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Rating: After the decidedly stupid "review" of Mayhem-Darkthrone, to make up for it to the thousands and thousands of people who loudly demand new daring grammatical evolutions from their favorite scribbler (oh dear, I'm losing my way... so, subject... mmmm yes I would say it's there... at most we add a random one... like "the clay demonstrates being...") here is a new and beautiful review all for you.
Many pointed it out as the album of commercial compromise and a sellout to a decidedly more profitable market, but personally, this Follow the Reaper (a jab at Korn's one) doesn't seem at all inferior to its two predecessors, Something Wild and Hatebreeder.
Even though the riffs are starting to resemble each other a bit too much, if one does not pay excessive attention to this flaw that afflicted, albeit more mildly, even its predecessors, one finds in hand a truly beautiful album, carefully studied in balancing more melodic parts borrowed from some power score with slightly heavier parts, comparable to a Nordic-style melodic death, Swedish or Finnish it may be.
The production is really excellent even if many have complained that it was too good for an album by a band that is supposed to play extreme metal. Unfortunately, the black outbursts of the red debut have practically vanished apart from a few faint traces here and there, for example in the central break of Taste of My Shythe, leaving room for very catchy and easily assimilated solo riffs.
The best tracks are certainly the aforementioned Taste of My Shythe, the duo Mask of Sanity-Northern Comfort, and the hypnotic mid-tempo Everytime I Die, a more than decently successful experiment.
Special notes for the two(!!!) minutes of final solos in Kissing the Shadows, orgasmic, and for the cover.
It is incredible the ability of the Children to make albums with covers the same color as the album... close your eyes... think of a color and for this Follow the Reaper, blue will come to mind, for Hatebreeder green/black, and for Something Wild red.
I recommend this CD to anyone approaching extreme metal for the first time... they won't be disappointed and can soon head towards more challenging horizons... who knows?!?... Iron Maiden ;-)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Follow the Reaper (03:47)
'Death be not proud,
Though some have called thee mighty and dreadful
Thou art not so'
Loosing the war I'm feigning to win
Though I never tried to to strive deep from within.
Life could be beautiful for anybody it's for,
But I'd swear this mothafuckin' shit is rotten to the core.
The portal has been past and it's time to make a turn,
To follow the reaper until the point of no return.
When your blindly death-raying blade
sweeps the griefs and fears away
I cross my heart and hope to die thy freedom will be mine.
Sinking down in the ocean of severe emotions.
Grab a bottle to drink up the pain-relieving potion.
But after all, that got boring too,
So no matter what happens, I couldn't give a damn or two.
The portal has been past till the point of no return.
No more lines to cross, no bridges to burn.
Now when your blindly death-raying blade
swept my griefs and tears away.
I'd never go back to cross that line.
I cross my heart and hope to die
'I was only 21 when I died'
02 Bodom After Midnight (03:43)
Hang on, got to go
Preview what they oughta know
Keep your head down and fucking die
Wake up, rise and shine
Gotta take another pint
Dig heads and watch out for the night
When the sun comes down and the moon gets up in the sky
The battle of the day and the night
Kill, kill, kill, go fuck another one
Candlelight burns in a wood so fine
On a carpet, flying high, take it down to the other side
The way beyond it may lie
When the moon gets up and is rescuing under the night
The reaper is on the other side, let's go
Bodom after midnight
Bodom after midnight yeah
Bodom after midnight
Bodom after midnight yeah
(Solo)
Bodom after midnight
Bodom after midnight yeah
Bodom after midnight
Bodom after midnight yeah
04 Everytime I Die (04:03)
Yea ho
Yea ho
The faint blaze of the candle of my life
Slowly dying like a fire in a pouring rain
No sparks of hope inside
No shooting stars on my sky
On broken wings, no flying high
Another night, another demise
Cadaverous wind blowing cold as ice
You'll let the wind blow out the light
'Cause it gets more painful everytime I die.
Out of strength to fight
I cannot take another night
I cannot take it no more
Lust of light slips through my fingers
Like blood on my arms
Black candle wax has buried me
Another night, another demise
Cadaverous wind blowing cold as ice
You'll let the wind blow out the light
'Cause it gets more painful everytime I die
05 Mask of Sanity (03:58)
I can't waste away, I'm slowly losing my way forever
Better raise your slave for me anymore
Daylight's sin inside, day's growing closer, wait for pain
I cannot wait another night to be alone
Voices are calling me, be my night !, this devil's sigh
Yeah, shadows are tainting me, yeah
I know that only you can render pain
Peace of mind, you run away from me
So make me lose my mask of sanity
I can't waste away, I'm slowly getting my way forever
Better is when I used to be alone
Shattered light's sin in taint, day's growing longer, wait for pain
I cannot wait another night to be with you
Peace of mind, you run away from me
So make me lose my mask of sanity
Peace of mind, you run away from me
So make me lose my mask of sanity
06 Taste of My Scythe (03:58)
'Rip
and cut
and mutilate the innocent
his friends,
and again and again
and on and on'
You make me own my life in hell
My kingdom back to the bound
You say you don't make it alone
Kingdom back to the lord
Falling
I say you too, falling you too, born to die
Come with hate
Come and die
One day I'll face you all alone
Enduring out with wind and ice
It's payback time, it's your demise sought to feel
They'll taste of my scythe
You say my ear, my god who help me, god take yours in shame
Back too low, I want your head on a plate to feel my eyes
Come with me, I want your blood to save it on my eyes
I want you and in the plate to be coming in the sky, sky !
Come with hate
Come and try
One day I'll face you all alone
Enduring out with wind and ice
It's payback time, it's your demise until they feel
Taste of my scythe
07 Hate Me! (04:44)
I was born in ashes of molten hatred
Raised by demons in abodes of the end
The Reaper's scythe I fall upon to light my path
Wrecked by mangled wounds of life
I have become become the resurrection of the Evil one
'Y know that I don't fucking care if I live or die
I need a bishop preaching fire to get away with my sins
I despise everything I see so I don't give a fuck if ya hate me
Ain't got respect for humanity
Never lived or wanted immortality
The Reaper's shadow I fall upon to obscure my path
Every day I'm being battered up until I bleed
You motherfuckas just leave me be
Ya could never give me cure for the pain I feel inside
Led by the Reaper I walk in the night
Show me the way to yer kingdom come
I believe in Armageddon, I've been baptised in alcohol
I'm enbodyment of Antichrist
I'm living for my own demise
08 Northern Comfort (03:48)
You're the one who plays with fire in the night
You're the one who scares people with the scythe
You're the one to tell him to ever live by
You're the lord to shaking all alone
You're alone!
Now you left me out to drop his sight
I wasn't ready for the sunlight to come to my heart
Wooo!
Take me with you, take me far, take me away from the painless soul
Drop the haze, save the skies, Reaper never lies
Now I'am lying on the floor alone
Sweating and shivering, cold right to the bone
Pain is come, control to fall become
For the mad to escape with a bottle from this world
You're far too alive, try back to the sky
I wasn't ready for the scythe, get me down to the trough
Like lightning from the sky
The moon is up with pride
Go listen, take away
Your place for my lying out, being high, come heaven above
Go to hell, we're born to die, take me to the sky
09 Kissing the Shadows (04:32)
Hight above yer shadow smiles at me
Way down below I hear your serenely breathe
I'm running after you throughout
The valleys of tormented souls
Don't you be afraid of me only kissing your shadows
You're so far away, I can your scent
When I carries your shadow
And if you truly want I'll cross the line I'll follow
I'm dreaming my way out from down below
To get wherever you haunting from, I'll go
I'm kissing the shadows you surround me with
To feel my pain vanishing away from me
Your touching the shadows I'm surrounding you with
So together in pease we shall be
I'm running after you throughout
The valleys of tormented souls
Don't you be afraid of me only kissing your shadows...
You're so far away, I can your scent
When I carries your shadow
And if you truly want I'll cross the line I'll follow
10 Don't Stop at the Top (03:24)
You never take the easier way,
while the is blowing straight into your face.
You never make a compromise,
for any trouble that may cross your way.
There's no risk that you're not takin',
not a mountain that's too high,
spread your wings you gonna make it,
to the best time of your life.
[chorus]
Don't stop at the top, (don't stop at the top)
touch the sky before you drop. (the sky)
Don't stop at the top, (don't stop at the top)
touch the sky before you drop. (the sky)
You never make a compromise
Your will has got the power that won't break
You never say never to a challenge
That will come along the way
There's no risk that you're not taking
Not a mountain that's too high
Spread your wings, you're gonna make it
To the best time of your life
[chorus]
Never stop, don't stop at the top !
11 Shot in the Dark (03:38)
Out on the street I'm stalking the night
I can hear my heavy breathing
Paid for the kill but it doesn't it seem right
Something there I can't believe in
Voices are calling from inside my head
I can hear them I can hear them
Vanishing memories of things that were said
They can't try to hurt me now
But a shot in the dark one step away from you
A shot in the dark always creeping up on you
Taught by the powers that preach over me
I can hear their empty reason
I wouldn't listen I learnt how to fight
I opened up my mind to treason
But just like the wounded and when it's too late
They'll remember they'll surrender
Never a care for the people who hate
Underestimate me now
But a shot in the dark one step away from you
A shot in the dark not a thing that you can do
A shot in the dark always creeping up on you
But just like the wounded and when it's too late
They'll remember they'll surrender
Never a care for the people who hate
Underestimate me now
But a shot in the dark one step away from you
A shot in the dark not a thing that you can do
A shot in the dark always creeping up on you
12 Hellion (03:02)
[originally recorded by W.A.S.P.]
Hell-hound, hot leather on your legs
That smokin powder keg
You're riding on is hell-bound
And you're the one they claim
It's going down in flames
You're riding Hades' rails (Hellion)
Hellion - The devil's Hellion child
Hellion - will never have to die
Well child, you're sweatin' and you're stoned
That alcohol you downed
Makes you crazy-
All night, you damn the hurt and pain
And drink the devils rain
It's screaming out your name
Hellion - The devil's Hellion child
Hellion - will never have to die
The Gods you worship are steel
At the altar of rock 'n' roll you kneel
A slave who forever rocks
Is chained in the devil's locks
And slain by the bloody axe I wail
Hellion - The devil's Hellion child
Hellion - will never have to die
13 Aces High (04:28)
There goes the siren that warns of the air raid
Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak
Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne
Got to get up for the coming attack.
Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines
Remove all the wheelblocks theres no time to waste
Gathering speed as we head down the runway
Gotta get airborne before it's too late
Running, scrambling, flying
Rolling, turning, diving, going in again
Running, scrambling, flying
Rolling, turning, diving,
Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Won't you run, live to fly, fly to live, Aces high.
Move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers
Let off a sharp burst and then turn away
Roll over, spin round to come in behind them
Move to their blindsides and firing again
Bandits at 8 o'clock move in behind us
Ten ME-109's out of the sun
Ascending and turning our spitfires to face them
Heading straight for them I press down my guns.
Running, scrambling, flying
Rolling, turning, diving, going in again
Running, scrambling, flying
Rolling, turning, diving,
Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Won't you run, live to fly, fly to live, Aces high.
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Other reviews
By alexi89
The keyboards are more imposing and gothic, reminiscent of the symphonic Nightwish.
Hate Me! may appear commercial to many but is an excellent track with pure Iron Maiden style riffs.
By Scalvencer
"The blend of hard yet melodic sounds is named Melodic Death Metal."
"The peak of intensity is felt... a good listener is completely enthralled, or at least, that’s how it is for me."
