EISREGEN - Fegefeuer
Since their inception in 1995, Eisregen from Thuringia have been one of the most controversial bands. Two of their early albums, Krebskolonie and Farbenfinsternis, have been blacklisted as they were deemed harmful for the youth. The band was never discouraged by those actions and released more or less every two years new records that never failed to provoke. In the autumn of 2018, they are back with their thirteenth longplayer Fegefeuer, which is quite the feat, considering that their previous longplayer Fleischfilm only came out in mid-2017, and that earlier this year they released the seven track EP Satan liebt dich, with only one track being reused on the new album.
I have always been fond of Eisregen’s music, but Fegefeuer might be one of their best efforts yet. This starts already with the symphonic intro which has a slightly creepy undertone. After that we get symphonic black metal with a lot of drama courtesy to the charismatic voice of Michael Roth. His vocals remind during the more brutal parts of Rammstein’s Till Lindemann, and during the more theatrical moments of Sir Hannes (The Idiots, Phantoms Of Future, Honigdieb). He also takes care to keep his vocals understandable. Maybe today it’s hard to scandalise the way it was possible twenty years ago, but especially tracks like Knochentorte and Oben auf dem Leichenberg are the perfect soundtrack for adult Halloween parties. Not only the lyrics, but also the music is quite extreme. There are probably only few bands that run blast parts in parallel wit quiet piano sounds. On Axtmann, the tempo changes are completely unpredictable and sometimes let cheesy parts follow after anger outbursts. Die Bruderschaft des 7. Tages even contains doom elements that walk hand in hand with the symphonic black metal parts.
Those who opt for the limited edition get a bonos of three cover versions, which is quite a rarity for Eisregen. The covered songs are from Beherit, Mysticum and Bethlehem, which gives the album a varied ending, although one must say that although this is a nice gimmick, these tracks can’t compete with the band’s original material.
It’s amazing how Eisregen can after nearly a quarter century of existence still add new accents to their music. Eisregen still sound fresh and Fegefeuer contains several tracks that could be future classics.