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Rating:
That the human soul is a Janus where one face laughs at the other's crying is said by works like "Book Of Shadows"; the only work attributed directly to Zakk Wylde reveals its deepest and most melancholic side, which in my opinion is the truest and most sincere.
Not a work contaminated by his usual thrash registers, deadly solos, and riffs, but an immensely heartfelt album where ballads and acoustic moments dominate almost all 50 minutes. The whole atmosphere of the album is completely marked by an intimate and dark flavor; the inner images of the artwork are very eloquent in this regard; above all stands out a Manichaean and Mazdeist conception of existence; in a mystical and dark background like the blackest of nights, two opposing images reign; the demon and the virgin, absolutely revealing expressions of the "part" of the soul expressed by Zakk in this album.
It is as if the demonic angel from New Jersey wants us to reflect on the absolute duplexity of situations and (in this case) of his songs; evil is simya Dei; endowed with its own cherubs, gendarmes, sacristans, ministers, or simply ordinary men, it shines with brilliance even without virtuosity. Moreover, in the "iconographic" background of the most particular images of the CD, there are even more picturesque references to this idea; among all, I was struck by an 18th-century image representing the legend of Tartini's Devil's Trill; Mephistopheles who "grants" in a dream to the Italian violinist the most beautiful litany that has ever been played with a violin: too bad that upon waking, the musician will spend sleepless nights in the vain attempt to transcribe it just as he dreamed it, but he only manages to propose a pale remnant of what his ears had "heard" in the other dimension…
Must the beauty of these songs justify itself in the same way? Hard to say, but certainly, this "Book of Shadows" is a complete, linear, and truly disarming work of intensity, where a musician with a damn southern heart shelves his immense guitar skills to "compress" them in favor of songs where the masters are the acoustic guitar, piano, and harmonica (needless to say, except for drums and bass, here Zakk is a multi-instrumentalist). The heavy moments are reduced to the bone, and the deadly solos are simply hinted at here and there; the electric guitar lines, instead, where they erupt do so almost without "interfering," but rather perhaps granting the song that extra value impossible to a "normal" musician. In any case (and this is the really important thing), even without the expression of that superior technique, almost all the songs on this CD retain their beauty intact, because unlike many "guitar heroes," Zakk's goal is not "amazement" but to put his deepest emotions to music; that this is done by one of the greatest guitarists in the metal scene is almost a "detail" on an album like this; its beauty, a bit like female beauty, immediately persuades the human soul of its own accord.
It is truly difficult to isolate the best moments of this album because almost every piece of it is permeated by an evanescent dreamy, surreal, and intimately melancholic background. From this point of view, the most "felt" moments are undoubtedly "Too Numb To Cry," the sweet "I Thank You Child" dedicated to his "Zakkino," or the opener "Between Heaven and Hell," a moment that is certainly the album's most country; specifically characterizing it is the use of a very particular guitar technique, absolutely foreign by itself to the metal world and belonging to country music; I'm referring to the so-called chicken pickin, a playing style very similar to that of Albert Lee, one of Zakk's reference artists.
We must not forget that almost the entire album is permeated by very West-Coast melodies, from the 70s. However, there are not only "Neil Young" moments in this "Book of Shadows": despite the persistence of the melancholic stance, the six-string master of the album is still one of the best metal guitarists. And so the recourse to the minor pentatonic scale performed with alternate picking creates the "usual" (and distinctive) unexpected attack in what I think are the most beautiful songs on the album: I am referring to the superlative triptych "Sold My Soul, Road Back Home, and Way Beyond Empty": three semi-acoustic ballads "electrified" by a goosebumps-inducing acrobatic coda.
A separate mention should be made for "1000 Miles Away," where amid sounds very close to 'Soundgarden' or even more to 'Alice in Chains'; it is, however, the album's most truly metallic piece; nestled in a hyper-galactic guitar progression, it reminds us that the six-string in this album is not played by human hands… .
A musical synderesis, a perfect alchemy of melancholy flavored with the most sublime (and at the same time discreet) technicalities; this is "Book of Shadows"; listen without considering who plays and sings it… it will occasionally remind you of itself… .. When an artist technically so endowed manages to convince simply by melody, almost shedding his talents, then in my opinion, one can truly begin to touch the musical empyrean…
Dedicated to the shining memory of Syd Barrett; goodbye, unaware piper from whom it all began… .
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Between Heaven and Hell (03:25)
Dying to live, living to die
Ain't no hellos here, nothing but goodbyes
It's like singing a song that cannot be sung
It's like having to end, child,
what's yet to have begun
(Chorus)
Hey, hey, hey now
Where I am at times I just can't tell
Hey, hey, hey, now
I'm lost somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
All that you know and all that you knew
In the end, child, tell me what's it all mean to you
Don't forget just who and where you are --
You can spread your wings son
But don't you spread yourself too far, yeah
Hey, hey, hey now
Where I am at times I just can't tell
Hey, hey, hey, now
I'm lost somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
03 Road Back Home (05:48)
I look around I see that time ain't changed
Same old faces, Same old names
All the things we thought we knew
You lied to me & I lied to you
(Now) All this time
You never sympathize
All this time
I can't find my way back inside
What you give is what you get
But you drew the line on me baby
Tears falling free but you can't see (child)
I'm just a touch away baby
Chorus
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home (oh-yeah)
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home, back home
The pain blew in like a hurricane
Stranger in this town bearing your name
Trapped in the silence with my memories
It's cutting me deep & its tellin' me
All this time
You never sympathize
All this time
I can't find my way back inside
Going nowhere & I'm headed there fast & I
don't mean maybe
The light is getting low & my touch is growing cold
Oh just hold me baby
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home (oh-yeah)
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home, back home
Guitar Solo
What you give is what you get
But you drew the line on me baby
Tears falling free but you can't see (child)
I'm just a touch away baby
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home (oh-yeah)
Tell me where am I now (oh-o)
Why, where & how
Show me the road back home, back home
04 Way Beyond Empty (05:25)
If I could I surely would
Child ease your pain
But if I could no longer
Would you still know my name?
If I couldn't drain the tears
That pour from these eyes
Would you turn your back on me
Would you wave goodbye?
Or leave me way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my last day to arrive
Way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my end to arrive
If I couldn't be the shoulder
Which your head would rest upon
Would you still be waiting
Or would you be gone?
If I couldn't keep the smile
Forever on your face
Would I still be around
Or would I be replaced?
(Yeah)Way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my last day to arive (yeah)
Way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my end to arrive
(And) Would you promise me
Things they'd never change
Could you promise me
That things they'd stay the same?
If I couldn't clear the clouds
From over your head
Would you keep your word to me
Amongst all the things you said?
Or leave me way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my last day to arive (yeah)
Way beyond empty inside
Awaiting my last day to arrive
Oh yeah child!
Más que vacío
Si pudiera calmar tu dolor
Lo haría con seguridad nena
Pero si no pudiera
¿Aun así sabrías mi nombre?
Si no pudiera llorar estas lágrimas
Que salen de mis ojos
¿Me darías la espalda?
¿Me dirías adiós?
¿O dejarme más que vacío por dentro?
Esperando a que mi último día llegue
Más que vacío por dentro
Esperando que llegue mi final
Si pudiera ser el hombro
En el que descansara tu cabeza
¿Seguirías esperando (mamá)
O te irías?
Si no pudiera mantener la sonrisa
Por siempre en tu rostro
¿Te quedarías conmigo?
¿O me reemplazarías?
(Sí)
Más que vacío por dentro
Esperando a que llegue mi último día
Más que vacío por dentro
Esperando mi final
Oh-o
Oh-o-o-o
Oh-o
Oh-o-o-o
¿(Y) Podrías prometerme
Que las cosas nunca cambiarán?
¿Puedes prometerme,
Que será todo igual?
Si pudiera quitar las nubes
Que están sobre tu cabeza
¿Mantendrías tu palabra
Sobre todas las cosas que has dicho?
¿O me dejarías más que vacío por dentro?
Esperando a que llegue mi último día
Más que vacío por dentro
(oh-o-o)
Esperando mi final
¡Oh sí, nena!
06 What You're Lookin' For (05:31)
We were friends
Yet never all that close
Two different people, lord
I guess, yeah, I suppose
Well I could see by the lines on your face
So much on your mind
Searchin' for someone, anyone, something to treat you kind, oh yeah
(Chorus)
I hope you found what you were lookin' for
'Cause I haven't seen your face around here no more
When did life become a chore?
When was it that you couldn't take it anymore?
With nothin' above you and nothin' below
Couldn't cure the need for somewhere else to go
I just hope ya found what it was,
what it was you were lookin' for
Sweep all your fears
Beneath the rug there on the floor
Shed a new skin
No longer insecure
You're livin' harder, yeah
Harder than you know
Tell me - how fast can ya burn?
And how far can ya go?
I hope you found what you were lookin' for
'Cause I haven't seen your face around here no more
When did life become a chore?
When was it that you couldn't take it anymore?
With nothin' above you and nothin' below
Couldn't cure the need for somewhere else to go
I just hope ya found what it was,
what it was you were lookin' for
07 Dead as Yesterday (02:51)
It'll leave you with nothin' to say
Lost without a way
Ain't it funny child
Love sometimes leaves you
As dead as yesterday
Hoping to hold a handful of sunshine
Like a child told it cannot play
Never ever figured Lord love would leave me feeling
As dead as yesterday
Lord could you help me find some shelter?
Lord could you help me find some shelter?
It'll leave you feeling hollow & helpless
And there is where you'll stay
Ain't it funny child love sometimes leaves you
As dead as yesterday
09 The Things You Do (04:11)
Color my world all black & blue
The hell you dish out
Comes back three-fold to you
Inside your riddled rotten core
I hope you get what you deserve
Worse, and even more
even more, even more
(Chorus)
How could you do the things you do?
You make Satan look like Christ, I swear its true
How could you do the things you do?
How could you do, the things you do?
The Rolling Stones once sang a tune
Singing words of sympathy
Yet none were sung for you
If the lord of darkness seen you comin' his way
He'd get on his knees and look to Jesus
and start to pray
10 1,000,000 Miles Away (06:28)
Sailing across my ocean, I'm sailing across my sea
I fill it up with hope, Lord, I drown in empty misery
Sailin' across my heaven, I'm sailing across my star
Until I find the voice I've been hearing in my head
Forever couldn't be too far, Forever couldn't be too far, yeah
Oh it couldn't be to far, Oh it couldn't be to far
The cold wind blows like a leaf on a tree
I can feel myself fallin, lord
I need your guiding hand to catch me
When you hear yourself this song
I hope it brings yourself a smile
The times we had we thought would last forever
But forever only lasts a little while
Forever only lasts a little while, yeah
Oh, just a little while
Oh, just a little while
Loneliness, my friend
I think about you every day, yeah
As I sail into, into the light, oh yeah
Lord, a million miles away, oh yeah
A million miles away
Loneliness, my friend
I think about you every day, yeah
As I sail, sail, Lord, into the light, oh yeah
Lord, a million miles away, oh yeah
A million miles away
A million miles away
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