Gangleri – musicreviews

Stupid me. I saw Der Blutharsch twice during their last tour, but I did not buy this single because I was not sure I did not have it… Fortunately copies have ended up at a couple of distros so you can still get it. Not that you should buy it for the music though. The fairly discoish track with Jeffrey D. is no masterpiece, but I try to keep up with the band’s releases a bit.
Link: Der Blutharsch / WKN

Starting as the new hope for martial industrial and military pop, the new label advertises for Rome with comparison to Leonard Cohen. You do not have to fear for a bluesy folk sound (nothing bad said about Cohen of course), but indeed, Rome seems to continue to move towards more of a singer/songwriter approach. I was not immediately impressed by the previous release, which Jérôme himself calls a “single”, but I do happen to like to play it. “Flowers From Exile” has blown me away from the first play, just like the earlier releases. Rome has officially turned into a duo, but that does not change much about the sound. As a matter of fact, the sound reminds more of the earlier material than I expected from “To Die Among Strangers”. Like I said, the music is more “singer/songwriter”, mostly just guitar and singing and a bit of drumming, but there are still things going on on the background and Rome does keep a ‘martial’ edge in the use of samples. The songs are great, better than when I heard them at the performance in Leipzig. Just as before, Rome manages to work on my mood (the fact that the music is pretty damn melancholic is a reason that I do not play it all that often). There are nice melodies, good ideas and, like I said before, that ‘full’ sound with things on the background, the details that I have loved Rome for since the beginning. “Flowers From Exile” is the first full length on the German label Trisol, which is Rome’s way of reaching new audiences and they definately deserve that, since they have again proven that they are the better songwriters of our scene. Finally a masterpiece has come from our scene again.
And I almost forget to mention that their finally is a proper website too (see link below).
Links: Rome, Trisol

So the new Rome is a mcd, a “teaser” for the new album? Because of the new label perhaps? Four tracks of which two are rerecorded old tracks. Three times poppy neofolk and an ambient/industrial sound collage. Not bad, but I prefered a new full-length. I guess I will have to wait.
Links: Rome, Trisol

The last three or four Der Blutharsch albums all were the last. Yet again there is a new 7″ and a new cd has again been announced (“Everything Is Alright!” rare tracks and remixes). The 7″ is as expensive as a cd and has two (military) poprock songs. The Der Blutharsch track is the better, Sottofasciasemplice use Italian lyrics.
Links: Der Blutharsch, Sottofasciasemplice, WKN.

Strange actually, this cd could be listened in full and bought digitally on the CMI website a couple of weeks before the actual release. I have looked forward for this new album. I love this project from Luxemburg, but I don’t play his cds too often because they are rather melancholic. The latter is a little less present on “MMM”, but the sound doesn’t differ all that much from the earlier releases. Rome makes music somewhere between neofolk and military pop and has thick ‘wavy’ influences. Especially the tracks in the beginning sound even more “gothic” than we got used to and the music may not (allways) ‘grab me’ as much as on the previous albums, but the songs are again very well structured and layered and all known elements are again present. “MMM” is again a very good album with perhaps the only minor point that it remains a bit too much in the sound that we all know by now. That is hardly a reason not to buy this album though, because it is a lot better than almost anything coming from that corner of our scene nowadays.
Links: Rome, Cold Meat Industry

If I am correct this 7″ was released especially for the Wave Gotik Treffen 2007 performance (where I got it). Two typical but very nice DV tracks with catchy ‘military pop’. Nice package and of course very limited.
links: Dernière Volonté, Hau Ruck!
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Rome from Luxembourg has delighted us with a magnificent mcd and a brilliant full-length and only months later there is a new album, again on CMI. I hope this tempo will not continue and lead to overkill. “Confessions” is again a masterpiece. It is slightly different in style, but still ‘very much Rome’. The bombastic and orchestral opener may appeal to the lovers of the popular martial industrial style, but again the cd is very tranquil and melancholic. Just on a few occasions you will get something more industrial. Actually, this new cd is more tranquil with accoustic guitar and singing than on the previous releases. Besides this you will hear ambient, wave-like sounds, industrial, orchestrations and here and there a martial tone (especially in the background samples). Rome as a concept is carefully put together with a great ear and eye for details. The music is multi-layered with a lot of things happening on the background. This care also shows during live-performances where a beautiful film is projected on the background which goes perfectly with the songs and the lyrics. If you like the previous releases, you will also like “Confessions”. As a personal note I have to add that the previous releases (which I have put on one disc and always play as one thing) have more songs that really give me gooseflesh and work on my emotion, so in this regard “Confessions” may be a little less good than “Berlin” and “Nera”. Maybe this is because the novelty is gone, I cannot tell. In any case, do not expect popular martial and orchestral industrial, but a very personal, intimate and melancholic release with brilliantly built-up songs.

Yesterday Volksweerbaarheid played in Rotterdam together with Of The Wand And The Moon. So many new songs and only a new 7″… This little piece of vinyl is the result of a small festival together with Dead Man’s Hill and Allerseelen which was organised by Carpe Noctem Records from Belgium. It took a while before this 7″ saw the light of day, so that is why. On stage there were two new (?) female faces, a lady on the drums and one with a violin. Nothing of that on this 7″ yet, but undoubtely they will feature on future releases.
But to come to “Of Bullets, Drinks and Wreckage”. Volksweerbaarheid continue their unique musical course with musical jokes (this time some flamengo), Dutch 50′ies-like lyrics, odd artwork, etc. Fortunately we have a band here not giving a damn about what is hip and trendy (even when the violin resulted with one a little too much neofolk song on stage). So how to describe their music should any of you never heard (of) the band? Ehm, drums, acoustic guitars, sometimes a bass-guitar, here and there a sample and most earcatching are the lyrics/vocals. I suppose you just have to visit the website and listen to the mp3-snippets to get a better idea. To those who do know the band I can say that this 7″ is in the line starting with the cdemo (fairly ‘agressive’ drum-based music with neofolk) to the 10″ (more tranquil and experimental with here and there the drums) going towards a more experimental and tranquil sound with not too many drums. I like the 2nd and 3rd track a lot, time will tell if I only had to get used to the 1st one. In any case I am glad that there are still bands just doing their own thing and the fact that they are from my own country makes that even better. Now we can only hope that some good label wants to release a cd that is available for a larger audience too.

Our young Dutch group sent a copy of the live-cdemo “Voorwaarts Lisse!” to mr. Julius who was interested enough to release a 10″ of Volksweerbaarheid. After some delay, it is finally here. Nicely “pigheaded” (what a strange expression!) with all lyrics in Dutch, title in Dutch (and a funny one, it means nothing more than “grooves in black vinyl”), titles in Dutch and artwork mostly in Dutch. Quite tastefull artwork too, I might add. Unfortunately there are only two tracks that are not on the cdemo and two others tracks are directly taken from this previous release. Also the demo is louder, more drumming and this 10″ more neofolky, but don’t worry, you will hear the drums too. Volksweerbaarheid is developing a nice style of not too typical neofolk with much drumming, some industrial elements and wonderfull 50′ies poetry-lyrics. Not too typical subjects and therefor not too easily put in certain corners. Hopefully a cd will follow soon, the band has material enough I heard in Lisse.

Several months ago Volksweerbaarheid presented themselves to the Dutch gothic audience. It seemed to be not much more than an internetpage with humorous references to the neofolk scene. It was said though, that the guys and girl were also busy making music. Recently the band played together with Of The Wand And The Moon and Ostara in Lisse in the Netherlands and their show was by far the best of the evening. However there hadn’t been much practise (rumours say), there had been an earlier show. Recordings of both shows can be found on this debut cdemo of Volksweerbaarheid.
The members of the band seem to be rather young and probably haven’t been ‘involved’ in ‘the scene’ too long. The obvious touching upon the ‘sensitive’ subjects from the scene seems to indicate a going with the popularity of neofolk music. Who cares about that when the sound is fresh and original, well, in a way at least. The untranslatable bandname refers to ‘resistance of the people’ against the German invaders in both world wars. In the lyrics the band also refer to non-resistance symbols and ideas, so just say that they walk a middle path or either ideology is made fun off. Music-wise I can tell you that Volksweerbaarheid makes very drum-oriented music with folky songs and only here and there a little bit of keyboard. The lyrics are shouted in Dutch and are rather political, but also refers to older Dutch poetry.
The recordings of the shows are really good and the tracks are very enjoyable. The length unfortunately is only 23 minutes, while the show was (I believe) longer. The sounds of the audience are left out, which I prefer. Hopefully the band will enter a studio some time soon and record more music. Definately another Dutch band to keep your eyes on!