Stahlmann – Quarz
Stahlmann – Quarz
AFM Records
Release Date: 10/12/2021
Running Time: 33:14
Review by Beth Jones
8/10
Neue Deutsche Harte is great, isn’t it?! It’s almost as quintessentially German as a nice cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich is British. The very regimented marching rhythms and formulae style songs should be the sound of something quite formal and staid, but bands in this genre couldn’t be further from that really! Leather and kink are what always come to mind for me. Like if the creators of Eurovision opened a late night extreme basement ‘club’ that had a very plain door and a big burly bouncer who wore shades at midnight…
Anyway, enough of my whimsical fantasies, on to today’s subject! NDH band Stahlmann are another in a stream of ‘bands that aren’t Rammstein’ who are hanging about in the genre at the moment and trying to make it their own. And in fairness with this album, Stahlmann have gone some way to achieving that. It’s still the unmistakable sound that has Rammstein written all over it, but the vocals have a certain raw grit to them that make it interesting, and the guitar riffs are a little chunkier.
This is definitely an album that wants to keep things moving too. From the opening drums of ‘Wollust’ (which is incidentally annoyingly catchy) to the end of ‘Willst Du’, the hammering rhythms of Drummer, Tacki, never let up. The synths and programming give everything that unmistakable industrial feel, and everything is of course tight as… well, a tight thing! I can’t think of an analogy that isn’t entirely smut ridden for this, but you get the picture. Production wise, it’s shiny and perfect, because that’s what NDH does. They’ve also got the look, too. A very robotic, cyborg type affair, with expressionless masks and silver paint aplenty! Loving it. I can imagine that their stage show is pretty awesome.
There isn’t really any new ground trodden here, but all the same it’s well worth a listen. If you like NDH, you 100% will enjoy this album.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Wollust
02. Sünder
03. Krähen der Nacht
04. Gottmaschine
05. Sonnenreich
06. Gegen Den Strom
07. Herz & Tränen
08. Der Sturm
09. Tobsucht
10. Willst Du
LINE-UP:
Martin “Mart” Soer – Vocals & Programming
Mario Sobotka – Guitars
Eugene “Gene” Getman – Bass
Dimitrios “Tacki” Gatsios – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Beth Jones and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
