Stoney

Dude, just because you listen to refined jazz doesn’t mean you have a free pass to be a die-hard Vasco fan: even metalheads listen to Pink Floyd. And then after "Making love is very simple, take it as it is," you Vasco fans really have no more excuses.

Oh how nice, a big black metal band making self-criticism. However, I'm convinced that even if this album had dealt with satanism in a "serious" and "original" way, I would have felt disgusted anyway. The very act of taking everything to the extreme, a characteristic of this genre, is already an unoriginal choice in itself, regardless of what is said in the lyrics. In other words, what I wonder is: is there a way to talk about satanism without being taken for fools? And above all: why talk specifically about satanism and not, I don't know, taoism? Well, I wonder why... I have given myself an explanation, but I don't know, it's up to you.

I understand... but there are millions of "people who bite" on Vasco's nonsense all over Italy. He's the most famous and followed singer, and every piece of crap he churns out is praised by the media as the song of the century. A few days ago, TG1 aired a report on Vasco's latest video, the one with Slash (the song is called "gioca con me"). The star of the video is a model, or rather, the backside of a model (because her face is never shown), and the lyrics of the song are worthy of a maniac in sexual withdrawal for years, with thinly veiled references and brutal double entendres (Vasco singing "you have to take it like this" while making a quite explicit gesture). Now, imagine the most important news outlet in Italy doing a piece like this, with the reporter commenting while the video images roll: "with his new song, Vasco wants to remind us that the most important part of a woman is from the waist down," and analyzing the lyrics as if it were a passage from Petrarch. I mean... either everyone has gone crazy or I'm the one who doesn't understand. Talking about Vasco as a life master... then I don't know, why not do a piece on Rocco Siffredi as if he were the new messiah? These things lower the cultural level of a country that is already in ruins by itself, and I'm sorry but I'm not satisfied with episodes like Baustelle or Afterhours that certainly won't lift its fate.

You’re breaking down an open door. Personally, I think the worst of Linea 77; I heard them once live by chance at the Qube in Rome without knowing who they were, and I thought they were just another bunch from a social center eager to make noise and having zero interest in saying anything sensible. As for Vasco, he’s my anti-myth par excellence: 50 million people convinced he’s a poet without ever having read a single lyric. Millions of fans who, when they go to the concert, only remember “yesssss amazing” and scream “lalalala show us, make us enjoy,” and that’s it. But he is a poet... oh yes... the king of nothing elevated to art, a demonstration of how it is possible to be seen as a seasoned man if, at strategic points in the songs, you drop arcane words like “life,” “love,” “it’s not simple,” “angels,” and connect them with totally random phonemes. Out of 10 Vasco fans, 9 know only the choruses of the singles and have no idea what the songs are about (but why bother asking?), 1 has memorized the lyrics without understanding them but convinced that they must talk about something deep, dismissing the possibility that they are, in reality, just the ramblings of a poor drunken fool. Poor Italy...

I don’t know... if the comparison in Italy is Vasco, it’s obvious that anyone who is original compared to him will stand out. And if you mention Rhapsody, what’s the point? I cannot stand the musical closure we have in our country, even though I believe it’s part of a much broader attitude of closure that involves fields much more serious than music. Staying on topic, however, I think there are unknown groups out there that are a cut above various Baustelle, Afterhours, etc... in short, it’s the same old worn-out story of the market, the lack of visibility for emerging artists, and the like. In Italy, we have Sanremo, which, despite being watched by no one for the last 10 years, continues to air, recording all-time low share ratings every time. That’s why I find it a bit silly, in such a context, to get excited about someone who does something just a little bit outside the box compared to the standard. It’s known that if the standard is zero, anything can seem like something valid.

Gustavo, I don't understand on what grounds your judgment about the artistic validity of Baustelle should somehow be argued through the fact that you listen to Alice in Chains and Faith No More. For that matter, I've met people who graduated from conservatories and play Liszt and Chopin with their eyes closed, yet then declare that they go crazy for Gigi D'Alessio—does this mean that Gigi D'Alessio is a valid singer? Take a look at DeBaser: there are people who listen to Opeth because "they're technical," then in front of an album like Damnation they think, "oh, but here there's no distortion, where's the double bass? Bring back the growl." There are people who listen to Meshuggah because they get off on their convoluted rhythms, without the least doubt about what they might mean. So it's not enough to listen; you also need to understand. I hope I'm making myself clear...

I think power metal is crap, but I have to say that this album is a bit out of the ordinary. Nothing special, yet they manage to evoke the atmospheres of the Silmarillion (which I personally consider one of the most thrilling books ever) quite well and to be epic in an effective and measured way, not out of place as it often happens in power metal (I think of the videos of those who do solos while riding horses). I believe that, compared to other bands that play the same genre, Blind Guardian are a bit more complete and capable musicians, while still staying within the confines of a genre that definitely has its fair share of limits.

But do you read the speeches in full or do you just take out of context the part that suits you?

What a drag with these do-gooders... at the end of every discussion, there’s always the enlightened one who thinks they can fix everything with the phrase "these are just opinions and cannot be criticized." So what the hell is the point of criticism? Why review an album? Perhaps you’re missing a detail: an OPINION is not a random judgment that someone wakes up with in their head; an opinion is always the result of reasoning, however implicit that may be. Opinions about music, in particular, stem from one’s own knowledge and interest in that art. I respect them when I see that those expressing them know what they’re talking about. I can even respect Scaruffi’s opinions when he trashes bands I love, like Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam, on his now-famous site, and I would never dream of sending him offensive comments or accusing him of idiocy, because I don’t think that: he judges based on a criterion he has built over time with interest and depth, and for that, he deserves respect; he is someone who has studied music, and when he analyzes it, he shows consistency, even though his attitude could be criticized on many points. Here, however, anyone who finds a catchy tune played on the radio pleasant shows up and posts a review, and when someone dares to say "but..." all hell breaks loose. Because you see, "taste" is something that can be more or less refined, so if someone comes here to say that the most they’ve listened to is James Blunt or 30 Seconds To Mars, well, call me presumptuous, but I am free to think that their musical taste is non-existent and that they perhaps view music as a pleasant background noise and nothing more, therefore their opinion is the result of a careless and, all in all, superficial judgment. I surely don’t get angry about this because we can’t all be music experts; I don’t consider myself a critic either, but at the very least, accepting that the music one listens to holds much less value than one believes and that there is an unexplored universe where true masterpieces may exist seems to me the bare minimum. Unfortunately, however, here on DeBaser, when you point this out, no one accepts it. Sites like this should serve to listen to different opinions and broaden one’s musical culture; instead, here people post reviews of their favorite albums, gloat over positive comments from others who have the same tastes, and spit on those who think differently. When you tell someone who listens to Vasco that "poetry" in music is something quite different from what they think, they get offended and respond by elevating their personal taste to "niche culture" (a very clever trick that has been spreading in recent years) to be opposed to your "pedantry." If you know something more than the standard, perhaps because you’re interested, and you say it out loud, that’s when you become bothersome; people start to doubt you want to show you’re better than them, and they get angry. And I’m sorry, but I feel free to criticize the opinions of these people across the board, at least until I hear responses with minimally valid arguments rather than the usual mediocre commonplaces.

"My boyfriend RIGHT NOW" is a brilliant expression, really, it conveys a lot. He did well to show you a Muccino movie instead of just telling you.