Kristallnacht
Of Elitism & War
[Warspirit]
Most of you already know that French band for releasing the cult "Warspirit" MCD on Darker than Black in 1999. Two years later,
L.F. is back with this CD. It features one brand new track, "Praise of war", recorded in August 01, one live track ("Pesttanz", an
ABSURD cover track recorded at the Empire Festival (???)), the '00 cassete-EP "Soldiers of triumphant sun" and finally the four tracks
of the "Warspirit" MCD.
The new track is similar to the ones on the "Soldiers..." promo/cassete-EP, (that is to say rawer and much less melodic than the MCD). The live track has a great sound, you can clearly hear the audience & the music (this is quite good for such an underground band) paying tribute to JFN. Finally, comes the best recording of the band, "Warspirit". It was out on JFN's label, Darker Than Black, and limited to 500 copies, which makes a collector of it. The black metal played on that MCD is atmospheric, full of keyboards but their sound is perfect and reflects all the sadness, anger, melancholy & hatred expressed by Laurent, and it doesn't sound like all the modern crap ala DIMMU BORGIR or EMPEROR, full of ultra melodic synth parts that you can hear everywhere nowadays... I would say this release is not black metal but "War metal", as it's more aggressive than the MCD and the vocals are full of hatred... Also note that, except for "Pesttanz", there is no drummer on the CD, just a drum machine but with a great "nihilist" touch taht adds charm to KRISTALLNACHT's music (I guess this is better than a bad drummer who destroys all the songs with pityful skills...)
I will let L.F. end up that review :
"KRISTALLNACHT is not a political band. L.F. refuses to be associated to political parts. As you can see, lyrics don't refer to political/social matters. [NB : lyrics are given for "Soldiers of triumphant sun" & "Praise of war"] Black Metal has strictly nothing to do with such topics but it deals with Elitism & War, as the title of this release says"
8 / 10
© 2003 lord pesten
The new track is similar to the ones on the "Soldiers..." promo/cassete-EP, (that is to say rawer and much less melodic than the MCD). The live track has a great sound, you can clearly hear the audience & the music (this is quite good for such an underground band) paying tribute to JFN. Finally, comes the best recording of the band, "Warspirit". It was out on JFN's label, Darker Than Black, and limited to 500 copies, which makes a collector of it. The black metal played on that MCD is atmospheric, full of keyboards but their sound is perfect and reflects all the sadness, anger, melancholy & hatred expressed by Laurent, and it doesn't sound like all the modern crap ala DIMMU BORGIR or EMPEROR, full of ultra melodic synth parts that you can hear everywhere nowadays... I would say this release is not black metal but "War metal", as it's more aggressive than the MCD and the vocals are full of hatred... Also note that, except for "Pesttanz", there is no drummer on the CD, just a drum machine but with a great "nihilist" touch taht adds charm to KRISTALLNACHT's music (I guess this is better than a bad drummer who destroys all the songs with pityful skills...)
I will let L.F. end up that review :
"KRISTALLNACHT is not a political band. L.F. refuses to be associated to political parts. As you can see, lyrics don't refer to political/social matters. [NB : lyrics are given for "Soldiers of triumphant sun" & "Praise of war"] Black Metal has strictly nothing to do with such topics but it deals with Elitism & War, as the title of this release says"
8 / 10
© 2003 lord pesten