Crematory - Live Insurrection - Review

Crematory

Live Insurrection

Steamhammer / SPV

“Gothic Rock and Roll for twenty-five years” Felix Stass proudly proclaims during this recording last year at the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany.  It’s a declaration of intent that the essential spirit of the band is forward looking in the recent recruitment of Tosse Basler on rhythm guitar and clean vocals and Rolf Munkes on lead guitar.

Their formula for success combines riffs that are a match for any metronome, the contrasting growls from Felix and vocals from Tosse, and the keyboards of Katrin Goger, who calls upon the great German keyboard lineage to add texture and embellishment to Crematory.

The album contains the strong singles Shadowmaker, Greed and Fly and the band sing in both German and English.  The stagecraft of the band apparent in the accompanying DVD, detracts from the music however.  The band are far too static and the excessive profanity from Felix was wearisome. Katrin, who with her keyboards are an integral part of the sound, needs to be brought forward and angled at 45 to 90 degrees to the audience and needs to find even more space musically between the bass and vocals.  Her valuable contribution, Tosse’s vocals and more lead from Rolf on their forthcoming album, Oblivion, can ensure the band remain in the spotlight with their likeable brand of rock.

NE