Nachtgeschrei
Aus Schwärzester Nacht

German folk rockers of Nachtgeschrei are rising from the blackest of nights with their fourth album called just about what I just said. They come back from when previous singer Hoppi left the band as he could not cope with the pressure and now the band has finally found a new singer and recorded this new album that as usual has a great looking logo on the cover but also a brilliant cover artwork I would say. With their track record there is also reason for any fan of folkish metal to have some expectations for this new release by Nachtgeschrei, a band that has become something of a favourite of mine so I too was looking forward to this album.

I think that anyone who has heard the band before will recognise this album as it is quite similar in style to what the band has done before with the combination of traditional folkish music with instrument as such and heavy metal and folkish rock music. If you have heard In Extremo you could imagine about how they sound although they are a bit different in that Nachtgeschrei uses vocals that feels more like a folk singer than a metal singer which fits brilliantly to their music. Then of course they sing in German which they have always done which also suits the kind of music they do brilliantly and the production is excellent as well and the album consists of fourteen tracks and it plays for just over the hour unless of course you buy the digipak because then you’ll get two bonus tracks as well. It is a varied album over these tracks so the playing time does not feel quite as long as it is and I did even have the two bonus tracks so it is well varied.

And it is good as well. I would even call it the best they have done so far as it is a step up from Ardeo which in turn was a step up from the album before it (Am Rande Der Welt). It is an impressive display of musical ideas and of folkish metal music I would say, the only little complaint I can have is that it is a bit too similar to the earlier works and not a long enough step up from them to really stand out. But of course we should not complain about that but instead enjoy this new highlight by this high quality german band.

I think that the new singer who is known from the famous band Mekong Delta is a good replacement for Hoppi, he sounds quite similar and had I not read that he had replaced Hoppi I never would have thought they had a new singer. All the fourteen songs on the album are really good but opener Sirene along with the title track and Am Rand Der Welt are maybe a little better, at least I think a bit more of those tracks than of the rest of the album but that is just a little bit more. No weak tracks are on this album and I would say that this album cements the band’s position as one of the absolute best folk rock/metal bands out there in the metal world. They have an impressive story and this is another impressive chapter to that story, although I hope for the next part of the story that they take a slightly bigger step from what they have done before while of course still keeping to their unique way of making their music.

So, stronger than ever but not quite more exciting than ever is how we can conclude this new album by Nachtgeschrei. It is a strong album that I can recommend to anyone, Nachtgeschrei is definitely a band for anyone to check out if you haven’t done it already, they are worth it.

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