Album Review: Eisenhauer - Blessed Be The Hunter
Reviewed by Jon Wigg
Eisenhauer hail from Kaufbeuren in Southern Germany and with 'Blessed Be The Hunter', present a whacking great slab of old school traditional heavy metal.
Now I really liked this album. It’s a good mix of slower doomy numbers and faster, almost thrash sections that fit well together. The melody is what runs through the whole piece and there are a lot of catchy sing-along sections that befit classic metal. Consisting of Christian ‘Waxe’ Wagner on vocals and guitar, Simon Bihlmayer also on guitar, Thomas ‘Ase’ Aschermann on bass and Johann Bechteler on drums, Eisenhauer aren’t subtle but do what they do very well. The tracks are well written and paced, with tracks like the excellent ‘Gods of Pain’ and closer ‘Cult’ contrasting nicely with the superbly doom-laden instrumental ‘Tyrannus’.
Now there is a massive elephant in the room - they sound almost exactly like Grand Magus. And I mean not just a little - it’s uncanny. Wagner’s voice is so similar to JB Christofferson that on my first listen, I actually thought Grand Magus had snuck out a new slab without me knowing about it. References to ravens, gods, battles and a track called 'Ode to the Hammer' do nothing to dispel the comparison and on this track in particular Wagner’s baritone is shockingly similar, and in a good way as they are both fantastic singers.
To me this isn’t a problem as I love Grand Magus and their style of music so to discover another band so similar is a treat. Just be ready. Other obvious influences are the doom originators like Black Sabbath and Candlemass, plus a definite feel of early Danzig, especially on ‘Release the Beast’.
Overall an excellent album by a skilled group and this will definitely be added to my playlist for 2020.
Eisenhauer release 'Blessed Be The Hunter' on June 5th
