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Дебют польской группы Imperator – один из тех альбомов, которым по независимым от его музыкального содержания причинам суждено было приобрести статус культового. «Культ» - в том смысле, что слава о работе, пусть и в узких кругах, всегда идет впереди впечатлений от первого прослушивания, мистическим образом заставляя слушателя выдавать команде несопоставимый с прочими кредит внимания и доверия. В какой-то мере Imperator заслужил такое отношение: это, наряду с Death и Morbid Angel, одна из первых команд «смертельного» стиля (1984), а в Европе, возможно, и первая. Их ранние демо-записи, начиная с 1986 года, действительно, должны были быть каким-то необыкновенным, предельно злым материалом, особенно для восточной части континента, находящейся под «железным занавесом». Возможно, именно изоляция Польши не позволила им стать чем-то большим. С другой стороны, переписка лидера группы с Дэдом и Иеронимусом, несостоявшиеся планы о совместном проекте, а чуть позже – сорвавшийся выход диска на «Deathlike Silence» сыграли не меньшую роль. Однако музыка, которую в 1991 году представили поляки на суд публики, в Европе уже перестала быть откровением. На год раньше вышло большинство релизов, определивших лицо континентального дэт-метала как самостоятельного стиля, а к дате появления альбома многие команды уже выпустили свои лучшие произведения. На их фоне наивный, хотя и очень неплохой трэш-дэт от польской тройки выглядел уже просто архаизмом. Imperator, быть может и невольно, создали работу, вызывающую стойкие ассоциации с дебютным полноформатным альбомом Morbid Angel (1989), однако впитавшую в себя еще большее влияние таких трэш-коллективов, как Celtic Frost, Possessed и Kreator. А усиливают сходство с пластинкой «Ангела Болезней» крики «Ia! Ia!» на открывающем материал треке, с перечислением имен демонов, позаимствованных из «Некрономикона» Лавкрафта – аналогичные припеву из «Lord Of All Fevers And Plague». Но и без тематики песен от подобного сравнения «The Time Before Time» не уйти: те же ломаные ритмы, скрежещущие и хаотичные гитарные соло, хриплый рычащий вокал, еще не доведенный примочками до неразборчивого рева. Только барабанщик не поспевает за плотными бластбитами Сандовала, предпочитая чаще стучать в трэшовом ритме. Атмосфера поклонения неким инфернальным силам, попытка резкостью и непредсказуемостью музыки воссоздать в воображении слушателя эру «времени до начала времен» выгодно отличают команду от нынешних Belphegor, Marduk, Dark Funeral и самих Morbid Angel, указывая на то, чего катастрофически не хватает современному экстремальному металу. Но одновременно, и уводят альбом из раздела музыкального искусства, в которое стиль к тому времени уже превратился из аудио-страшилок. Imperator после издания этой работы еще просуществовали в состоянии полу-комы короткое время, и окончательно исчезли со сцены в таком составе к 1995 г., среди попыток записать новый материал и найти лэйбл. А лучшей характеристикой для рецензируемой работы будут слова о том, что ей следовало выйти года на два-три раньше – без этого только… |
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The voices of the rites of ancient Sumer
Are deeply summoning in immortal minds
The abyss of knowledge is open and close
It's path to perfection but not to be sought
For therein lies the truth Death,
The ocean of wisdom, the secret of all
Learning of uninteligible things
Took brains of pagans, atheists and priests
Researches into the forbidden and forgotten
Have always existed and do exist
"The Enchirion of Pope Leo The Third"
"The Arbatel of Magic" and "Lemegeton"
Suffumigations and "Sworn Book" of Honorius
The brothers of the left hand path
"The Seven Mysterious Orisons"
Composite rituals of ancient wrath
Mystical science, the regeneration of Enoch,
The fourth book of Agrippa the mag
"The Black Pullet", "The Druid of Menapienne",
"Black Screech Owl", "Heptameron"
Are signs of unknown, forbidden and bad
The keys to the Netherworld locked in past
Ilusions of mankind created the trend
Confusions of all minds elected by names
Day of birth - eternal might
End of life - eternal might
Unconscious fate - eternal might
Turn your mind towards the side
Being's sense - eternal might
Price of death - eternal might
Future and past - eternal might
Live or die in truth or lies
Mainstream consciousness and things ignored
Sinister revelations of Crowley's wisdom
As above so below - "The Emerald Table"
Most ancient of covenants
Necromantic evokations, "Theosophia Pneumatica"
The blackest grimoires, oracles and ghosts
The world of Dementia
Cursed Netherworld
Day of birth - eternal might
End of life - eternal might
Unconscious fate - eternal might
Turn your mind towards the side
Being's sense - eternal might
Price of death - eternal might
Future and past - eternal might
Live or die in truth or lies
Abhorrence
I am before all Gods
I am before all days
I am before all men and legend of men
I am before all kings
No man may seek my resting place
No man may see the shadow out of time
No man may know the vanquisher of death
I am the power and the knowledge
I am the master of magicians
I am the ancient of days
I am the Abhorrence
I receive the sun at night and the moon by day
I send the prayers of the ensnarers, the liers-in-wait
Before me was made nothing that was made
Blind fiends of Chaos are servants on their knees
Most ancient evil dies when I still exist
Wolves carry my name in their midnight speeches
I am the Abyss and Abyss is me, I am the great mystery
Subtle voice is summoning you from afar
Beware, the word is done, you have no choice
Let me and the wanderers of the Wastes
Reign again, destroy the gate
I am before all Gods
I am before all men
I am before all days
I am the Abhorrence
Necronomicon
The diary of insanity, the implacable call
Thrown into oblivion, thremendous revolt
Despair's testimony of the servent of the Gods
The lair of the aversion and of the upcoming force
And I know the prophecy
and the essence of forgotten tales
And I feel external existence, let me tell you
Terryfing masterpiece, the book of black earth
For many years extinct weirdness
Lurking grief at the bottom of one's mind
Forbidden art, it's time to mortify
Myths and rituals from the darkest days
Inconceivable beings, the mystery of space
Primeval ilusions locked in the true images
It can't be a delusion what awaits so many ages
And I know the prophecy
and the essence of forgotten tales
And I feel external existence, let me tell you
Final touch of the farthest curse
Fathomless knowledge, realm of madness
Wildest power on the highest throne
Beware of Necronomicon
Born from the power of ancient dream
Bequethed to our race, breeding an unknown fear
Holding his horrid conscience, awareness of times to
come
Imbued with tribulation of predicted days
Immortal mind's legacy written against inevitability
Improbable malevolence hidden in prophecies
Forseen anguish of mankind, things waiting to be
unchained
Unavoidable sadness, the last part of the Ancient Ones
Persecutor
Aggresion is what I am - my hatred
Cruelty is inside of me - my duty
Curse is the reason of your endless anguish
My justice is what let me to pass the sentence
Hypocrisy is what you are - my victim
Mayhem is waht you are - my creation
I am who you know - vexation
I am who you know - persecutor
Alone in empty room, living out of fear
Persevering to the end, left hand's magic raises
Closed my own eyes, body's gravestone cold
Hate flows from my heart, bloodlust
Sitting in the Pentagram, Christ's might is nothing
now
In my brain infernal names, damned mind catches spells
Rivers of my deathly pain reach, attain everyone
Loosing souls die in torment, I take revenge
All my wrath I celebrate holding sepulchral composure
Occult power attacks and conquers, crushed victims
agonize
Rotting fleshes cover Earth, hordes rise with arms
Infernal priests are ready to fight, the massacre will
soon begin
And it's my power exploding with my ruthlessly
thrashing doom
Aimless struggles of exorcists, might of spell takes
life
Masterpiece of destruction triumphs, the agony of pain
rends brain
Death is salvation for flesh and blood but final
torment awaits there
And demons surround the corpse, lurking with lust for
soul
And it's my power exploding with my ruthlessly
thrashing doom
Defunct Dimensions
Ancient place, former time
Alien sphere, nameless fight
Ia Azag Zu
Ia Azag Ag
Ia Sothot Agga
Ia Sothot Shiru
Weird pain, dark lair
Silent grave, aimless name
You will know who you are
Down in your fears
Down in your dreams
You will get answer for
When does it begin
Where is the end
You will see Marduk's race
And worshippers of the Ancient Ones
You will find the outer space
The outer space will find ya
Ride through the defunct domain
Find abomination's name
Raise your eyes above the Dead
Cry, your lament can't be heard
It breeds more horror than you can conceive
And number of hordes uncounted is
Wanderers of the Wastelands dwell
Defunct dimension... hidden nowhere
External Extinction
Lammashta - the sword that splits the flesh
Ishtar - concelebration of sin and wrath
I was awakened by the howl of a dog
I could not move or speak for the fear
That seized upon my spine
And wrapped cold fingers around my skull
Maskim Xul - the sight of whom causeth dismay
Rabishu - unholy mystery drove me insane
I have experienced the birth of untruth
Oh, pray for protection against the outside
I have deciphered the unholy texts
I have possessed the three seals of Masshu
I witnessed the horror that struck
Of which words cannot speak
And of which writing can only confuse
I found the fear of the deceased
And you are the slave of an external extinction
The zones of the Gods and the places of the Azonei
I reached through the gate of Ganzir, gate of lost
Death of a most uncommon nature I have seen
In the time of the war between the worlds
I was awakened by the howl of a dog
I could not move or speak for the fear
That seized upon my spine
And wrapped cold fingers around my skull
Ancient Race
The Gods of the stars are seven
Their have their seven gates
They are approached by seven seals
And seven material essences
The Zonei
The seven deadly sins
The curse of seven oaths
The fear and seven names
The pride of seven Gods
For time is short and mankind doesn't know
Nor understand the evil that awaits
From every side, from every open gate,
From every broken barrier by mindless acolyte
I learned of the frightful beings who dwell
Beyond the astral spirits who keep the entrance
To the temple of the lost of the ancient of days
The ancient of the Ancient Ones, whose names I cannot
say now
I have heard the winds of doom
And I have felt the breath of unreal horror
I have retained in memory
Impossibilities in their reality
I have seen the glimmer of utmost truth
In that wilderness of madness
I came to understand many things
Of which before I had no knowledge
But after thousand moons of journey
My fate is no longer writ in the stars
And now I predict fear for your flesh
But fear for your spirit more
I've spoken with all manners of spirits
Whose shadows are deep in beyond
I've talked to some kinds of deamons
Whose names are no longer known
I've walked the unknown lands
That no map has ever charted
I've seen the stone monuments
Of vanquished civilizations
The habitation of men are seen and surveyed
By that ancient race of Gods from a time before time
And I know they seek revenge for that forgotten fight
Somewhere in time and space, beyond the streams of
light
Oh, in the days before the creation of man
When the Elder Gods walked their celestial spheres
There was a time when the gate to the outside
Was open too long and the horror was one
The sight of the Ancient Ones
Is a blasphemy to the mind
Painful to senses of the man
And it's a part of the cosmic dance
For they come from another world
That is not straight but crooked
Be sure they will be back
I know they will come soon