Mr. Big - "Back To Budokan" ( 2009, Frontiers) Decimo album in studio per i Queensrÿche, seminale band di Seattle autrice del capolavoro "Operation: Mindcrime", reviewed some time ago on this blog. Again we have in hand a concept album (yet?! Baaaasta!) Focuses on the experience of American soldiers: the singer Geoff Tate in recent years has interviewed veterans who were involved in conflicts ranging from World War II to the recent Iraq, then translate them into music, often poignant, testimony. So Tate explains the origin of the idea: "The first thing ever was a conversation with my father. My father was in the army and the whole experience has accumulated in places where he has served: Korea, Vietnam .. . We talked about his army life. Susan, my wife once asked me 'Why do not you write a song about your father?'. So when we started talking about life in the army I started thinking about American soldiers, because we do not know much about them, how they feel about a lot of things A siren and helicopter noise introduce us to "Unafraid", sometimes indutrial sometimes very classic, full of clips from interview and time to explain the status turn of mind in which the soldier in war is not crazy.
gaze focused at the same time empty of soldiers advancing into enemy territory is brilliantly described in "Hundred Mile Stare", a song musically great stuff like you have never felt for a long time made by Queensrÿche.
"AT 30.000 FT" we are on a plane, about to plunge with a parachute: no emotion, everything is beyond our control and we only hear our breath in the mask we wear. The feeling of tension is transmitted by a masterly musical ground that knows when to be perfect, and suffused atmosphere and when to be tough and direct. Moving towards the final "I am the creator of this new promised land and I wonder 'What the hell did I do?'. Are in the air above it. I'm on it. "" A Dead Man's Words "are the anguished words of a wounded soldier, left for dead and left behind in the desert. The second half of the song describes so simply perfect recovery of that person, making it clear the desperation and the will to survive while the soldier with a heavy precious metal, high-level, enriched by oriental hues that paint the picture in the mind of a fiery and unforgiving desert.
"The Killer" is one of the most successful pieces and while listening to one of the most disturbing: the topics include the death of the last child for the desperate mother and the instinct of survival that contrasts with the horror of the soldier who wants to survive the sniper's shooting at you, with the screams echo ("Shoot him!") while still lying on the ground motionless and petrified.
Another masterpiece with "Middle Of Hell", which describes the predicament of a soldier who finds himself in war and understands that even though many will die, he is convinced that he will succeed, ripetendoselo indefinitely. Ispiratissimo solo for a mid tempo caressed by the charismatic voice of Tate. Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield, bass and drums respectively, spread out a rhythm that would have disfigured the carpet on a great album "Promised Land" (1994): The song in fact very reminiscent of that masterpiece of its title track.
The beautiful "If I Were King "(great guitar work by Michael Wilton!) Expresses the sense of guilt for having survived a soldier who wants to revive his fellow soldiers who gave their life even to save her. Even the center.
The heavy "Man Down" depicts the first hope of a soldier shot waiting for reinforcements. When you arrive, however, realizes that only a number and begins to doubt the cavalry, arriving at the last minute, saving it, but leaving it for the mentally disturbed rest of his days.
"Remember Me" is a poignant love letter to a soldier who prays his woman to wait, promising that he will leave and never to be happy forever, all with the usual musical mastery that characterizes the sound of Queensrÿche.
"Home Again" is also a letter, but this time 'double', from father to daughter and from daughter to father. Ballad spectacular, original and poignant in which Geoff Tate duet with her ten year old daughter, Emily. This album almost perfect
closes with "The Voice," about a soldier who realizes that he is now at home, out of danger, but still hear the "voice" in his head, indicating his sanity destroyed traumatic experience of war forever.
An album that rises from the simple definition of "music" to touch the heights of true "art", thanks to the strong message that leads with her inspired lyrics and her musical textures that become sound tracks of life experiences. You probably will not find the style singolone "Operation: Mindcrime", but after a slip that "Operation: Mindcrime II", you finally have in my hands the very essence of Queensrÿche, the group capable of upsetting the canons of heavy metal, transcending the condition of mere perpetrators of a genre that now has almost everything you said was worth saying and not just to artists and rising in the round that convey a message to the hard and uncomfortable especially younger generations (mainly in areas of poor ' America) saw the army as a source of support required.
short, Queensrÿche citing the same, the rich stay rich and the poor remain poor.
Band talented? By now you have shown. Band uncomfortable? Definitely. Long live the
Queensrÿche.
Down with the powerful.