I first heard Sturmpercht back in 2006 through their debut album, ‘Geister Im Waldgebirg,’ and since then I’ve gone on to hear two more Sturmpercht releases. I think the one thing that always comes to mind after hearing the band is just how to describe them since there so diverse and basically indescribable as far as genre placement is concerned. In one hand they are a folk band, but this is certainly not your average Douglas Pierce brand of simplistic neo folk, rather they dub themselves alpine folk and as far as I know it’s a creation of their own.
Although all of the lyrics are in German apparently the words revolve around alpine mystic, heathen legends, forest tales, hunter sagas and probably alcohol since some of these songs would really hit the spot with a good lager in hand, but since I don’t understand German I guess it doesn’t matter much what they sing about. It is however very interesting the way the songs change from upbeat folky songs to more serious, epic, atmospheric or slightly melancholy sounding to even completely bizarre and fun tunes at times. It’s really remarkable how diverse this band is and the amount of instruments used is beyond count. This is just one band but after spinning, ‘Schattenlieder’ you’d honestly think you just heard at least a dozen different bands.
It also must be noted that some well known German (and one Austian) musicians like Gerhard Hallstatt (Allerseelen), Axel Frank (Werkraum) and CZ (Vinterriket) make considerable contributions to this album. So therefore fans of said bands may want to investigate this release for that fact alone.
However at seventy eight minutes and twenty songs strong this album can be a bit much to swallow all at once, but I’ve generally found that once I give the band’s releases a few listens they really grow on me and Schattenlieder is surely no different.
All in all if you’re into the more diverse and at times wacky side of folk music than definitely give this album a try since it’s a total gold mine if that’s what you seek within your folk related music.
No comments:
Post a Comment