Funker Vogt - Blutzoll(2010)

 Founded in 1995 by Gerrit Thomas and Jens Kastel and have now proudly been on the scene for over a decade. Based in Germany these guys hit the scene like a storm and soon became one of the big names. Originally starting out as a side project, its huge success soon meant it became the main focus for Gerrit. Now released on Metropolis, Blutzoll is there 11th album released to date.

The start of Arizing Hero is melodic to start off with and then the album kicks off. It tells a story and paints images of a medieval battle scene when victory has been achieved then the fall of a king when he returns home. Half way through it gets tinged with a sense of optimism for the character in the story which made my body tingle with goosebumps. This feel is carried on into the next track which has a very dark murky feel to it. Genozide would make a brilliant 'theme' song for and evil king in a medieval or fantasy film like LotR perhaps for Sauron when the orcs are building in the fires and pulling the trees down for more resources. keeping with the film soundtrack feel, Fire And Forget i can imagine being used in a post apocalyptic or zombie/vampire film for example Underworld. It would even work really well in a futuristic war game like Halo for example and thats why I really like this song.

Then there's the very danceable tracks on the album such as The State Within which has an eerie feel to it but it works really well especially with the contrast between the synths and the lyrics but is catchy like 'Hold my ground'. Also Krieger and Black Waters would be brilliant for a club night and would get people dancing a lot and very hard, I know I would. Blood Thirst is a very catchy song and even though not quite as danceable is still a very good track on the album.

Robots is a bit of a strange track on this album as it got a kind of Patenbrigade:wolff style to it but lacking something which im not sure about but having said that I still quite like this song on the album, its different to the rest. Terroristen is a piece of music with a classical touch from the brass parts used but mixed with guitars and synth, which were used effectively at the start of the track.

The 2 mellow tracks of the album have been written really well and effectively. My Inner Most even though its mellow has a dark feel to it and the female vocals used contrast really well with the normal vocals we hear from these guys, finished off with a beautiful piano touch at the end of the track. Then to finish the album off we have a reprise of Arising Hero Forgiven which is a more chilled out version then the one we hear at the beginning of the album how ever it does sound a bit too familiar and think they could have done more with it. Having said that though each song sounds different and the album tells a story with the imagery used in the lyrics, which makes it not bad album and it worked well.

4*s

TrackList:

1. Arising Hero
2. Genozide
3. The State Within
4. Fire And Forget
5. Robots
6. Hold My Ground
7. Terroristen
8. Krieger
9. My Inner Most
10. Blood Thirst
11. Black Waters
12. Arising Hero Forgiven