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I'll be honest: I couldn't care less about Fields Of The Nephilim, even more today than yesterday. Have they released a new album titled "Mourning Sung"? It doesn't concern me! I'm not writing these things to "trash" the band and their followers; I've just moved on to other music. I am certainly fed up with "metallic" gothic rock and no longer feel the need for lengthy digressions about Thelema, unusual ghosts, or the "Moonchild".
As they say, I've "changed" and have leaned toward a type of sound darkness that is sparse, minimal, and ruthless. That sound darkness has, in reality, few points of contact with McCoy's current offerings. If today I want to savor dire and gloomy moods put to music, I'll play "Streetcleaner" by Godflesh or "Second Edition" by PIL on the stereo. But, obviously, you probably don't care much about my most recent listens and, suspiciously, you might wonder why I decided to review an album by FOTN if, as already written, I no longer find their offering exciting.
The fact is, yesterday, while skimming through some CDs, I found a copy of this "From Gehenna To Here". Curiously, but also a bit perplexed, I put the disc in the player and... how many good memories!
In this album you won't find any gothic-metal pleasantries or psychedelic diversions (partially confirmed in the third "Elizium"), but you'll encounter a raw, visceral, and rotten goth 'n' roll. No, I'm not talking about a strictly Cramps-like proposition, but rather a sound closer to that of Christian Death, a sound therefore akin to the darkest post-punk and its "batcave" branches.
The good McCoy, as usual, doesn't skimp on vocal excursions in the style of Andrew Eldritch, but, generally speaking, he imposes a lamenting and desperate song.
"From Gehenna To Here" is not, however, an official album!
"From Gehenna To Here", from what little I've gathered, is a compilation including the first two EPs released by our dark-cowboys, namely "Burning The Fields" from '85 and "Returning To Gehenna" from '86. Prominent bass, deep graveyard voice (as already mentioned, halfway between Eldritch and "death rock" style), rock-like dynamism, and a damn saxophone that, from time to time, emits screeching and cutting notes.
THESE Fields Of The Nephilim are capable of delivering moments of sparse darkness! These recordings may be raw and profoundly distant from their more orthodox style, but please, don't touch tracks like "Trees Come Down", "Back In Gehenna", the two versions of "Laura", or the heartbreaking "Darkcell".
A collection that will undoubtedly please the staunchest fans of Fields but, incredibly, will also bring joy to those who have always been skeptical of them.
An extremely valid testimony.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Trees Come Down (06:31)
The war is passed
Now she tells him again
You should fetch the plans
The(?), the(?) you see
Leeway
Like the sun over the closing door
Whispered Caroline, walks down the steps
So feel the pain, feel the pain
The Heathen, the Heathen
Like the Heathen, the Heathen
From the crowd "Come Children of the Called"
And in the sect, they hurry around the closing door
So feel the pain, feel the pain
The Heathen, the Heathen
Like the Heathen, the Heathen
The Heathen...
Like the Heathen
Like the Heathen
God look out for the Heathen
The Heathen...
One more nightmare calling
Across the farthest fields
The night skies are dawning
Takes this much as you
Trees come down
Fall...
There's a girl in a green dress
She's got eyes like fire and lips so tame
She's huddled by the girl who's crying in the red dress
Hunger for life in this dying dying age
04 Laura (03:52)
Tempted white eyes
Blinded by the night
Hollow like the towers
On the inside
Laura's a machine
She's burning insane
Laura's a machine
For a menace in disguise
Behold this night
The four walls are furnished
Now she's alive
No one ever helped poor Laura
She's rabin in ecstacy
She's on the line to cut it all
She's on the line to drop or fall She's
on the line,
Line to fall
People laughing an awful sight
Please leave Laura
'Tis her night
Laura's a machine
She's burning insane
Laura's a machine
From the light of the catherine wheel She
spins from above
Haunted by these times
My European love
No one ever helped poor Laura
She's rabid in ecstacy
She's on the line to cut it all
She's on the line to drop and fall She's
on the line to cut or fall
She's on the line
Line to fall
05 Power (04:09)
Power...
power feeds you long,
loving hours
I can give everlasting power
Flower...
the world opens
you need simple flower
A feeling, a feeling all so sour
Drain me, now drain me
from power
Drain me, now drain me
from power.
Oh, the wide open stench of all - so sour.
I can't give, but I recieve for hours
oh...
Drain me, now drain me
from power
Drain me, now drain me
from power.
Drain it - static from the attic,
attic walls...
Oh...
Drain me, now drain me
from power
Drain me, now drain me
from power.
Drain it - static from the attic,
attic walls...
A power, so somatic
See the heart is burning -
I call it static
(attic walls...)
I need static
so charismatic
You're so tragic -
my love's so manic
(attic walls...)
I have the power
use it, frantic
your body's turned -
I'm systematic
(attic walls...)
See my touch,
Those who cower
drain me of
my breathing hours
(attic walls...)
07 Secrets (03:36)
He rides on the crest of a wave
his anger running out
he acts as if the same way
as I ride across town to town
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I'll forgive you
I'll forgive you
I've seen the hardest men fall
I've seen them crawl
secrets I know where noone can find them
behind the darkened door
I can feel what she wants me to be
I can see the movements she'll make
'cause
I can see
I can see
I can see
I can see
I can see
I can see
I've seen harder men fall
I've seen them crawl
secrets I know where noone can find them
behind the darkened door
darkened door
darkened door
darkened door
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I'll forgive...
I've seen harder men fall
I've seen them crawl
secrets I know where noone can find them
behind the darkened door
the darkened door
the darkened door
the darkened door
08 The Tower (05:42)
She lifts the flowers from the window box
Summer's fouled now winter flocks
She lifts her veil to the morning rain
Wipes her eyes to the summer again
Pearls of dew shimmer on her face
Cut inside she would dream to taste
She knocks her flowers from the window side
They fall to the ground they fall to the ground
Hide away from the raging sun
You hide your love from the fire beyond
Now the woman in an aging form
She's tangled in the bushes tall
Cowering down with head in hands
She cries out loud, she cries out loud
"Seems so cold, it seems so cold tonight.
Seems so cold, seems so cold tonight"
Hide away from the raging sun
You hide your love from the fire beyond
She can't see visions of this force below
Freezes her life through (garbled "in a joke" ???)
She heads to the voice of this rainy day
And it cries like a choir in her mind to stay
It's "Sister hold now, hold now, hold your head
Dream a cloud put out the fire which is your bed!"
She then danced through the kitchen through the force below
And it cries "How fun! But oh so slow..."
Just living, like a dreamless child with hatred
Just living, like a dreamless child with hatred
She's never been quite as cut by life before,
Never been cut by way of life before
Hide away from the raging sun,
You hide your love from the fire beyond
She can't see visions of this force below
Freezes her life through... (garbled "in a joke" ???)
She heads to the voice of this rainy day
It cries like a choir in her mind "Just stay!"
"Sister hold now, hold now, hold your head
Dream a cloud put out the fire which is your bed"
She then danced through the kitchen through the force below
And it cries "Now fun! but oh so slow... but oh so slow... but oh so slow... but oh so slow..."
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