Kudos for Polish Femme metal
Mr D. | Cave Creek, Az United States | 12/08/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Closterkeller
I know what you're thinking - Where does Mr D dig up these weird bands?.
Heck, I don't do it on purpose. I just like to tell people about worthy albums by interesting bands no matter what their crazy name is.
Nero is the latest and best album by Closterkeller (of the five that I have heard, that is). That's right, five albums and they've made two more too, that I haven't heard and they've been around since 1989. So maybe they're not so weird after all, huh?
Actually, It's not so surprising if you haven't heard of Closterkeller. After all they are just one more of the plethora of very interesting Femme Metal bands of POLAND.
These bands, femme metal bands have a common denominator, a good (but usually not great) lady singer with a powerful voice. Another thread connecting these bands is their music itself, which I would describe as a little goth, a fair amount of metal, a lot of heart, a tad of atmosphere, a pinch of blues mixed with a portion of melody, generally played in a medium tempo. Most of these bands like Artrosis and Moonlight record in both Polish and English. Most of Closterkeller's library is in Polish, however Nero is available in English, which is what my copy is.
Of course with hugely popular Femme Metal bands across Europe and America like Evanescence, Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, Femme Metal is not just a Polish phenomenon but the Polish version, to me at least, generally seems a little more ethnic and earthy. That is not to say that Nero's song arrangements and productions aren't excellent. As a whole the album is quite compelling.
That said Closterkeller considers themselves to be an "atmospheric rock band" which on this album at least, I would tend to agree with because several songs near the end are quite atmospheric (tracks 7-11)along with portions of many others. At the head of Closterkeller is lead singer, Anja Orthodox, who's religion must be orthodox since her unusual style of singing is far from orthodox. She has a wide range but generally seems more comfortable in the lower confines. She does do some monologues on a song or two and her speaking voice is a fairly mesmerizing. Not on this album but on others she sometimes uses a style that is somewhat 'squeaky' for lack of another term.
CONCLUSION
Nero varies from hard driving numbers like "Queen", "He Comes When the Night Falls" and "Watching you Drown" to soft ethereal songs like "Nero", "Mirage" and "No Matter What will Be" and in between with "As I Glide" and "Have you Seen".
Some songs have rather gloomy lyrics such as "Watching as you Drown":
"Watching as you drown I'm smiling wide,
Such water will kill the fire in no time,
On the shore I'm chasing the last sparks,
Is the water cold? As cold as my arms"
Others like "Have you Seen" aren't too bad:
"On top of a mountain of words,
of faith and hope, consolation and pretty truths,
There I stand and wait for the day,
That hasn't come for a yearand a day or two"
For bargain hunters, Nero contains twelve long tracks (averaging over six minutes each) totaling a whopping seventy four minutes and some change. But with this album you don't just get quantity, (what good is 74 minutes of dung?) you get quality.
Song/Track List
1] Watching as You Drown ****1/2
2] Fight Club ****
3] As I Glide *****
4] Like Rain Against Stone ****
5] Queen *****
6] He Comes when the Night Falls *****
7] Nero *****
8] Mirage ****1/2
9] No Matter What Will Be ****1/2
10] Amber ****
11] Sin ****
12] Have You Seen *****
The Players
Anja Orthodox - vocals
MichaÃ???? Rollinger - keyboards
Gerard Klawe - drums
Freddie - guitar
Pucek - bass guitar
"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1