Times like these I almost wish I had paid more attention in my German class at school. Much like Maths and Science (and just about everything else I’ve forgotten), I really didn’t see how it would come in useful in the world outside grades and asking permission to use the loo. Saltatio Mortis aren’t merely a band from Germany, but are what I would deem a very German band. I will get to the music in a minute, but while the Myspace tells me nothing other than they won’t pander to the English desire for everything to be in our ubiquitous language, a visit to Metal Archives appears more helpful and I learn the surprising fact that Wer Wind Saet is the seventh full-length album from this band, having brought out one album per year for the past eight years, the most recent four all on Napalm.
Amazing as this may be, I can’t say this album leaves me any desire to dig through their extensive back catalogue. This reminds of another band who seriously kvetch me (no names mentioned), having started out with something good but that soon lost it’s appeal when they started bringing out more or less the same thing year on year, leaving no room to grow or develop new ideas. Being unfamiliar with this bands previous works, I am in no position to comment on whether this album is the result of a band that once had something but have grown stale, or if this is a fairly typical album for the band, but I am kind of guessing in this case it is the latter.
I guess In Extremo have got a lot to answer for here. On paper, Medieval Metal has a certain amount of intrigue, but put this on the stereo it is more like a dull history lesson. Bagpipes and other ye olde worlde instrumentation are a solid staple of their sound and are as integral here as guitars and drums. In moderation, they can add a certain mystique to the music (Absu spring to mind) but the constancy of such is not for everyone. This album isn’t unpleasant to listen to; there’s a sense of cheerfulness that shines in the mix and it’s a bit of light-hearted listening for when you don’t want anything too heavy or deep. ‘Salome’ is rather catchy with it’s Eastern nuances and the gritty vocal duet provided by Doro Pesch are a nice touch.
‘Rastlos’ is delivered with quite a crunch; heavy yet simple and uncomplicated riffs and the bagpipes take on a pleasant melody on the chorus. On the whole, I just find this all plods along turgidly without captivating the listener; it’s fine as inoffensive backing music, but listening to it is quite a boring experience and I soon switch off my attention. The vocals also strike me as being very cold and there is a total lack of emotion; let it be known that having a strong German accent does not exempt you from needing some vocal talent to sing in a band! It works for some industrial acts, and DIR have a sense of humour that allows me to overlook this, but here it doesn’t work.
This isn’t a terrible release, and those heavily into the folk metal thang may enjoy this, but it doesn’t really offer anything new to the table. There are better bands around. Assuming you have a German dictionary handy, you might want to check out;
http://http://www.myspace.com/mittelalterpunk
