WARPED

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WARPED
Studio album by Chris Caffery

Publication
(s)

2005

Label (s) Black Lotus Records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Power metal

Title (number)

15th

running time

72 min 35 sec

occupation
  • Vocals, guitar: Chris Caffery
  • Bass: Dave Z.
  • Keyboard: Paul Morris

production

Chris Caffery / Nik Chinboukas

chronology
God Damn War
( 2004 ) 		WARPED Pins and Needles
( 2007 )

WARPED is a music album released in 2005 by US guitarist Chris Caffery , best known for his work with the band Savatage . Depending on the count, it is his second or third solo album . Large parts of the album have already been released under the title " God Damn War ", which, like "WARPED", is a concept album about war in general and the Iraq war in particular.

Emergence

All material on the album was recorded in the summer of 2004 together with the previous albums " Faces " and " God Damn War ". The band line-up is identical, but the song "Iraq Attack" features guest musicians Jon Oliva (vocals; involved in Savatage , Jon Oliva's Pain and Doctor Butcher ) and Brian Gregory (bass; from Doctor Butcher).

Most of the work consists of the songs from the album "God Damn War"; the song "WARPED" was used as a bonus track for the US edition of "Faces". The remaining pieces are new and have not been published before. The song "Amazing Grace" was changed slightly in contrast to the version of "God Damn War"; here the music is underlaid with samples of the sounds of war. In contrast to the “Faces / God Damn War” double CD, the album also received its own booklet in which all texts and comments are printed. A song from the album called "Fright Knights", which was already on the "The Mold" single, was also part of the album concept, but no longer fit on the album due to lack of space and could be downloaded from Caffery's homepage for a password.

The album was released in spring 2005 only as a digipack edition and was released by the Greek label Black Lotus Records . In 2006 a triple CD was released in a digipack that combined "WARPED" and its two predecessors.

Cover and album title

The record cover was designed by Seth Design . It shows a man in a suit who wears a hat and a cloth with a painted face on his head. He has an MP-40 submachine gun in his hand. In the background you can see a military cemetery with numerous wooden crosses; an attack helicopter flies in the sky .

The album title is a play on words with the terms war (war) and warp (distort). The accompanying song deals accordingly with the distortion of the reality of war by the mass media , especially by television.

Meaning of the songs

As can be read in the booklet, each song is assigned to a specific theme of the Iraq war :

  • “Home Is Where the Hell Is”, a corruption of the saying “Home Is Where the Heart Is”, depicts war as a possible manifestation of the devil from a religious perspective .
  • "God Damn War" is about the fact that acts of war have been a way of life and a lucrative business for mercenaries and warlords for millennia .
  • “Election Day” refers to elections in a democracy and asks whether the election has a real impact on political decisions and whether democracy can really save people from war. This question arises in particular in the USA, which, according to Caffery, wages many wars with the aim of democratization .
  • "Erase" describes the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and states that there is no greater weapon than the fear that is spread by suicide bombers .
  • "Fool, Fool!" Is about the anger and thirst for revenge that fuel a war against Iraq and other countries.
  • "Edge of Darkness" addresses indirect warfare with guided missiles such as cruise missiles without consideration for civilian victims.
  • "Saddamize" states that the common enemy image also causes free states to fall into hysteria and that military hierarchies are also asserting themselves in civil society.
  • In “I” the international protest against the war is expressed.
  • "WARPED" stands - as already mentioned above - for the distortion of the view of the events as well as for a distancing of the viewer from the events.
  • "Iraq Attack" takes up the unclear political situation before the war began.
  • "Fright Knights" is about the fact that the soldiers of the coalition forces were confronted with a kind of guerrilla war after the official end of the fighting .
  • "The State of the Head" is about kidnappers who take soldiers and civilians hostage and threaten them with death by beheading on videotape . This is again a play on words, this time with the term "Head of the State", whereby the "Head of State" becomes a "State of the head".
  • “Amazing Grace” describes, based on the melody and text of the spiritual of the same name, “ war profiteers ” who can avoid the actual event.
  • “Piece Be with You” is about the reflections of a dying soldier who realizes that he has completely lost his respect for human life.
  • "Beat Me, You'll Never Beat Me" states that planet earth could continue to exist without humans and is just as capable of completely destroying humanity.
  • “Curtains” deals with differences of opinion on the war and the associated discussions, which ultimately come to nothing.

Track list

  1. Home Is Where the Hell Is (7:02)
  2. God Damn War (6:35)
  3. Election Day (2:34)
  4. Erase (5:41)
  5. Fool, fool! (2:58)
  6. Edge of Darkness (4:11)
  7. Saddamize (7:38)
  8. I (4:32)
  9. Iraq Attack (5:26)
  10. WARPED (3:38)
  11. The State of the Head (5:35)
  12. Amazing Grace (1:36)
  13. Piece Be with You (5:55)
  14. Beat Me, You'll Never Beat Me (6:01)
  15. Curtains (3:13)

Total playing time: 72 minutes 35 seconds

Web links