There is no need to introduce a band like RAMMSTEIN anymore as they have risen to worldwide fame with their hard Industrial guitar sound, the danceable and simplistic keyboard beats and the martial and definitely unique vocals that many bands fail to copy. Add the stunning live shows with loads of pyrotechnics, diversified disguises and explicit acting scenes to this plus the controversial and critical lyrics and you've got all ingredients for the best definition of Germany's most famous contemporary band in the world.

After a four year long wait, RAMMSTEIN are back with a bang and deliver what is in my opinion their best album. Even though some topics such as the Fritzl Case treated in "Wiener Blut" are quite predictable and the band doesn't move an inch away from its style, the entire record is more consistent than ever from a musical and lyrical point of view and the musicians have technically improved over the years. You really get delivered one hundred percent of RAMMSTEIN on here.

Once again, there were a couple of controversies centered on this record. The first single "Pussy" talks about sex tourism and the video clip presents professional porn actors that look like the six musicians that are having sex in many different practices and styles. The video was only published on a site for adult meetings and the simplistic and gross chorus offended many philistines in their sometimes quite prudish home country. Add to this that the special edition of the album came in a metallic box with handcuffs, lubricant and six dildos that are supposed to be created in form of the original members of the band members. And no, I didn't purchase the limited edition and don't believe the rumour is true.

Some explicit photos in the booklet showing band members butchering each other or some pieces of meat plus the explicit lyrics of the second single "Ich tu dir weh" that deals with sadomaso techniques led to the indexing of the record in Germany only two weeks after its release. The record was though still available at special request by adults in some record stores. The single itself was though not available and the band got the interdiction to perform the track live during their concerts on German ground. They nevertheless played the track with different lyrics and the album was released once again without the controversial song. Half a year later, the decision was though revised and the regular album got back in retail stores again. Despite its questionable lyrics, the track happens to be the best one on the record from a musical point of view. The vocals are very expressive, the guitar riffs crunching and heavy and the dark keyboard sounds atmospheric, epic and almost danceable at the same time.

Another highlight on this record is the track "Mehr" that features some heavy and simplistic Neue Deutsche Härte riffs but also a very melancholic middle part. The lyrics are very intriguing and criticize indirectly the worldwide financial crisis that occurred during the recording of this release. The song is about a ruthless capitalist who wants to become always richer and does everything to exploit the poor. This track is definitely a statement and describes something many people think but few dare to say. The band shows once again that they are politically rather on the left wing and contradict the stereotype of their martial image that many fans still mistake for some sort of fascist attitude.

The record also includes a couple of stunning experiments. "Frühling in Paris" features some lyrics by Edith Piaf and it's quite surprising to hear Till Lindemann perform in French and sing about a romantic springtime in the capital of love. The laid back "Roter Sand" is a very poetic track without any hard electric guitar riffs and talks about a traditional duel between two men that are fighting for a woman. This topic makes me think of Theodor Fontane's legendary novel "Effi Briest" but maybe the inspirations comes from another book or film, too.

On the other side, one also gets a few tracks reminding of the band's past releases that are heavier than the rest and quite simplistic. "B********" is even probably the heaviest song the band ever recorded but it's also by far the dumbest song on the entire release and quite ridiculous from my point of view as it has no special meaning from a musical and also lyrical point.

In the end, RAMMSTEIN kept all their typical trademarks, improved their song writing as well as their musical approach, added some controversial artworks, lyrics and videos to the whole thing and got what they want with a big media attention and many record sales all over the world. In the past, I've never appreciated the fact that this band was Germany's most famous music export as their first releases were in my opinion quite simplistic and in the same genre, I preferred the more original bands such as DIE KRUPPS or OOMPH!. I still think that other German bands such as the unique Medieval Rockers from IN EXTREMO should get more attention internationally but since the diversified "Reise, Reise" and the surprisingly introspective "Rosenrot", I began to appreciate RAMMSTEIN and accepted their status. This album here even made me a fan of them and I assisted at one of their shows. I think some other critical minds might also get convinced by the high quality of this record and should try to revise their prejudicial opinion towards the band. The band manages to remain unique and faithful to its style by improving musical and lyrical skills. They are somewhat succeeding in distilling their very own essence on this record, a little bit like the main character in Patrick Süskind's "Perfume". I think this metaphor of ugliness and aesthetic perfectly fits to RAMMSTEIN. With this release, RAMMSTEIN really left me impressed and I'm looking forward for their material in the next year.

(Online October 18, 2012)

HAMADA MARI is a female Japanese singer that had an incredible career and this is already her twenty-first full length release in almost thirty years. She started as a protégée of the well-known late LOUDNESS drummer Munetaka Higushi in the early eighties. She later collaborated with a high amount of well know musicians who would also come from the United States of America. Even though she never got a definite international breakthrough, she soon became one of the best-selling Japanese artists in the late eighties and early nineties. Her style became a little bit more commercial and J-Pop orientated. Recently, her style became a little bit heavier once again and her brand new record “Legend” definitely has enough Heavy and Power Metal influences to be worth mentioned.

If you listen to the warm and variable vocals and if you take a look on the beautiful and well-dressed lady on the album artwork you surely wouldn’t expect that Hamada Mari is already fifty years old but that’s the stunning truth. The record sounds as fresh as she looks but still doesn’t reinvent a genre. Another positive fact is that there is still enough space for the instruments as the song structures don’t only focus on the vocals as it is often the case when we don’t talk about a band but about a singer only.

The opening “Crisis Code” is an amazing Gothic Rock song with hard but overall simplistic riffs. A few modern electronic samples are added to this and you happen to be surprised when the vocals set in. They sound quite dark and mysterious. The vocals are filled with atmosphere and charisma. They definitely don’t sound childish as many other sweet female Asian singers happen to be. I would simply associate them to a way I would imagine a fallen angel could sing. The vocals are mostly performed in English but there are also some little Japanese bits and pieces here and there.

That’s also the case for the second track “Momentalia” that could come from a European Power Metal band. The angelic vocals are surely technically well performed but they don’t really fit to the music and that’s the main problem with some songs on this album. Variation is a good thing but there is in fact a little bit too much of it on this record. HAMADA MARI and her team try out different genres and have many good ideas but sometimes the record feels a little bit directionless. A clear guiding line and structure is somewhat missing and makes the listening experience a little bit flawed by confusion at some moments.

The record still contains a couple of highlights that put the unique vocals in quite unusual and never before explored song structures. Especially the middle part of this release is truly impressive. The epic “El Dorado” is amazing Power Metal ballad in the key of HELLOWEEN’s “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”. The song features touching electric guitar solos but also intimate acoustic guitar moments. The song has enough diversity and especially emotion to remain relevant from the beginning to the end in over seven minutes of running time. With the equally long “Forest”, HAMADA MARI moves on a more Neoclassical or Symphonic Metal terrain that makes me think of WITHIN TEMPTATION for example. This track is an epic dark Pop song that has almost a rock opera structures the further it progresses. The warm keyboard sounds as well as the tribal drums keep the musical variation on a very high level on this album highlight. “Ransei-Conscientia” is then one of the hardest songs on the entire disc. It starts with some majestic organ sounds before an energizing Power or even Speed Metal track kicks off. The guitar work on this song is outstanding and even the vocals perfectly adapt to this genre. The track is surprisingly hard but still remains melodic. It makes me think a little bit of STRATOVARIUS’ “Phoenix” from the legendary Infinite album.

In the end, this record is definitely worth your attention of you like more commercial and mostly European sounding Gothic, Power and Symphonic Metal with variable vocals. Some courageous pieces on here work quite well and make this record quite entertaining but some songs also feel a little bit misplaced and can be described as failed experiments. It’s still impressive that a Japanese pop star goes back to her old metal roots and even discovers new and quite modern genres after all these years and I have a lot of respect for this mostly succeeded attempt. I’m looking forward to discover the singer’s large discography even further in the future and can only recommend you to check this new release out if you happen to be intrigued by her career.

(Online October 16, 2012)

Only a month after the first vinyl single debuting the release of a total of nine releases from the “I’m With You” sessions, the legendary RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS are already back with two brand new songs. In my humble opinion, the band though can’t catch up with the two energizing tracks they’ve released only a couple of weeks ago.

“Magpies on Fire” has not much fire inside and comes along as a rather faceless radio Rock track that could have also been recorded during the “Californication” sessions. The vocals sound rather ordinary, the rhythm section is not powerful at all, and the track also lacks of a gripping chorus or something else that might awake a minimum of attention. The only intriguing aspect about this song is the solid guitar play by the young and talented Josh Klinghoffer but even he doesn’t sound too unique on here and his style reminds me a little bit too much of his mentor and predecessor John Frusciante who quit the band about three years ago for the second time to focus on his solo career. 

The second song entitled “Victorian Machinery” is though clearly better. The rhythm section comes along as the backbone of this song and is indeed much more present than in the first one. Especially bassist Flea shows once again why he is considered as one of the best contemporary musicians on his instrument. The discordant and quite experimental guitar tones form the heart of the song. The slightly discordant vocals also sound much more diversified and emotional than in the first song and could be described as the track’s soul. The song includes a few (and at first try) unpredictable changes and varies from soft to harder parts. The song sounds like the bastard of a heavier and progressive track from the heavily underrated “One Hot Minute” release and a more laid back song coming from the “Stadium Arcadium” sessions. This mixture works rather well even though the concept gets a little bit repetitive towards the end and would have needed a few more fresh ideas to get a better rating.

In the end, we have a rather weak and a rather strong track on this release that I would only recommend to the real fans of the band that are looking for the purchase of each one of the nine single releases. Let’s see how the next two tracks will sound as they are already going to be released in a couple of days.

(Online October 16, 2012)

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 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)