Der Blutharsch * Live In Leiden (cd 2010)
At the height of the fascist-musicians-hunt, Der Blutharsch came to the Dutch city of Leiden in September 2004. Of course the at that time usual raids of protests arose, but the major did see no reason to justify a prohibition and the show continued. The whole event became national news, especially when some of the local politicians said to go and see the show and Albin provocatively answered insinuating questions during the interview. There were no protestants outside the venue, but visitors were checked for ‘forbidden symbolism’. People had to deposit their iron crosses, while being the bandlogo at the time, they featured meters-high on each side of the stage. In the end everything was pretty much ‘a storm in a glass or water’ as we say here in the Netherlands. The politicians found the show tasteless, but not illegal.
Almost six years later, Albin decided to release recordings of the show, possibly for the old fans who are not happy with the new sound, as a reminder of people who were there or maybe as a bit of provocation, because the provocation ebbed away in recent years. The sound of the recordings is much better than I expected. The music is of course the martial industrial style with out of tone singing. I am not too fond of live recordings, usually studio recordings sound a lot better, but “Live In Leiden” is indeed a nice reminder.
Link: Der Blutharsch, WKN
The NY progrock band White Hills is currently extensively touring Europe. I must say that their Myspace tracks sound better than their track here which reminds quite a bit of Der Blutharsch’s current style. Der Blutharsch’s own track is a long stretched tone with some singing, “prog”, but not very “rock”. The White Hills track is the better one, but they do have better tracks.
A fortunate coincidence made that I saw Der Blutharsch live twice in the last week. They would play at a festival in Tilburg for which I bought tickets months ago. When me and my girlfriend had to book our holiday we had to mind to be back yesterday for the festival so we went the week before. Then I noticed that three of the bands in Tilburg would play in København on Wednesday and since a concert in another country is probably something different, we went there to see the alright show of Bain Wolfkind, the not too good and very short show of Deutsch Nepal and the very nice performance of Der Blutharsch in The Rock with about 50 other people. Yesterday during the Incubate festival the set of three played in the Hall Of Fame with a bit more audience and a much bigger place. Friends who expected the old style of Der Blutharsch were disappointed, one found the performance tame and save and however I liked the show, I remember the København show more lively, but that may have been because of the much more lively audience there. Der Blutharsch mostly did new versions of old tracks again and most tracks were pretty heavy but rather slow rock songs. I suppose that spelled the style on the new album, but I wonder why they did not just play new songs. “Flying High!” was announced to be more “psychedelic” and that is true. The catchy rocksongs of the last albums have been replaced by a slower sound, sometimes a bit of progrock soundscapes, sometimes the sleasy Bain Wolfkind rocksong style. “Flying High!” is not a new masterpiece. I like the fact that the band keeps developing in style and it is only a matter of time before this goes into a direction that I do not like, but the new album is a nice one for background moody poprock music. And for people who saw Der Blutharsch on stage, the music on the last albums, especially “Flying High!”, is by far not as loud as the rock-performances the band gives. There is less guitar, several different (guest) vocalists, no drumkit, but more different instruments than that are brought on stage. Indeed, Der Blutharsch does not sound the way they used to, but I personally find that a good thing. I play the rock albums more often than the martial predecessors and I may or may not get more used to “Flying High!”, but the time of “Kampf, Sieg oder Tod!” are behind us, just get used to the idea and see if you like the new direction of the band.
The latest effort of Der Blutharsch is not a very good one. Their track is instrumental and not very interesting and what is worse, the other band is some kind of boring metal/rock thing (“sludge doom” in their own words) with an awfull track. I guess the text on the single itself (“I Will Not Obey”) means that Herr Julius just keeps doing what he wants. I suppose I cannot always like it. The package is nice though.
The five last albums (or so) were all the last release of Der Blutharsch, but new releases kept coming. “Everything Is Alright” is just like “Rest On Your Arms Reversed”, the last cd of The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, a cd with collected rare tracks from limited vinyls and compilations, so who knows. “Rest On Your Arms Reversed” is the best cd of TMLHBAC. The same is not the case for “Everything Is Alright” for Der Blutharsch, but I must say that this collection is very, very enjoyable. I have quite a few of the limited vinyls, so I already had several of the tracks presented here, but I seldom play 7″s, so it is nice to be able to play them easily now. “Everything Is Alright” goes from about “Time Is Thee Enemy” to the present day, so do not expect the martial industrial old style Der Blutharsch, but the catchy poprock side of later days. Many people may think that Der Blutharsch has “lost its magic” when it stepped away from the popular martial style, I must say that I play the later ‘rocky’ albums much more often than the older material and “Everything Is Alright” may not be a “best of” compilation, it is an album that listens easily and can be played even when you have visitors. A nice collection of poprock songs.
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.
As mentioned in the review of the 7″ with the same name, this is again the last Der Blutharsch release. The 7″ proved a good indication for the cd. The music is still recognisable for Der Blutharsch, but different from earlier releases, also the later ones. The style has gone more into a poprock direction, but also with a more industrial sound than before. “The Philosopher’s Stone” is more tranquil than the last more rock-oriented cds and after a few listenings I might say, not as good either. The last cd certainly is a bad one, and there are some very nice songs and melodies here, but I have to admit that I hoped Herr Julius would leave the arena with a blow.
After a few times having quitted the project, Albin Julius again anounced a few last releases. Here we have a 7″ with the title of the upcoming cd (and cd+7″ box) with one track of the cd and of course one exclusive one. Der Blutharsch again managed to sound like Der Blutharsch, but different from before. As anounced, there are no more “martial” influences in the sound. The two tracks are rather soft experimental industrial rock or whatever you want to call it. In the line of the last material, but a bit different. The tracks are not bad, not great, but I find that Der Blutharsch’ music usually comes out better on an album where they are in line of the other tracks, so I have no fears that the next last release, will again be a nice one.