• Serbuan Maut / The Raid: Redemption (2011)

     

    This movie comes fresh and straight from Indonesia and pleases or displeases the viewers with many brutal killing scenes, some rough but technically well performed fights and a couple of breathtaking stunts at a full speed pace. This movie is surely nothing for soft-heartened people as there is a lot of blood in the film that one isn't used to from the Western cinema industry. It's also thanks to its radical execution that the movie surprisingly rose to international fame. People aren't looking for beautiful male actors, cool dialogues and romantic side stories anymore in action movies. This movie simply goes back to the simplistic basis with a rough kind of energy.

    The only modern touches this movie kept were two twists. Any movie of any genre seems to have the need to include at least one twist towards the end. I don't know why this trend degenerated but I think this tendency gets more and more overused. This movie contains one extremely predictable twist and another less predictable but still not impressive one. They desperately want the movie to get more depth and character development but the effect is the opposite.

    The movie itself takes no prisoners. We see the main actor praying and training for the first two minutes of the movie. The next three minutes are dedicated to a short introduction that explains what will happen during the next one hour and a half. A well trained but mostly unexperienced special unit police squad gets the suicidal task to infiltrate the fifteen floors of a dingy skyscraper in a rundown suburb of Jakarta's slums. The building has become a safe house for the city's most dangerous crooks. It's controlled by a very influential gangster boss and his two acolytes that represent the brain and the force to save, execute and extend their master's will. The squad tries to arrest as many villains as possible with the final goal being to arrest the big boss dead or alive on the final floor. The next circa ninety minutes show in dynamic camera angles with fast paced modern music a couple of tension filled hide and seek moments, a few more intriguing dialogues and mostly non-stop violence that portrays the tragic fate of twenty courageous good guys against hundreds of enemies. Not one second is wasted. This film will leave you out of breath. You may lose track of who people are, where people are and what they are exactly doing but it won't harm your (dis)pleasure about this movie.

    Now, what is so fascinating about a ninety minute long slaughter fest? What has made this movie's reputation? Is there more in this except of a pervertedly shocking violence?

    Yes, there is. First of all, there are the aesthetics. Every actor who played a member of the SWAT had to run through a hard training program to study the techniques used in the force including details such as hand signals. You can see this precise preparation in each second of the movie. The choreographic aspects are perfectly arranged, no matter if we see realistic martial arts sequences, fast stabbings or tension filled shooting passages from close and far.

    Second, many important characters have all something unique that makes the viewers feel against or with them. These trademarks can be seen in the moral or philosophical attitudes of the characters. You have the brutal fighter that refuses to simply shoot people as he prefers to fight his enemies from face to face and kill them with his bare hands. You have the peaceful outsider who risks his life to help some strangers because he has gone through hard times on is own before. You have a villain that has to make a tough decision between radical obedience, a smart putsch or a treason because of personal issues of his past. All these well developed characters will keep you on the edges of your seat until the end if you're not disgusted by the movie's brutality. As this movie is quite grounded without any big special effects makes the whole thing even more addicting, honest and real.

    Third, the movie has a lot of tension filled moments in between many breathtaking fight scenes. Suddenly, a killer slowly approaches the victims that are hiding behind the next or corner or behind a thin wall. Out of the blue, the lights shut down and the main villain starts to communicate with both his enemies and the building's ruthless residents. At another moment, the squad is all surrounded by villains and needs to find a fast, risky and smart solution to get out of this hell. There is always something happening in between fights and important dialogues.

    Normally, this movie would only get eight points from me because of its relative simplicity, its unnecessary twisted parts and the shallow ending. On the other side, this flick truly gave me a huge load of adrenaline and time passed by so fast that I deeply wanted to continue watching this. That's why I give it a little bonus point that I would rarely give. It doesn't happen quite often but this time I agree with critics and fans. This is by far the best action movie made in the last years. Any genre fan that doesn't mind some brutal stuff should call this his or her new bible.

    Hollywood should get inspired by this. Skip useless side stories, forced twists and billion dollar special effects. Don't dishonour this exotic effort by doing a shallow remake. People are tired of these things and would like to see some innovation from Hollywood again after many bad years with sequels and remakes. People don't want to see a remake with Jason Statham as tough cop and Johnny Depp as the weird villain. If you want to pay some tribute, go and ask actors like Iko Uwais or Yayan Ruhian to join "The Expandables III". Encourage the originals and the talented Asian cinema.

     

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  • Genre: Hard Rock / Progressive Rock / Rock'n'Roll
    Label: Universal
    Spielzeit: 55:48
    Band homepage: -

    Tracklist:

    1. Identical
    2. Little Time Bomb
    3. Cool As It Gets
    4. Acrobats And Clowns
    5. What Do I Know About Love
    6. Still Got The Keys To My First Cadillac
    7. Dope Runner
    8. This Love
    9. Stratosphere
    10. Over The Cliff Into The Deep Deep Blue
    11. Flowers In The Mud
    12. Justin Time
    13. Avenue Of Broken Dreams
    14. Wanted By Women
    Golden Earring - Tits 'n Ass

    Mehr als neun Jahre nach ihrem letzten Album beweist die älteste noch aktive professionelle Rockband der Welt aus der ehemaligen Beat-Stadt Den Haag in den Niederlanden, dass sie immer noch frische Energie und neue Ideen haben. Dabei ist GOLDEN EARRING eine Band, die niemandem mehr etwas beweisen muss. In ihrer über fünfzigjährigen Karriere haben sie vom damals hippen Nederbeat über Psychedelic Rock und natürlich auch Progressive Rock bis zu eher dem Hard Rock verschriebenen Sachen fast alle Spektren der Rockmusik einmal angetestet, egal ob ihre Musik gerade tanzbar war oder akustische Spielereien vertont wurden. Der große internationale Durchbruch wie den Kollegen von RUSH blieb der Truppe zwar versagt, aber sie zählen dennoch zu einer der essentiellen Rockbands dieses Planeten, die eigentlich jeder Fan dieser weit gefächerten Stilrichtung kennen sollte. Die vier Musiker bieten heute noch deutlich besseres Material ab als die etwa gleichaltrigen Kollegen von AC/DC, THE ROLLING STONES oder STATUS QUO zuletzt.

    GOLDEN EARRING laufen eben immer noch so gut wie der schöne alte Cadillac, den sie in der schönen ersten Single des Albums besingen und dessen Schlüssel man gewiss nicht wegwerfen möchte. In ihren Sechzigern gelang es dem Quartett sogar noch einmal ein Album an der Spitze der niederländischen Charts zu positionieren und dies zum ersten Mal seit "N.E.W.S." im Jahr 1984.

    Musikalisch hat die Band immer noch so einiges zu bieten, auch wenn das Album an manchen Stellen ein klein wenig zu retro klingt, ein paar etwas weniger zwingendere Stücke beinhaltet wie "Acrobats And Clowns" oder "Over the Cliff Into The Deep Deep Blue" und vielleicht ein echter Überflieger fehlt. Das war es dann aber auch schon an Kritik, denn man hat hier auch viele energische Stücke dabei wie die eröffnenden "Identical" und vor allem auch "Little Time Bomb". Frisch und hungrig klingt die Gruppierung beispielsweise im starken"Flowers In The Mud". Dass sie auch ganz anders können, beweisen sie in der wunderbar entspannten Ballade "What Do I Know About Love".

    Was die absoluten Glanzstücke angeht, so kann man "Dope Runner" hervorheben. Es ist das progressivste Stück auf der ganzen Scheibe. Besonders überzeugend ist hier die energische Schlagzeugarbeit im Speziellen und insgesamt überhaupt die vielschichtige Instrumentalarbeit des Stückes. Dass die Band nicht gestrig ist, beweist sie in dem schönen "Justin Time", einer herrlich subtilen Kritik an dem medialen Massenphänomen um den kanadischen Shootingstar JUSTIN BIEBER, ganz ohne dabei in irgendwelche Hasstiraden abzudriften, wie das andere Bands unberechtigterweise gegenüber dem Jüngling tun. Musikalisch ist dieses Lied auch einfach abwechslungsreicher als die gesamte Diskografie des hochstilisierten Superstars. Man klingt zwar anheimelnd retro, spickt das Ganze aber mit hypnotisierenden Rockabilly-Passagen und einem starken eingängigen Refrain. Das nächste Kunststück folgt auf dem Fuße mit dem schönen "Avenue Of Broken Dreams", das mit einer gehörigen Portion Groove daher kommt und beinahe schon tanzbar ist. Wäre das Stück ein klein wenig schneller und moderner, könnte es locker die neue Hitsingle von FRANZ FERDINAND sein ohne dabei die eigene Identität zu verraten.

    Am Ende habe die Niederländer ein wirklich schönes Album kreiert und altern in Würden und Ehren. Selbstverständlich kommen sie an ihre eigenen Glanztaten wie ein "Seven Tears", "Moontan" oder "Cut" nicht heran, aber da ist die Messlatte eben auch sehr hoch gesetzt. Auf der anderen Seite gehört das Werk aber auch nicht zu ihren schwächsten Veröffentlichungen und sortiert sich unaufdringlich solide irgendwo im oberen Mittelfeld ein. Hoffen wir, dass der gute alte Cadillac noch einmal Fahrt auf nimmt und nicht bald ins Museum rollt.

    (Online 23. Juli 2012)

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  • Genre: Hard Rock / Progressive Rock / Rock'n'Roll
    Label: Universal
    Playing time: 55:48
    Band homepage: -

    Tracklist:

    1. Identical
    2. Little Time Bomb
    3. Cool As It Gets
    4. Acrobats And Clowns
    5. What Do I Know About Love
    6. Still Got The Keys To My First Cadillac
    7. Dope Runner
    8. This Love
    9. Stratosphere
    10. Over The Cliff Into The Deep Deep Blue
    11. Flowers In The Mud
    12. Justin Time
    13. Avenue Of Broken Dreams
    14. Wanted By Women
    Golden Earring - Tits 'n Ass 

    More than nine years after their last regular studio release, the living legends and the oldest still active Rock band in the world - founded back in 1961 in the Netherlands beat town The Hague - is back in force with a brand new release called "Tits 'n Ass."

      

    GOLDEN EARRING is a band that has nothing left to prove. Throughout their entire career, they have made stunning records in genres such as the Nederbeat, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, and now they’re venturing into a more Hard Rock inspired sound. The band had a couple of hit singles such as the classic Hard Rock anthem “Radar Love,” the atmospheric Progressive masterpiece “Twilight Zone,” or the catchy “When the Lady Smiles” with its unforgettable video clip. The band also created a lot of forgotten treasures that I still listen to from time-to-time such as the highly diversified “Eight Miles High,” the weird Psychedelic Rock anthem “She Flies on Strange Wings,” or the soft Progressive Rock epic “Vanilla Queen.” Even though the band did never get a true mainstream success during their career, they are one of those classic bands any fan of Rock music, of any kind, should definitely know. I would almost call them as essential as the amazing RUSH, for example, even though the Dutch never got the same kind of attention. The band definitely does a better job on this record in comparison to the recent outputs from the old heroes like AC/DC, THE ROLLING STONES, or STATUS QUO.

       

    GOLDEN EARRING are old now but they still rock in their sweet sixties. “Tits ‘n Ass” kicks off with two energizing and quite catchy Hard Rock tracks: the solid “Identical” and the even more addicting “Little Time Bomb.” The band still sounds fresh and hungry in songs like “Flowers in the Mud.” The laid down ballad “What Do I Know about Love” shows us another side of the band that still varies a lot. “Dope Runner” is the only more Progressive-oriented track featuring the best drum passages on the entire record and a quite diversified musicianship that make this song a definite highlight among the 14 tracks. The band still cares about actual topics as they prove in “Justin Time,” a cool and laid-down track about the mass media phenomenon around JUSTIN BIEBER. In comparison to other bands that overtly criticize and despise the young Canadian, the wise Dutch Rockers are way more subtle and create some truly interesting lyrics on this one. The track is more diversified than the young Canadian’s entire discography and features hypnotizing Rockabilly rhythms, harmonic retro sounds, and a quite catchy chorus. This song is definitely another highlight on this album. Let’s also mention the groovy “Avenue Of Broken Dreams” that surprises as a quite danceable track that could even come from a band such as FRANZ FERDINAND if it was a little bit faster. The Dutch band still proves that they have an open mind and something left to say; it’s also no surprise that the record just got the highest position in the Dutch album charts for the very first time since “N.E.W.S.” back in 1984.

       

    Of course, this record can’t mess with the band’s golden years and unforgettable albums such as “Seven Tears,” “Moontan” or “Cut.” On the other side, the band has also released weaker records and this one is a solid-to-pretty-good release and far from being a deception. The new record contains no true stinker even though there are some more-or-less engaging fillers such as “Over the Cliff into the Deep Deep Blue” that keep this record from getting an even better rating. A true highlight is missing on this album but, in the end, the band still rolls just as smoothly as the beautiful Cadillac they sing about in this album’s single. It should be said that I certainly won’t throw the keys away as I am grateful for any new release from these legends. 


    (Online July 23, 2012)

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  • Agalloch - Faustian Echoes (2012)

     

    Agalloch are back with a new EP and the longest single song they have written to date that turns around the brilliant epic masterpiece "Faust" by the famous German writer, artist and politician Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

    Anybody who cares a tiny little bit for classic litterature should check this author out and especially the tragic play in two parts that inspired Agalloch to create their new masterpiece. To give you an idea of the lyrical content of this release, let me briefly resume the two parts of Goethe's famous play. In the first part, the old scientist, teacher and researcher Heinrich Faust realizes that he had no success in his closed minded career and especially in his private life. He decides to make a pact with Mephisto who transforms him into a young man again. Faust is able to develop a relationship to the young Margarete that soon gets pregnant. But the married woman kills her child as soon as it's born and is driven insane by the drama she is going through. She is condamned to get executed and even Faust can't save her from the final judgement. The second part rather touches cultural topics. Faust tries to satisfy the ideals of the classic era by searching perfection in all kind of abilities but ultimately fails over and over again. He realizes that he can't control the devil he has made the deal with who makes a powerful but egoistic human being out of him and finishes by claiming his soul. I won't tell you how the stories of both parts end and recommand you to read both plays if my description intrigued you a little bit.

    Now, let's talk about the music. I was a little bit disappointed by the band's last full length release "Marrow Of The Spirit" that was too cerebral in my opinion and had many unnecessary lengths and lacked of a coherent flow. It surely had its moments but it was rather hard to digest and not easy to get an access to it. "Faustian Echoes" simply resumes everything Agalloch stands for in one single song that may seem complex at first try but that gets better each time you try it out again. This song is a true grower and has a much easier access as the last full length release. Its smooth but not too slow and finds just the right balance.

    The song features dark narrative passages that give the track its structure that is divided into several parts just like a theatre play. The overall flow of the track is calm and melancholic. The electric guitar chords as well as the acoustic guitar passages are truly beautiful. They have a dark and depressive touch but are still filled with hope and passion. With the help of decent and not artificially sounding or too dominant keyboard samples, they build up a cinematic and epic atmosphere throughout the entire track. This is cinema for your ears and entirely without symphonic approaches.

    The melodic doom parts are sometimes interrupted by some blackened parts with harsh vocals that come as a welcome change of style without taking too much space. The drums get fast and chaotic at those points and fit to the doom tragedy of the lyrical topic. The vocals are atmospheric, grim and intense and are well employed. I would like to hear more vocal efforts of this quality in the extreme metal scene. They sound emotional but professional and don't take too much space.

    The instruments play the biggest role in here. Between the calm parts when the instruments are dying away to the short thunderlike epic black metal parts, the song constantly evolves and smoothly changes every few minutes. The different passages are well elaborated through interludes and never seem out of space. The changes are often only small but always follow a clear guiding line and contain enough variation to remain entertaining. The twenty minutes pass very quickly and don't seem too long. It was also a good idea to stop at this point as I feel that everything has been said at the end of the track.

    Above all musical innovation is the magic atmosphere of the track that drowns you into a dark fantastic world of shattered dreams and illusions without losing a little glimpse of hope. Agalloch keep the whole thing simple without adding anything too progressive or any avant-garde stuff. This helps a lot to create the atmosphere that is worthy of the great theatre play they were inspired by. The final result finds just the right balance between calm and fast parts, between raw sounds and crystal clear passages, between vocal or narrative and long instrumental parts.

    This track is definitely one of the strongest ones this creative American band has ever written. It's truly close to perfection and the track easily pulls you into its spell from the atmospheric introduction on up to the narratiev closure. It's a track to plunge into and it doesn't take much time to get addicted to this musical drug. Just sit down with your earphones in a shady room, give yourself a break and close your eyes and you will easily be aware of the profound greatness of this song. Agalloch don't need an entire album or several tracks to bring their message as this song easily represents everything they need to tell. It will be tough to top this stuff. Any fan should praise this new release and it's also an ideal introduction to anyone that has yet to discover the band.

     

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  • Ebonylake - In Swathes Of Brooding Light (2011)

     

    What the hell did I just witness? Ebonylake is an avant-garde gothic metal band from United Kingdom that mixes many styles in their unique music. We can hear bist and pieces of Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Progressive Metal and Symphonic Metal that are combined to epic tracks filled with unpredictable changes, distorted emotions and inhuman noises. In comparison to this, bands like Adversus, Akphaezya or UneXpect are joy rides through a colourful wonderland. Ebonylake are definitely hard to digest and it's tough to actually call the uncompromising mixture of ednless disharmonies music. I would only recommend this stuff to fans of truly complex avant-garde stuff and maybe those who adore the Japanese Noise scene. There are only a few calm symphonic moments as in "A Voice In The Piano" and they never last too long. Most of the other songs are just an uneasy ride through the musical gates of hell with very few short breaks.

    Let's pick one song to give you a better example of what I actually try to describe. "I Painted The Suicide Of Neptune" is a rather slow and doom orientated track. Disharmonic and depressive guitar chords dominate the track. The drum play has no structure but is very heavy and present. The distorted and almost alien sounding vocals are mixed in the background. You hear melodic vocals, blackened screams and sometimes several voices perform at the same time. It's quite impossible to distinguish any lyrics. The track has several disharmonic and random breaks and the noice factor alwaysl rises like a slow spiral. We actually get some heavier riffs after more than three minutes and some discording piano melodies that create a disturbing and haunting atmosphere. The vocals have stopped and the song slows down before a quite fast and agressive passage with distorted vocals suddenly kicks off again. This passage has a heavily destructive sense before another break sets in and the track goes back to its doom tone with distorted guitars, wild drumming and hypnotizing clean as well as blackened vocals. As you can see, there is a structure in this song and the track always goes back to its basics but you may only recognize this after several tries. This record needs a lot of attention, patience and time and only few people will put all of this in thsi kind of music. Those who will may discover greatness. Anybody else will just ahte this music. What about the end of the song? Oh yes, towards the end, the whole thing gets a little bit faster once again and finishes with some operatic female vocals that appear from out of nowhere. At this point, you've just stopped wondering. You expect the unexpected and you may still be surprised again.

    Almost all songs are similar to this one I just described. They contain abrupt as well as multiple instrumental changes, agressive passages as well as more doom orientated moments and clean female and male vocals as well as blackened male vocals. This record is pure schizophrenic chaos. This album is destructive and extremely uneasy to listen to. This release takes absolutely no prisoners and the opening song "And From The Seas The Sickening Thing" is even one of the worst to make this clear from the beginning on. The band puts more changes into a four minute long introduction than other bands put in their entire discography.

    Its quite hard to evaluate this kind of music. It's definitely artistic and unique. It's a disturbing but fascinating experience. One can only listen to this from time to time and most people will abandon after the first track and never touch this kind of weird stuff again. It's easy to understand why. From a personal point of view, this kind of music is just inhuman but from an objective point of view, it's definitely more avant-garde than anything I have ever heard before. That's why I give a rather ordinary rating. My personal appreciation lies around sixty percent after several tries but it might still grow. First, I have to get rid of all those headaches. But musically, there is a solid structure behind all this brutal chaos, a elaborated concept beneath all this endless madness, a honest passion throughout all the massive destruction. Some people will refuse to recognize this but attentioned listeners will discover this fact very soon. The band put a lot of time to create these ten tracks and every band member is actually quite skilled. That's why this record would be worth an almost perfect score from an artistic point of view.

    My final rating lies between these two reasonings. You should be warned and try this out at your own risk. Give it a shot if you feel free for truly headbreaking stuff and witness all this insanity in ten mostly overlong song structures and over on hour of schizophrenic symphonies. It's definitely worth to just get yourself an idea of something you have probably never heard and will never ever hear again of in your life.

     

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