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Versione 1
Rating:
The musical encoding of the concept of powerless rage is "Strap it On" by Helmet.
Anger, despair, alienation.
WHAM! Ten seconds, then "Repetition" explodes: the repetition is that of the muted riffs, and each is a stabbing blow to the side soaked in acid.
"Strap it On" is running a hundred miles per hour through the city under a red-tinted sky, without concerning oneself with others: expressionless fish.
The relentless march of "Rude," the hallucinated structures of "Sinatra," worthy of the last Goya, the lucidly mad fury of "FBLA": self-obsessed, try to kill, you're so DEPRESSED!
Mengede and Hamilton distort the guitars beyond belief: a lava flow, a tentacular fluid that pervades; dense, relentless. Experiencing the beginning of "Blacktop" is like being overwhelmed and buried by asphalt.
"Distracted" is perhaps the flagship of the album: the beginning is brutal, the continuation is a deadly trap, a crushing clockwork mechanism. A heaviness that Helmet will never contemplate again.
"Make Room" only confirms that John Stanier is one of the most talented drummers in the world: powerful, impeccable, expressive. Just what's needed for a composer who demands somersaults.
I've read criticisms of this composer's vocal performance, the genius Page Hamilton; for me, this performance couldn't have been better. The exhausted, desperate screams of "Rude": SAY COMPLETE... SAY SYCOPHANTIC! Growls that introduce a tail that leaves no escape: it's not dark, it has nothing to do with darkness, DAMN IT, it's just that it's over, resisting is useless; this seems to communicate the anthological ending of the track. Not to mention the concluding "Murder": NO ONE IS SAFE!!!RUAAAUAAAAARGGGH!
Holy truth, especially in America. Page's explosion seals a masterpiece of Post-hardcore/Noise, of incalculable influence.
Let the walls tremble...
Eighty reviews; and that's enough.
Goodbye, this time for real.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Repetition (03:02)
Admire myself
Pass offers of great sex
No threat the evil goes
Gone
Pig Fuck your eyes wide
Once lead, gone shy
Not a thing in common
She looks just like a boy
Boy
02 Rude (04:15)
Dragged behind someone like habit
Say complete, say sycophantic
Rude
Suffocate won't let you breathe
Could be worse I might never leave
Rude
03 Bad Mood (02:17)
It's no bad mood
It's a look you thought might kill but
You knew better
Wake up cold
Do you know you're not dead
Make the same mistake
You've lost your head
Rearrange events again
Let them suit your next complaint
Self-absorbed
You're all wrapped up
So deep inside
Just think bland thoughts
04 Sinatra (04:33)
I can't move her
Obsessed with protection
This is a bad idea
She needs affection
What, me?
Drive around town forced to talk
Pass that church again
Where's a parking spot
It's Sinatra's world
She just lives here
I hate everything as much as
I hate me
What's the best for me?
She doesn't see me
I don't care
Just move around some and
Fix your stare
I had more fun
Took half the time
Cost three bucks, buy a magazine
What's the best for me?
05 FBLA (02:42)
Sympathetic
The angry and young
Fellowship did stress virile and
So well hung
Down and right
Did it wrong
Self-obsessed
Time to kill you're so depressed
Presence that won't
Complicate
06 Blacktop (03:23)
Your self control might be a muscle spasm
New direction isn't everlasting though
Grope for straws you've got to plan
This week
Then the crutch dissolves
When she walks too sweet
Ration of blacktop on the slope of
Nowhere
Came out to greet the unresponsive
Stare
Turn green with envy over something
You missed
You didn't know what when you
Fell down in it
Walk on top, you run beneath
The blacktop spreads
The blacktop spreads
07 Distracted (03:14)
Consolation don't account for it
Healing helpless want to look
Like this
Bet distraction whips it out of you
Pay to see it suck you down
There too
Don't walk
One fuck now boost my self-esteem
One weak not a word sounds comforting
Beg forgiveness started back again
One for me said dig it deep
And then...
You walk
08 Make Room (03:30)
Embrace the motivation goes
Passed off as unintentional
One look showed you had to think
Eat this and say it doesn't reek
Right
Make room you come with open arms
Talk fast before the greeting starts
Incensed you know you need t know
Whose scene you made you didn't though
Sad
Taste of the month
Voice for the cause
Make room you come
With open arms
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Other reviews
By birobiro
"Strap It On" is a sequence of feedback planned into noise that forms an impenetrable wall in which one can drown.
There is no melody, there is no light suddenly turning on, there is no lifeline to cling to. Only darkness.
