Kev Rowland
In the 90’s they played some of the world’s largest festivals, toured with the likes of Rammstein, Deftones and Metallica and were highly regarded in the German music scene for this ability to mix metal with pop melodies, but since their fourth album ‘The Other Side’, which was released in 2004, things have been relatively quiet. However, three of the founding members Matthias Sayer (vocals), Alex Scholpp (guitar) and Ralf Botzenhart (bass – Ralf actually left the band before they became well-known, only recently returning) brought in two new members in Timm Schreiner (drums) and Richard Düe (keyboards) and started playing again in 2017, and this is the first album since then.
The album starts really quietly, with gentle keyboards, but when the guitars come in then the listener knows the band aren’t straying too far away from their roots. Although they are a metal band, I found that the act they reminded me most closely of was My Chemical Romance, with a strong dose of alternative melodies being mixed in with the guitars. Sayer has a great voice, and the album contains hook after hook, and has been very well produced, so even though I don’t normally listen to this style of music I found that it was making me smile. The arrangements contain many elements, and one is never quite sure where each song is going to lead, as there are times they come across as Machine Head with a furious groove, and others Linkin Park, while always maintaining that melodic sensibility. Solid.