Bleak lyrics accompanied by gothic sounds - A review of Samsas Tarum's Poesie: Friedrichs Geschichte

Samsas Traum is one of the most eccetric groups of the German gothic scene. Band leader Alexander Kaschte often offers conflicting musical genres varying from black metal over gothic rock to neoclassical soundcsapes. His lyrics and opinions are sometimes quite radical and hard to digest when he promotes veganism or claims that the world would be better off without mankind. While most records of the band are related to imaginary tales, Poesie: Friedrichs Geschichte is Samsas Traum's most ambitious project yet as it tells the story of one of the victims of the Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry in Hadamar where numerous people with mental and physical handicaps were killed by the Nazi regime.

The final result is quite controversial. On one side, the lyrics are intense and never cloud the terrible truth, the vocals are often spoken rather than sung in rhythmic patterns recalling Austrian rapper Falco and the music meanders between elegiac neoclassical elements, reduced darkwave sounds and simple gothic rock patterns which makes for an entertaining ride. On the other side, the concept is tough to digest and one sometimes realizes with disgust that one is singing along to specific catchy songs despite their horrifying lyrics.

The cynical "Sauber" with its military rhythms and "Sieg Heil!" shouts, the melodramatic and stoic "Und ich schrieb Gedichte", the bleak "Der Mönchberg (Heinrichs Gedicht)" with its particularly haunting story and the concise and rhythmic "Es tut uns leid" are probably the best tracks songs on this release but there is no filler to be found and the sum is greater than its parts.

If you don't speak German, there is no interest for you to even listen to this record. The music should please fans of the diversified gothic scene rather than those who are expecting a rock or even a metal release. What matters most are however the concept and the lyrics and one should listen to this album while studying the bleak but poetic lyrics in the booklet.

One has to admire Alexander Kaschte's courage to push boundaries and deal with such a difficult topic. The lyrics, the music and even the artwork show how cautiously the artist approached the project to bring one of the darkest episodes in the history of mankind to life. If you're remotely intersted in this topic, you should listen to this album at least once. This is one of the few cases where the lyrics of a record are much more important than the music that goes along with it. Even nowadays, it remains important to remember the horrors of the Nazi Regime in order to ensure something like that won't ever happen again. I appreciated this particular experience quite a bit but I could understand anyone who would like to stay away from such a bleak experiment. This album is blacker than most black metal albums even though it's just a gothic record.

Final Rating: 80%