With "Dunkelheit", the 5 musicians from WEBER & KNECHTE have now released their second album, which is truly impressive. But let's turn the wheel of history back 4 years first. In the small, quaint Detmold, right in the middle of Germany, between the Hermannsdenkmal, the Externsteine, the Sparrenburg, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument, 3 musicians meet at a party and decide to create a cross-genre mix of NDH, Industrial Metal, German rock, and Punk (I would even add NDT to that now). Over the following 2 ½ years, two more musicians joined, completing the quintet from Detmold and Bielefeld. However, being in the middle of Germany does not mean there are endless concert opportunities. Detmold is not Düsseldorf, and Bielefeld is not Berlin, but still, the 5 guys have managed to play a lot of gigs in a short time and spread their debut album among the people. Diligent, diligent.....
WEBER & KNECHTE were also diligent in producing their 12 new songs on "Dunkelheit", which, as mentioned, cross musical boundaries and genres. Often, a comparison with RAMMSTEIN is unavoidable. But other bands come to mind as well when I listen to the nearly 45 minutes (and I have done that often and with great pleasure). Lyrically, many songs deal with the fears within oneself, which are expressed even more powerfully through the "R-rollende" vocals.
It won't get more RAMMSTEIN than their first track “Biest” on "Dunkelheit". It may have a sales-promoting effect, but personally, I don't like the first few seconds with the guitar riff at all; it sounds "cheaply scratched" to me in the first seconds of the CD. But that is, as always, my subjective impression, and every further minute on the CD gets better. This is immediately evident in the second track “Jungs weinen nicht”, which sharply distinguishes itself through intense breakdowns, by the way, present in several songs, between typical songs of OHL, HÄMATOM, and GOETHES ERBEN.
"Schlaflos", the third song, reminds me of the fifth band that WEBER & KNECHTE evoke with this song, and they are none other than UMBRA ET IMAGO.
In "Herr der Welt" and "Markus", the multi-voiced – broad - perfectly coordinated choirs stand out. In "Markus", I also struggle with the intro and the basic melody of the song. They are so familiar, and I just can't figure out who they are or who they remind me of. PINK TURNS BLUE? ESCAPE WITH ROMEO? THE ETERNAL AFFLICT? LACRIMOSA? RELATIVES MENSCHSEIN? I just don't know... probably a bit of all of them ;-) What stands out, however, is that all these previously mentioned bands, except for HÄMATOM, are from the 80s / 90s! HÄMATOM from the mid-2000s; they are all older bands I refer to, I don't know anything new or any pioneers of new genres.
"Dunkelheit" is again a typical RAMMSTEIN song, which has the advantage that you can already sing along the second time you hear it. I have often taken advantage of that by now.
"Nacht der 1000 Gefahren" musically shifts a bit, "Gebt der Meute was sie braucht" from HASS, clearly!
My favorite song is "großer Bruder", the song has hit potential across all the genres mentioned above. Lyrically & musically simply top-notch with a star!
"Kapferfahrt" then swings again between a classically good rock song and a shanty choir, a mix of ACHIM REICHEL and SANTIANO, damn cool!!!!
And to name a song "Tür" is deceitful! It says "Tür" after getting into the car on the cockpit display, and I'm looking for which door might be open.... Ouch...
And just like that, the CD is over. Aside from the guitar riff in the first seconds of the CD and some breakdowns that are too restless for me, the second album from WEBER & KNECHTE is simply great and can proudly feel at home in the broad spectrum of independent music.
Dark is also the 16-page booklet for "Dunkelheit". The layout is, like the 6-fold digipack, very well done. So why stream when you can hold something good in your hands?
