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Der Blutharsch, "The Philosopher's Stone"
The late period Elvis sideburns that Albin Julius has been sporting in recent photos do not seem to be simply an aesthetic selection: he has fully embraced the cult of rock and roll. Although vestiges remain, he and the rest of the band have pushed away from the neofolk and avant garde martial trappings of the past into their own semi-perverted form of rock music.
They have not fully forgotten their more experimental past, however. As all previous Der Blutharsch releases, all eight tracks are untitled, but in this case the vocals make it a bit more obvious what titles could be (for example, track six would surely be the title track on a more conventional project). Even with the more conventional rock structures and instrumentation, the band retains their signature depth and complexity of the mix: never does a track feel as if it was built on just the traditional guitar/bass/drums/vocal framework, even though individual instruments can be clearly identified.
As a whole, the sound seems to be heavily inspired by 1960s psychedelia, the ubiquitous Velvet Underground, 1980s goth rock, and the more current experiments in post-industrial music. The songs move along with a relatively conventional pop/rock feel, but a closer inspection of the individual elements gives it a more varied, complex structure and sonic pallet than what would be expected from "rock and roll".
Luckily the tracks tend to stay in the conventional 4-6 minute length for rock songs (with the exception of the final 12-ish minute one, excluding the "hidden" track), because structurally, they tend to be rather repetitive. There aren't many cases of subtle shifts in dynamics or instrumentation, the songs mostly start up at a certain pace and continue throughout their duration as such. Because of the fact that tracks do feature vocals and stay in a more reasonable duration, they do not overstay their welcome. It’s hard to level this as a criticism per se, because, well, that’s how most conventional rock music is designed as well, so it’s another portion of the template being followed.
The vocals tend to be a mixed bag, however. The tracks with a heavier emphasis on vocals by Marthynna, such as the opening and closing tracks, are more pleasant to these ears. The more masculine vocal tracks, like the third and fifth, channel less melodramatic elements of Glenn Danzig and Nick Cave. The lyrical content on track five is, however, all Danzig, in a bad way: trite, cheesy S&M tinged lyrics that border on comical and blight a track that otherwise is a pretty interesting combination of odd percussion and a distorted bass led groove.
The final two tracks stand out as probably the most different on the album, with the seventh one having a more propulsive, almost heavy metal pace from a rhythmic standpoint, and more aggressive vocals throughout. I guess it is about as metal as a song can get with a predominant clarinet section, however. The final, long track that I have already mentioned does, over its 12-minute duration, show more dynamics and development than the previous shorter ones, so perhaps its DB's way of instituting a bit of good old-fashioned Kraut Rock as well. The constantly varying mix and dynamics are quite fascinating, and the alternating male/female vocals with a touch of violin from Matt Howden are a great combination. The "hidden" track is, admittedly a bit corny: spoken word about knowing "the truth" and the paranoia of keeping it hidden over a repetitive synthetic beat. It's not bad, but again, one of the lower points of the disc.
I can't compare this to any of their other releases I know of theirs, but I can say that it is an interesting mix of the more experimental stylings of the past placed into a more conventional "rock and roll" structure that gives it a rather individual sound that, even with its warts, is still engaging.
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