New Music Review...

[Cowboydave]

I have been on a music buying spree and some of the stuff I ordered has arived. Here is a review of the stuff I got... This batch contained 1 album, 1 single and a DVD. The album was "Gelb" by Neuroticfish, the single was "Over and Done" by Deine Lakaien and the DVD was "Die Prophezeiung" by E Nomine.

Neuroticfish - Gelb, this Album has already produced one single - "The Bomb", which, dispite its being lyrically challanged, has enjoyed a great deal of club play; including at my local Secret Room here in Atlanta. The full album seems to live up to the rest of the hype. For those that do not know, this band has prduced many club hits to date. These include such tracks as "Velocity", "Don't Wake Me Up", and "Prostitute"; all of which enjoyed a long club play life. I expect that if you were a fan of these tracks and / or enjoy the latest single "The Bomb" then you will more than likely enjoy this new album as well. As a bonus there is a very interesting cover of a track from DR Demento's radio show - "There comming to take me away (ha-haah!)" by Napoleon XIV (and yes I do own this origional track). All in all a pretty worthy buy.

The Deine Lakaien single "Over and Done" comes as one in a VERY long line of excelent tracks, Singles and albums from this band. For those dedicated fans of Deine Lakaien this new single will not be a disappointment. I, myself, have been a huge fan of this band since a friend in the Army returned from Germany with their music in tote at the end of '94; I have been hooked ever since. For those that are not familiar with the past works of Deine Lakaien, they fall under the more traditional branch of gothic, although they do lend towards the synthpop side of the house at times too. They are known for Alexander Veljanov's deep haunting vocals. As with most pure gothic music, Deine Lakaien can at times border on cheezy. I personally find that this happens much more rarely with Deine Lakaien than with most bands of this type. This particular single is not one of those tracks, in fact it is rather good. Most of their tracks are of course in English with a few that are in German. Although most of the tracks on this single are in English there is one track - "Vivre" which is in French. Over all a very good single and a worthy addition to any Deine Lakaien collection or if you are not familiar with their previous work, this would be a good introduction. The album that this single is off of - April Skies, is also out currently and I should be recieving it very soon and so I shall be doing a write up on that too.

And now for the DVD. WOW. I was very very impressed with this DVD. E Nomine is what I like to consider a hidden gem or best kept secret; they are not for everyone. E Nomine is very similar to a German Opera. The only difference is that the dialect is not sung in the operetic style; dramatic and over the top, yes but operetic - no. Most of the tracks have a very cool and usually dancable beat to them as well. Having released 3 full length albums since 1999, E Nomine have only enjoyed minor success with two minor club hits - "Vater Unser" off thier first album "Das Testament" and the track "Mitternacht" off of their second album "Finsternis". Both of these tracks are well represented on this DVD. The one thing those that are not familiar with this band should bare in mind is the strong religious overtones. They are not neccissarily pro religion or against it, it is more like they just tell the stories. Thier first album contains both tracks like "Der Fürst Der Finsternis" which is a song about this guy named Lucifer, as his name is translated to English, as well as a track named "Hallelujah" which is kind of self explanatory. Anyway, I thouraghly enjoy this band. They are very dramatic and yes this comes through on the DVD. Actually the DVD is very good and I think you will enjoy it no matter what your taste is. There is quite a lot of material on this DVD spanning all three albums. Their albums are set up so that every song is part of an overall story, subsequently their videos are this way too. Most of the videos have a recuring theme and are a little repetitive due to them not telling the whole story in one shot. Most of the cinimatography is rather stunning though. Lots of the footage seems to have been shot in Ireland. There are the typical shots of Celtic grave yards, but they are intermixed with ruins of castles and the Irish rocky coastline. At times the video shots seem more like a still frame slide show than video but then can pictures of celtic crosses and Ruined castles get boring? (I think not). The classic edition portion of the CD where most of the Irish shots are located have a very Enya type feel to the music on top of the already heavy Irish feel. The dance edition which contains every track from the latest album (Also called Die Prophezeiung) in the same order that they appear on the album. They also have a story to tell and a similar series of on going video clips. The Videos section contains the videos for "Vater Unser" and "Mitternacht" as well as some of the best tracks off of the first two albums as well as making ofs for each. The videos are quite entertaining and well shot. The entire DVD is in German so don't expect to understand much unless your fluent but I think it just adds to the mysterious feel to the music. All in all I think this is a very well made DVD with a lot of material on it. I think that this is a must own DVD for any collector of really cool dark or gothic based stuff. I STRONGLY recomend this DVD.