I really don’t know what it is about the northern Rhineland, but for some reason the greatest power metal bands seem to come either from Sweden (Falconer, Tad Morose) or from there. Rage started in Nordrhein-Westpfalz. As did Accept, Blind Guardian and Grave Digger. As did the incomparable Angel Dust. Starting out as yet another slightly-better-than-average German speed metal band (similar to Blind Guardian, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner and so forth), they actually ended up pioneering an alternative, heavier path for progressive and power metal with four earth-shattering records between 1998 and 2002: Border of Reality, Bleed, Enlighten the Darkness and Of Human Bondage. This particular song is one of their best: ‘Bleed’ features deep, crunchy guitar and bass lines with an aesthetic (even if not a tempo) borrowed from the greats of Teutonic thrash, but they carry on the torch of melodic, Euro-style heavy metal through atmospheric and moving keyboard work (and, of course, through Dirk Thurisch’s inspired screaming). It is a formula they would stick to (with still greater success) on their antifascist concept album Enlighten the Darkness, which explores the experiences and shattered psychology of the common German soldiery during WWII and the pain and alienation they suffered in the aftermath, knowing that they were complicit in the evils of the Third Reich.
30 March 2012
Pointless video post – ‘Bleed’ by Angel Dust
I really don’t know what it is about the northern Rhineland, but for some reason the greatest power metal bands seem to come either from Sweden (Falconer, Tad Morose) or from there. Rage started in Nordrhein-Westpfalz. As did Accept, Blind Guardian and Grave Digger. As did the incomparable Angel Dust. Starting out as yet another slightly-better-than-average German speed metal band (similar to Blind Guardian, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner and so forth), they actually ended up pioneering an alternative, heavier path for progressive and power metal with four earth-shattering records between 1998 and 2002: Border of Reality, Bleed, Enlighten the Darkness and Of Human Bondage. This particular song is one of their best: ‘Bleed’ features deep, crunchy guitar and bass lines with an aesthetic (even if not a tempo) borrowed from the greats of Teutonic thrash, but they carry on the torch of melodic, Euro-style heavy metal through atmospheric and moving keyboard work (and, of course, through Dirk Thurisch’s inspired screaming). It is a formula they would stick to (with still greater success) on their antifascist concept album Enlighten the Darkness, which explores the experiences and shattered psychology of the common German soldiery during WWII and the pain and alienation they suffered in the aftermath, knowing that they were complicit in the evils of the Third Reich.
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