Oh, those were the days! When death metal bands roamed the earth, rolling in the halls of the technical institutes of the world, embarking on a quest to find and to prove that the genre can disguise itself in many different masks. Moreover, the bands aim to re-scale the genre’s natural born brutality. The first years of the nineties were a goldmine for those adventure-seeking bands, as clarified in a well-written article in this website. Along the years, the genre faced a progress, embodied in such groove, melodies etc. and evolved with other genres as well.
A fine example for this thesis is the debut album of the German duo Mein Ganzes Heer (“My entire forces”). From looking at the outside outfit of theirs, one can believe that is a standard melodic doom-metal album, one who clings totally to the mainstream, and is musically like a cat that licks himself constantly. Luckily, the actual outfit is a very nice surprise. This is a death metal album, made for people who don’t like death metal. Being overall string-based, melodic in a way that don’t interrupt the presence of the strings, a blend of the glory days of Gothenburg (without double-guitars attack), a distant hint of the Tampa clan and more than anything else, this album echoes the European tradition of death metal. It has even light breaths of doom metal, especially in the arrangements.
The first listening to the album made somehow an updated tribute to the contribution of bands such Disharmonic Orchestra – an account of the general attitude of the album. This not-so-forced resemblance came, first of all, from the band’s using a pseudo-dynamic percussion set with the sole use of heavy strings with sound soft and smooth as pillow made of butter. This choice enables to catch every little riff-play, internal changes within a certain melodic lines and gives the essential feeling – even those who can’t deal with the intensive care of the genre, can find hard and massive strings in the album and enjoy.
Moreover, one can sing about feelings and other earthly things, in German, and still keep the inner flame of the genre. Even acoustic passages and clean singing cannot affect the intensity that the duo curves into the songs. These storms of running drumming and might and epic strings can attract the ones who don’t like their music heavy-dipped with tales of scorched bodies and other menaces. The very same echo I’ve mentioned before cling also to that dealing – death metal as a varied genre.
Another enjoyable aspect of the album is the interest that hanged throughout the listening, utilized by some great melodies, well-done craftsmanship and passion (though sometimes hidden behind the strile sound), which can draw the actual representation of the musical core created here – dissolving the genre and composing it again according to universal guidelines, which can by manifested in the music being equal for every person that likes his / hers metal well-made, sincere and melodic, yet powerful, with technical basics and string-wise brutal.
All in all, as said before, this is a well-made and enjoyable effort. It will be interesting to listen to the band’s next album, especially if they’ll continue to march this unique road of creating death metal for people who don’t drink that sort of tea.
-Jobst
VITALS:
Release: 2009
Label: Independent Release
Avantgenre: Death Metal For People Who Dont Like It
Duration: 57:47
Origin: Germany
Official site: http://myspace.com/meinganzesheer
Review online since: 14.04.2009 / 21:29:18
TRACKLIST:
01 – Mit Mir Durch Die Nacht
02 – Schleier Der Diskretion
03 – Einblick
04 – Freitodraum
05 – Das Meine
06 – Verheerende Aufmerksamkeit
07 – Die Vorletzten Dinge
08 – Morgenstern
09 – Endliche Klarheit
10 – Nunmehr
11 – Fassende
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