MONO FÜR ALLE! is a musical phenomenon coming from the small city of Giessen in Germany. The band plays an absolutely unique mixture of Electronic Punk, discordant Ambient and Krautrock. These genres are only mentioned to give you a slight idea of what to expect from this band as they aren’t comparable to anything I know and the band itself refuses to be put into any categories. The band is first of all composed of Mono who performs some androgynous high pitched vocals that sound sometimes childish and innocent, sometimes overtly aggressive and hysterical. He also plays an electric organ that sounds quite discordant and gives the band a very unusual trademark sound. During their shows, Mono often sets its big organ on fire and works with a very unique and simplistic microphone that is fixed around his neck. In a couple of songs, he also plays guitar or harmonica. The second musician is Yenzzo who performs the bass guitar and varies its style from very slow and minimalist rhythms to quite fast and mostly improvised passages. It’s somewhat the same thing for the third and last musician who is called Kick and who performs the drums in a way that varies from laid back loops up to blistering high speed passages. When the band started under the banner THE HATJOKERS twenty-five years ago, a guitar player was in the band but when he left the band decided to not replace him. As far as I am concerned, MONO FÜR ALLE! remains the only real Rock band I know that has no guitar player.

The most important thing about this alternative and controversial band is though the lyrics. The band writes about things happening in society that inspire them. They often take the place of an individual being facing extreme situations or representing radical points of view and write the lyrics from this point of view. Nothing is sacred for this band: some tracks criticize McDonald’s, other ones talk about 9/11 in the most cynical way, and others defend the position of somebody who wants to abolish the German protection of the Constitution and shoot the forces of the state. The lyrics created so many scandals and the band members were even put under surveillance by the German secret service to check if they wouldn’t build up a militia to bring the government or contemporary social order to fall. Some people tried to censor or even ban their tracks from radio and wanted their lyrics to disappear from the band’s official website. Several lawsuits occurred but the band later said that they were declared innocent and acquitted from possible charges as their works are recognized as pieces of art.

The band is also well known for its spontaneous projects and this release we have here is definitely the most outstanding one. The band organized a road trip to Spain ten years ago and offered the chance to some fans and friends to join them on their trip for only eighty-nine Euros. MONO FÜR ALLE! decided to play in an isolated hippie community called San Pedro in Southern Spain that is situated next to a beach. They didn’t announce their project to the local community though and the strange people were quite surprised when the band suddenly arrived with its equipment in a small boat and when they saw a couple of fans that had marched across sandy hills for several hours to get to the location. The band started its concert and had to face a quite special audience. Some hippies adored the show but some others found the music too aggressive and wanted to call the police. During the concert, a guy entered the stage to perform a strange dance and accidentally injured some band members. At another moment, one guy just pulled the plug and cut off electricity. Other funny moments include a barking dog that felt quite deranged by the strange music and some drunken hippies yelling nonsense in the microphone. Most of this can be seen or heard on the two discs. The band played for several hours and performed its set several times. They only stopped due to some issues with the vocals and a couple of hostile reactions from the crowd. While the band left the next day and headed back for Germany, some of their fans decided to stay with the hippie community. This strange project was later released as audio disc and SVCD (a DVD would have been far too commercial for this kind of band) including a lot of documentary footage. The release comes in a wooden box without any sticker, any booklet or any lyrics whatsoever and only features the two discs and a band photo.

Let’s get into the music now. The band opens its quite unusual concert with the track “Langweiliges Leben” (“Boring Life”) that tells in a quite short and pessimist way the life of an ordinary guy who looks back on what he has gone through: severe education, ordinary job, heartless family, getting older, feeling lonely and preparing for death. This song definitely makes you feel like getting out of this kind of way of life in order to do something more exciting than the masses tend to do. The second track is entitled “Hier gefällt’s mir nicht” (“I Don’t Like It Here”) where a guy talks about getting out with his wife on weekend despite hating it. He goes out in the discotheques to listen to awful music, to get observed and judged by drunken people and to please to his wife. He describes the whole situation as horrible and expresses his need to get out of all of this to discover something new. The third track “Amoklauf” (“Rampage”) is one of the most famous and controversial tracks of the band due to some internet popularity. A young man talks about leaving his house with a weapon one morning to go to a central place where he shoots old people, sick people and even young mothers with kids before fleeing from the police and the secret service after having killed a psychologist and a guy from a S.W.A.T. team. In the end, he asks himself how all of this arrived and as he doesn’t find an answer the narrator commits suicide. The fourth song “Alles falsche Schweine” (“All wrong pigs”) talks about a guy who observes people doing the opposite of what they pretend and who gets quite angry about this. The fifth track “Vision der Unsterblichkeit” (“Vision Of Immortality”) is a story about a completely insane guy who wants to freeze himself to wake up several centuries later in order to remain immortal. The last song “Terrorkatastrophe” (“Terror Disaster”) is a quite weird instrumental that features no lyrics and closes this weird concert.

In the end, all these words are not enough to describe this band. They are definitely different from anything you might know. Some people adore and understand the concept; others just despise the discordant music and don’t get the sense of the controversial lyrics. You really need to think while you listen to this kind of music. This live record is one of the rare physically available releases by the band and features the portrait of a highly experimental band in a quite strange place. The best thing is that the concert movie features German and also English subtitles so that you can at least understand the lyrics because this is what the band is all about.

For further information, you can head easily find listening examples on the internet or take a look on the site about this concert with press reactions, photos and even an experience report by one of the fans who decided to stay in San Pedro: http://www.sanpedrokonzert.de.vu/

(Online October 15, 2012)

PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION ist ein Projekt von Mikee Goodman von der inzwischen aufgelösten Progressive Metal Kapelle SIKTH und dem berühmten IRON MAIDEN Gitarristen Adrian Smith. Selbiger bedient hier auch den viersaitigen Tieftöner und steuert gar ein paar Gesänge zum Gesamtwerk bei. Als Studiomusiker engagierte das Duo den Schlagzeuger Dan Foord, die Sängerin Tarin Kerry, die in drei Liedern auftritt, aber insgesamt unauffällig bleibt und zudem Abi Fry, die auf einigen Stücken Viola spielt und gerade diesen Liedern einen schönen atmosphärischen Touch gibt.

Einige etwas traditionellere Metalfans hatten sicherlich so ihre lieben Probleme mit diesem Album, das irgendwie ein wenig untergegangen ist und von einigen Internetseiten sogar vollständig ignoriert wurde. Besonders Fans von der britischen Heavy Metal Legende IRON MAIDEN werden hier wenig von dem wiedererkennen, was sie von Adrian Smiths Hauptband gewohnt sind, abgesehen von seinen melodischen Gitarrensoli. Der geneigte Hörer bekommt hier eher eine Mischung aus Alternative Metal mit einem Schuss Groove, Nu und Progressive Metal geboten, sodass das Endresultat manchmal ziemlich durcheinander, dadurch aber auch irgendwie eigenständig klingt.

Die Produktion ist modern und hebt gerade den Gesang als auch die Saiteninstrumente wunderbar hervor, lediglich das Schlagzeug klingt manchmal etwas bescheiden. In einem Stück wie „Tortured Tone“ ist das vielleicht sogar so gewollt, tut dem ansonsten interessanten Stück aber leider gar nicht gut.

Das schwerste Hörerlebnis ist aber das eröffnende „No Friendly Neighbour“, denn die Band entschloss sich aus einem unerfindlichen Grund das verkopfteste Lied der Scheibe an die erste Position zu setzen und gar ein Video dazu zu drehen, was bei allem Respekt vor Experimentierfreudigkeit aber keine allzu weise Entscheidung war.

Das markanteste Element auf diesem Album ist sicherlich der vielseitige Gesang. Von düster geflüsterten Poesiepassagen über gepressten Gesang wie ein dunkles Grollen am wetterleuchtenden Nachthimmel bis hin zu entfesselten und geradezu hysterischen Schreien bekommt man hier viel geboten. Manche werden diese Vielseitigkeit preisen und wie ich als Stärke auslegen, Andere werden aus verständlichen Gründen genau das Gegenteil behaupten und argumentieren, dass das Album schwer verdaulich ist. Bevor irgendwer also einen Blindkauf wagt, sollte der geneigte Interessent erst einmal einige Lieder anhören und schauen, ob ihm dieser antikonformistische Gesang denn überhaupt zusagt.

Musikalisch bekommt man einen ganzen Haufen an düsteren und bleischweren Riffs geboten wie in „Bright As A Fire“. Es gibt aber auch durchaus schnelle und fast schon am Melodic Death Metal à la IN FLAMES orientierte Passagen wie in der unglaublich mitreißenden und emotionalen Single „No Place Like Home“. Auch ruhigere Stücke finden sich auf diesem Album. In manchen dominiert dort die Bassgitarre wie im bitterbösen Oberhammer „I See Lights“. An anderer Stelle ist es gar die Viola wie in der seltsamen Ballade „Mirror And The Moon“, bei der ich nicht so recht weiß ob ich sie genial oder einfach etwas zu verkopft finden soll. Einige sehr experimentierfreudige Stücke wie das poetisch-surreale „As Tears Come Falling From The Sky“ und das vielfältige Titelstück „Awoken Broken“ klingen gar ziemlich progressiv und sind nicht mehr allzu weit von Gruppierungen wie VOIVOD entfernt.

Insgesamt ist dieses Album sicherlich eines der interessantesten seiner Art und findet so gerade noch seinen Platz in meinen zwanzig besten Alben des Jahres. Das Endresultat klingt experimentierfreudig und modern, manchmal aber etwas zu überladen und manches Mal fällt das Projekt mit seiner frechen Attitüde auf den Allerwertesten. Dafür gibt es aber auch einige Lieder, die wirklich beeindrucken und direkt mitreißen. Andere Lieder brauchen mehrere Durchläufe. Wiederum andere Stücke wachsen bei mir eben gar nicht und müssen daher wohl als Ausfälle bezeichnet werden, aber keine Angst, denn es sind nicht allzu viele dabei. Allen musikalischen Freigeistern empfehle ich dieses Album wenigstens einmal anzuhören und hoffe irgendwann selbst mehr von PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION zu hören.

(Online 13. Oktober 2012)

PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION is a project of singer Mikee Goodman from the deceased Progressive Metal band SIKTH and IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith who also plays the bass guitar on this album and performs some well done background vocals as well. The duo is completed with session musicians in form of drummer Dan Foord, Tarin Kerry as background vocalist on three songs and finally Abi Fry who plays viola on several tracks.

Many traditional Metal fans had some issues with this release and it was even completely ignored by some websites but anybody who likes modern Alternative Metal and doesn’t mind some elements coming from Groove, Nu, and Progressive Metal should quickly get addicted to this underrated record. Quite variable vocals from darker tones up to hysterical high pitched screams meet melodic guitar solos in tradition of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and some more brutal and modern riffs.

The band though chose the worst track as opener and even second single. “No Friendly Neighbour” opens with electronic beats that make me think of early LINKIN PARK and soon heads for a song that permanently changes and lacks of catchy or at least coherent passages. Musically, the song might be appealing but it’s a too complicated piece to kick a record off with. Most of the other songs are much easier to digest and once you have passed over this weird track, you’ll have a reward in form of a diversified and energizing release.

The first highlight is the single “No Place like Home” with a crazy and diversified vocal performance leading to an unforgettable chorus. The song structure is quite vivid and hectic but this time the experiment fits. The riffs are sharp and immediately make your head bang. The guitar solo should please to any fan of traditional metal music and is definitely a signature work by Adrian Smith.

The band shows us a completely different side with the upcoming tracks “I See Lights” and also “Bright as a Fire”. These songs are a lot slower and quite heavy. The bass guitar has its more dominating parts in these tracks. The vocals are low and brutal but transmit a lot of negative emotions. Another highlight comes along with the slow and minimalist “Tortured Tone” that makes me think of a dark Grunge Rock track of the nineties and that definitely has some single potential. After some distorted and mean background vocals that duel with the dark main vocals, the chorus has a perfect mixture of a hopeful and desperate feeling and even makes me think of a modern IN FLAMES track. As you can see, the band doesn’t hesitate to try out new things and leaves the ordinary paths by putting a lot of emotions in everything they try out. Another example is the short and quite weird poetic interlude “As Tears Come Falling from the Sky” featuring multiple foreground and background vocals and some weird sound experiments VOIVOD would be proud of. The following title track “Awoken Broken” hits in a similar vein and is probably the most progressive one on the entire release and especially impresses with some eerie sound experiments and an unusual guitar solo in its middle part. The track though requests a lot of attention as well as multiple tries and is one of the hardest songs to digest on here.

The only problem with this release is that the album falls a little bit off towards the end as some ideas feel a little bit repetitive and the tracks get less catchy or impressive. While some tracks are quite addicting right from the start, most songs need a lot of time to grow while other ones even fail to so and might be cited as stinkers but don’t worry as there aren’t too many on here in the end.

In the end, this album is still one of the most interesting experiments of the year and features a couple of truly solid and diversified songs. It’s far from perfection but without a doubt a quite unique sound experience. I would recommend this release to open minded metal fans that don’t mind a modern sound and some influences coming from often despised genres such as Alternative Metal or Grunge. Before purchasing this release, you should definitely give a few songs a shot to decide if you are able to stand the quite unique and emotional vocals that are definitely the most stunning trademark of this album. In my humble opinion, this record is one of the year’s first highlights and definitely has its place in my top twenty of the year.

(Online October 13, 2012)