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The German band Nachtgeschrei was founded in 2006 and Ardeo is their 3rd album. The septet is presenting Mittelalter rock and fans of Subway To Sally, ASP and Schandmaul are their target group.
They kick off with An mein Ende, an up-tempo track based on heavy guitars. At all songs they back up the guitars with bag pipes and / or hurdy-gurdy. The lyrics are in modern German, but here and there they embed some mediaval expressions. The first highlight is Kein reiner Ort which has a catchy refrain, a good song to get into Ardeo. Herzschlag (engl.: heart beat) is spiced up with accordeon, a catchy and slightly melancholy tune. Very intense is the passage where Hotti's vocals are accompanied by Oli's bass which sounds like a heart beat. They slow down for the melancholy Herbst, a song which is dominated by Hotti's vocals. I wouldn't have missed the instrumental Ad Astra, but I'm not a fan of instrumentals and I think in case of Nachtgeschrei the vocals are a big part of their identity. Soweit wie nötig is another highlight of Ardeo, a slow tune with a sad note. Enchanting. At the slow Lichtschimmer the vocals partly remind me of Unheilig's Graf.... But musically they stick to their guns. For Hinter deinen Augen they speed up, the song has a memorable vocal line and with tempi-changes they make this one stick out. But the melody lines of the bag pipes / hurdy-gurdy are too predictable... too similar. Perhaps they should have give the guitars a bit more space... The closer Der Reisende won't change this impression, even if they reduce the medieval instruments at the opening passage. The guitars should be a bit more up-front.
Rock fans who have a problem with bag pipes, hurdy-gurdy and other medieval instruments won't get into Nachtgeschrei, but the ones who love Subway To Sally and co. should check out Ardeo!
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