In case you had not guessed Letzte Instanz are a German band wot sings in German! Now I really do have to question the marketability of such bands especially in the UK where we are somewhat lazy and accustomed to groups singing in our mother tongue, the words “Speak English or die,” do somewhat spring to mind. I have to admit to loving the German language in verse and that is probably why I seem to be reviewing one such album per month even if I do not generally understand the lyrics. Perhaps I should go and take a course but have always lacked patience in languages. Unless your name is Rammstein though, the chances are you will not really succeed in the UK. Other top hitting German acts such as Die Apokalyptischen Richter and In Extremo have barely scratched the surface over here.
Letzte Instanz (yep that is Last Instance, easy this language lark really innit?) have actually been around for a decade and released a fair few discs, the last being instrumental which I am sure would have been simple to follow. There are no less than seven of them in the band and to be fair they look a pretty freaky bunch making you wonder what sort of racket they might make. ‘Schuldig’ (Guilty) comprises 14 somewhat rocky, rather than full on metal numbers, that are really rather catchy and enjoyable and take in a wealth of ideas and styles. ‘Mein Engel’ bounces along with the vocals cleanly sung and very much in the front here, making them somewhat important hence comments about this not likely to really be one for the non German speakers. ‘Flucht Ins Gluck’ (sounds rude) adds strings to the equation and on some songs now they feature quite prominently. There is both a cello and violin player in the band and this really does add to the music.
Some numbers as catchy as hell with the chorus of ‘Traumlos’ really making me want to sing along, a female choral part is the icing on the cake for this one. There is always going to be the obligatory bad ballad which we get with ‘Die Eine’ and there is also likely to be a number about Fire, ‘Feuer’ luckily is no slow burner and actually blazes with the fastest pounding section of the whole album. ‘Mein Leben’ is one for the lighters coming out, can imagine everyone in a packed venue singing along to this.
As I said this is an album that has really grown on me and it is one that probably would be dug out for repeated plays if it wasn’t for the annoying voiceovers (which in case you were wondering are also in German).
http://www.myspace.com/letzteinstanz
http://www.letzte-instanz.de
