"Adventurous steampunk tales with a shot of metal'': A review of Coppelius' "Hertzmaschine"

Dear readers of my blog,

Coppelius has become one of my favourite German bands over the past five years. The group offers a mixture of Victorian era chamber music and some creative heavy metal which is supported by a vivid steampunk style, humorous lyrics and entertaining concerts. The sextet has just released a brand new record called ''Hertzmaschine''. I had originally written this review for Black Wind Metal a few weeks back but since the site is currently on hiatus, I decided to publish my review exclusively on my own personal blog. I hope you enjoy the band and my review. Happy Easter to you all! 

How could I introduce Coppelius to someone who has never heard of this band? The sextet from Berlin is definitely one of the weirdest and most unique groups in the entire metal scene. Their name is inspired by a character from the short story "The Sandman" by famous German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann. The band plays different genres of music but mainly chamber music and a mixture of rock and metal on cello, clarinet, double bass, drums and harpsichord. The band includes four different vocalists but most of the vocal duties involve one singer with a low and powerful voice and another one with a higher and more elegant tone. The sextet varies from fast and heavy up-tempo tracks reminding of similar bands like Apocalyptica, several Neue Deutsche Härte outfits such as Rammstein or even early Iron Maiden to romantic chamber music with occasional a cappella influences inspired by the Victorian era that rather sounds like a mixture of Schandmaul, Subway to Sally and Van Canto. The band is therefor rather popular in the German medieval rock scene as well as in the more eclectic gothic scene. The formal, old-fashioned Victorian era outfits, the band's Steampunk inspired artworks, booklets and stage material as well as their humorous role plays on stage where they play different characters with antiquated stage names add to the band's popularity in the gothic scene. The group's mainly German and occasionally also English lyrics are often very elegant, poetic and sophisticated but they sometimes have a humorous touch. The band always offers very creative and diversified albums and concerts that help their fans escape from the reality, the seriousness and the stress of our contemporary society. Coppelius' fifth full length effort Hertzmaschine is a play on words with the technical term hertz and the emotional symbol of a heart and a machine associated to both which underlines the group's Steampunk style. Their new album is not only one of the very best in their eighteen years of existence but also a highly recommandable release for potential new fans.

Hertzmaschine includes everything that makes Coppelius stand out and even more. Short and slightly humorous tracks with a cappella performances or even meditative chants such as "Tragisches Ende eines Luftpiraten" and "Contenance" build up a lot of charm and serve as fitting introductions to or transitions between different songs on the album. The record includes a couple of harmonious chamber music inspired ballads such as the longing and positive "Harmonie" or the calm and dreamy yet powerful piano and string driven "Sternenstaub" which work very well next to the heavier tunes. The vivid, uplifting and humorous "Ein Experiment" is one of the three best tracks on here and tells the story of a crazy professor accompanied by a small boy who is working on a machine that may change the world but who eventually destroys his own laboratory. One of the greatest and heaviest songs in their career is definitely the single "Der Luftschiffharpunist" which tells the tragic tale of a working man on an airship. This album highlight employs low vocals, heavy cello riffs and an angrily pumping rhythm section of powerful double bass and tight drums. Even for an eclectic band like Coppelius this is a rather surprising tune but I really admired the track when I heard it more than a month before the album was released and I even appreciate more in the context of the record today. Coppelius are known to cover one song taken from Iron Maiden's first two records on each release and the band chose the brilliant "Killers" for this output. The band performs this song with a fascinating mixture of elegance and extasy and really nails this tune. The vivid rhythm section of double bass and drums, the clarinet solos who sound even better than guitar solos and the surprisingly unchained vocal performance that comes scarily close to my idea of a mentally disturbed killer are absolutely outstanding. I have always been a big Iron Maiden fan but this is one of the rare cases where the cover actually beats the original. The song makes you feel as if you were in the middle of an Edgar Allan Poe short story or alternatively in an old Klaus Kinski movie. The band really nails this tune which induces sweating headbanging attacks each time I witness these four and a half minutes of dark power.

In the end, Coppelius offers a balanced, coherent and simply excellent mixture of its numerous influences and styles in highly emotional and technically well-executed forty-nine minutes. Even though the last third doesn't match the streak of excellent tracks in the exciting first two-thirds, this record includes no obvious filler material and is therefor my favourite Coppelius record so far. If you care for the Steampunk genre and are eager to discover an original mixture of chamber music and heavy metal, this album is what you have always been waiting for. In my book, this is one of the strongest records released so far this year. Go give this unique band a chance.

Final verdict: 9 out of 10

Support the band and visit the following sites:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CoppeliusHilft

Homepage: coppelius.eu 

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CoppeliusKanal/videos