Album Review: Feuerschwanz - Das elfte Gebot
Reviewed by Jon Wigg
German medieval metal. Who knew? Sounding like what you would get if you crossed Sabaton with Rammstein and made them play fiddles and hurdy-gurdies. I’ll admit I was completely unfamiliar with Feuerschwanz coming into this review meaning I could only judge them on actually listening to it rather than any pre-judgements. And I like a lot of what I heard.
This is actually 2 albums in one. The first disc is 11 new tracks and the second contains 7 covers. Feuerschwanz have in the past exclusively sung in German and although for the first time, there are a couple of tracks or part tracks that are in English, this holds true here. This for me is a positive as German is a language that metal is made for.
So on to the original tracks. Strange one this – it’s almost an album of two halves. The first few tracks tend towards the standard Euro-Metal fare that bands like Sabaton, Powerwolf and Battle Beast have been putting out for years. Add in some fiddles and a hurdy-gurdy and you have the first 5 tracks. Opener 'Meister der Minne' and the title track ‘Das elfte Gebot’ are good examples – sing a-long harmonised chorus, chugging riffs and a soft vocal style are all present and correct. ‘Metfest’ has more of the fiddle aspect which enhances proceedings and ‘Im Bauch del Wals’ slows things down a bit. But so far so average.
Track 4 ‘Kampfzwerg’ has the first hints of what is in store for the second half of the album. The opening is more of the same, but 30 seconds in, the vocals start with far more malevolence and a definite Rammstein feel joins the fray. The singing also drops down the range. There are still the folk metal elements that Feuerschwanz are known for, but this track is definitely the highlight so far. This feel continues throughout the rest of the album, starting with ‘Mission Eskalation’. A fiddle opening is joined by a chugging Rammstein style riff and singer Hauptmann Feuerschwanz (Captain Firetail) channels his inner Till Lindemann. The chorus is still power metal but this is much better. This format continues in ‘Schildmaid’ and ‘Totantanz’ and closer ‘Unter dem Drachenbanner’.
‘Malleus Maleficarum’ is a straight up power metal Sabaton-style sing-a-long but my highlight on the album is ‘Lords of the Powermet’. This track is their first which is partly sung in English but this is not the reason it is my favourite here. A cracking opening riff followed by some great vocal work in the verse before the chorus in English. Some great solo work precedes a fiddle-lead breakdown. Lovely stuff.
The second disc of covers is a mix of bands/artists I am familiar with (Ed Sheeran, Sabaton, Powerwolf and Rammstein) and 3 German bands I wasn’t (Seed, Die Toten Hosen and Deichkind). Firstly the metal covers. The covers of Powerwolf’s ‘Amen & Attack’ and Sabaton’s ‘Gott mit uns’ are decent but not different enough to really stand out or even warrant covering. Doing a version of Rammstein’s classic ‘Engel’ is brave and again not different enough for me.
I was familiar with Ed Sheeran’s ‘I See Fire’ from the Hobbit movies and the bardish qualities of the original are enhanced by some great fiddle work from Feuerschwanz. I’m not a fan of Sheeran but this was a good cover. The 3 remaining tracks are where this second disc comes to life. I had heard of punks Die Toten Hosen through the UK Subs cover of their 1988 song ‘Hier kommt Alex’ and this track is added here. A good cover of a good song.
The last 2 are covers of 2 German Electro/Hip-Hop songs – ‘Ding’ by Seeed and ‘Limit’ by Deichkind. Both are excellent versions and added to my musical education as I researched the originals on YouTube. If you have 15 minutes spare, you could do a lot worse than checking out both Feuerschwanz’s cover versions and the originals. I enjoyed both of the original videos and although neither are really to my musical taste, I really did have a good time watching – they are both bizarre.
Overall I’m very glad that I got to review ‘Das elfte Gebot’ by Feuerschwanz. It’s another band I want to learn more about, would love to see live especially at a festival where I imagine they go down a treat, and will be adding a couple of the tracks to my regular playlist – ‘Mission Eskalation’ and ‘Lords of Powermet’.
It’s not all great but the second half of the first disc and the 2 electro covers are excellent. Well worth checking out if you like folk-metal, power metal or Rammstein.
