God Damn War
| God Damn War | ||||
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| Studio album by Chris Caffery | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Black Lotus Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
42 min 30 sec |
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Chris Caffery / Nik Chinboukas |
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God Damn War is the second solo album by Savatage guitarist Chris Caffery and was released in September 2004 as a bonus CD from the album " Faces ". It was recorded in the same line-up and is a concept work about war .
Emergence
God Damn War was recorded together with Faces in the spring of 2004 and was released as a bonus CD of the album in September, but can be viewed as an independent album due to its conceptual character and its stylistic differences. The textual concept was printed on the back of the CD booklet, the texts were not included in the booklet.
Originally the album was supposed to be about 80 minutes long, but the bonus CD was much shorter and tighter in terms of content. The full-fledged version of the album can therefore be counted as the follow-up album WARPED , released in spring 2005 , which had a playing time of approx. 72 minutes and contained six unreleased songs. These songs took the concept further, but the key messages are already summarized on God Damn War .
For God Damn War , Caffery resorted to a few guest musicians and speakers in addition to the Faces cast; The intro of the track Saddamize, for example, reproduces an everyday scene in a Greek café in New York City , where the guests are talking about the Iraq war , accompanied by traditional singing and a lute . Guests included co-producer Nik Chinboukas (keyboard), lute player George Kokonas, singer Gregory Maninakis, cellist Dave Eggar and John Stavroulakis.
Style and concept
Musically, Caffery takes up the music of the late Savatage concept albums more clearly on this album than on Faces . In addition to Power Metal of this type, the album contains a number of theatrical elements through quieter interludes ( Amazing Grace after the Gospel of the same name ), samples and spoken dialogues . In the piece "Saddamize" - according to the concept - clear oriental influences can be recognized in terms of instrumentation and melody .
Chris Caffery described the music on God Damn War as “ Modern post-nuclear Black Sabbath ” in an interview with German magazine Rock Hard .
Lyrically, Caffery delves into war , its causes, effects, and the responses it evokes. On the one hand, Caffery criticizes political ideologies that view war as a legitimate means of achieving political goals and therefore start or approve of wars for no credible reason. On the other hand, he also provides the motivation to start wars out of religious delusion. Caffery also reflects on people's behavior in the event of war: while rich people manage to stay out of it or even make a profit from it, other people accept the war fatalistically or hope for opportunities for advancement.
Caffery also refers to the media processing and cultural reception of the war. Caffery stylizes television that creates images of the enemy and also establishes a culture of discussion about the war that appears to be hopeless and does not see a way out of the crisis. Caffery processes many of his topics using the current example of the Iraq war and ultimately comes to the conclusion that only at the end of a long learning process about "evil" and mutual understanding can the barriers between people be overcome and world peace be achieved.
Track list
- God Damn War (6:33)
- Fool, Fool (2:57)
- Edge Of Darkness (4:10)
- Saddamize (7:37)
- I (4:31)
- Amazing Grace (1:36)
- Piece Be With You (5:54)
- Beat Me, You'll Never Beat Me (5:59)
- Curtains (3:13)
All songs were written by Chris Caffery. In Beat Me, You'll Never Beat Me of Savatage singer seemed Jon Oliva with author Co as.
Web links
- Official homepage of Chris Caffery
- Review at Laut.de
- Review of the Metal Observer