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Unheilig - Moderne Zeiten |
Moderne Zeiten is Unheilig’s most recent album, released in 2006. This album is the followup to Unheilig’s wildly successful album Zelluloid, which brought the band into the sp otlight and gained them many new fans. Zelluloid was well received, and I personally felt that it was essentially Der Graf’s masterpiece. As such, I wondered what I’d think of Moderne Zeiten. Luckily, it lived up to my expectations.
While clearly not as good an album as Zelluloid, Moderne Zeiten is an album that plays very well to Unheilig’s strengths. In particular, there are quite a few of the more ballad like tracks, especially the fan favourite Mein Stern. I still strongly believe that the greatest strength of this band is Der Graf’s voice, and he has a voice that’s made for these tracks. Ironically, this album also contains some of Unheilig’s heaviest songs to date, for example the opener Luftschiff. While Unheilig does heavy well, Der Graf always seems to be a little bit uncomfortable on these tracks, burying his voice somewhat into the guitars and beats in a way he didn’t on Zelluloid. As soon as the next quiet track rolls around, however, all such thoughts are swiftly banished and Der Graf sounds back in his element.
That said, Unheilig hasn’t lost their sound by any stretch, and the focus on melody throughout is still an important part of the sound. An element which I particularly liked was the linking of the start and finish, as with Zelluloid, in this case the ticking of an old grandfather clock. This lends the album a sense of continuity which is very nice.
Overall, I was impressed by Unheilig again, but I am left with the somewhat unsettling impression that Unheilig may end up as a quiet band unless they can stabilise their balance between the heavy and quiet tracks. I hope and pray that Der Graf & Co. return to the brilliant mix of quiet in the harder tracks that they found in Zelluloid.
Score:
Hompage: Unheilig.com
Reviewer: Paul Gifford
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