Allerseelen

STIRB UND WERDE - Allerseelen [AORCD04]. Available from Aorta c/o Petak, Postfach 778, A-1011 Vienna, Austria.

IF you’re among those spoilt brats who have been happily weaned on Allerseelen’s first three full-length offerings, then you’ll know that our Austrian friends love a good theme. Indeed, Cruor was concerned with the Persian deity, Mithras, Gotos=Kalanda with SS runeologist Karl Maria Wiligut, and Sturmlieder with the 1940’s battle of the witches. Allerseelen’s latest icon of musical experimentation, Sturb und Werde - recorded between 1989 and 1999 - is based on the centre of Germanic spirituality which is the Externsteine, in darkest Westphalia. Using a few key stills from Kenneth Anger’s cult film, Lucifer Rising - thus using forms of visual stimulation with which to prepare the listener for the tasty ritualistic morsels to come, Allerseelen add some key phrases from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and a mellow, Classical touch to their otherwise ‘business as usual’ approach. This is not designed to imply that Allerseelen have become boring and predictable, on the contrary, Sturb und Werde may represent the unmistakable and inimitable style which fans of Allerseelen have come to know and love, but by employing the term ‘business as usual’ I am trying to explain that in terms of producing a CD as good as their seemingly unbeatable trio of predecessors, this is yet another winner. I don’t need to tell you what to expect. Allerseelen are predictable in their ability to entrance their listeners with the hallmarks of professionalism which we - the lucky recipients - have come to expect. Best track? Well, apart from the searing hot energy of Flamme [previously released on Athanor’s Lucifer Rising CD] my choice has to be the plodding drum ‘n bass rhythm of Alle Lust Will Ewigkeit - a true classic!