Macbeth - Gotteskrieger

Tracks
1. Unter Dem Beil
2. Hunde wollt ihr ewig leben
3. Das Boot
4. Golgatha
5. Vater
6. Gotteskrieger
7. Maikäfer flieg
8. Mein kleiner Soldat
9. Totentanz
10. Am Grab


Band:
Olli Hippauf – Vocals
Ralf Klein – Guitars
Alexander Kopp – Guitars
Hanjo Papst – Bass
Patrick W. Engel – Drums


Discography:
Demo (1985)
Rebirth, Demo (2003)
Zeit der Zeiten (1985-1989) (2006)
Macbeth (2006)
Unter dem Beil, Demo (2008)

Released 07/24/09
Reviewed 09/03/09


Links:
macbeth-music.de
myspace
massacre

From the former DDR hails this band of Germans. They have a long back story dating back as far as the earlier part of the 1980s with lots of stuff happening in the early times, suicides and deaths making the band pause for a while but they have bounced back and this time in 2009 they release their first officially released album. They have some demos and stuff from before but it is now that it is for real with this massacre released record.

According to the info that is attached to the promo file in the iPool library this record is of thrash metal character. However, I am not really sure I am willing to sign for that, it is a powerful an raw album, much of the raw sound can be attributed to the vocals that is sung in the German language. Still there is a melodic touch over this record making it ending up some bit from what I consider the German thrash metal scene. So musically we are talking raw, yet melodic metal sung in the German language, that shows loads of promise in my mind.

Qualitywise I find myself wondering about what I really think, it is a difficult record to get to grips with for sure, not because it is difficult in musical terms but because the songs don’t really take off. There is a nice quality to the songs and the sound is fine, everything is good but there is just this nagging feeling that the album doesn’t really take off, it just stays there in the same grounded position waiting for something to happen.

The latter might not be completely fair, to be honest there are really good songs in there as well. The one that firstly strikes me is the song called Main Kleiner Soldat which is a fantastic song that I really like very much. There are some other really good songs like Golgatha and the title track. These are songs that I really like very much, good and strong songs that really stand out.

Well, the thing is that this record is rather hard to take in, which is kind of strange as it has the elements needed to be a very good record, like hit songs, like a good sound, sung in German an it is not too long in minutes counted. Still it just doesn’t lift, the songs might be too similar, the record melts together into a mass of sounds. Maybe it is the curse of too much similarity.

In the end I still find this a decent a record and gives it an “approved” rating. Due to the greater songs I add another black H to the rating just because of a song like Mein Kleiner Soldat, just wish that all those songs on the record were as good as that song.
Macbeth does well but not really well enough to stand out from the crowds of other bands.

Das Boot

HHHHHHH

Label - Massacre Records
Three similar bands - Grantig/Letzte Instanz/Rammstein
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
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