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Rating: In the early 2000s, NUmetal became the commercial genre capable of giving rise to bands as bland as Linkin Park following the slightly tougher (but certainly not genuinely angry) Limp Bizkit. This phenomenon was followed by the metal scene's re-engagement with mainstream music. So, if in the 90s to see Kamelot (dear God, you must have been a masochist, huh...) you had to end up in Germany, today thanks to the pioneers of commercial metal, you can enjoy Kamelot comfortably sitting on your couch with a beer in hand, watching superrock on MTV (sure, you could do more useful things, like organizing your underwear drawer for instance). Superrock, what the heck!!! Superrock!!!
Superrock, yes... "Super"... well... in reality, it seems that, more than broadcasting genuinely angry music, superrock has come to play melodic tunes for heartbroken fourteen-year-olds who need to prove to their beloved (who will never reciprocate,) that they are tough and angry but have a heart capable of much tenderness and suffering... a marked sensitivity to romantic and decadent atmospheres, and the ability to appreciate mature music rich in "classicisms" (okay, to all the fourteen-year-olds, this isn't metal, it's not rebellious music, and it's not even rock). Looking at the mass media, it seems that the hardest rock music has become a sort of big store where all the products look alike; a warehouse of "disposable" items, where the music for sale is to be listened to for no more than a couple of months, so that one can immediately go back to the "Superstore" to acquire new ones (which, alas, remain colored junk, never genuinely angry).
But in 2000 "Someone" in Los Angeles tried to raise their head, look straight into the eyes of Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Linkin Park, and the like (no, not Slipknot, in 2000 Slipknot were still genuinely angry), and say: "We will try another way, because, seeing the direction the world is heading and how the wind is blowing on the musical landscape, we found ourselves genuinely angry, we’ll see in the end who is right." These "Someone" were Casey Chaos's Amen, with the album, their second: "We Have Come For Your Parents" whose title combined with the photo of kids armed with axes dressed as seminarians, creates one of the most genuinely angry covers in music history of the past 19 years (...no, black metal covers aren't genuinely angry, they are objectively ridiculous... almost always...).
The album unfolds in fourteen tracks that rarely reach four minutes in length, and they all sound, tremendously sincere, and tremendously angry. The typical song structure of hardcore punk bends to considerably heavier and metal riffs. Casey Chaos's vocal expression of anger shakes the listener like a Tyson right hook. Every single track exudes a desire for rebellion, anger, and above all, every single track sounds genuine and sincere. There is no space in the few minutes each song has available, for epicness or melodic choruses (which now sell so many records), only power, speed, and anger. (technique? technique isn’t always necessary...) At the end of the listening session, after forty-four minutes, you will feel like a police officer, sitting on the sidewalk, in underwear, after being overwhelmed by a crowd of enraged teenage girls, the day they cancel a Tokio Hotel concert. (they are genuinely angry, and therefore, genuinely dangerous).
All things considered, it’s true that Amen tried, but they certainly didn’t win their battle against the movement that from the early 2000s to today has turned heavy metal into a rickety bandwagon, suitable for young naive enthusiasts. Maybe the battle was lost from the start, maybe music is not decided by those who play it or listen to it but only by those who produce and broadcast it ("What a discovery," you might say, "You’re right, sorry.", I will reply). This doesn’t change the fact that, if one day you find yourselves genuinely angry and don’t know what to do, because every time you listen to In Flames you picture forty-year-olds in short-sleeved shirts and skater looks, you can always give this little gem a listen.
Genuinely angry.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Refuse Amen (02:45)
I am right When I am right GO!... I remain unused to bleed the menace That remains to fall Don't take no summer vacation That remains to fall We refuse to work in your death camp station We refuse to buy We consume the life of the molested neighbour We're unused I am right When I am right Refuse AMEN Let the pigs die by regulations Cause they're bound to fall Don't pay no humiliation You can die in this truth I refuse to work in your death camp station I refuse to buy I'll be standing here with the molested neighbours You can see it You can feel it, right? When I am right When I am...when I am right Cause your rights have gone until your death confession Rights are gone until your death confession Your rights are gone until your death confession Your rights are gone into your death concession I am right When I am right When I am right When I am right! Refuse AMEN.
09 Ungrateful Dead (03:38)
We live with blindfolds on
To protect our jaded eyes
We live with blindfolds on
To assert our demented lies
To long in this invention
To judge your fucking life
Too long in this infection
This city is paralyzed
This city is paralyzed
This city never lies
This city is paralyzed
This city's SHIT!
Yeah!
We live with blindfolds on
We live with blindfolds on
We're cut from this infection
Cut to a perfect defection
Ungrateful. Unwilling
Untouched by human eyes
Unwanted. Unfitted
Uncut formally blind
We are the city of the dead
We live in the city of the dead
We are born in the beds
Of all the dogs that you fed
Don't believe a word
Because I pray to you
This is as far as you get
Don't believe a word
Because I betray you too
This is the wounds of the dead
This is the city of the dead
This is the city of the...
Go put your blindfolds on
Go put your blindfolds on
Go put your blindfolds on
Don't believe a word
Because I pray to you
This is as far as you get
Don't believe a word
Because I'll take you to
All the wounds of the dead
Don't believe a word
Well I don't believe a word
Don't believe a fucking word
Because I take you to
All the wounds of the...
Dead city...
Ungrateful dead!
Ungrateful dead!
Turn this skin out
Ungrateful dead
We lay torn
In their beds
We lay torn
In their dead
Ungrateful dead
Ungrateful dead
Turn your skin out
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