http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/ Deutsche Musik Reviews en-us Nucleus CMS v3.23 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/ http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=9 This time i want to review another - unfortunately - much too unknown band from Berlin.They're called "Härtzbrecher", formerly also known under the name "Echelon" by when they also released an album named "schwarz weiß" which was far less worth listening compared to their current material. It was hard to find in between dozens of boring semi-professional amateur music releases from the KM music group and there seem to be only limited quantities available in the time being, however i'm really happy all the searching was not in vain and i can recommend another outstanding piece of music to you now.

As a big mistake they chose the label KM music for their record, which in fact turned out to be
a very wrong decision for all bands that ever signed under KM music, because there was never done any promotion and only a very weak distribution, so almost no band (not even the early Tyske Ludder!) within the KM music group ever had a breakthrough and acceptable selling rates.
What a shame, i bet every half-talented label manager could easily have made a Topact out of Härtzbrecher!

Next to Eisbrecher, Megaherz and OOMPH, Härtzbrecher unleash the power of twelve very unique songs to hit the dancefloor and stereo systems out there. And at the latest when "la guitara en oro" starts playing I bet lots of Deutsche Musik Fans will have a hard time not to crank up the volume and enjoy the catchy melody. This song had been well worth a sinlge-release and could have boostet the bands popularity at once. But there's of course much more to find on this cd that i'm so convinced of. "Grausam" for example sounds more like industrial music and deals with the harmful aspects of facism, therefor it reminds me strongly of OOMPH's "Gleichschritt" although it has it's totally independent ideas and music. Similar to Grausam are "Danke" and "Glücklich" which are both to be understood as sarcastic criticism on society, that The singers voice might be unusual at first, but i grew to really like it, it's not too virtuos, however succesfully manages to shout all the emotions of the songs' concepts to the listener. It's not really as good as Dero's performances on OOMPH's legendary albums "Defekt" or "Unrein" , but it's fascinating in it's own way and it's a sufficient performance by any meaning.

This album is definitely a must have for all Electro-Rock Fans out there!

Score:
Hompage: none]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=9 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:15:52 -0500 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=8 A very personal release that recently catched my attention is Typ1's "Ich ist ein Anderer". The band is sharing their life experiences and has translated them into powerful songs. The songs talk about the realities of being a teenager (or young adult) in todays modern, fast-living world, with all the social coldness and loneliness many of us have or had to face as daily routine. This is the band's second release, and there are some improvements noticeable, however the debut sounded not bad either. Whilst the lyrics and the arrangements improved, the sound lost some of it's originality. In fact, I'm not sure wich one is better. If you see a release of Typ1, you should grab it no matter what it is.

I suppose many songs on that record are special to the front man of the band, Micha, because he put a lot of effort into his singing performance that i want to point out as clearly excellent. The female vocals are unfortunately way less impressive and cannot always keep up with the overall atmosphere. In fact a clearly markable weak point of the album. A counter part like "Sandra Nasic" or "Vas Kallas" from HuG could have absolutely blown this record!!! Never mind, dreaming is allowed, isn't it?

All songs come in a very traditional rock band set up, with only e-guitars, drums and vocals. This is not a bad thing of course, but there could be a little more diversity to make the songs more interesting. The whole music lives a lot from Micha's singing performance, maybe it's the crucial element. The guitar work is not bad, nor the production, the drummer does a good job, too. What i miss is either more guitar presence at all in the songs (maybe another guitarist), or more guitar work, more riffing, more melodies, more creativity. Ofcourse thats what we always want: More of everything, isn't it. Nevertheless, the guitarist managed to do a few catchy motives, like in "Gefühle innerster Leere" or "Phobie" that come both with a heavy intro, that makes the metal fan's heart jump in the air. By the way, that seems to be a common structure of Typ1 songs, the guitar starts the songs with a solid performance, and then it's Micha who takes over the leading part. Get's a bit boring, maybe there should be more flexibility.

In summary, Typ1 has done a decent record that unfortunately just doesn't have anything unique anywhere. Especially a recommendation for NuMetal haters and, oh well, Fans of die Schweisser should also like it, although there's no Sax' this time. It makes me think of Eisenkopf, even if it's not as hard, but there's maybe a pinch of "Scheisskind" in the songs, regarding to the sound and to the general ingrediences.

Read the Interview by F_GX

Score:
Hompage: www.typ1-rockt.de]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=8 Wed, 1 Nov 2006 21:41:00 -0600 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=7 Guess what i found this month? A truely strong piece of Electro Punk Metal!
And i'm very happy that i found it. It's actually a long time ago that i
found a band that sounds a bit into the direction of an old OOMPH album.
This type of music is not very spread, except for the weak releases of course.

Gift is the second and yet the newest release of KDA. A third release is already done but the band did a contest for movie artists where anyone can send in his masterpiece concerning any song of the new album (snippets of every new song available on the website) the complete album will be released as an extensive multimedia experience.
Additionaly, the release may be further delayed because a band member (Norri) recently joined Corvus Corax and he seems to be busy with them at the moment.

Gift covers a broad variety of moods and does absolutely not care about any genre restrictions. The rough structure of the sound is dominated by e-guitars and electro melodies, but that's it for the predictable part. You never know what comes next.
Whilst most recent Electro and EBM releases tend to sound clean and smooth these days not so for KDA, the synthi sounds very oldschool and dirty, and is clearly trimmed for that purpose. Puppenlied is one of the greatest songs, unfortunately it features such aggressive oscillation sounds, that my sound system is not capable of reproducing it correctly. In the end only the DJ headphones of a friend could do it perfectly and it sounds like the perfect EBM metal synthesis and a lot of energy in it. I would love to hear this one on the dance floor! The text is shouted and sung in equal parts and sometimes distorted heavily. All the music has such vital dynamics in it.

But not only loud and fast, the songs reach from chill-out and dreamy atmosphere to more dynamical and melodical whereas the production and mixing is always at the highest level! Listen to "Kerasunflower" and close your eyes, well ladies and gentleman here goes your ride in Spacemountain... skip to "last dance" and you enter a tropical rain forrest. Unbelievable.

So you ask all this metal guitars and electro sounds, where are the punk elements?
First, better don't ask what the band's name stands for. I have no clue.
It means "Krebs durch Arbeit" which translates to "cancer through work".
Wow, if that's not punk! Second, "cosmo pacifico panama" is 13 seconds of baby crying. You might ask "What the hell...?" but it's just punk my friend. Skip it and that's it...

Summed up you get a disk that's really entertaining, makes a lot of fun and
doesn't do without interesting lyrics. More of it, please!

Score:
Hompage: www.electropunk.de]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=7 Tue, 1 Aug 2006 21:39:00 -0500 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=6
In the past Witt always proofed his state as an exceptional artist who walks his own way, without consideration for musical borders, genre limitations or press expectations. After listening to Bayreuth III it soon becomes obvious - this recored makes no exception. The gate into the world of Bayreuth III is opened with "Dämmerung" (perhaps again a hint of Witt's admiration of Richard Wagner). Seagulls, harbour-sounds together with beautiful violins and shiny trumpets create a wonderful introductional atmosphere.

The following songs are faster and heavier, but never loose the fascination of the whole concept that is Bayreuth III. The sound is always unique, you would never want to compare it with any other artist. It's the great combination of wind instruments, classical instruments, calm and sometimes oldfashioned nuances, but then again always a good level of heavy guitar support that makes the Bayreuth-experience so special. Witt didn't want his music to sound "modern", it somehow transports the feeling of timeless fascination, sometimes it even sets you musicaly back in time. It's always worth to concentrate closely to the music to hear the many astonishing details in each and every song. In "Hundert Leiber" for example the beginning consists solely of a cembalo play, a famous instrument of the Baroque era that's no longer used these days. In "Abendrot" there is a very interesting arangement of violins and eguitars, each alternating in leading the melody. The e guitar in the refrain of "Ich spreng den Tag" becomes slightly transposed down with every repetition, a simple but effective idea, the song sounds really impressive. The overall music sounds often "wide" and like in a Wagnerian opera. This is where the rare opportunities lay that could have improved this record. Throw out the electronical voice of "Dämmerung"'s outro, it's just unnecessary, and almost the same with "Abendrot", i'd rather changed the electronical motif at the end with a pure violine arrangement playing the very same notes, but it's ok. No need to be perfect, after all there's always some different tastes and likings.

Although songs like "Wem gehört das Sternenlicht?" and "Wo versteckt sich Gott?" could be potential super hits, it's the high quality of every single song on Bayreuth III what makes it so special and creates it's fascinating atmosphere. In fact, i wouldn't even call a single song weak or unsuitable for the concept. Nevertheless, in between there are again and again real treassures like "Ich spreng den Tag!" with a great viola counter voice to the e guitar and meaningful text lines. "Tiefenrausch" is a beatiful ballad, to dream and reflect. As a contrast followed by "der Turm "Edelweisspiraten" (only on the limited edition) that deals with national-socialism and comes in a harsher sound cloaking. In conclusion i'd say the playlist was done very well.

The album closes with another beautiful ballad, named "tief in der Tiefe" which comes in a calm mood with powerful vocals and the same musical background as "Dämmerung", it closes the circle of Bayreuth III in perfect harmony. The 13 titles of the album unite the complete range of Witt's Bayreuth sound galery: Heavy guitars alternate with well written melodies, orchestral force, electronic sequences... Each song is more than a short-lived ear worm, and fits well in the overall concept. The lyrics of the album are down the line of highest quality: The use and abuse of power, sociopolitical threats and the search for identity and solutions are pervasive in each song, the nerve of the time is successfully hit and Joachim Witt's metaphorical language knows to please. Between rage and pain, melancholy and power, he created a worthy ending of his Bayreuth trilogy.

Each time the cd ends, all i want is to press the repeat button of my cd player again and enter the world of Bayreuth once more. Joachim, thank you very much for this beautiful masterpiece!

If i could give away a "SuperPick UltraChoice Award", no doubt it would be the first time to do it! Highly recommended.

Score:
Hompage: Joachimwitt.de]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=6 Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:34:00 -0500 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=5 Ralf Dammbruch and his band "Staub" are entering the arena with a strong debut album
called "Trockenzeit". The album comes in a nice digipack and is well produced over
the whole playtime thanks to Alexander Kaschte from Samsas Traum, who is also said
to have discovered and promoted "Staub" right from the beginning.

The music is a healthy mixture of solid guitar work and experimental synthesizer support, with a pleasant voice of mastermind Ralf. Sometimes he growls, sometimes he calmly sings, but he deliveres always a solid performance. However, "Staub" don't sound anything like ordinary metal but rather like moderate Crossover with classical and electronical influences. Kind of experimental.
Staub know to provide the listener with emotional and steady rock music, full of metaphors and topics around god and mankind, but always with a fantastic touch.
The lyrics are always at least "uncommon" and most times very abstract.

What is indeed special about this release is it's political message. Ralf is a
convinced communist and aggressive lines are sometimes found in the songs:
America doesn't look too good in the mirror of "Staub". As i know from "Brandung" (another release of Staub), the criticism of kapitalism and the "money's got the power"-principle is not only motive of this record, but can likely be called the intention behind "Staub"'s foundation.
Once or twice Ralf's opinion stands out in all it's clearness: In "story of pain" he
calls america the "lawyer of fascism". Ofcourse many people may not want to agree with such statements. And ofcourse not all songs have political intentions, but if you are a huge fan of america's foreign policy you should not always listen too closely to the text lines.

Noteworthy is also an ingenious remix of Alexander Kaschte himself, his version of "Treibholz" is an absolute awesome piece of work, it's not actually a heavy metal remix, but a very classical one , it's even sung by himself.

Summed up this is a decent record you should definitely check out if you get the opportunity to!

Score:
Hompage: ]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=5 Mon, 1 May 2006 21:33:00 -0500 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=4 Why did i pick this release? A question never to ask, because Stahlhammer is always a must for any "german metal" fan. So i didn't hesitate when i got the chance to even buy it a few days earlier than the official release date actually allowed it.

Now lets take a look at another great release from austria! Well, if things would be that easy. First, fasten your seatbelt and take a look inside the cover. 2 ARTISTS. Cannot be. I'm afraid it can. Gary Wheeler decided to do a little tweeking and sized the band down to only himself and Stahlhammer's ever-since bass player Peter Karolyi (to be heard on every past album.) Not a good decision in my eyes, i already didn't like the line up of Stahlmania as it was too weak compared to Eisenherz, now Opera Noir got even "slimmer". I don't like the artificial drums, they sound too flat, i don't like the fact that there's only one guitar because it's not enough for the famous sound of Stahlhammer. Worst of it, i don't enjoy most of the new songs, because there's not enough inspiration in them. The lyrics are not always very interesting to say the least. There's plenty of examples that give me the same impression - good idea, but weak execution. Like the intentions behind "Krieger morden nicht" are certainly good, but the song as a whole fails to impress me. Going on with "Jazz", "das schreiende Herz" and so on.

Too sad, because some songs really do it for me. Like the great opener "Vienna". It's by far the most remarkable song on the album. A heavy guitar supports a growling Gary Wheeler in best voice. "In the air tonight" isn't bad either, although it's questionable if there's at all a possibility to do a "bad cover version" of that song. "Der alte Mann" tells a similar story to that of "der zerbrochene Traum" (Stahlmania) and sounds quite nice to my ears. The last song "Heroes/Helden" is again a cover version, and it's again well done. That's it for the outstanding performances on "Opera Noir". Not even the title song rules this time, although i know, it always was a guaranty for an outstanding song.

What Stahlhammer needs, is a heavier set up - no question. Or could you imagine Rammstein only with Till Lindemann and Schneider? I'm a bit angry now, because i know that Stahlhammer can do so much better! Stahlhammer shoudln't do gothic, not even rock or get too experimental, i like them best when they sound heavy, melancholic or wild. Ofcourse they don't have to compare with Manowar (at least not DIRECTLY hehe) but a heavy sound and well written songs should do the trick. Beginning and end of this release are impressive, but it can not keep up entirely with past days of glory and enthusiasm.

Score:
Hompage: Stahlhammer.org]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=4 Sat, 1 Apr 2006 21:25:00 -0600 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=3 Nuclear Weapons are currently very present in todays newspress. By chance i stumbled over an interesting band project about the same issue this month and decided to do a review at once. Actually it doesnt matter, because nuclear war is a serious problem for mankind in general, lost some importance since the cold war ended and rised again a bit with Iran's nuclear power plans. And because i don't know more about Irans nuclear weapon program than anyone else, i better tell you something about Atomtrakt's music today.

What we have here is ambient music (precisely: dark ambient). This does not surprise the informed reader because Atomtrakt is a side project of Vinterriket, a very famous ambient band that can be counted to the founders of modern dark ambient and is since the mid 90's in business. Vinterriket has some more side projects but i found Atomtrakt to be their most impressive one.

The EP contains 4 tracks that feature a play length between 6 and more than 7 minutes each song. That was a good decision and fits the music very well. Atomtrakt did a good job with the composition, no track seems too short or contains oversized parts nor annoying repetitions.

Now what does it sound like? Well, first of all you can find it out yourself because the whole EP is downloadable from the band's webpage. A great opportunity for those who are new to ambient music. Atomtrakt always try to put some appealing tunes in the songs and they show a lot of talent for both rythm and melody. I especially like the last song "Flammenmeer", which is mostly dominated by various flutes and a shiny, cristal background singing, sometimes marshing drums and a constant noise level of wind and what sounds like great, empty planes. If you like to use your imagination you could think of some lonely machines here and there, maybe built by last survivers of an inferno, silently crackling, ringing in the last hours of all life on the former so green planet. Just a few thoughts from my side. If the listener does not shut himself off from the music, it can be a fantastic experience.

All songs are underlaid by irregular radio signals, heavily distorted voices, hard to decide what they're trying to tell, a warning from the near future, or like stories of an alternate reality, maybe only walkie-talkie communication of some outposts sending requests over burned soil of no man's land? While the songs are widely realized by an artificial synthesizer, piano tunes and violins are also often to be heard and finally round up the impression of an interesting ambient album full of innovation, imagination and contrasts. Someone once called ambient a majestic genre, a better description can not be found for this outstanding release.

Atomtrakt get my very recommendation for their interesting work and their well done arrangements and detailrich compositions. Their first full time album is released soon and you will find another review of it as early as possible, not in F_GX's pick, but in the review section here, at the DeutscheMusik.net!

Score:
Hompage: Atomtrakt.com ]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=3 Sat, 1 Apr 2006 21:19:00 -0600 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=2 EBM and electro is quite a popular music genre in Germany at the moment and a lot of bands have recently been forming up. Cephalgy is one of them and deliver with "finde deinen Dämon" an interesting piece of music that clearly aims at the gothic scene. So basically, it's music for the darker hours.

There are some clearly outstanding songs that indicate the full potential of Cephalgy. "kaltes Herz" with it's bombastic electro rythm, "mein Versprechen", featured by Ulrike Goldmann from "Say Y", a beautiful ballad of a broken heart, "deine Tränen", "deine Seele" and "finde deinen Dämon" for dancefloor interested people.

This is actually what i like most about this release: the awesome variety in instruments and composition despite of overall homogeneity. There is not really a red thread through the songs, but the atmosphere is great, "finde deinen Dämon" sounds like it was made out of one piece. I just don't understand why the title song happens to be that short. Not three minutes pass and it's over, although i personaly think it's one of the greatest songs on the whole album. For my taste it could have been twice as long. In contrast to "miles away", which torments the listener with crappy sound effects and a terribly bad composition. This is not up-to-date ebm.

However, on the other side i'm sometimes a bit torn between enthusiasm, disappointment and bore. A lot of songs just don't deliver enough diversity and fail to keep the listener interested. For future releases i'd like to see more creativity, the songs could easily gain in strength of expression and unconventional ideas. The music of cephalgy should be, regarding to the chosen topics, a more intense hearing experience. They want to sound dark, that's ok, but sometimes its just grey and boring. But certainly not all the time.

So if you're looking for a decent electro album that features beautiful violins and piano tunes along with gloomy electro beats, this release might be interesting for you. You should just not expect it to be as dancefloor oriented as the known major ebm acts. Such songs rather have to be searched than to be found. What remains is rather a beautiful set of melodies and a netful of jewels that have to be discovered between a mixture of moderate-quality songs, unfortunately. Results may vary.

Score:
Hompage: Cephalgy.de ]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=2 Wed, 1 Feb 2006 21:13:00 -0600 http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=1 The roots of "Der Fluch" ('the curse') reach back to the year 1981, so they can't be called new in the scene, really. Leader of "Der Fluch" is 'Deutscher W', mastermind of the famous german punk band OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung) which was even founded back in 1980. Der Fluch was put on ice for over 12 years when the main interest turned back to OHL, so there where no releases in the time between 1982 and 1994. However the band is now active again and a review is overdue!

An atmospheric intro part is followed by the story of the "fallen angel" lucifer and his revolt against god. This is already set by a wide range of bands, no real innovations here. After the next track "Gottes Schwert" we're through with religios topics for the largest part. Sadly also with most of the best e-guitar parts on the disc.

"schlagt mich ans Kreuz" features an unexpected accustic guitar intro but is followed soon by somewhat straight e-guitar support.

Following one of the main intentions why "Der Fluch" was initially founded a continuous thread of movie themes runs through many songs. An intelligent piece of music is "das Tagebuch des Andre de Lombre" where a scientist designs a machine to beam his body (if you guessed i was talking about Scotty you're wrong i'm afraid, it'S Mr. de Lombre...) when a fly enters the machine unseenly and Andre uses his beam machine, the result is two individual creatures both mixed human and fly. This is both awesome for fans of this quite famous movie, but also puts up the question why Andre was so careless to forget about this possibility. Did "Der Fluch" only like the movie or did they try to stress the criticism about our arrogance towards the world of animals? "The machine made no difference between human and creature", so tells the song. So i guess there's more behind it.

Besides that there is "die Puppe" that tells about a puppet player who is all controled by his puppet (i think this guy has also some appearances in various batman movies/cartoons) the song ends up with the pupett saying "and all the time, it was only you". great story, well done song. should not be taken too serious, the driving force here is clearly the intention of having some fun by writing a song about some cool old movie.

i could go on like this for almost every secound song, Deutscher W really seems to be a big fan of this oldschool horror/scifi classic films. it creates an somewhat fascinating atmoshpere throughout the album, however, i personally like songs like "Begierde" or "die Todgeweiten" (featuring nice trumpets) better, which don't act about any movie. Not that i don't like movies, but in those non movie based songs there are better melodies and the songs are more interesting in general (regarding to the aspect of composition and music).

In the end there is a solid release of a professional band with no big surprises (facing the fact that some band members are musicians for over 25 years). Der Fluch does really not re-invent the gothic metal genre, but nevertheless provides an interesting setting of various horror movies and stories with an acceptable variety of instruments. It likely catches the mood of an old black and white noir film, although sometimes a bit more energy and ideas hadn't been bad either.



]]> Reviews http://f-gx.deutschemusik.net/index.php?itemid=1 Sun, 1 Jan 2006 19:52:00 -0600