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Rating: Many mental hand-wringings and a lot of substance. Pills Against The Ageless Ills (see mental hand-wringing) is a concept album about the story of two brothers, one, a Rocco Siffredi ad litteram named Cain, and the other a monk named Fuck (see mental hand-wringing or Casa Fattanza). The first will be executed for the murder of Kurt Cobain, and the second will die in a psychiatric hospital after losing his mind. Original, no doubt about it, and extremely self-ironic. In a very subtle way, it winks at the purist black metal scene from faraway Norway, ridiculing some of its dogmas while simultaneously fraternizing with the circle of pseudo-futurists like Ved Buens Ende, Arcturus, Dodheimsgard, or the elusive Fleurety (if someone has any of their CDs apart from Min Tid Skal Komme which I've already acquired, please contact me). The music presented by this "unusual" duo doesn't stray too far from a hypothetical cauldron resulting from the union of the aforementioned groups. Add a touch of dark-wave, rare glimpses of keyboards from more down-to-earth groups like Cradle Of Filth, and you'll have an idea of 50% of the production branded Solefald. The rest is a mix of anything else you can think of, from rap to reggae, jazz to punk-rock, industrial to... everything. A small encyclopedia of music reviewed through a lens that timidly mocks something definable as black metal. Unfortunately, in Neonism, these nuances were easily audible as if the songs were simple collages where each element remains standalone and doesn't interact to form something new. It is with this PATAI that formal perfection is achieved at the songwriting level. The two elements, Cornelius (guitar/bass and vocals) and Lazarre Nedland on drums and synth (present in proto-Vikings Borknagar as a keyboardist), possess no small amount of musical genius, and it shows. First, they grind our balls with the blast-beat pounding Hyperhuman, deceive us with the heavy and oppressive, almost doom-like, Pornographer Cain, disorient with Charge Of Total Affect which starts with a perfect death/black metal song vibe and then slides into punk-rock (see guitars) to venture into the 70s prog with Hammond organ elements, and chop what's left of our balls with Hate Yourself (doesn't it remind you of someone?) which recalls the Satyricon of Volcano and so on until the "soothing" Hierarch. Cornelius expertly alternates typical black metal screams with normal or theatrical clean parts in the vein of Arcturus and the like, thus supporting the various style changes of the rhythmic session where there is obviously no room for unnecessary virtuosity (see typical phrases from metal reviews). In conclusion, Solefald captivates with their skill and a not insignificant charismatic component that is always pleasant. A recommended album for those who have engaged with black metal or metal in general; it's difficult to recommend it even though it is extremely experimental and avant-garde to those who may have just absorbed Amnesiac. NORWEGIAN PANDA ARE NOT ALLOWED
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Hyperhuman (04:02)
[C:] The next string of lives will know our speed limit
[L:] The next string of lives will do everything to break it
[C:] The next string of lives will deny you a grave
[L:] The next string of lives will regard you as a slave
[C:] The next string of masters will ignore the bills you passed
[L:] The next string of masters will change the order fast
[C:] The next string of masters will not know the earth
[L:] The next string of masters will live alone from birth
The next string of deaths will be yours and mine
The next string of deaths will be blessed with sunshine
[C:] The next string of deaths will be yours and mine
[L:] The next string of deaths will be blessed with sunshine
[C:] The next string of deaths will rewrite the traffic rules
The next string of deaths will illuminate the schools
02 Pornographer Cain (06:04)
[L:] My appartment works fine
No need for locations
It's spacious enough for a camera and some Asians
[C:] At the moment I am working on the Eastern Block
I bet my ladies would love a Serbo cock
[L:] Before shooting the sessions we chill out with a joint
Pump the girls with drugs to make them see the point
[C:] In bonking lousy guys in my stinking cellar
Baby close your eyes if you want your $
[L:] I write the story
I shoot the scene
Sometimes you see me dance across the screen
My critics claim that my movies are for men
What can I say I'm astonished when
[C:] People understand what I am trying to say
To show the world the American Way (x 2)
My appartment works fine
No need for locations
[L:] It's spacious enough for a camera and some Asians
[C:] At the moment I am working on the Eastern Block
[L:] I bet my ladies would love a Serbo cock
[C:] Before shooting the sessions we chill out with a joint
[L:] I'll pump the girls with drugs to make them see the point
[C:] In bonking lousy guys in my stinking cellar
[L:] Baby close your eyes if you want your $
I write the story
I shoot the scene
Sometimes you see me dance across the screen
[C:] My appartment works fine
No need for locations
It's spacious enough for a camera and some Asians
I am working on the Eastern Block
I bet my ladies would love a Serbo cock
Before shooting the sessions we chill out with a joint
Pump the girls with drugs to make them see the point
In bonking lousy guys in my stinking cellar
Baby close your eyes if you want your $
[L:] What can I say I'm astonished when
People understand what I am trying to say
[C:] People understand what I am trying to say
To show the world the American Way [x 2]
07 The USA Don't Exist (04:49)
[C:] Out of the seven classic arts
Rhetoric rises to bust the charts
The master of agony invites you to the Forum
Louder than Romanum's decadent decorum
The bell booms GO! The centurion rhymes
Heroically racing for blood-hungry times
Close to the edge he resists their push
Pure strength saves him from the greedy rush
The race has a goal though very few know where
Mostly officers on the ground and satellites in the air
The star-spangled racers speed into house and home
Today the Americans try to recreate Rome
[L:] Leaves flicker across the boulevard
Way down I see my old retard
He said "Ello ma feren, want a nice place to go?
I fix booze girls burgers floorshow!"
(The old retard tells me:
"Come with me you ain't nothing to lose!"
I refuse the offer I cannot refuse
He hears my no scratches his beard
When Beelzie runs a nightclub times are weird)
[C:] I deny the existence of the USA
Just a fat film with too much to say
[L:] The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
Again I'm pissed
[C:] I deny the existence of the USA
Just a fat film with too much to say
[L:] The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
Again I'm pissed
[C:] Jim is alone and afraid of '67
The summer of love never returned from heaven
The hippies slowly died at the Heartbreak Hotel
Where the Peyote Poet reinvented hell
([L:] Fifteen years later he returned as a YAP)
[C:]Fifteen years later he returned as a YAP
Just to make sure that life was still crap
Down and in need of the drugs that made the fun
He soberly declared I need money and a gun
[C:] I deny the existence of the USA
Just a fat film with a bit too much to say
[L:] The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
Again I'm pissed
[C:] Pornographer Cain haunts from the dead
Sews up Madame with a waxed red thread
The wanderer has found himself a home
Madame hangs as doll in his sexodrome
([L:] It is a man's world and he has seen the need)
[C:]It's a man's world and he has seen the need
For yet another man to do the dirty deed
In Rock 'n' Rollywood our guy's at work
Pushing love shit to some fellow human jerk
[C:] I deny the existence of the USA
Just a fat film with too much to say
[L & C:] The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
The USA don't exist
Again I'm pissed
09 Hierarch (04:57)
[C:] Hierarch of the Great White Brotherhood
Take me as I am as any brother would
This is ritual the man in singlet said
[L:] This is reactive the man in singlet said
[C:] A disaster for the people
Our nuclear show
Is run from above terminated below
Stop the violence I told the man in singlet
[L:] Heal with peace I told the man in singlet
[C:] He waned without trace in the transparent night
Balkanised my sleep to show off his might
Hierarch of the skies and the celestial sites
Hierarch of the truth and the supramental rites
To see is to know
To know is to control
This city is mine the city of my soul
Is it all as it may see or seem
Who directs me through the corridors of Dream
Who runs this planet where students are slain
Who is the head of this Academy of Pain
To the man in singlet, forward my command!
Bring me the answer I desire and demand!
[L:] The Chief is a good man but noone knows his face
Head of the realm of the golden race
[C:] The Chief is a good man but noone knows his face
Head of the realm of the golden race
How can I know that your invisible order
Isn't the idea of some second-rate marauder
That the inmost government just execute a plan
Konceived and kontrolled by some kommunist klan?
There is no coincidence and if there is
That is no coincidence neither is this
[L:] That the inmost government just execute a plan
Konceived and kontrolled by some kommunist klan
[C:] He waned without trace in the transparent night
Balkanised my sleep to show off his might
Hierarchs of skies and celestial sites
Hierarchs of truth and supramental rites
To see is to know
To know is to control
This city is mine
The city of my soul
Is it all as it may see or seem
Who directs me through the corridors of Dream
Hierarch of the skies and the celestial sites
Hierarch of the truth and the supramental rites
Hierarch of the Great White Brotherhood
[L:] Take me as I am as any brother would
[C:] Keep your system clean
And remain where you are
You may not hear the car
That comes from afar
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