Todtgelichter started life as a Black Metal band releasing firstly a demo in 2003, then two albums in a similar vein (‘Was Bleibt...’ in 2005 and ‘Schemen’ in 2007) before they decided to spread their wings with their third album ‘Angst’ which came out in 2007. This saw references to their BM roots, but in many ways was a much more progressive album which stretched the boundaries in so many ways. Since then they have been concentrating on gigging and working on new material, but since the last album there has also been a line-up change with founder member Nils (vocals/bass) parting company. The band haven’t looked to replace him with another bassist/singer but have instead brought in specialist vocalist Topbias and bassist Christoph Wonerow (Nimbufera, ex-Satanium). The rest of the line-up is Marta (organ, vocals), Tentakel Parkinson (drums, keyboards) and Frederic (guitars, vocals).
While still rooted in Metal, the focus nowadays lies on their distinctive guitar melodies, the vocal duets between female lead Marta and male lead Tobias, more mature songwriting and a top-notch production by Eike Freese. What strikes the listener when coming across the album for the first time is that it is comes across almost as a compilation. What I mean by that is that the band seem to be happy in virtually any musical style so can move from pop through to extreme metal with ease, but while some songs contain elements of multiple genres others sit firmly within one, which in many ways makes the album quite hard to listen to. That it is an impressive piece of work is never in doubt, it is much more about the mindshift that is required to go from black metal to influences such as bands like Muse or Rammstein while recognising that it is all the same band. Definitely worthy of investigation.
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