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Rating: There will come a time when the earth will be inhabited by unscrupulous people...
People who do not care about your current well-being, but about your future...
There will be a time when the things that you deem important will cease to be so, due to the Dictators of your actions (or rather Reactions), the impalers of your Ego, the anti-vampires who spit the blood and poison that currently flow through your veins...
It will be a world not anarchic but rather fiercely rigid in an unorthodox scheme, where morality is firmly upheld by laws that only care about breaking, eradicating, amassing...
It is the land that the Strapping Young Lad see as fiercely current in the Far East (or Far West?), in the metropolitan-pedopunk-colored/bleaching Japan that was already envisioned by them in 1997, at the time of the release of this piece of black lava in a circular shape spinning in the frantic stereo.
But that's not the case, Japan has nothing to do with it, despite the artwork and the band's statements, the true Middle Earth, where emotions do not pass through the heart but through the backbone and lower abdomen, exists only in the (oppressive) desire for freedom, both sonic and social.
There is no escape, where City passes, perceptions change, starting with the strictly musical ones; it's not Thrash, but something that uses it; it's not grind or industrial, but frighteningly more emotional and furious; there is no growling or screaming, but lucid bile spilled directly into the eustachian tubes!
There is a portrait of Townsend in the CD's case, exuding Napalm energy from every pore...
Let's not classify it, let's avoid comparisons with the mechanical Fear Factory, the disturbing Meshuggah, the Nine Inch Nails, or the eponymous band of the group's genius leader, but let's turn up the heat and put them all in a large pot, then distill until obtaining 39 minutes mostly of devastating metal_core with super melodic spaces, yet others utterly brain-crushing (listen to oh my F*****g god).
From the first listen, we come out rightfully drained, annoyed, with the CD ending up on the shelf of disappointments...
but then with monthly listens, which will become weekly, which will turn into daily, we will be forced into the "rite of plundering good intentions" daily by these madmen!
Who put the drums in the hands of that ogre Hoglan (ex-Death), probably the most imposing (about 200 kg!) "beater" of skins in the metal scene (not brutal though..), who birthed texts and choirs that are not mere acts of revolt typically Hard core, but that tell of events happening around us and that will happen...the soundtrack of Neuromancer or the wicked Dr. Adder.
Devin Townsend's voice is more eclectic than ever, it seems that the disk among distorted and sometimes confused guitars revolves around him, the drumming as already mentioned is a fantastic and galvanizing roll, a true natural stimulant, keeping rhythms sometimes impossible, but it is not cold, mechanical, rather I would define it as "pulsating".
The songs then keep an extremely high medium level, with an ever-growing momentum (shoot yourself the first four in a row!) then slowing down and delivering a MASTERFUL blow on the seventh track (Underneath the waves), my favorite, which starts at a thousand and then unloads a chorus that gets imprinted in your head and doesn’t leave anymore.
The eighth (and then the ninth) track opens with a somewhat "kabuki" keyboard, and is the most "epic" piece in the setup, we find ourselves in the company of young prostitutes in hotel rooms (room 439) at the mercy of businessmen and bored youngsters; another very appreciated round of the CD.
The production is perfectly fitting and recalls that urban atmosphere to perfection, the only flaw, in my view, is in the choice of the fonts (font and size) for the lyrics, illegible!
But which can be remedied in a thousand ways.
What more to say?
Guys, I like the record (and you’ve noticed it!) and if De-baser's purpose is to spread notes by trusting ourselves and our sonic experiences, this will surely be a bit different from the usual, music from a band that does not like to sectorize, music that refuses strict categorizations, whose intent once again is to convey something, not (only) through words, but with emotions. And not least, the supreme purpose, to entertain.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Velvet Kevorkian (01:17)
I Want To Be Where The Action Is
It's Time Again
We Won't Get A Second Chance
Everything Is Dying
Fuck Sleep, Fuck Beauty, I Know I Have To Make It Alone
It's 2:45 A.M. And I'm Freaking Out
All I Can Think Of Is Glory, And I'm Sitting In Burnaby
At 2:45 In The Fucking Morning
Freaking The Fuck Out
One Month And I'm Gone Forever
Fuck This Once And For All...
And Just Like All Those Bullshit Jobs
I Swore I'd Never Go Back To
I Swear I'll Never Go Back To This Life
Fuck This
Can You Believe This Shit People?
All You Stupid Fucking People
With Your Useless Fucking Lives
And Your Bullshit Priorities
And Your Sick Fucking Wars
And Your Pathetic Religion
And Your Shit Music
And Your Sick Fucking Hate
Bullshit, Sitcom, North American Ignorance
A New Time Is Coming
And We Know You'll Awake In There
Who's Your Daddy?
02 All Hail the New Flesh (05:24)
Hey Man, I'm Going To Fuck This Shit Up
No Fear, No Compromise, I Want It All
I Will Never Be Afraid, And I'll Die For What I Believe
All Of You Assholes Can Stay Rotting Here
I Do No Care, I Will Not Be There
I Have Got To Save Myself
And Don't Tell Me There's No One Else
And All You Are Is All You Are...
I'm So Sorry (For You) I'm Sorry...
So All Hail The New Flesh,
Because It Suits Me Fine...
Just Get Away, You Motherfuck
And We'll Be Back If You Come
For What This Means To Me, You Piece Of Shit...
I'll See You Pigs In Hell
I Just Know Everything's Going To Be O.K.
03 Oh My Fucking God (03:34)
There is no insanity, rather a super sanity
More suited for life at the end of the 20th century
Where everything is art
And everything is trying to express it
Where everything is art
And everything is trying to communicate it...
All intelligent beings sleep the dreaming of dreams
And they've all come up to meet met tonight
Although while in the morning, all their wonder and their
Glory was turned ugly and quite simple
Like a venue when you're loading in gear
Sexuality, eroticism in asexual persuasions
Man or woman, makes no difference in the outcome
No fashion, no tolerance for stupidity or ignorance
..."adidas" or "the arch deluxe"...
And time is now an object
Oh my fucking god...
Oh I'm fucking god...
And I'll dream this into becoming real
And until such time that you can prove me otherwise
I will continue with my agnostic travels
Until I've found a place that dreams with me...
...a place that feeds on my routine
All I want is my mommy...
All I want is my mommy...
All I want is my mommy...
All I want is my mommy...
This is the night that it all changes
04 Detox (05:37)
I've Got A Feeling
With The Wrong People
And I Can't Control My Thoughts
I Wish That I Could Sleep
And Just Get This Over With
...This Is Only High School Bullshit...
I Just Want To Feel
I Was Warned
Absolutley Numb
No Good Around People
Everyone Knows And Watches Me
How Did I Get Here Tonight?
What Am I Doing Here?
How Did I Reach This State?
How Did I Lose My Sight?
I'm Lost ... I'm Freaking
And Everybody Knows ... Everyone's Watching
...So Here's All My Hopes And Aspirations
Nothing But Puke
God, It's So Lonely...
I Just Want To Feel
06 AAA (05:21)
Devy In The Corner Of His Teen Year
Born To Run Away
Children In The Middle With The Village Idiot
So He Never Made The Potty Grade
Now Maybe He Pulled A Little Closer
Cold In A Mousy Way
Boom Boom As They Came A Little Closer
Put A Bolt In The Curse Today
Now Devy Has To Eat It In His Own Way
Broke In A Dirty Way
Boom Boom Is The Beating That I Hear In The Night
But No One Hears, So No One No And No One Fucks With
Me
Devy Wants A Word With The Master
I Got No Need To Run Away
Down On The Road Isn't Easy,
But I Never Would Back Away...
Boom Boom In The Morning With The Night Sounds
No Way To Run Away
Boom Boom As The Boredome Of Monogamy
Hits One More Time...
No One Must Know...
No One Must Know...
No One Must Know...
No One Must Know This Machine...
Devy Got A Taste Of Some Black Shit
Born In Another Way
And It Probably Would Have Been Easy,
But It Never Worked Out That Way
Boom Boom In The Corner With The Well - Soiled
Bound To Amalgamate
Boom Boom As It Kills The Inhibitions
...No More Games
No One Must Know...
07 Underneath the Waves (03:40)
On And On, It's On And On
On And On, It Goes On And On
And No One Knows Why, No One Knows Why
A New Time, With New Ways
New Thought, A New Age
On And On, It's Gone On And On
On And On, It Goes On And On
Say Goodbye! Say Goodbye! Say Goodbye! Say Goodbye!
No One Knows Why, No One Knows Why
A New Time, With New Ways, New Thought, A New Age
I'm Tired Of Waiting
I'm Tired Of Fighting
I'm Tired Of Waiting For Fucking Nothing
I'm Sick Of Lying
I'm Sick Of Trying
I'm Tired Of Waiting For Fucking Nothing
Tired Of Hating, Bored Of Dying
Tired Of Waking From The Dreams Of Morning
Sick Of Trying, Sick Of Whining
Tired Of Waking From The Dreams Of Morning
I'm Tired Of Waiting
I'm Tired Of Fighting
I'm Tired Of Waiting For Fucking Nothing
I'm Sick Of Lying
I'm Sick Of Trying
I'm Tired Of Waiting For Fucking Nothing
They're Underneath The Waves
They're Underneath The Waves
Underneath The Fucking Waves
They're Underneath The Waves
08 Room 429 (05:21)
What you don't understand
Is where everything's needing
When all of the signs you see still point to overload
As you reach out your hand
A shattered vision's receding
Like daylights along that lonesome stretch of broken road
Because you've been to the past
And it's just a reminder
A recollection of faces that will never come to call
When you've cut through the mask
When you've been through the grinder
Sometimes you forget that you had ever been there at all
Up here in Room 429
The world ain't so unkind
I wanna take you to that empty room tonight
In the shadow of doubt
In the crush of an instant
Standing in the rain outside your door, hand on my knife
When you reach a brick wall
There is still a decision
Always though if I had to lose I'd surely take you all
Up here in Room 429
In a world that's so unkind
I wanna take you to that empty room tonight
We'll tell the world outside the door
That we ain't never coming back no more
We're gonna stay in here 'till we turn out the night
The city breathes so softly
Everything is sleeping
I am at the window silently watching
I can see you standing
Alone against the winter
I can hear you asking, but the streets, they are not giving
Don't look to the ocean
Restless in its dreaming
Don't look to the heavens for they will tell you nothing
If living is for learning
Then dying is forgetting
Once we have forgotten then we can go on loving
In a lifetime of hope
In a second of kindness
There is never a doubt that we are born and die alone
From within or without
There's no way they can find us
When they knock at the door, the lights are on, but we ain't home
Up here in Room 429
The world ain't so unkind
I wanna take you to that empty room tonight
We'll tell the world outside the door
That we ain't never coming back no more
We're gonna stay in here 'till we turn out the night
09 Spirituality (06:34)
I'm Right Here Where You Left Me Experimenting
-Bored Out Of My Fucking Mind...
Please Give Me A Sign,
Please Show Me That You're Alive
There Has Got To Be A Better Way
...Another Place For Me
Please, Help Me Please...
You'll Never Be What You Try To Be If You Want To Be It
God Help The King Of Nothing
It's Getting Late
I'm Getting Old
And Every Night I Just Sleep, We Never Talk
And Every Night, I Look In The Sky
And I Pray To God They'll Hear Me...
And If This Is All There Is
...If This Is It
Won't... Won't Someone Tell Me
Because I'm So Fucking Sick Of All You
Stupid People
All You Sick
Stupid People
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Other reviews
By sephiroth
'City' is a musical treatise on schizophrenia... a treatise that should not be missing in any discography.
You can’t remain indifferent from the first listen to this record... mind-boggling DEVASTATION, there are no other words.
By ChaosA.D.
We might say we like Metal for the technique, for the atmospheres... but the real reason we grind our ears with records like "City" is one: to have someone else scream in our place!
Try listening closely to the melodic break in "Detox" or the unsettling advance of "Room 429" and then tell me: it’s all dark and gloomy, with a few flashes of neon lights that make everything more unsettling than ever.
