumous lead
Your most adventurous and controversial role
It’ll be our little secret
There’s not a soul that has to know
I prefer to leave the victim living so the show they may endure
Hours moaning, slowly bleeding
Chained unto the cellar floor
Imagining the thoughts you process
You’re reasoning with the insane
Abandon hope for it’s reattachment
Gender roles now rearranged
Sexual atrocities
Inheriting personality
You gave life so selflessly so I may be new, falsely
I’ve lost a grip on reality
Entwined in this sickening duality
The way you fuck yourself in mockery, unforgettable
At knifepoint I’ll ask a line of questions and I’d sure appreciate the truth
It’s nothing I’d ever hold against us
Merely research for being you
[Solo]
Incriminate Impersonate
All power to humiliate
I’m you, sad but true
Your faceless body to turn blue
Take a long hard look at yourself and tell me what you see?
Promiscuity
Perversion of your sanctity
I’ve framed the scene for forced pornography’s throes, you’ll see
I utilize your charms as bait
May you break a leg here upon this stage
A posthumous lead
Your most adventurous and controversial role
To who’s acclaim you’ll never know
They say the camera steals the soul
5. Threat Level No. 3
Society I beg of thee
Open your hateful arms to me
For now I am just like you
You see my balls rattle in a jar
‘neath smiling mask remains a past
As I recant couldn’t help but laugh
Was that really me who had sipped from the glass wrought of all pedophilic sin?
Merely the calm thrust between the two most violent storms man’s seen or a libido guillotined forevermore?
They dangle bait right in my face
That once did make my heart so race
But hormonally my desire replaced to quell all but the faintest roar
Merrily o mother let them play
The boogeyman he has gone away
The slender one who would make his prey from the good little girls and boys
Come tempt the fates I do implore
For I am not He anymore
Subject to all parental scorn
Demon exiled
Threat level number three
A badge to my reign of depravity
If it’s only my death that can set us all free then what is it we’re waiting for?
My crimes of sick lust they’ve secured me a space
In a man’s most befeared and respected of place
In the home of the horned and His torturing flames
I deserve all of this and more
Thwarting the raping beast
That deep inside me sleeps
In a hope that this history will never repeat
My dick my gun now obsolete
Are we all here just grasping at straws?
Is the Devil’s will absolute is it stronger than laws?
Can I walk freely down darkened streets that I’ve stalked?
Is there truly a hope left for me?
Down her leg blood trickled
I remember her every breath
Chemically castrated
Normality is mandated for now
[solo]
Leaden the weight of this arms they could not bear
Gonadal atrophy a product of their care
Reclusive enemy inside me he dwells
Guilt swells abysmally unequaled my hells
Society I truly beg of thee
I should remain behind silver lock and key
Feeling the rip of young tissues ‘round my meat
Now a fading dream to this pitch-blackened sheep
Threat level number three
A badge to my reign of depravity
If it’s only my death that can set us all free then what is it we’re waiting for?
My crimes of sick lust they’ve secured me a space
In a man’s most befeared and respected of place
In the home of the horned and His torturing flames
I deserve all of this and more
Thwarting the raping beast
That deep inside me sleeps
In a hope that this history will never repeat
My dick my gun now obsolete
Are we all here just grasping at straws?
The Devil’s will absolute is it stronger than laws?
Can I walk freely down darkened streets that I’ve stalked?
Is there truly a hope that is left for poor pathetic fucking me?
6. The Fog
Amongst the perilous mists formed of the moon arising new
the creature set upon us like a plague
waist deep we proceeded to be butchered in the fog
strafing straight into the clutches of the beast that hell hath spawned
one by one did they scream dragged beneath the blanket of the mist
the mob is damned born to lose a sacrifice of human meat to lycanthropic bliss
the wolf simply can't resist
shots erupt
the strongest men are lost
as panic claims this throng
who will hunt
and who will be the skinned?
The elder evil wins where's our bravado now?
The drunk and dead begin to pile
in vain we laughed and cheered
this night that spells our end
flashlights are dwindling down
by earthly gods we're disavowed
plump sow apple in mouth
the wolfen's pending feast
"above the law!" we declared now lucky if we're left above the ground
comb the woods a child we seek so little did we men know that our end would there be found
I held my breath as we happened on the girl
or should I say what was left
father screams uncontrollably hes lost his sanity
thirty one closed casket funerals
victims of sheer disbelief
thirty one sent to the slaughter to be
without reprieve
[solo]
dragged below sight
writhing in the haze
like sitting ducks we are in moments to be splayed
where's our militia now?
Our bravest men a mounting pile
to think we toasted rye
this night that spells our end
"above the law!" we declared now lucky if we're left above the ground
comb the woods a child we seek so little did we men know that our end would there be found
six feet down
7. Stygiophobic
Is your very existence shackled by an irrational fear of hell?
Terrified of suicide but desiring death as well?
Can't they see there are consequences when will they ever learn?
Every night seeing dead faces of the friends and family. Burn no on will be saved to the will of God enslaved will I ever awake?
I pray the lord my feeble soul to take can't they see there are consequences for every push there's a pull?
Each life a test impossible to secure one's seat in hell. Can't they see there are consequences when will they ever learn?
Every night seeing dead faces of friends and family burn no one will be saved
8. Asylum
To the ones that we’ve forgotten and labelled as insane
In institutions rotting secret mars of family shame
Bound tightly and injected
Subdued by pill regimes
Suspended animation
Pull the rug over the stain
Mistreated and molested
Fed food not fit for pigs
If we’re to call them human beings why treat their lives as shit?
No chance of contribution to well-oiled society
Viewed as manure walking wastes of very air we breathe
Rejected disavowed
Buried beneath our shallow smiles
What do they mean for us and what do they deserve?
Four padded walls – their coffins
Underfunded understaffed
In a putrid squalor wallow while the rich and perfect have a laugh
Sons and daughters
Brethren and kin
Sisters and brothers from pictures are trimmed
Out of our sight, out of our minds
Where is the kindness on which this world prides?
This is the coldest song a voice could ever sing
It’s destined to come out wrong
We’ve done the damnedest things
Oh, the humanity
Denial so disgusting
A life shackled rusting
And business is booming
We’re vampires and should be ashamed
At birth found unequal
A real living freak show
Throw them in a cell and forget their existence is pain
What a shame
A shrine unto torment
To minds deemed delinquent
Place holding placation
The voiceless damnated can’t scream
Can you hear them scream?
[Solo]
Mistreated and molested
Fed food not fit for pigs
If we’re to call them human beings why treat their lives as shit?
No chance of contribution to well-oiled society
Viewed as manure walking wastes of very air we breathe
Sons and daughters
Brethren and kin
Sisters and brothers from pictures are trimmed
Out of our sight, out of our minds
Where is the kindness in our humankind?
This is the coldest song a voice could ever sing
It’s destined to come out wrong
We’ve done the damnedest things
Oh, the humanity
9. The Advent
The dawn has broken crimson
This day of defloration
Ironclad reclamation
Across the frozen dale fearlessly cold dominion
Our soldiers take formation
The tundra's desolation
Some call it hell but it's our home
We have to fight
There is no turning back
Our legions storm ice covered fields
Our blood runs cold
Endure our winter thirty fold
With vorpal blades
Imperial into the white abyss we go
The advent is here dawn of the Antichrist
They tread our world on borrowed time
Pushed back amongst the shadows
Disguised for centuries
The time is now to rise and crush our christian enemies down
It's time to strike
There is no second chance
Our brethren swarm with sword and shield
It's time to die
For our christian enemy
To no law of mercy
Shall we yield god fearing blood stains red
The field the conquest grows
Near dawn to the end of Christ
Poisoned our young for the last time
Oh to slay their lord divine
Empire laden in frost
Ivory towers dipped in crystalline gloss
My frozen kingdom
We are cold in the heart
Glaives of ice
We wield white wolves of victory march
Resistance to books of fictions
Insistence upon beheading Jesus
Pestilence for all believers
Defenseless against the great deceiver
[Solo]
The advent is here
Dawn of the Antichrist
They tread our world on borrowed time
The end of christian kind
Empire laden in frost
Ivory towers dipped in crystalline gloss
My frozen kingdom we are cold in the heart
Glaives of ice we wield
White wolves of victory march
The dawn has broken crimson
This day of defloration
Ironclad reclamation
Across the frozen dale fearlessly cold dominion
Our soldier take formation
The tundra's desolation
Some call it hell
But it's our home
Hell
10. That Cannot Die Which Eternally Is Dead
We've come again to the end my friends
The winds of change shall swirl up a din
The beast is shifting shapes again
Weaponized to the teeth while we grin
The years go by
In the blink of an eye
Of an old withered man,
Our dreams lost to sands
Of bastard time
What was our crime?
But to exist?
We'll be sent before the devil.
Hell, we're on his list
Onto the gates of pearl we piss our tribute
Open your flesh and let the beast flow through you
Your abysmal heart
Black as pitch
And dead right from the start
This century
The night world is ours
That cannot die which eternally is dead
Two in the place of once severed head
Hydra of bone and its swirling dance
Hypnotizing the weak in it's trance
The years they fleet
Like the words of the meek
In the face of the storm
Bear witness as this hell is born
Unto this earth we are in their curse
We are truth if you seek eternal life
We are it's living proof
The gates gilded in gold our blackened entrance
Open your veins and pay the demon penance
From your abysmal heart
Black as pitch
And dead right from the start
This century
The night world is ours
Deliver us
Relentless
Deliver us
The damned
The dead we're still here walking
With blood upon our hands
Deliver us
Intention
Deliver us
The true
The movers of this world
Who'll shake the very life from you
[Solo]
Onto the gates of pearl we piss our tribute
Open your flesh and let the beast flow through you
Your abysmal heart
Black as pitch
And dead right from the start
This century
The night world is ours