A band cannot sound any more German! Right from the beginning, the sophomore album from Neustadt's Eisenherz, titled 'Fluch der Zeit', brought pictures of gothic people in leather outfits, bratwursts with sauerkraut and nasty porn flicks in my mind. Anyways, there are five ex-After Dark guys in the band, with a female vocalist.

But the thing is, that Eisenherz sound 100% German, so there really isn't nothing of their own here. The band mixes modern chugging metal, symphonic components and gothic music, served with danceable rhythms. Sometimes this mixture reminds of Rammstein, Within Temptation, Atrocity (yeah, newer stuff) and even Samael (especially vocals-wise, but more about them later on). And then those German gothic bands, no matter from which genre. However, Eisenherz is a tad more metal than Rammstein and Within Temptation, but less than Atrocity. The music is simply utterly catchy. Admittedly, it sounds very commercial for the most of time. There are bits and parts, which aren't fully suitable for commercialism, though. Guitar solos smell of true metal, and are easily spotted by a metalhead. The songs contain a lot of small tricks and things from every instrument and vocals, that make listening to this much more interesting. Moods go from epic to gothic, and from dramatic to fragile. 'Manipulator' is closer to a power metal song, at least at times. So after all, this is a surprisingly varying album song-wise. The bonus track is football club borussia Mönchengladbach's fan song.

The main vocals are manly, low-toned recitation, with varying notes. It's not really singing. Samael's Vorph is the guy Eisenherz's male vocalist reminds me of. There are some more extreme (growling and shrieking) male vocals, too. Female vocals are mostly soprano singing, with some sexy, manipulative voices here and there. Lyric are mostly about relationships (household of three, separation etc.), eroticism and folk-tales, as much I understood from all-German texts.

The Michael Mainx production does not have a lot to do with organic sound. The symphonic elements, that are almost constantly heard are artificial. The drums sound triggered. The guitars have rather metallic tone to them, but do not expect anything brutal or extreme. The bass guitar is loud, just as expected. The production is surprisingly airy, even when there are a lot of different things going on. But more punch would have rocked.

Even though Eisenherz are inspired by many things, and haven't anything unique in their music, they have managed to pen down some characteristic songs (e.g. 'Manipulator'). Being very catchy (just try 'Vampir'), this is also very easy to listen to. And includes loads of memorable melodies and bits. Therefore I doubt, that the album's interest curve might not be long. This should please people who love Neue Deutsche Härte ("New German Hardness"), and why not those too, who enjoy of aforementioned metal bands.

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
04/08/2013 20:25