Kev Rowland
Herrschaft were formed at the tailend of 2004 when they decided to bring together extreme Metal and Electro/Indus genres into one form. Their first effort, ‘Architects of the Humanicide’, conceptualized the Electro/Metal music by exploring mankind’s future, creating a world from the opposed bright and dark sides of a synthetic future. Two years later their full album ‘Tesla’, brought forward the concept, describing a humanity bound to fall and destruction due to its own selfishness. It also showed the maturity of their unique sound, melting of New Wave synths layered in catchy melodies, powerful clear-cut guitars and harsh screaming voices, always driving Electro and Metal worlds altogether to their darkest sides.
Now, after five years, they are back with their next effort, and here we have a full-blown hybrid that is both extreme and dance, all at the same time. There are instances when they are being a Rammstein, but taken to almost extreme levels and mixed headlong with the Chemical Brothers. It is music designed to create a mosh and be played at a rave, preferably all happening at the same time. This is definitely a grower of an album as the first few times I listened to it I just couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but the more it went into my skull the more I realised that this is actually an incredibly majestic and powerful piece of work. This is going to alienate as many people who are going to like it, as it really is a quite different genre in many respects, but if you enjoy Rammstein-style industrial metal, or the more powerful and hard hitting elements of bands like Prodigy then this is certainly worth investigating further. www.auralmusic.com