UMUR "Werk 80" is the 5th ull-length studio album by German metal act Atrocity. The album was released through Swanlake Records in April 1997. That´s less than a year after the release of "Willenskraft" from July 1996. "Werk 80" is a covers album, featuring covers of 80s pop/new wave tracks by artists like The Human League, Tears for Fears, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Considering that Atrocity started out playing deathgrind in the late 80s, and technical death metal in the early 90s, that´s a bit of a surprise move, but then again if you´ve payed attention to the stylistic diversity of the band´s material in the few years between their early death metal releases and the release of "Werk 80", it really shouldn´t come as a huge surprise. Atrocity have tried their hands on industrial metal, goth metal, groove metal, and neo-folk to varying degrees of success, so why not make a covers album of 80s pop/new wave hits, to add to the tally of strange/adventurous musical choices?

Atrocity manage to put their own spin on the cover tracks on "Werk 80", in terms of putting heavy jagged guitar riffs on the songs and goth and industrial tinged vocals (and the occasional harder edged shouting vocal part). There are both keyboards and samples used too, and the occasional female vocal part (mostly performed by lead vocalist Alexander Krull´s wife Liv Kristine). Some tracks are more interesting than others, but that goes for the originals too, and some tracks are better suited for Atrocity´s treatment than others, but "Werk 80" is overall a decent release. It´s nothing groundbreaking, and in most cases I´d rather listen to the originals, but it´s a well produced and well performed covers album and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.

UMUR "Willenskraft" is the 4th full-length studio album by German metal act Atrocity. The album was released through Massacre Records in July 1996. It´s the successor to "Blut" from 1994, although the gap between the two full-length studio albums is bridged by the two EPs "Calling the Rain (feat. Yasmin)" and "Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" (both released in 1995).

"Blut (1994)" and the two 1995 EPs saw Atrocity take a different and quite diverse musical turn away from the technical deathgrind/death metal of the band´s first two albums. Groove, goth, neo-folk, and industrial metal elements crept into Atrocity´s sound and their death metal/grindcore roots took the backseat. That development continues on "Willenskraft", which is also quite the varied release. There are a few death/thrashy affairs in "Blood-Stained Prophecy" and "The Hunt" featured on the album but that´s pretty much it. Some tracks feature a heavy industrial metal influence like the title track and "We Are Degeneration" and there´s also a gothic metal influenced track featured on the album in "Love Is Dead". The latter sounds a little like poor man´s Type O Negative to me. The musical style on "Willenskraft" is predominantly a heavy groove laden type of metal with raw throaty vocals in front.

"Willenskraft" is both a well played and well produced album, but the compositional diversity is not a strength in this case. It makes for an unfocused and incorrehent listen. It´s almost always praise worthy when an artist is able to genre jump but still make it work within the confines of their sound, but "Willenskraft" sound more like an artist who have lost themselves and their musical identity. The odd musical elements work in opposition and it´s seldom the tracks end up a satisfying listen. I feel frustrated half the time by the choices made by the band. When that is said "Willenskraft" could appeal to more musically open minded listeners than me or listeners who appreciate their music eclectic and varied, and overall it´s still a relatively good quality release. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" is an EP release by German metal act Atrocity. The EP was released through Massacre Records in November 1995. Along with the "Calling the Rain" EP from July 1995, it bridges the gap between the band´s 3rd and 4th full-length studio albums "Blut (1994)" and "Willenskraft (1996)". "Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" is a collaboration release with German electronic music group Das Ich and is another departure in sound from the band´s early death metal releases.

In only 5 years Atrocity have gone from playing technical deathgrind, to playing goth/groove metal, to the neo-folk excursions on the "Calling the Rain (1995)" EP, and now this...

..."Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" sees Atrocity playing an industrial/electronic tinged metal style. About half of the tracks are sung in the band´s native language, and although Atrocity as a band predates Rammstein, this particular release came out only a few months after Rammstein´s debut album "Herzeleid" was released in September 1995, and it´s hard not to make some comparisons. Atrocity are a bit more experimental than their fellow countrymen and not quite as catchy either, but the premise of hard pumped rhythms, industrial sound effects/keyboards, and heavy angular guitar riffs are similar on the two projects.

While some of the material featured on the 9 track, 40:37 (album length) EP are new, Atrocity have also included some altered versions of tracks from "Blut (1994)", including another version of the rap metal styled "Miss Directed", which is retitled "Misdirected" on this release. Atrocity are skilled musicians and adventuruos musical souls too, which their creative songswriting approach bear witness to, but "Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" is not their most shining musical hour. I praise the boldness of the idea, but this experiment just doesn´t work. The material is simply not well written or catchy enough. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Calling the Rain" is an EP release by German metal act Atrocity. The EP was released through Massacre Records in July 1995. Along with the "Die Liebe (feat. Das Ich)" EP from November 1995, it bridges the gap between the band´s 3rd and 4th full-length studio albums "Blut (1994)" and "Willenskraft (1996)". It was already obvious on "Blut (1994)" that Atrocity had more or less left their death metal past behind, but "Calling the Rain" still came as a bit of a surprise (not the last surprise in their discography)...

...as it features the band playing in a predominantly acoustic neo-folk style with clean male vocals and ethnic middle-eastern influenced female vocals courtesy of lead vocalist Alexander Krull´s sister Yasmin Krull (artists like Dead Can Dance and Comus come to mind). The use of percussion instead of drums and the almost total lack of distorted electric guitars (with a few exceptions) are also quite the difference from their metal oriented releases. The title track and "Land Beyond the Forest" were also featured on "Blut (1994)". The former is featured here in two versions. The video edit version (which is around 1 minute shorter than the original album version from "Blut (1994)"), and in a remix version. The remaining tracks on the 8 track, 37:05 minutes long EP are exclusive to this release.

The material are for the most part well written and quite intriguing dark neo-folk. Tracks like the title track, "Back From Eternity", and "Land Beyond the Forest", work very well and they are quite catchy in their melancholic grace. Unfortunately the redundant remix version of the title track and the 10:17 minutes long atmopsheric EP closer "Ancient Sadness" drag my rating down. I never understood why artists include remix versions, if they aren´t completely different from the originals (and even then remixes are mostly unnecessary material) and in the case of "Ancient Sadness" it is a long pointless exercise in ambience, which gets tedious after a couple of minutes. Disregarding those two tracks there are still around 20 minutes of good quality music on "Calling the Rain", and Atrocity show that they are fully capable of writing and delivering this type of music. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Blut" is the 3rd full-length studio album by German metal act Atrocity. The album was released through Massacre Records in October 1994. It´s the successor to "Todessehnsucht" from 1992 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as bassist Oliver Klasen has been replaced by Christian Lukhaup. Atrocity formed as far back as 1985 under the Instigators monicker, initially playing grindcore, but by the end of the 80s and with their name change, they began playing death metal, and they should be counted among one of the seminal death metal acts on the German scene. The band´s debut album "Hallucinations (1990)" was a death grinding technical release featuring a clever concept story about sexual abuse, drug addiction, and death, but already on "Todessehnsucht (1992)", Atrocity sounded quite different and as a listener you began to understand that this was a band not even close to being finished developing their sound...

...and the adventurous approach to composing music is indeed continued on "Blut" (which like the debut album is also a concept story. This time the theme is Bram Stoker´s Dracula), which is a completely different beast to it´s predecessor just like "Todessehnsucht (1992)" was a relatively different sounding release to "Hallucinations (1990)". On "Blut", Atrocity have gone all in though, and if I didn´t know any better, I wouldn´t have guessed it was the same band playing as the one who recorded the two predecessors. There´s only one single moment on the entire album, which sounds like anything off the two albums that came before, and that´s the blast beat section on "I'm in Darkness". Other than that "Blut" features a completely new musical direction for Atrocity.

Or...direction is maybe too big a word, when lack of direction is probably a bit more suiting when describing "Blut". All sorts of musical elements and styles are combined (including elements from death, groove metal, industrial, goth, and even neo-folk) and there is not much of a musical flow on the album. At 15 tracks and a full playing time of 64:20 it´s a very long album too, and in this case that´s not necessarily a good thing. The basis of most tracks on the album is a heavy groove laden music style with heavy groove metal oriented riffs and rhythms and Alexander Krull´s shouting raw vocals on top. Most of the time he sounds like an out-of-breath barking dog, and it takes exactly half of the opening track "Trial" before I´m fed up with his vocals. It´s an unfortunate change of vocal style, if you ask me, and I much prefer his aggressive growling vocals on the first two album. One-dimensional, toneless, and tedious aren´t wrong words to describe the man´s vocals on "Blut". There are a few moments when he breaks the monotony and tries something different like on "B.L.U.T.", "Calling the Rain", "Leichenfeier", and "Land Beyond the Forest", but his vocal experiments are few and far between.

The above mentioned tracks are also the highlights of the album (or at least the most standout tracks). Both "Calling the Rain" and "Land Beyond the Forest" features guest vocals by Krull´s sister Yasmin Krull, and her contributions are a nice variation in the vocal department. She is not a typical angelic clean female vocalist, but uses a more middle-eastern influenced vocal style, not completely unlike what you´ll hear on a Dead Can Dance album. Both tracks are neo-folk type compositions featuring acoustic instruments and percussion. "B.L.U.T." is a gothic tinged metal track and "Leichenfeier" is a dark, heavy, and industrial tinged track with spoken vocals on top. Those are the exceptions though on an otherwise rather one-dimensionally groove laden album. It´s not that I´m allergic to groove metal riffs and rhythms, and there are definitely some decent riffs and rhythms featured on "Blut", but most of the tracks just sound so uninspired and tame. Some of them (like "Miss Directed") even come off awkward.

"Blut" is obviously performed by a skilled band and the album features a relatively well sounding production too, so there are redeeming features on the album. To my ears the lack of a musical direction combined with the monotone vocals destroy much though, and the few successful musical adventures on the album can´t save it from the label "failed experiment". "Blut" is a case of experimentation for the sake of it, and a case of sacrificing a musical red thread in exchange for the band´s need to progress. Sometimes an uncompromising attitude like that deserves applause, but that usually requires the experiement to be at least partially successful, which certainly isn´t the case here. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.