A great group fails to live up to their potential
Goldenkitten | Valhalla | 07/22/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is the same review I gave for the Limited release version from Germany, however it applies because this item has all the same songs. Just reposting since this is the localized version most people will look at when buying.
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Alright, Eisbrecher, excellent. Here's a CD I was looking forward to with fanboy like glee ever since I realized just how brilliant this group was getting after the release of Sünde. Thus it was with no small amount of disappointment that I found the product of my patience to be good, but certainly not spectacular. Let me say this, I contemplated giving this three stars but in the end decided my own hype had lead me to expect more than I should have from this CD and only by growing by an unrealistic amount could Eisbrecher have met my expectations. Regardless if like me you were a massive fan of Sünde you may want to subtract a star, or at least accept that it may take a few listens before you begin to appreciate this albums strengths.
As you may know Eisbrecher is an Industrial Metal band, however ever since the start they've been experimenting with each album leaning a little more toward the Industrial or the Metal part rather than an even mix. Their freshman outing, the self-titled Eisbrecher was far more pure dance industrial whereas their sophomore album Antikorper went the opposite direction with a heavy emphasis on harsh sounds and heavy chords. Finally in their third installment Sünde they reached a happy medium with equal aspects of each. Eiszeit picks up where they left off but does seem to trend toward the more dance and even hip-hop styling of their initial release, some tracks manage the hard mix though.
Let me say this first, none of this CD is bad per-se. If it has a failing it is simply that few of the songs live up to greatness of their previous work. There are very few "anthem" style tracks here that you'll wind up walking around singing to yourself nor are there many of the really grooving tracks that got you moving in earlier installments. They are there, they simply aren't back to back and that leaves the songs that don't live up to that greatness sort of down and out. You wind up skipping half the album to get to the few tracks that really stand out and live up to the bands own heritage.
First the good. The opening track "Böse Mädchen" is a powerful show opener and really sets a great tone with some heavy bass and soaring vocals, it's nothing new but it is good. "Gothkiller" while sporting a terrible name is a strange beast, it's very pop oriented and hardly sounds like Eisbrecher, yet it still carries the addictive beats the band is known for. An odd fact is that considering the name the songs lyrics actually seem to be portraying the stereotypical goths thinking, maybe it was intended as a hypocritical parody but that isn't portrayed very well, what is done well is a fun song. "Dein Weg" while starting out rather bland finds its footing a minute or two in with a powerful and dare I say emotional chorus, it's perhaps the weakest of the best but the chorus does make it brilliant. Finally the song "Supermodel" is by far the albums stand-out track, this is classic refined Eisbrecher through and through. Some heavy hitting riffs alongside fast-paced industrial bass and rapid speed-cadence lyrics, this song showcases what Eisbrecher does best and shows why it's a shame they strayed so far from the norm in some of these songs. Of them all this is one you'll likely put on the playlist alongside the rest of your favorites.
More common on this album are songs that do the job but simply don't stand out in any grand way. "Segne Deinen Schmerz", "Kein Wunder" and the titular "Eiszeit" could all be the same song for all they're worth. None of them are bad, they all have competent beats and as always Alexanders solid vocals backing them up, it's just that they have nothing unique to their name and remain mostly unchanging through each song. "Die Engel" starts out strong with an interesting keyboard segment but unfortunately this isn't played up enough with it falling into the same rut as the previous three, just with occasional signs of creativity. "Amok" is definitely more unique than the others, in fact for a moment I thought I was listening to a Das Ich song. It has a very hard beat with definitive strokes and a bare-bones take on the metal elements, very clean and empty allowing the vocals to stand out. The issue is that it simply doesn't capture the attention in between the powerful chorus segments. Regardless as stated none of these songs are bad, they just don't live up to previous works and don't possess the addictive qualities Eisbrecher's best songs do.
As for the true disappointments they are thankfully few. "Bombe" and "Der Hauch des Lebens" are all that really drag the album down for two distinctive reasons. "Bombe" is VERY heavily hip-hop influenced, this isn't my thing but even if it were this songs lyrics are just embarrassing. Given all of Eisbrechers lyrics (or lots of groups really) are on the corny side but these are the sort you would be ashamed to listen to around friends. The latter simply fails to be entertaining in any way musically. It's akin to what I stated above about three of the songs being too similar and having nothing that makes it stand out, but in this case it also fails to be interesting even on the most basic level. It possesses no ear-catching beats, keyboards and the vocals are Alex's "filling the empty space" variety.
There are two other songs but as they are remixes I didn't include them with the others. The first is a remix of "Amok", as I stated above the original Amok is different but outside of the power chorus it fails to live up to its potential. So that makes it a real issue when the remixes only achievement is removing that very chorus as well as the deep bass tribal drum element which makes this remix a failure overall. The second isn't so bad. We get a look back in time with a "Schwarze Witwe" remix, a song from their first CD. This remix essentially removes the moody elements of the original song and attempts to give it a sound more suited to a large arena show with echo vocals and harder, more encompassing beats. It does what it set out to do and it's interesting to listen to but I still feel the original was superior with a far darker sound.
So overall Eiszeit is a success, it just isn't an overwhelming success. It isn't a waste of your time but it isn't the continuing growth of a great group I (and probably others) were waiting for either. There are still glimpses of brilliance here and it's clear Eisbrecher haven't lost their ability and plenty of groups would be shamed by what is offered. But at the same time let us hope the group doesn't settle for just sticking to a comfortable plateau in the future and instead continues to aim for greater things and changes in their musical artistry as was seen in previous chapters."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1