Search - Bill Madden :: Samsara's Grip

"Samsara?s Grip" engages Eastern philosophical influences in a head-on collision with the politics and abuses occurring in our world. Starting with "Om Tat Sat", we hear "The world is goin' crazy" and witness the world exploding all around the artist while he retains a calming centeredness. "Masterpiece" reminds us that regardless of what lack of privilege we are born into, life remains an open canvass where all things are possible. "19 Miles" plays like an abbreviated John Cassavetes movie in which the tension slowly builds around a percussive background of doumbek, djembe and acoustic guitar -- the listener is taken into a hell realm obsession and attachment -- exploding into a finale of electric guitar and drums. "Fools? Parade" is an ambitious 3-part story of different individual scenarios involving human ignorance. In "Samsara?s Grip", with "I can?t get out of my head", the listener is introduced into an exaggerated, uneasy schizophrenia and paranoia caused! by the constant chatter and inability to quiet the voices that are a relentless reminder of life?s worries, anxieties and responsibilities. "Murder" haunts us -- we hear Madden transformed into Peter Gabriel?s sidekick, singer Youssou N'Dour, as he screams in a barely decipherable voice, "Why do we always need to play God?" -- a 3-part drama that reiterates the notion that death by way of unnatural cause takes on many forms -- all of which have one thing in common. "Consequence Of War" brings the horror of violence front and center. Not only of the war we?re fighting abroad, but also of the war we fight in our everyday lives. In Madden?s final verses, "Etched in our psyches like a tattoo? I see the future in my rear view", he connects the listener back to a line in the second verse, "Misguided teachings are passed for generations" -- the cycle of ignorance remains unbroken. Something of a musical Alister Crowley soliloquy, "Right In The Head" is a song of superior grace and! melody wrapped around bluesy guitar licks with a soaring vocal -- a tale of lust and sexual attraction with a pagan paramour who "ain?t right in the head." "Shrink The Guru" has the wounded protagonist battling the arrogant influence of an all-knowing, pseudo sage and parental figure with a vocal slap-black reminiscent of John Lennon's "Instant Karma!" "World Just Is" is exactly that: A no-nonsense look at religion, terrorism, corporate greed and the consequences. Yet, in the last verse, Madden is once again inclined to remind the listener that "Among the dust and ruin"? "Young souls in soiled linen" still "dare to believe in miracles and incredible things." The album concludes with the Zen koan, "Experience". And in the end, Bill Madden?s CD, "Samsara?s Grip", is an experience and journey for all serious music lovers to consider -- especially those who are of the belief that people inspired by the power of music can, indeed, bring change to the world.