Heimataerde - Gottgleich

I used to love the first few albums of this German act. They combined Harsh EBM with medieval music, and the combination was great. They released a not-so-good album after that, and i lost sight of them. So when I got a promo of this new album I hoped that it would have been a return to form.

Unfortunately my hope got crushed pretty fast.

They have even grown worse. It seems they try to catch in on the popularity with German medieval metal bands like Samsas Traum, and Tanzwut. Bands which are... well, lets just say I have the impression you have to be German to like them. Other people on this earth easily see through the pathos and bad taste which surrounds these bands.

The music on this disc is much more commercial then the first Heimataerde releases. The medieval overtones are still there, but most of the harsh EBM and industrial made place for standard beats and standard third grade Rammstein metall riffing. There is even a fake attempt to sound up to date like the failed dubstep influences in "Wacht auf". Come on, if you can't pull it off, then just don't do it.

Biggest problem of this disc is that the vocals are not good. When the guy goes for growling its okay, but when he tries to sing for real the limitations of his voice become pretty clear. The lack of quality and the completely cliched out music on this disc also seem to have set off the labels in the industrial scene, since this is released on a label and distribution which mostly serves compilation albums with B-grade techno and disco.

Overall we can conclude that Heimataerde is a complete write off for people who liked their first offerings. Maybe they are still top off the bill in Germany, but judging I rarely hear from them anymore, even in Germany, I conclude that this band is on the way down and pretty far on it. A pity, because they had something going for them five or six years ago. Aug 13 2012