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Review Summary: Excellent Rammstein variety of Industrial-Metal In Short
This album can be played compatibly with Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Oomph!, Megaherz or any of the other New German Hardcore bands. (New German Hardcore is my loose translation of "Neue Deutsche Härte," which translates exactly but uncomfortably as "New German Hardness"). Notable for me were the choruses, a style that reminded me strongly of Power Metal but is in fact probably thousands of years old.
Some Songs:
Eweg Leben (my fav)
Endzeit
Kreuziget Mich
Vollmond
Wie viele Jahre
On Some of the Power-Metal like Choruses
The fast tracks on here are excellent, for example Eweg Leben, Endzeit, and Kreuziget Mich.
I don't listen to a lot of slow music (I go to Classical for it) but some of the stand-out songs for me are those with slow, hymn-like choruses. Such choruses are ever-present in Power Metal, but we get them here -- thankfully -- without the chessiness. They're probably pre-Christian (in fact Gregorian Chants are possibly Christian borrowings of pagan songs), reaching back to the drinking songs of pagan Vandals and Visigoths and Suebians and Saxons (all Germanic), but also possibly to the Celtic tribes: Compare the slow choruses on this album for example to the slow flavors of traditional Scottish bagpipe music. The choruses reach back to a time when slavery and atrocity and cruelty were common, but so was love and friendship and art and culture and merrymaking. It was also a time when wizards and dwarves were actually believed in, a fact put to enjoyable use in the "Misty Mountains Song" sung by the dwarves in The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey.
I can easily imagine a Viking tribe holed up in a lodge somewhere during a bone-chilling Scandinavian winter, getting drunk around a blazing fire, and singing Vollmond and Wie viele Jahre. Great stuff.
I made a list of some great Neue Deutsche Härte tracks: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/list.php?memberid=1123708
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Album Rating: 4.0
Thanks. The sketch was turning into like 10,000 words or some shit, and I'm over it for now. I'll just have to learn to live without talking about EVERYTHING.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
I don´t see any resemblance to Power Metal...
Anyway, here we have yet another clichéd tennager "gothic" rock band with corny lyrics.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Are the lyrics corny? English is all I've got. And I actually don't want to read the lyrics -- it might ruin for me. It's weird, but lyrics in a foreign language are actually a more reliable listen for me because I don't really process the meaning of lyrics in songs very well (I'm sort of lyrically challenged); I'm too engaged with the music, and they can be distracting; if they're sung in English, the more poetic the better.
If I run across a corny lyric, then I'm done; they tend to take me out of the music. I wish for example that I DIDN'T understand Powerwolf's lyrics. Their instrumental music sounds harmonically to me like it's deeply rooted in 18th century organ and choral music (for instance, the beginning of the "Dead Boys Don't Cry" reminds me strongly for some reason of the beginning of the Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem) and I love the music from that era, but then he starts singing about werewolves and vampires and stuff and it's usually over for me within a couple minutes. With bands like Rammstein, I can just enjoy the music and the rhythm of the singer's syntax without worrying he's going to say anything stupid. And Schwarzer Engel must be saying something stupid? Are they like Powerwolf's? Ugh. I know you may think me a coward or something, but when it comes to lyrics I prefer to stay blissfully ignorant.
Anyway, I COMPLETELY understand your low rating if the lyrics are a contributor. But maybe you just think the music and singing sucks, too. I have a friend who hates Rammstein because it sounds like opera. I can try (I tried with him), but there's no arguing about taste in music; I should give it up. We either like a piece of music or we don't. Thanks for reading and checking it out, though!
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Great review. Pos'd! From your review, this sounds like a really fun listen so I might give it a go.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
I don´t listen to Powerwolf so I don´t know. Concerning Schwarzer Engel: Well, there is worse out there. I could liusten to it and ignore the lyrics. Let´s put it like that. Rammstein on the other hand have some pretty decent lyrics or at least very entertaining. Sometimes bad. All in all, it is okay. And: I guess I judge German lyrics far more harshly than English lyrics. Though I understand both, I am afraid, corny German lyrics feel much more painful.
I rated it so low because to me it is just boring. There is nothing that grabs my interest. I could go on and elaborate more why I don´t like these kind of bands but I don´t wanna fight your "blissful ignorance" and I don´t want to ruin the experience you have with the band.
There is one band, similar to Schwarzer Engel, but better. Instrumental it is nothing remarkable, but I think, lyrics are okay and the singer has a charistmatic voice. If you wanna try it..They are called Unzucht: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrABGO9EeOU
Cheers!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
@Xyphdryne "singer has charismatic voice." Thanks for the rec. It was excellent for comparison. I checked out The Birthday Massacre's Fascination after reading your review back in the Spring, and I speculate: Chibi's singing and the singing on Unzucht have more, I don't know, "soulful," "heartfelt" melodies? Are they more Rock-based maybe, as opposed to the Industrial monotone of the NDH style? The Industrial style is dull as dirt for music fans outside the genre, and I wonder if it's the sheer monotony on the scales used for the melodies (never mind the drums). Really the bigger question is why Industrial fans are so driven by the monotony. Is that the difference? I don't expect you to know that; I'm just asking questions out-loud. I wish I could get 2 years or so of music-theory just downloaded into my brain without having to go through the years of training it would take. The Birthday Massacre and Unzucht has some Industrial elements, but also some stuff from genres I don't listen to much and so can't talk about very well. Rock influences? And ultimately Blues influences?
Anyway I don't mean to feed this forever. And thanks for helping preserve my lyric-ignorance. It's kind of brittle.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Well, "soulful" is a good characteristic, I think. But it is not just the intonation but also the voice itself.
I would not go so far to draw a connection to rock and soulful singing and industrial and monotone singing. In fact, I think that Unzucht and Schwarzer Engel sound quite similar except the vocals. Plus, I don´t see industrial influences in TBM. Maybe on the first 2 albums. But it is just rock with pop elements. Don´t hear elements of SPK or the like 
Schwarzer Engel also has nothing to do with industrial (in my humble opinion).
"Really the bigger question is why Industrial fans are so driven by the monotony."
To be honest, I don´t like industrial for its monotonous singing but for the cinematic, futuristic or dystopian edge they offer. There are monotonous singers in industrial, but also very emotional ones. Take Ogre for example.
"Anyway I don't mean to feed this forever." Very well. Let´s just enjoy the music!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
:-)
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