The Other, are a band hailing from Germany, and at first glance you’d think they were Danzig! So it is no surprise to hear that back in the day they were a Misfits cover band called Ghouls in 1999. This later morphed into The Other in 2002. In 2004 they released the album ‘They’re Alive’ which led to second album ‘We Are Who we Eat’ Soon after the bassist Andy Only left the band, and was replaced by former roadie Migore Drake. Unfortunately Migore was let go and the next replacement was Viktor Sharpe. In 2008 the third album ‘The Place to Bleed got plenty of attention from the press which led the band an offer to play “Wave Gotik Treffen” which is basically Whitby Goth Weekend but an a much cooler and larger scale. The next album ‘New Blood’ made the likes of Alice (The legend) Cooper snap them up for his support act in Germany, and as if it couldn’t get any cooler, they managed to blag a spot at Wacken.
The spooky sound intro track “The Devils You Know’ sets things up epically, sounding like the beginning of a battle scene in a film, then with ‘My Home is my Casket’ there’s some pounding drumming and in your face riffs. Following this the vocals, ok so it’s quite hard to understand what the blokes singing, all I can make out is “Flesh and Blood” and something about living or dying, seems the vocalist has a bit of a lisp, but still, it kind of works. The battle style track ‘Take You Down’ sounds like Sabaton with a punky feel to it, the riff in the middle section is uplifting and fun, even a little cheesy and the chorus is easy to learn, great for a sing along.
‘Skeletons in the Closet’ is a catchy track with some quite likable vocals. The speech impediment seems to work for this one. The drumming is bouncy and the group “la la la “vocals fit perfectly.
An unexpected surprise with ‘Fright Night’ the vocals are beautiful, and the lyrics are your typical Wednesday 13 type stuff. But it’s obviously one the emo’s are going to love. So don the eyeliner and the fishnet gloves and join in! No? Me neither (hides ones fishnet gloves with a guilty smile).
It seems to be that the vocalist’s voice is getting progressively better with each track. Daren’t I say that this one is reminding me a lot like Finnish goth rockers HIM? Anyhow, not wanting to put people off, this is definitely another one to belt out at the top of your lungs. However, just as the going got good.. It went bad with ‘In My Veins’ this is just too much cheese and teenybopper for anyone to take on board. There seems to be no effort into the track like the previous and you just get the feeling it is predictable and going nowhere.
Moving on and redeeming themselves in the best possible comedy manner with ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ yes, it really is THAT song, Andrew Lloyd Webber at his finest. The riffs splendid, I’d be quite proud covering this track, especially how they have made it sound fun rather that depressing.
Another one to mention off the album due to the intro is ‘Hell is a Place on Earth’. Sounding clean and sincere. The lyrics “I am the Devil and I am the one, I am the devil, your time has come” are fantastic, the vocalists sings deep and the bass rumbles along with him. Definitely the winning track for me.
Coming towards the end with ‘Ewigkeit’ with a clean riff and singing in German, the slowest track and somehow you feel a bit deflated that you can’t understand it. Which personally if I bought this album would make me want to skip this track.
So I’d certainly recommend this it’s nice to hear a band offering up something brand spanking new, mixing electro 80s wave with horror, goth, rock and punk and pulling it off with finesse
(6/10 Charlene Rance)
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