VOODOO HILL - Wild Seed Of Mother Earth
...road to the
mountain, the evergreen vegetation follows me. But in a way the background
is changing, green becomes burnt soil, and I can see in the distance the hollow
that will guide me through the reign of shadows.
I'm now in front of the crater, eyes to the sky asking for a soul protector.
Blue sky becomes grey and then squeezes getting more and more somber. I get
in the cavern well-knowing that nothing will stay the same.
Faith's my only weapon, I'm entering the downhill to the underworld.
I should be dying to live. But I must make believe.
While descending the path, the vault bends over me more and more.
Atmosphere becomes sultry, and then I start to listen the hammer hitting
the anvil
..
I turn back and the lights are extinguishing. I turn back again and I start
to walk, while the oppressive sound of the trembling steel gets louder. My
eyes don't see no more, I can't stop falling.
Falling and falling again, I raise up from the ground completely
covered of mud, I feel the anvil closer and closer, and when I feel that the
cavern is closed I realize that I'm trapped in a lair of snakes.
I succesfully raise up again, with my back and hands holding up the moist wall,
now it's the end.
Snakes clutch my all body and I can't even scream for my desperation.
I'm petrified as hit by Medusa's glance. Tens of guns surround me,
ready to spit out their poison.
Then suddenly....... silence.
The wall behind me dries up, and the snakes are being sucked up by a misterious
energy.
My tired limbs acquire strenght again, a dazzling light comes to me.
Mother Earth has beared her fruit, while I hold in my hands the Wild
Seed a flashing light surrounds me and a magic vortex grabs me out of my
nightmare.
I'm still alive, I open my eyes and see blue skies again holding in my hands
the Wild Seed. Mother Earth has revealed her secret to me.
The vital lymph that feeds my body and my soul
(Roberto
Cosentino)
VOODOO HILL
Wild Seed Of Mother Earth (2004)
DARIO MOLLO guitar
GLENN HUGHES vocals
DARIO PATTI keyboards
ROBERTO GUALDI drums
FULVIO GASLINI bass
Tracklist:
01. MAKE BELIEVE (mp3
clip)
02. DYING TO LIVE (mp3
clip)
03. STILL EVERGREEN
04. ATMOSPHERE (mp3
clip)
05. WILD SEED OF MOTHER EARTH
(mp3 clip)
06. MY EYES DON'T SEE IT
07. CAN'T STOP FALLING
08. NOTHING STAYS THE SAME (mp3
clip)
09. SOUL PROTECTOR
10. SHE CAST NO SHADOW
11. 16 GUNS (mp3
clip)
TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEW
MAKE BELIEVE The rude opening track gives an ideo of what means to be between the hammer and the anvil... Guitar riffs are really heavy like a velvet-wrapped sledgehammer, melodic and scratchy. A strong rhythm influences the whole song, from the start until the end. Glenn's voice is superb as usual, and flavours everything with mastery. The whole album production is excellent and detailed. Mixing is perfectly gauged, as in the first Voodoo Hill.
DYING TO LIVE A Judas Priest-like guitar riff opens up a song in which Glenn performs as an unusual power singer. The song (and the whole album) grows up-tempo and knocks down with a melodic bridge to a super-leaded chorus... you must be dying to live! Really interesting the Arabian-like suspension that culminates in the final reprise. Huge.
STILL EVERGREEN An escalation of power and speed glorifies the accurate technique of the players, starting from the most creative of them, Dario Mollo. Glenn makes us remember that he's one of the greatest. What's his recipe? ...While this question walks around my mind, the hypertechnic polyphonic guitar solo by Dario Mollo surrounds my ears until the duel with Dario Patti's keyboards. I'm still climbing this mountain and arriving to the heaviest and strenuous path, everything underlined by the cadenced fade-out.
ATMOSPHERE Up and up on this mountain, almost reaching the atmosphere. The song marches in as the foregoing song was marching out, and a note of hope and freedom surrounds this mid-tempo leading to the sunny chorus. I take advantage to say how complex are the harmonic phrases by Dario Mollo, both in the Glenn's leads and the instrumental parts in which (during the whole album) I find more analogues with The Cage (the other Dario Mollo's project), than the first Voodoo Hill episode.
WILD SEED OF MOTHER EARTH A moment of peace and pure melody means that I finally reached the top of the mountain. This is a song really made for Glenn's voice, who plays like a child among falsetto and three voicing backing vocals. I feel really epic when listening the bridge unisono of bass, guitar and keyboards. The song grows really fast until the magnificent Dario Mollo's solo, with which the song goes to his end.
MY EYES DONT SEE IT A mid-tempo in major tone, this song
is really catchy. Glenn's vocal mastery takes the lead from the start in a difficult
and high-voiced song. Maybe this is the most "Glenny" song of the
whole album.
CANT STOP FALLING My eyes don't see it and I start to fall... this is one of my favourite songs. The second half of the album is almost solemn, and this song is evil, epic, melodic and flows on black velvet from the start. Dario Mollo's guitar riffs hit the right spot. The harmonies used in this song are really fantastic. Never an instrument has the upper hand on another one (voice included)... they seem to me perfectly shaped togheter. The hypnotic bridge makes me realize that I'm dying, and Glenn screams it "I'm dying too far"!
NOTHING STAYS THE SAME Classic-style song, it took me back to the first Royal Hunt albums. Polyphonic guitar riffs, big keyboards, and the melody becomes the master. This song is also one of my favourites because of his majestic feeling that it express and the cure with which it has been builded up. Glenn is always there, perfectly inserted in this band.
SOUL PROTECTOR Unusual rhythms characterize this song, for this reason that's really interesting. Glenn's voice also experiments new ways to go, with a ghostly effect in the second verse. Marvellous are the "hushing" choirs on the chorus. Honour mention for Dario Mollo: it's not easy to explore rock's deeps to find new ideas. He succeedes in his mission, and this song is the proof.
SHE CAST NO SHADOW Same of above. Reviewing this two song for me has been harder than usual. Dense rhythmic parts merged with melodic frames... I think that Voodoo Hill (only in a creative way of talking) is more mature than HTP2. Great choirs by Glenn, almost thin appearing like a musical instrument. Guitar solo chases up itself until the sunny and eary chorus.
16 GUNS A great album, a great ending. This triumphant proud march is the last of my favourite songs, both for the groovy bass line by Fulvio Gaslini and the power drumming by Roberto Gualdi; Glenn's harmonics lead this complex song. The effective guitar solo opens up for the last chorus, while I see me around and 16 guns are there ready to fire their poison.
I'm still alive, the Mother Earth has not cast his shadow yet, but gave to me his heaviest but greatest load, this Wild Seed Of Mother Earth, that you could bear with me starting from 23rd of June 2004.
(Giampietro Frulli)