Three years have passed since Die Apokalyptischen Reiter released their excellent ‘Moral & Wahnsinn’, and to make up for the three year gap they have returned with a double album, ‘Tief. Tiefer’, which translates as ‘Deep. Deeper’, not in terms of altitude, but in terms of profundity. As they have for so many years, they have stuck to their native German. Whilst this has never been a problem when watching them live, and their shows have always been spectacular fun, with a combination of excellent music, superb crowd interaction, and plain and simple enthusiasm, it does make an album review a bit difficult as my own German is practically non existent. As such, this review will have to be more about sound and atmosphere, the lyrics being an unknown quantity to me.
‘Tief’ opens in classic Die Apokalyptischen Reiter style with ‘Freiheit Gleichheit Brüderlichkeit’, which my handy dandy translator tells me is the French revolutionary slogan of ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’, mixing a complex interplay between guitars, drums and vocals, glued together by the sweeping keyboards of Dr Pest, whilst Fuchs alternatively snarling like a ranting demagogue before flexing his clean sustain on the choruses. It is a sound instantly recognisable as belonging to the band, and would be equally at home on either of their last albums. However, they have not stuck to one familiar sound, and have clearly been developing. ‘Wir’ follows with a more industrial stamp, there being more then hint of their countrymen Rammstein in the pounding beat and growled vocals, but with their own eclectic twists in the time changes.
DAR (as I will henceforth type to save me wearing out my keyboard) manage to bring together many disparate sounds, but make them gel. ‘Wo es Dich gibt’ (‘Where Are You?’) starts with a piano line that could have come from a trance record, and indeed, Dr Pest throws some distinctly dance music like electronica into the mix, whilst Fuchs voice is at times almost gentle and romantic, but with guitar and drums keeping the music in the realm of rock and metal rather then the dance floor. That said, I don’t think it would take too much of a remix for this to play to a host of glow stick wavers. It is DAR’s skill to blend diverse elements into a fantastic single entity. This continual willingness to experiment and try new sounds is apparent in the almost groovy bass of ‘Was bleibt bin ich’, a sound that should have Fishbone and fans of early RHCP bouncing. Just to keep the listener on their toes, ‘Ein leichtes Mädchen’ brings the pace down with a large injection of prog in the almost dreamlike instrumentation, a track whose complexity is followed by the minimalist, almost pastoral ‘Ein Vöglein’.
The second part of the album ‘Tiefer’ showcase’s the band’s skills with acoustic instruments, combining new songs with stripped back re-interpretations of classic tracks from their back catalogue. For some bands, this can be a sad self indulgence; I can’t be the only person who yawned their way through “Unplugged” performances that brought nothing new to old songs. In contrast DAR manage to bring a whole new dimension to their sound. A case in point is ‘Friede sei mit Dir’, bringing in horns and banjo like riffing to the mix to create a number to have the most leaden of feet lifted to stomp along. Other songs throw in folksy tambourines, whilst in the likes of ‘Die Leidenschaft’ (‘The Passion’) Pest highlights classical piano skills with the additional sound of a string section lifting the track to new heights of intensity. In some ways ‘Tiefer’ feels like an ultimate bonus disk, and I’m almost surprised the record company isn’t releasing the album in various versions with and without ‘Tiefer’. Either way, it is well worth a listen, and a fine addition.
What is clearly apparent is that Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are not a band that just want to rest on their laurels, simply repeating the same formula that they know will sell, rather they continually develop and challenge themselves. I can only wish them every success and hope that they build the fan base in the English speaking nations that they so clearly deserve.
(8/10 Spenny)
http://tieftiefer.reitermania.de
29/05/2014 at 10:16 am
After another listen, I think I was too frugal on on the score. They definitely are a band that come across best live to me.