Still, this is all rather impressionistic stuff, and the problem this
week -- the problem since I first blasted this record through the
boombox in the kitchen while cooking some potatoes back in July --
is that I wish you all could know just how good this is. It fairly
well rocked the “none for me, thanks” out of Lalitree, the
woman who designs these pages and who isn’t generally all that
enthusiastic about heavy metal: is that enough? No, of course it isn’t,
because you don’t know her, and to tell you just how unpersuaded
she is by most of the metal we play around here would take forever
and still wouldn’t give you the whole idea. Damage Done
connects one song to the next by means of repeated melodic figures
and harmonic themes in ways that puzzle and amaze, recalling great
works of classical music but never once descending into the sort of
self-inflated wankery that caused Rick Wakeman to record The Legend
of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table back when we
were all in diapers: is that enough? No, of course it can’t be,
because only three people bought The Legend of King Arthur and
the Knights of the Round Table, and you probably aren’t one
of them. What’s worse, the second you got the idea that there
was a recurring melodic motif at work here, you probably thought “Oooh,
great, Jazz Guys,” which isn’t true at all and is
a little mean-spirited besides. |
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