Nachtgeschrei are fairly new contenders on the – I’m told – busy battlefield of German folk-rock, having debuted last year with ‘Hoffnungschimmer’, an album that perhaps didn’t draw as much attention as it deserved, given the contemporary interest in wielders of bagpipes and accordions. With ‘Am Rande der Welt’ the band proceed much in the same vein as before, mixing up folkish melodies and emotive, vaguely melodramatic tones to catchy and eminently listenable effect.
Instrumental opener ‘Fiur’ instantly gives the impression of a band possessed of a potent vision and no mean technical skill, beginning with a folky lone acoustic, which flows mournfully in the crystal clear production, before opening out with crunchy guitars and melodic leads, the folk inflections of which are heightened by the addition of an accordion. Overall, it manages to be understated, but at the same time masculine and rather grand. The same might be said for the album as a whole; there are no pyrotechnics, particularly with so many instruments fighting for dominance. The elements are balanced as well as they can be, and the catchy, folk-rock guitar work is fluid and well realised. Frontman Holger has a rather thin voice, but while this strips out the capacity for high-end gymnastics, it also keeps Nachtgeschei’s overall sound more honest and organic.
Where these elements come together well – on the power metal flavoured, driving ‘Fernweh’, the more romping, crunching ‘Niob’ or the epic-feeling, folk-heavy closers ‘Der Totmacher’ and ‘Glut in euren Augen – Nachtgeschrei personify the mixture of drama and beauty that is expected from their genre. They’re competent, their melodies are strong and memorable, and they have pulled off a feat in balancing the contributions of seven members. Still, there’s something a little lacking; perhaps that dearth of a top vocal register, or perhaps the fact that efforts at introducing variation, for example with the sparser acoustic and vocal beginning to ‘Lauf!’, are too few and far between, resulting in indistinguishable melodies which, although nice, merge into one. Indeed, ‘nice’ is the faint praise that will damn this record.
Although I heartily loathe the use of ‘medieval’ to describe folk-flavoured extreme music, it’s a misplaced adjective that crops up time and again in descriptions of Nachtgeschrei, and there’s no doubt that the band capture a gentle, evocative aura that is has the power to transport the imagination and soothe the mind. While there are other outfits I would personally favour in the battle for German folk supremacy (Carved in Stone for one), ‘Am Rande der Welt’ will sit happily with those who prefer something more mainstream, for whom it will become a firm favourite with its catchy, well-structured tales of love and loss.
http://www.nachtgeschrei.de
http://www.myspace.com/nachtgeschrei
