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Rating: Why have all (or almost all) of the late Carcass's albums been reviewed on Debaser, except for "Swansong"? Why was this album panned by critics and the band's loyal fans? What's wrong with it? Putting aside rhetorical questions, the fact remains that the work I'm about to review has met with widespread disapproval, which I consider unjust and (why not) short-sighted. Indeed, this LP was experienced by all fans as a shameful betrayal as it ventures into new territories, offering a sound much more laden with melodies than they had ever done in the past: as a result, the attempt to obliterate it (yes, I admit, the Anglicism is a quote from Napalm Death) by the bewildered crowds. What I'd like to point out to our friends from the "show-off metalheads" category is that Carcass had already accustomed us to their flip-flops and that, moreover, the quality of the product is not inferior to that of the previous ones. How could you forget that it was precisely them, who invented Grind, that in 1991 they released "Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious," a manifesto of Death metal, and that still they in 1993 released "Heartwork," which already had little to do with Death. Why be surprised if in 1996 (after a year from the end of the recordings) they thus released this "Swansong," which offers metal-rock, played well to boot? However, I don't just want to refer to those who know this CD, so I will speak of it briefly.
The album is composed of twelve songs, as already mentioned, much more melodic compared to the band's standards: don't expect a Swedish-style Melodic Death album because otherwise you're way off track. In fact, "The Swan Song" is very similar to violent rock and maintains only the guitar distortion and Jeff Walker's unmistakable singing (also on bass) from metal. The lineup appears maimed since Ammot (guitarist) had left the band in favor of Arch Enemy (and here I prefer not to comment): to be fair, his absence is not felt so much, and Steer (the other guitarist) proves to know how to handle it excellently on his own. The guitar lines are, as usual, very powerful without giving up the melodic component, present without exception in all the songs: it's highly appreciable that the riffing, while tied to much softer and rock-like sounds, does not lose the complicated structures of their original genre. The result is an intricate rock that breaks the clichés of the genre and becomes, for once, something interesting and musically more fertile; it is not indeed the classic brash and dissolute hard rock, but a heavy, highly considered, and almost reflective rock. Paradoxically, it has analogies with an album from the same year, even though belonging to a very different genre, "Load" by Metallica. Of course, this album is heavier, but the mood recreated, between decadence and anger, is very similar: another point of contact is the sounds (making the due proportions), which are never too dark and oppressive yet not serene and light-hearted. The drumming, like the guitar patterns, tries to adapt the Death metal component to decidedly soft songs, resulting in an original outcome where technique is weighed and creates a very interesting structure. The bass, however, becomes more static and less incisive, but Walker does not disappoint, and with his raspy, dirty voice, he gives the whole that bit of aggression that keeps it far from accusations of softness.Excellent production, full, rounded, and very suited to the type of music played.
Apart from the musicians' technique, flawless even if not overly virtuosic, I don't understand how one could lay charges against an album with songwriting like this: the compositions are crafted with great wisdom, bringing together riffs born of a fervent mind and not giving up a significant impact feeling. Songs like "Room 101" with their disenchanted and cynical progression leave no doubt about the album's emotional charge: the lyrics are no longer the trivialities of pathology manuals, they are scornful and resigned visions of a crumbling world that Carcass has chosen to express with melody instead of violence. What I mean is that one should not stop at judging music as such but at what it evokes: and under this perspective, the three Englishmen have not deserted, quite the opposite. Surely there is no longer the headbanging impact of the early works, but this is not a valid reason to renounce "Swansong," which, although no longer Death metal, remains a good CD.
This is an album that can either be liked or leave one perplexed, especially for those familiar with the band's early works: I certainly belong to the former category and see in it not only a valid product but also an easy way to approach the world of Death. The idea of blending rock melodies with metal elements may be criticizable, but the result is good.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Keep on Rotting in the Free World (03:40)
The threads of global fabric are untied
The role of the western free world is in decline
Still free to consume, free to breathe
Free to exist, free to dream, your life of dreams
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Consumer or consumed, your life is cheap
Economic salvation in sweatshops returned from the east
Despair the only quality of strife
A reason for existence if you can afford the price,
If your price is right
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
One day maybe, keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping, keep on dreaming
Keep on rotting, keep on hoping
Whilst in the real world you...
...Rot!!!!!
02 Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody (04:17)
Your kingdom is of emptiness
Invisible empire of illusion
There's no majesty in your empty words
Your ideology - self delusion
Revisionism is the future
So let's hail the same old dawn
Kneel before the same old order
You're no kings - only pawns
You're waiting for tomorrow, well tomorrow never comes
Ha, you're waiting for your new dawn, so sad to say there isn't one
Because, tomorrow belongs to nobody
Tomorrow - belongs to nobody
You're waiting for tomorrow, well tomorrow never comes
Ha, you're waiting for your new dawn, so sad to say there isn't one
You fools tomorrow belongs to nobody
Tomorrow - belongs to nobody
03 Black Star (03:28)
3. Black Star
[Walker/Regadas]
BLACK STAR, JEWEL OF THE NIGHT,
BLACK STAR, BURNING BRIGHT,
MAGNIFICENT SUN, A BEACON BURNING,
FIVE POINTED COAL, A GUIDE ETERNAL,
BLACK STAR, FIVE POINTED COAL,
BLACK STAR, THE COSMIC SOUL,
SHINING OPAQUE, CELESTIAL FURNACE,
GLITTERING DARK, A SUN IN MOURNING,
BLACK STAR, WHERE LIGHT NEVER SHINES,
BLACK STAR WON'T YOU BE MY GUIDE?
A DEAD SUN FOR WHERE THE LIGHT NEVER SHINES,
SHINE ON...
TWINKLE, TWINKLE BLACK STAR,
SHINE ON...
BLACK STAR, DARKEN THE SKIES,
FOREVER BURN, NEVER TO DIE,
AN EBONY FLAME, A SUN INFERNAL,
NEMESIS OF THE NIGHT, MY OWN DARK ANGEL,
BLACK STAR, JEWEL OF THE NIGHT,
BLACK STAR, SO CRUEL, SO BRIGHT,
A GLORIOUS SUN, WITH WARMTH SO HEALING,
GLITTERING DARK, A SUN IN MOURNING,
BLACK STAR, WHERE LIGHT NEVER SHINES,
BLACK STAR WON'T YOU BE MY GUIDE?
A DEAD SUN FOR WHERE THE LIGHT NEVER SHINES,
SHINE ON...
TWINKLE, TWINKLE BLACK STAR,
SHINE ON... BLACK STAR
04 Cross My Heart (03:33)
4. Cross My Heart
[Walker/Steer]
YEAH, CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE,
IT WILL ONLY END IN TEARS, EYE FOR AN EYE,
FOR AN EYE,
IF BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP,
THEN THANKFULLY I AM BLIND,
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE,
CROSS MY HEART, COME CROSS THE LINE,
WON'T YOU BE MINE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE?
PUT ME ON A PEDESTAL, I'LL PUT YOU ON A SLAB !!!!!
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE,
COME, LET'S CROSS THE LINE,
THERE'S A FINE LINE, BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE,
LET'S TEAR IT APART,
CROSS MY HEART, AND HOPE TO DIE,
CROSS MY HEART, COME LET'S CROSS THE LINE,
TIME IS NO GREAT HEALER, QUICKLY THE SENSES NUMB,
COME CROSS MY HEART, VOID AND NULL,
LOVE IS A WEAKNESS, LUST CONQUERS ALL,
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE,
WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?
THERE'S A FINE LINE, BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE,
LET'S TEAR IT IN TWO,
CROSS MY HEART, AND HOPE TO DIE,
CROSS MY HEART, COME LET'S CROSS THE LINE,
LET'S TEAR IT APART.
06 Room 101 (04:35)
Don't claim to be a prophet
Don't claim to read the stars
But I can see a future
Mapped out in scars
Look to the skies
Keep praying to your gods
Your only salvation
Will come in the shape of the bomb
No clockwork orange
The doom watch ticks
There's no second coming
Only final conflict
Blind pessimism?
Only time will tell
The cold hard reality
Is that this world had gone to hell
And this is where I belong
In my room one zero one
As I sit here all alone
In my own private year zero
These numbers branded
Embedded in the mind
How can your herald a future
When it's already arrived?
Keep looking to the skies
Keep waiting for your lord
You fools there's no second coming
To redeem you all
And this is where I belong
In my room one zero one
As I sit here all alone
In my own private year zero
Don't claim to be a prophet
Don't claim to sight the stars
But I can read the future
In anguished mental scars
I have no faith
In anything that you hold dear
The future is ours
Only in sweat and tears
And this is where I belong
In my room one zero one
As I sit here all alone
In my own private year zero
And this is where I belong
In my room one zero one
As I sit here all alone
In my own private year zero
07 Polarized (04:01)
Don't want your number
Don't want your name
Don't want your colour...
Don't want your politics
Don't want your cause
Don't believe what you believe
Don't want to wear your emblem
Don't want your cult or sect
Don't want your faith
Don't want your respect
Don't want your love
Don't want your praise
Don't want your stupid fashion
Don't want your phase
Polarized - tell me what colours do you wear?
Your beliefs, polarized
I just don't care for what you care
I just don't care for what you care
Polarized - tell me what colours do you wear?
Your beliefs, polarized
I just don't care for what you care
Don't want your number
Don't want your name
Don't want your colour...
Don't want your politics
Don't want your cause
Don't believe what you believe
Don't want to wear your emblem
Don't want your cult or sect
Don't want your faith
Don't want your respect
Don't want your love
Don't want your praise
Don't want your stupid fashion
Don't want your phase
Polarized - tell me what colours do you wear?
Your beliefs, polarized
I just don't care for what you care
Polarized - tell me what colours do you wear?
Your beliefs, polarized
I just don't care
08 Generation Hexed (03:47)
Lost forever a whole generation of pathetic lost souls
With no meaning of depth they're already dead, before it gets old
Anonymous, blank no individuality, uniformed
A wholesale banket identity, from the day that they're born
Another generation to mourn
What choice for a new generation?
Another generation under sedation
Flocking like sheep the instinctual herd, as fashion dictates
Primitively seduced commonly reduced, resigned to their fate
Another useless faceless degeneration like the one which precedes
Acknowledging a bleak existence, to be spent on it's knees
The pattern it seeds
What choice for a new generation?
Another generation under sedation
Generation hexed
Just another useless generation
...Hexed
Trapped together another wasted generation is sold
With no meaning, of depth they're there to be bled
Never breaking the mould
Anonymous, blank no individuality, misinformed
A wholesale blinkered non-entity, on it's knees born
Another generation to scorn
What choice for a new generation?
Just another generation under sedation
Self suppressed
Generation vexed
Self oppressed
Just another generation hexed
What choice for a new generation?
A generation vexed
Still no choice for a new generation
Just another generation under sedation
Generation hexed
Just another useless generation
Generation hexed
Just another wasted generation
...hexed
09 Firm Hand (05:22)
Firmhand, iron fist, an ardent dexterous weeding process
Overlord with a strong grip, viral containment, a harvesting grid
Firmhand - unnatural selection is applied
Firmhand - the final solution, eugenocide
Hate is the law, love under will
Hate is their law, love under will
Transfusing, contagion breeds
Multi-cultured epidemic is released
Held firm, crushing grasp
A painstaking, callous, arduous task
Firmhand - indiscriminate selection is applied
Firmhand - the final solution, eugenocide
Hate is the law, love under will
Hate is their law, love under will
With slight of their firmhand
And deviancy is cleansed
Firmhand - unnatural selection is applied
Firmhand - the final solution, eugenocide
Hate is the law, love under will
Hate is their law, love under will
With slight of their firmhand
With the might of their firmhand
With slight of their firmhand
And deviancy is cleansed
10 R**k the Vote (03:52)
R**k The Vote Lyrics
Hands in another's pocket
The bed they make
Is not the one in which they lie
The same old faces
The same old establishment
The same old lies
Cross your 'x'
It's your only voice
Do as you're told
Stay in line
Don't rock the boat
And buy what you're sold
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're told
No dissident voices
The faces merge
Are one, absolute
A comfortable, privileged
White over belly
Revolution
No threat, no change
No gain, just pain
The same old scheme
No hope, no choice
No future, no voice
This is no pipe dream
All is not what it seems
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're told
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're toldIs this rock'n'roll or a form of state control?
Is this really rock'n'roll?
Or a form of state control?
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're told
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're told
Believe the lie
The lie that you're told
Doing fine
Just do as you're told
Is this rock'n'roll or a form of state control?
11 Don't Believe a Word (03:57)
You should never take too literally what you read
Misinformation, distortion, make belief
Fabrications, half truths implied
Misquotations, out of context and lies
"I promise to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but..."
Lies - you believe them all
Lies - you swallow them whole
Lies, lies, half truths misinformation and...
Lies - you believe them all
Lies - you swallow them whole
Lies, lies, half truths misinformation and...
...lies
Fact and fantasy united as one
Real power stems from the barrel of a pen
Living memory can easily be erased
The pen is mightier than the sword
Yet with no blade
"I promise to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but..."
Lies - you believe them all
Lies - you swallow them whole
Lies, lies, half truths misinformation and...
Lies - you believe them all
Lies - you swallow them whole
Lies, lies, half truths misinformation and...
12 Go to Hell (03:21)
[Walker]
SOME PEOPLE AREN'T CUT OUT TO BE SAINTS,
AND SINCE I WAS BORN IN ORIGINAL SIN,
HEDONISM HAS A CERTAIN ATTRACTION,
I THINK I'LL CUT THE CRAP, CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN,
AND GO TO HELL,
I'VE SOLD MY SOUL, SO WHEN MY BODY GOES COLD,
I'LL GO STRAIGHT TO HELL,
GO TO HELL,
WON'T YOU BE TOLD?
I'VE SOLD MY SOUL,
GO STRAIGHT TO HELL
YOUR PARADISE DOESN'T SOUND TOO FETCHING,
IT'S NOT ONLY YOUR SOULS WHICH MUST BE LOST,
"HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE",
YEAH, TOO RIGHT, MY HELL IS YOU,
THE SINS OF THE FLESH SOUND SO APPEALING,
SO LET ME WALLOW IN MY GUILT,
YOUR HELL WILL BE MY HEAVEN,
SO LET'S TURN UP THE HEAT, LET ETERNITY BEGIN,
AND GO TO HELL,
I'VE SOLD MY SOUL, SO WHEN MY BODY GOES COLD,
I'LL GO STRAIGHT TO HELL,
C'MON,
LET'S GO TO HELL,
WON'T YOU BE TOLD?
I'VE SOLD MY SOUL,
GO STRAIGHT TO HELL,
LET'S BURN IN THE FLAMES, YEAH!!!!
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