UMUR
"Werk 80" is the 5th ull-length studio album by German metal act Atrocity. The album was released through Swanlake Records in April 1997. That´s less than a year after the release of "Willenskraft" from July 1996. "Werk 80" is a covers album, featuring covers of 80s pop/new wave tracks by artists like The Human League, Tears for Fears, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Considering that Atrocity started out playing deathgrind in the late 80s, and technical death metal in the early 90s, that´s a bit of a surprise move, but then again if you´ve payed attention to the stylistic diversity of the band´s material in the few years between their early death metal releases and the release of "Werk 80", it really shouldn´t come as a huge surprise. Atrocity have tried their hands on industrial metal, goth metal, groove metal, and neo-folk to varying degrees of success, so why not make a covers album of 80s pop/new wave hits, to add to the tally of strange/adventurous musical choices?
Atrocity manage to put their own spin on the cover tracks on "Werk 80", in terms of putting heavy jagged guitar riffs on the songs and goth and industrial tinged vocals (and the occasional harder edged shouting vocal part). There are both keyboards and samples used too, and the occasional female vocal part (mostly performed by lead vocalist Alexander Krull´s wife Liv Kristine). Some tracks are more interesting than others, but that goes for the originals too, and some tracks are better suited for Atrocity´s treatment than others, but "Werk 80" is overall a decent release. It´s nothing groundbreaking, and in most cases I´d rather listen to the originals, but it´s a well produced and well performed covers album and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.
