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Rating: How can I forget the first time I managed to stay awake in front of the TV past midnight without my mom nagging me as usual. It was to watch ''Sgrang!'' by Losco, a Tmc2 show dedicated to heavy metal in general, worshipped by the older kids in my town. For one reason or another, I hadn't been able to watch it in its nighttime version yet (there were reruns in the afternoon, but with the light and noises, it wasn't the same), and that night seemed to be the right one. I turned off the light. My teenage excitement was akin to that of the first, pimple-covered wet dream that would come in a couple of years. The disappointment was more or less the same.
The videos were the usual hair metal stuff at the end of its run, like Firehouse and Kingdom Come, mixed with the syrupy effusions of bands like Pearl Jam, Extreme, and Skid Row; then, there were the unavoidable Metallica with Enter Sandman, Punkreas, and that big-haired Glenn Danzig who had by then ventured into regrettable industrial paths with Blackacidevil. Well, when there were only 5 minutes left to one o’clock and my mind was imagining the best place to skip school the next morning, the last SGRAAAAANNNNG!!! that interrupted the various video clips came on: there was time for one last song, and the danger it might be Faith No More or Megadeth, whom I saw 20 times a day in heavy rotation, was as likely as, after turning off the TV, having a big wank to close the day more decently. Instead, something I had never seen before started. It was amateur stuff, to say the least, with confused images of a band inside a sleazy pub where people were brawling under a small stage. They were called Entombed, the track was ''Left Hand Path'', and the singer wasn't singing but vomiting incomprehensible words into the microphone. ''What the hell is this!?'' - I mumbled. It was death metal and it was love at first sight.
After that magnificent title track from that magnificent album (undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and influential in metal history), as their work progressed, the leitmotif of the Swedes didn’t change much; it simply evolved, which is inevitable for any form of art. ''Clandestine'', ''Hollowman'', ''Morning Star'', even the latest ''Ten Amendments''. For years, anyone who listened to the epic and poignant solos of Alex Hellid could say: ''yeah, Orcoboia! These guys are always Entombed! Maybe a little more atherosclerotic but they are still Entombed!''. Even in 2003. Even with ''Inferno'', their eighth collection of slaps in the face. But not those jaw-breaking, bread-and-Discharge-like slaps from their early days, which I still get with extreme, masochistic pleasure now. Slaps less visceral, more thought-out, equally lethal, like those (bewildering to many) of ''Wolverine Blues'' a decade earlier. Like those your mom gave you with yellow latex kitchen gloves when you messed up where she just cleaned.
Precisely, ''Inferno''. A title and cover completely predictable. Nihilistic melodies, purely rock attitude; piles of rage and death devastation, structures always and elaborated, far from banality. The furious march of ''Incinerator'', the monolithic refrain of ''That's When I Become a Satanist'' and the tradition of ''Young&Dead''. Hence, Inferno. The massive and sludgy doses of stoner and doom, with slowed tempos and leaden atmospheres, the opener/single ''Retaliation'' or the claustrophobic notes of the following ''Descent Into Inferno'' (and where else...) and ''Children of The Underworld'', even the sweet piano-instrumental intermissions of ''Intermission''. Some have called it death'n'roll.
That night, after that mystical vision, I definitively understood the importance of that rectangular thing called a VCR and how you could use it to great profit (looking back now it seems prehistoric, damn!). But above all, I discovered a band (and consequently a genre) that I still proudly carry in my little steel heart.
And then they say TV is useless for kids...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Retaliation (03:55)
Won't fight this growing fever
Ask myself how much I really need her
Put all my trust in liquor I just can not help but always bicker
Anticipation
A growing desperation
Retaliation
Leave me a light on
Can't stop anticipating
Ask myself how long I've been here waiting
Time spent I'm going nowhere
Don't know if I can keep sinking lower
Anticipation
A growing desperation
Retaliation
Leave me a light on
02 The Fix Is In (03:14)
I was around
When god was a boy
Now, I was the one
Who stole his favourite toy
Pharaoh of fraud
Now look at your goddamned king
I take all being
And render it nothing
You know-That the war is on
You know-That it can't be won
You know-That the fix is in
You can't have the good guys win
The fix is in
Take on the throne
And make it your own
I said, take on the throne
And make it your own
You know-That the war is on
You know-That it can't be won
You know-That the fix is in
And you know that I always win
You know-The good guys lost
You know-War is high on cost
You know-You cannot win
And you know the fix is in
Heretic at the stake
Let the motherfucker bake
You know-That the war is on
You know-That it can't be won
You know-That the fix is in
And you know that I always win
You know-The good guys lost
You know-War is high on cost
You know-You cannot win
And you know that I always win
11 Flexing Muscles (04:00)
Flexing muscles
All pumped up
I'm showing off
Testosterone
Male masculine icon
Athletic godlike clone
Oiled skin shinning
I enjoy what I see
Greek god superman
Full of testosterone
Male masculine icon
Athletic godlike clone
My system is full of steroids
I don't care if it fucks with my head
Growing harder as I watch myself
Jerking off while flexing
My body is perfect and pure strength
Blood pumping hard in my veins
How easy it could be
To smash your head in with a single blow
I'm gods gift to women
The ideal man
I'm building perfection
You envy the way I am
12 Skeleton of Steel (03:06)
There are times
We forget to think
Years of oblivion
Seems like eternity
There are times
We get lost
Forget to believe
In humanity
Souls seem to quiver
The world's about to collapse
We got every cell on stand-by
Waiting for relapse
There are times
Can't hold it together
Everything
Turns out wrong
There are times
We're fighting wars
It's damn hard to get along
Flesh growing weaker
Legs don't seem to stand
We got every cell on stand-by
Waiting for command
We know that our death will be soon
It's what we achieved with our daily gloom
No hope for the future in this concrete room
We're now aware that this is our doom
So if this is real
I better kneel
I'm doing my part
Cuz everything that's left of me
Is a skeleton of steel
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