I forgot who uttered the quote but I was reading an interview when Rammstein entered the scene in the mid-‘9o’s and a band member was asked why they prefer to sing in German rather than in English to which they likened the experience to listening to AC/DC growing up and not understanding the words but feeling the impact of the music just the same.
Anecdote aside, it’s the same for me listening to Eisbrecher’s latest now. Do I understand everything they’re saying? No. Do I still feel the power of each and every note laid down and the impact every time Alexander Wesselsky opens his mouth? Hells yes! If you feel the same way, then read on.
Like Mutter or KMFDM’s “Symbols” album, Schock is Eisbrecher at their best. On their sixth album, former Megaherz vocalist Alexx Wesselsky along with co-conspirator Noel Pix deliver an album that’s equally brutal and beautiful.
“Volle Kraft Voraus” (“Full Force Ahead”) leads the charge and perfectly introduces Eisbrecher to the uninitiated. If you’re looking for comparisons, Wesselsky has a delivery that mixes Sascha K.’s bark and Til Lindemann’s growl making Eisbrecher the perfect amalgamation of those two greats but so much more. “1000 Narben” is a more straight forward metal number including some subtle synths underlying the double bass pummeling underneath.
While the title track and all its sinister bass-driven glory is interesting enough, things get really fun once “Zwischen Uns” begins and Wesselsky trades lines with a female vocalist giving the band some added depth and even, ahem, Pop sensibilities. The synth-driven “Rot Wie Die Liebe” is a slow jam building the accessibility and adding some airy female vox to heighten the sexy factor. But if you want hard-hitting, no-nosense, balls-to-the-wall rawk then skip straight to the militaristic stomp of “Himmel, Arsch, Und Zwirn” for your fix.
The rest of Schock delivers the industrial metal goods in spades. Whether it’s the almost ballad of “Schlachtbank”, the synthetic bounce of the dance-y “Dreizhen”, or the full on aural assault of “So Oder So”, Schock has something for every Esibrecher and industrial fan.
Schock is out via the indisputable kings and queens of industrial, Metropolis Records, now and available here.