Germany´s Rammstein are back with new full length opus. This time, they offer eleven songs of their trademark industrial metal. But, this is just basic description of their music. Rammstein is only Rammstein and can not be accurately described. There is metal, there is industrial, there is Laibach, there is goth and punk in their song structures. This opus is very melodic and the songs are very atmospheric with couple of typical Rammstein straightforward anthems to attack the speakers like Zick Zack or Angst. But, there are couple of more atmospheric almost ballad songs on this one that make your skin crawl with pleasure like Zeit or Meine Traenen. Lyrics are again top, pure poetry but one can relate to between the lines, I know German so I am so happy to be able to understand what Rammstein sing about on this opus. Rammstein also sarcastically criticize modern world with Dicke Titten tongue in cheek song but containing bitter reality in itself. This is not their best album for me, but in top three of four definitely. Great one.
Czech or Czechoslovakian cinematography is one of the mightiest in mid Europe, with so many great movies, directors and stories coming out through the history and decades of movie making. I ran into this one the other day, so it was time for me to see it. This movie, directed by Otakar Vavra, based on the novel by Vaclav Kaplicky is a daring and at moments disturbing ode to witch hunting histeria in black and white.
The story revolves around an inquisitor Boblig who is summoned to a town to investigate alleged witches and with time he becomes more and more obssessed with extermination and torturing of innocent women. Some of the noble town folks try to confront him and resist, but will it be enough to stop the overall madness? What I must say, that this movie left a remarkable impact on me. There is a lot of nudity and naked female bodies in this one for a time it was made, back behind the iron curtain and communism was still ruling this land. Acting is superb, madness and histeria is depicted with precision and there are couple of really disturbing and sad scenes in the movie, knowing how many women were persecuted, tortured and executed with no reason in the 1600s when this movie takes place. The ending is quite poetic but dark as is overall atmosphere and vibe of this movie jewel of Euro cinematography. Go see this one!
Knight & Gallow are hailing from California and after releasing one single and demo this is their first full length opus. This one contains intro and eight songs. Knight & Gallow play a mixture of heavy metal done in old school style if I must compare it to some bands it would be a more nwobhm version of Cirith Ungol or little Manilla Road, but the trouble I have with these songs on the album is they sound all too similar and they just didn´t reach that my inner vibe and touched my metal heart in the way they were supposed to. Lyrically band is varied between Tolkien, vikings, crusades, gods of war and all other merry themes. There are three songs that stand out for me above rest of the material, those are Stormbringer´s Call, Blood Of Wolves and Black Swordsman with blast beat part and almost thrash power metal solo and melody. This is a decent debut, we will see what the future brings.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 