The roots of "Der Fluch" ('the curse') reach back to the year 1981, so they can't be called new in the scene, really. Leader of "Der Fluch" is 'Deutscher W', mastermind of the fa mous german punk band OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung) which was even founded back in 1980. Der Fluch was put on ice for over 12 years when the main interest turned back to OHL, so there where no releases in the time between 1982 and 1994. However the band is now active again and a review is overdue!
An atmospheric intro part is followed by the story of the "fallen angel" lucifer and his revolt against god. This is already set by a wide range of bands, no real innovations here. After the next track "Gottes Schwert" we're through with religios topics for the largest part. Sadly also with most of the best e-guitar parts on the disc.
"schlagt mich ans Kreuz" features an unexpected accustic guitar intro but is followed soon by somewhat straight e-guitar support.
Following one of the main intentions why "Der Fluch" was initially founded a continuous thread of movie themes runs through many songs. An intelligent piece of music is "das Tagebuch des Andre de Lombre" where a scientist designs a machine to beam his body (if you guessed i was talking about Scotty you're wrong i'm afraid, it'S Mr. de Lombre...) when a fly enters the machine unseenly and Andre uses his beam machine, the result is two individual creatures both mixed human and fly. This is both awesome for fans of this quite famous movie, but also puts up the question why Andre was so careless to forget about this possibility. Did "Der Fluch" only like the movie or did they try to stress the criticism about our arrogance towards the world of animals? "The machine made no difference between human and creature", so tells the song. So i guess there's more behind it.
Besides that there is "die Puppe" that tells about a puppet player who is all controled by his puppet (i think this guy has also some appearances in various batman movies/cartoons) the song ends up with the pupett saying "and all the time, it was only you". great story, well done song. should not be taken too serious, the driving force here is clearly the intention of having some fun by writing a song about some cool old movie.
i could go on like this for almost every secound song, Deutscher W really seems to be a big fan of this oldschool horror/scifi classic films. it creates an somewhat fascinating atmoshpere throughout the album, however, i personally like songs like "Begierde" or "die Todgeweiten" (featuring nice trumpets) better, which don't act about any movie. Not that i don't like movies, but in those non movie based songs there are better melodies and the songs are more interesting in general (regarding to the aspect of composition and music).
In the end there is a solid release of a professional band with no big surprises (facing the fact that some band members are musicians for over 25 years). Der Fluch does really not re-invent the gothic metal genre, but nevertheless provides an interesting setting of various horror movies and stories with an acceptable variety of instruments. It likely catches the mood of an old black and white noir film, although sometimes a bit more energy and ideas hadn't been bad either.
Score: 
Reviewer: Tobias Weigl
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